Computer Supported Collaborative Writing

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ComputerSupportedCollaborative Writing

• Henrry Rodríguez
• IPLab, KTH/NADA

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The writing process an overview
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Writing with computers

• Writing is an activity performed daily in an
  office as well as academic environments.
• 70s the computer as a new technology to the
  writing process
• Handwriting, Text process, formatting, re-use,
  Image text, spelling, etc.
• Saved in different formats? Sharing problems, A
  great number of features. Attention must be given
  to formatting. Lost my text! Where is the file.
  Find-change all, auto-correct, etc.
• The amount of initial planning is less using word
  processors that pen-and-paper. More revision
  attention to the formatting aspects of the text (
  Haas 1989).
• Severinson-Eklundh (1990) revision on computer,
  more attention is paid to low-level error (e.g.
  misspelling, wording)

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What is Collaborative Writing?

• is every writing a collaborative writing?
• A social practice including
• Coordination
• Communication (negotiation)
• Cooperation
• External factors

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Issues in Collaborative Writing cont.

• Group issues
• The role play
• Management of conflict
• Communication issues
• Effective communication,
• What to communicate about,
• Communication medium
• External representations
• Plans,
• Comments,
• Version control

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Complexity and Diversity

• Group size Small Vs. Large
• Social status of members Equal Vs. Hierarchical
• Time Synchronous Vs. Asynchronous
• Space Distributed or at the same place
• Text length
• Types of text
• Different conceptions of the task among
  collaborators
• Individual goals Vs. Groups

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Issues in Collaborative Writing

• Task issues Strategies for partitioning and
  co-ordinating (Sharples et. al. 1993)

Sequential
Reciprocal
Parallel
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Issues in Collaborative Writing

• Routing procedures the material between the
  members
• File naming strategies
• Star routing
• Ring routing
• Commenting Strategies
• E-mail
• Inserting the comments in the original document
• Annotation features in your word processor.

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Annotation interface

• The production of annotation is affected by the
  annotation interface.
• Time of the task (reviewing a document written by
  someone else) was not affected by the annotation
  interface.
• Aligned, and interlinear condition, communicated
  significantly more problems than those who used
  the split-screen condition
• Wojahn, Neuwirth, Bullock (1998)

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Examples of CWr tools

• Ex. 1 Grove (Ellis et.al. 91)
• Synchronous text editing
• Support for brainstorming
• Similar systems Aspects, ShrEdit
• Ex. 2 Prep
• Asynchronous editing
• Support for column based annotation
• Commercialised system Common Space
• Ex. 3 Instant Update
• Support for centralized document management

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Examples of CWr tools cont.

• Ex. 4 Collaboració
• A web-based CWr tool
• Email notification of comments
• Ex. 5 MSWord and FrameMaker
• Commenting functions
• Change visualization

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Discussion

• Why have so few collaborative writing tools been
  used until now ?
• What will be collaborative writing software in
  the future ?
• Extending systems of word processors currently
  used such as MSWord, FrameMaker
• Many different types of collaborative writing
  systems
• Integrated systems with other groupware
  applications

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Discussion

• "You are not born with group skills, nor do they
  magically appear when you need them. You have to
  learn them" (Johnson et al., 1984)
• writing collaboratively tends to take a bit more
  time than writing alone but has the potential to
  be far superior to individual writing, because
  the weaknesses and inadequacies of individuals
  are caught by one another, while all the
  strengths of the individuals are pooled.

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References

• Haas, C. (1989). Does the medium make a
  difference? Two studies of writing with pen and
  paper and with computers. Human-Computer
  Interaction, Vol. X, 149-169.
• Johnson, David, R. Johnson, E. Holubee, and P.
  Roy. (1984) Circles of Learning Cooperation in
  the Classroom. Alexandria, VA Association for
  Supervision and Curriculum Development.
• Severinson-Eklundh, K. (1990). The use of idea
  processors for studying structural aspects of
  text production. In Nordtext Symposium Text
  structuring - reception and production
  strategies, Hanasaari, Helsinki
• Sharples, M. (Ed.). (1993). Computer supported
  collaborative writing. London Springer-Verlag
• Wojahn, P. G., Neuwirth, C. M., and Bullock, B.
  (1998) Effects of interfaces for annotation on
  communication in a collaborative task, Conference
  proceedings on Human factors in computing
  systems, pp. 456-463.