CHI 97 Electronic Publications: Workshops
Awareness in Collaborative Systems
Susan E. McDaniel
Collaboratory for Research on Electronic Work (CREW)
University of Michigan
701 Tappan Street, C2420
Ann Arbor, MI 48019-1234 USA
mcdaniel@umich.edu
Tom Brinck
Collaboratory for Research on Electronic Work (CREW)
University of Michigan
701 Tappan Street, C2420
Ann Arbor, MI 48019-1234 USA
brinck@umich.edu
Keywords
Awareness, distributed work, CSCW, Telework.
© 1997 Copyright on this material is held by the authors.
WORKSHOP THEME
The provision of awareness information in remote collaborative systems is an important aspect of developing useful and usable collaborative systems. This workshop will bring together researchers from around the world to discuss their approaches and to develop a coherent research strategy. The end result of this workshop will be a comprehensive research program for determining what type of awareness information is appropriate to particular situations, a set of proposed solutions, and a strategy to evaluate these solutions in the laboratory and in real world situations.
Types of awareness information vary from awareness of documents, projects, and tasks to awareness of the location and activities of co-workers. Telepointers, office snapshots, video glances, document/project tracking, and background noise are some of the various forms of providing awareness which have been used to date [1,2,3]. In creating support for awareness, considerations include: what information to provide, how to provide it, how to give users control of the information, explicit and implicit sources of information, reciprocity, privacy, and interruptions. Also, when is information useful and when does it interfere with the collaborative process are important questions.
GOALS
Many researchers are studying the provision of awareness information in remote collaborative systems. However, there is little coordination among these research programs. The primary goal of this workshop is to draft an overall research strategy for determining what awareness information is useful and appropriate in different situations. In the process of drafting such a research strategy, we will:
- Explore and categorize the various types of awareness
- Examine the advantages and disadvantages of providing such information
- Develop guidelines for designing awareness mechanisms and solutions to address specific needs
- Develop evaluation procedures and criteria for testing these proposed awareness solutions
OPEN QUESTIONS
Although the provision of awareness information is a critical issue in the development of collaborative systems for distributed use, there is not widespread agreement of what constitutes awareness and how it should be provided. In co-located settings, awareness of others, is available naturally and is generally taken for granted. What information do people have access to, what information do they use, how do they maintain awareness, and when do they need awareness are all questions that have yet to be answered about co-located collaborators much less about distributed groups. When people are distributed, such natural awareness information is no longer available and must be provided explicitly. Many attempts have been made to try to provide such information with varying results. This workshop is an initial forum in which the many people who are working on awareness issues can gather to share ideas and create a strategy for moving into the future.
REFERENCES
1. Dourish, P. and Bellotti, V. Awareness and Coordination in Shared Workspaces. In Proceedings of CSCW'92 (Toronto Ontario, Nov 1992), ACM Press.
2. Gutwin, C., Roseman, R., and Greenberg, S. A Usability Study of Awareness Widgets in a Shared Workspace Groupware System. In Proceedings of CSCW'96 (Boston MA, Nov 1996), ACM Press.
3. Mitchell, A., Posner, I., and Baecker, R.
Learning to Write Together Using Groupware. In Proceedings of CHI'95 (Denver CO, May 1995), ACM Press.
CHI 97 Electronic Publications: Workshops
