| Anticipative Awareness in a Groupware System | | BIBAK | PDF | 5-15 | |
| Wolfgang Prinz; Elke Hinrichs; Irina Kireyev | |||
| Using personas and scenarios is one way of working with usability in system
development projects. In this paper we describe our experience of using the
personas and scenarios within a large, on-going European research project
called NEPOMUK. We describe the project background as well as the project work
with the purpose of critically examining how the persona method has been
applied within the project. Our conclusion is that the persona method has been
most useful for translating the users' context to be understood by the project
stakeholders and in promoting the idea of user-centred design. However, it has
been less successful as a design tool. Keywords: User-centred design, case study, field study, contextual interviews,
observations, personas, scenarios | |||
| Dynamism and Data Management in Distributed, Collaborative Working Environments | | BIBAK | PDF | 16-22 | |
| Alexander Kipp; Lutz Schubert; Matthias Assel; Terrence Fernando | |||
| Due to globalization and environmental challenges, there is a growing
interest in adopting collaborative technologies to support distributed virtual
enterprises to work as virtual teams, reducing time, cost and need for travel.
This paper presents the approach taken by the CoSpaces project [1] in
developing a collaborative technology platform for distributed engineering
organizations. In particular, this paper overviews the ongoing work of the
"Dynamic Session Management System" which provides the dynamic integration of
decision making and communication tools within the entire CoSpaces software
framework. It also reports on how data management and sharing within this
dynamic infrastructure is handled while addressing the security concerns of
certain individual companies. Keywords: Collaborative Working Environments, Virtual Organizations, Dynamic Ad-Hoc
Collaboration, Dynamic Service Integration, Secure Data Management, Future
Internet | |||
| Enabling biomedical data analysis workflows: the Multi-Knowledge collaborative platform | | BIBAK | PDF | 23-34 | |
| Michele Amoretti; Francesco Zanichelli; Gianni Conte | |||
| The objective of the Multi-Knowledge project is the development and
validation of a collaborative IT platform for knowledge management, allowing
geographically dispersed groups of researchers, dealing with different data
sources as well as technological and organisational contexts, to create,
exchange and manipulate new knowledge in a seamless fashion. The ambition is
also to define a methodological framework that can easily be extended to
include additional sources of knowledge and expertise (biomedical data, images,
environmental data), and can be applied to wider sectors of medical research.
After two years of work, the Multi-Knowledge platform is almost complete and
the second pilot experiment is being carried out. In this paper we describe the
Multi-Knowledge project, starting from user requirements which have driven the
development process, then going into details of the different modules which
compose the platform, and finally illustrating the experiments which are being
conducted across different sites. Keywords: collaborative platform, knowledge extraction, e-health | |||
| Finding Synergies: Web 2.0 and Collaboration Support Systems | | BIBAK | PDF | 35-41 | |
| Carsten Ritterskamp; Michael Prilla | |||
| The prevalence and success of Web 2.0 applications in fostering
collaboration raise the question whether or not traditional Collaboration
Support Systems are still the tools of the trade when it comes to supporting
collaborative work. In this paper, we argue that rather than replacing
Collaboration Support Systems by Web 2.0 applications mechanisms from both
domains may complement each other advantageously. By highlighting differences
between the domains and commenting on prototypical implementations, we show
possibilities for meaningful recombinations. The paper concludes with a brief
outlook on the potential influence Web 2.0 may have on next generation
Collaboration Support Systems. Keywords: cscw, web 2.0, tool design | |||
| 'Colour, it's just a constant problem': an examination of practice, infrastructure and workflow in colour printing | | BIBAK | PDF | 44-55 | |
| David Martin; Jacki O'Neill; Tommaso Colombino; Frederic Roulland; Jutta Willamowski | |||
| This paper examines the work to control colour in graphic design and
printing focusing on the reasons why practitioners do not implement 'colour
managed' (CM) workflows. CM workflows should allow for successful transfer and
reproduction of colour information from e.g. computer to print. However, the
technical requirements -- in terms of equipment 'set-up' and knowledge -- prove
to be beyond most of those working in the industry. We examine the reasons for
this and the different cooperative practices that designers and print workers
use in the 'real-world' to control colour. This paper contributes to studies of
cooperative work and technologies by providing a critical appraisal of
infrastructure and workflow as a means of supporting cooperative work in design
and printing. Keywords: Colour printing, colour management, infrastructure, workflow, ethnography,
ethnomethodology | |||
| Longstanding Success without Awareness Features: Lessons from a Collaborative Programming Tool | | BIBAK | PDF | 56-62 | |
| Cristian Bogdan | |||
| The paper is a reflective account of a successful five-year experience with
a Web-based collaborative programming environment for nomadic student
programmers. While after implementing the basic functionality there were good
opportunities for collecting and providing awareness information within the
tool, resources did not permit that. Still, the users appreciated the tool and
inferred the needed awareness information or provided for it using other
channels like instant messaging. This experience suggests that well-designed
basic articulation is much more important than awareness for the success of
collaborative tools. Keywords: awareness, articulation, nomadic, programming, collaborative, learning,
contingency, amateur | |||
| A Study of Digital Note Sharing in Nomadic Groups | | BIBAK | PDF | 63-74 | |
| Rob Smit; Cristian Bogdan; Chiara Rossitto; Kerstin Severinson Eklundh | |||
| We report on a study of an Anoto® digital pen and paper usage in three
student project groups over three months. We have set up a system including a
digital pen and paper, handwriting recognition software, and provided the
conditions for wireless note sharing over Bluetooth, and thereafter we let the
students use the technology as they went about their activities. Our goal was
to evaluate the system's potential for student groups as usage naturally
occurred and to assess how the participants integrated the technology in their
work and whether it bridged the physical-digital gap. We found that even if the
technology works well for individual use, collaborative use of digital pen and
paper posed important issues, which we discuss in the light of our notion of
nomadicity as a work condition, as well as in the light of the increasingly
opportunistic nature of handwriting nowadays. Keywords: digital pen, digital paper, sharing, nomadicity, student group, digital
notes, handwriting, sketching, opportunistic | |||
| Between casual commitment and cross-media articulation -- the faith of the Napkin | | BIBAK | PDF | 75-84 | |
| Susanne Bødker; Anja Bechmann Petersen | |||
| This paper presents an analysis of the Napkin, a collaborative technology
designed to support news reporters in their struggle to handle the integrated
production of news stories to multiple media platforms. The Napkin was
abandoned while we studied it, and this raised the questions of what was wrong
with the Napkin, and why did it fail? The Napkin suffered many of the problems
known to CSCW: It lacked reciprocity of visibility and commitment between
reporters and editors; it did not give sufficient overview of media processes
and products, in particular it was impossible to motivate stories and overview
their relationships with other stories. The casual metaphor of a Napkin was in
contrast to how commitments got perceived by reporters and editors. The paper
uses these discussions to revisit the notion of articulation work. Keywords: CSCW, articulation work, overview, cooperation | |||
| Functions of Social Networking Services | | BIBAK | PDF | 87-98 | |
| Alexander Richter; Michael Koch | |||
| Social Networking Services (SNS) are the fastest growing type of social
software -- both in the Internet and in company-wide Intranets. Due to the fact
that SNS have emerged just recently and the development speed of the services
is enormous, there exist large gaps in research about this type of service. For
example, so far there has been no attempt to identify and categorize the basic
functionalities of SNS. This is the goal of this contribution. Six groups of
functionalities for SNS are proposed and their categorization is motivated. The
identification of a distinct set of SNS functions will facilitate the
modularization and integration of different social network applications. Keywords: Social Networking, Expert Finding, Yellow Pages, Knowledge Management, Web
2.0, Social Software, Enterprise 2.0 | |||
| Soft peer review. Social software and distributed scientific evaluation | | BIBAK | PDF | 99-110 | |
| Dario Taraborelli | |||
| The debate on the prospects of peer-review in the Internet age and the
increasing criticism leveled against the dominant role of impact factor
indicators are calling for new measurable criteria to assess scientific
quality. Usage-based metrics offer a new avenue to scientific quality
assessment but face the same risks as first generation search engines that used
unreliable metrics (such as raw traffic data) to estimate content quality. In
this article I analyze the contribution that social bookmarking systems can
provide to the problem of usage-based metrics for scientific evaluation. I
suggest that collaboratively aggregated metadata may help fill the gap between
traditional citation-based criteria and raw usage factors. I submit that
bottom-up, distributed evaluation models such as those afforded by social
bookmarking will challenge more traditional quality assessment models in terms
of coverage, efficiency and scalability. Services aggregating user-related
quality indicators for online scientific content will come to occupy a key
function in the scholarly communication system. Keywords: peer review; rating; impact factor; citation analysis; usage factors;
scholarly publishing; social bookmarking; collaborative annotation; online
reference managers; social software; web 2.0; tagging; folksonomy | |||
| The wiki as an integrative tool in project work | | BIBAK | PDF | 111-122 | |
| Birgit Rognebakke Krogstie | |||
| The paper provides insights on how wikis support project work and what
characteristics of wikis make them adequate for this purpose. The findings are
based on a case study of software engineering projects in an educational
setting. Project wikis are found to serve an integrative role along several
dimensions of project work, enabled by the flexibility and automatic support
for capturing history offered by the technology. The findings demonstrate that
a project wiki can serve as a knowledge repository, a means for staging the
project, a coordination mechanism, and a shared workspace. To many projects in
need of project management and collaboration support, project wikis should be
seen as an attractive, lightweight, all-purpose alternative. Keywords: wikis, cooperation technology, project work, software engineering | |||
| Proliferation in Enterprise Wikis | | BIBA | PDF | 123-129 | |
| Hans-Jörg Happel; Marius Treitz | |||
| Wikis have become a popular tool for the collaborative creation of hyperlinked documents. Besides the well-known Wikipedia, enterprises are increasingly adopting wikis for internal documentation and knowledge management purposes. A typical attribute of wikis is their openness concerning the modification and creation of content and the lack of pre-defined structures. While this enables an easy access with low barriers for contributors, it also introduces certain problems -- such as redundant or outdated content -- which we subsume under the term of "wiki proliferation". In this paper, we analyze wiki proliferation in terms of its causes, consequences and common countermeasures. Our analysis is based on six qualitative interviews with companies which are using wikis internally. The interviews show that proliferation is a serious problem for these organizations which is actively addressed by different countermeasures. | |||
| Reconsidering Clark's Theory in CSCW | | BIBAK | PDF | 132-143 | |
| Nicolas Nova; Mirweis Sangin; Pierre Dillenbourg | |||
| The use of Herbert Clark's work as a theoretical framework in the Computer
Supported Collaborative Work domain is often dismissed or judged as "cooked"
and led to a large body of controversy. This article intends to reconsider his
contribution and re-examined the criticisms he received. The main critics
addressed to Clark are that his notion of Common Ground is far too mentalist
and lacks "situatedness". We argue that most of these criticisms stem from the
verbal conversational aspects of Clark's theory. We sustain here the idea that
his broader model of the "joint action" provides a fruitful ground for research
in CSCW. Through one case study of our research, we indeed show how what Clark
defines as "Common Ground "could be interpreted in a situated context. The
discussion also addresses how this model can serve as a design framework. Keywords: CSCW, theory, Intersubjectivity, Clark, Common Ground, Grounding | |||
| Online Social Support: Benefits of an Interdisciplinary Approach for Studying and Designing Cooperative Computer-Mediated Solutions | | BIBAK | PDF | 144-155 | |
| Myriam Lewkowicz; Michel Marcoccia; Hassan Atifi; Aurélien Bénel; Gérald Gaglio; Nadia Gauducheau; Matthieu Tixier | |||
| This paper deals with methodological issues about the study and the design
of computer-mediated solutions for online social support. First, we expose
lacks in existing studies in the field of online social support. We have
identified limits on three dimensions: methodological, conceptual and
instrumental. Based on this critical analysis, we then describe our proposition
of an interdisciplinary methodology (called MISS), involving psychology,
sociology, computer science and conversational analysis. The role of each of
these disciplines is described and discussed. As an illustration, we present
the first results of the analysis of a corpus taken from a forum. Keywords: online social support, methodological issues, design, interdisciplinary | |||
| From tool to organisation: uses of a collaborative application in a high-tech SME | | BIBAK | PDF | 156-164 | |
| Ewan Oiry; Amandine Pascal; Robert Tchobanian | |||
| Researchers and practitioners generally observe a disparity between the
actual uses of information technologies in organisations and what was expected
of them prior to implementation (Keen, 1981; Bowers, 1995; Boutary, 2003). In
order to investigate this phenomenon, Orlikowski (2000) develops a coherent and
structured framework that can be used to analyse the reasons why actors develop
such different uses for a given technology. While our paper is based on her
theoretical propositions for analysing uses, it seeks to extend it by
integrating both the spirit of the technology and the interactions between
individuals and artefacts (2.). The argument then turns to the case study of
the uses of a collaborative application in a high-tech SME (3.) that will serve
as a basis for an initial test of this analytical framework (4.) and for
discussing the contributions it makes (5.). Keywords: Uses in work situations, methodology, case study | |||
| Personas and scenarios: design tool or a communication device? | | BIBAK | PDF | 165-176 | |
| Rosa Gudjonsdottir; Sinna Lindquist | |||
| Using personas and scenarios is one way of working with usability in system
development projects. In this paper we describe our experience of using the
personas and scenarios within a large, on-going European research project
called NEPOMUK. We describe the project background as well as the project work
with the purpose of critically examining how the persona method has been
applied within the project. Our conclusion is that the persona method has been
most useful for translating the users' context to be understood by the project
stakeholders and in promoting the idea of user-centred design. However, it has
been less successful as a design tool. Keywords: User-centred design, case study, field study, contextual interviews,
observations, personas, scenarios. | |||
| Design issues for supporting collaborative creativity | | BIBAK | PDF | 179-192 | |
| Thomas Hermann | |||
| Researchers and practitioners generally observe a disparity between the
actual uses of information technologies in organisations and what was expected
of them prior to implementation (Keen, 1981; Bowers, 1995; Boutary, 2003). In
order to investigate this phenomenon, Orlikowski (2000) develops a coherent and
structured framework that can be used to analyse the reasons why actors develop
such different uses for a given technology. While our paper is based on her
theoretical propositions for analysing uses, it seeks to extend it by
integrating both the spirit of the technology and the interactions between
individuals and artefacts (2.). The argument then turns to the case study of
the uses of a collaborative application in a high-tech SME (3.) that will serve
as a basis for an initial test of this analytical framework (4.) and for
discussing the contributions it makes (5.). Keywords: Uses in work situations, methodology, case study | |||
| Collective Interaction -- Let's join forces | | BIBAK | PDF | 193-204 | |
| Peter Gall Krogh; Marianne Graves Petersen | |||
| In this paper we introduce the concept of Collective Interaction. Collective
Interaction involves designing for co-experiences among co-located people
sharing collective resources for controlling interfaces. The particular
approach we explore in this paper is to instrumentalize collaboration, such
that the interaction itself is a matter of collective action. To illustrate
this we provide an interaction model and a definition of Collective
Interaction, and present two design cases based on this model, one in the
context of a public library and one in a home-context. We outline design
rationales, and discuss experiences from trial use of the prototypes. Keywords: Collective interaction, interaction design, interaction model, social
computing, co-located users, co-experience | |||
| Engineering 2.0: Exploring Lightweight Technologies for the Virtual Enterprise | | BIBAK | PDF | 205-216 | |
| Andreas Larsson; Åsa Ericson; Tobias Larsson; Dave Randall | |||
| In a Virtual Enterprise setting, it becomes increasingly important to make
sure that knowledge and expertise created in one discipline, domain or company
is correctly understood and quickly utilized by other actors throughout the
value chain. This paper discusses why lightweight technology seems like a
particularly promising concept in this context, and why Virtual Enterprises
could benefit from learning more about tag clouds, mashups, wikis, and other
'lightweight' technologies, as complements to the large-scale, arguably
'heavyweight', product life-cycle management (PLM) systems of current practice.
The paper draws on data from a number of product development projects --
ranging from the development of manufacturing tools and industrial drive
systems, to aircraft engines and armored terrain vehicles. The paper identifies
both the kinds of problem typically experienced in the Virtual Enterprise, in
relation to knowledge sharing, and explores ways in which lightweight
technology might be adapted to solve them. Keywords: Lightweight Technologies, Knowledge Sharing, Virtual Enterprise, Engineering
2.0, Collaboration | |||
| Asynchronous vs. synchronous cooperation in innovative design organization | | BIBAK | PDF | 217-228 | |
| Thierry Février Quesada; Françoise Darses | |||
| Teamwork collaborative activities involve both asynchronous and synchronous
cooperation. In this paper, we describe how these cooperation modes are
performed during an innovative design process in the automotive industry.
Asynchronous cooperation is performed through exchanges on a portal, while
synchronous cooperation occurs in face-to-face meetings. We compare the
cooperation modes, regarding the team's tasks. It is highlighted that
synchronous cooperation marked out the project course, and is expanded through
asynchronous cooperation. But some tasks are preferably performed on
asynchronous mode, such as those involved in project steering. Asynchronous
cooperation better supports conveyance communication processes (sharing out
information), rather than convergence communication processes (shared meaning
of design). In contrast, synchronous cooperation offers efficient push and pull
of information, making use of both conveyance and convergence. Keywords: Asynchronous communication, synchronous communication, collaborative design,
innovative design, virtual team cooperation | |||
| People Tagging, Ontology Maturing: Towards Collaborative Competence Management | | BIBAK | PDF | 231-241 | |
| Simone Braun; Andreas Schmidt | |||
| Competence Management approaches suggest promising instruments for more
effective resource allocation, knowledge management, learning support, and
human resource development in general. However, especially on the level of
individual employees, such approaches have so far not been able to show
sustainable success on a larger scale. Piloting applications like expert
finders have often failed in the long run because of incomplete and outdated
data, apart from social and organizational barriers. To overcome these
problems, we propose a collaborative competence management approach. In this
approach, we combine Web 2.0-style bottom-up processes with organizational
top-down processes. We addressed this problem as a collaborative ontology
construction problem of which the conceptual foundation is the Ontology
Maturing Process Model. In order to realize the Ontology Maturing Process Model
for competence management, we have built the AJAX-based semantic social
bookmarking application SOBOLEO that offers task-embedded competence ontology
development and an easy-to-use interface. Keywords: ontology maturing, people tagging, collaborative competence management,
semantic social bookmarking, SOBOLEO | |||
| From the crowd to communities: New interfaces for social tagging | | BIBAK | PDF | 242-249 | |
| Chao Zhou; Aurélien Bénel | |||
| Social tagging is intimately linked to 'tag cloud', the visualization
apparatus which is intended to bring the 'wisdom of crowds'. But what is suited
for the 'crowd' may be not for communities. In this article, we propose a new
interface for social tagging in collaborative systems that includes several
improvements: multi-viewpoints, multi-tags selection, and tags relations. We
illustrate this apparatus on the collaborative analysis of a scientific
archive. Keywords: Visual Interfaces, Web 2.0, Social tagging, Scientific archives, Qualitative
analysis | |||
| Towards Regional Clusters: Networking Events, Collaborative Research, and the Business Finder | | BIBA | PDF | 253-264 | |
| Tim Reichling; Benjamin Moos; Markus Rohde; Volker Wulf | |||
| Networks of organizations can improve the competitiveness of their member companies. Over the past years, the IS group of the University of Siegen has performed a series of research activities to foster networking among companies in the Siegen-Wittgenstein region. Our research covers a variety of activities such as: networking events, internship programs and joint research projects together with regional companies. Based on these experiences, we developed an expertise matching tool, the Business Finder, to improve mutual awareness among small and medium enterprises (SME) in the region. In this paper, we describe the different activities as an integrated, holistic approach of network support among regional companies. | |||
| Information Spaces in Large-Scale Organization | | BIBAK | PDF | 265-273 | |
| Torstein Elias Hjelle | |||
| Common information spaces are sometimes used to help analyse and understand
collaborative work. This paper uses this concept and the 7 parameter-framework
created by Claus Bossen to analyse the collaboration infrastructure in a major
international oil and gas company. The paper builds on the framework by
weighing different parameters by classifying their importance into one of three
categories in order to identify whether some of the parameters are more or less
important than others. Keywords: Common Information Space, Large-scale IS, Bossen's parameters, analysis | |||