Lecture 3: Shared Workspace Awareness Dr. Xiangyu WANG 11 th August 2008

The concept of Shared Workspace  A space for working is a prerequisite for work (both individual and cooperative)  Computer Supported Cooperative Work aims at providing virtual spaces where people can work together independently from their locations.

A shared workspace (physical): examples

A shared workspace (Virtual): examples

What is Awareness?  Previous researchers have defined awareness as knowledge created through interaction between an agent and its environment – in simple terms, “knowing what is going on” (Endsley, 1995).

Characteristics of Awareness  Awareness is knowledge about the state of an environment bounded in time and space: e.g., I left a message in your blog in 6:00 pm today.  Environments change over time, so awareness is knowledge that must be maintained and kept up to date.  Awareness is a secondary goal in the task – that is, the overall goal is not simply to maintain awareness but to complete some task in the environment.

Workspace awareness  Specialization of awareness, one that is tied to the specific setting of the shared workspace.  Up-to-the-moment understanding of another person’s interaction with a shared workspace.

The Importance of Awareness  Workspace awareness: Reduces the effort needed to coordinate tasks and resources, Provides a context in which to interpret other's utterances and actions, Allows anticipation of others' actions.

Workspace Awareness  Workspace awareness is a specialized situational awareness.

Example Shared Whiteboard Physical Whiteboard

Workspace Awareness (GUTWIN & GREENBERG 2002)  What information makes up WA?  How is WA information gathered?  How is WA information used in collaboration?

What information makes up WA?  Information about: Who: e.g., who is in the workspace What: e.g., what they are doing Where: e.g., where they are working When: e.g., when they did, or will do How: e.g., how they do  Divided into past, present and future information: Past : What has happened in the shared workspace when I was away? Present : What is happening in a shared workspace right now? Future (coordination) : What will happen in the shared workspace tomorrow after I submit my design?

Information about the present

Information about the past

How is WA information gathered/conveyed?  Three main sources for awareness information: (think about shared whiteboard) Bodies Artifacts Conversations and gestures

Bodies  Information available to people as a result of being embodied in the same space. Information from observing others’ hands, heads, eyes, bodies, etc.

Artifacts  Artifacts in the shared workspace provide essential awareness information: visual symbols like words, pictures, etc.  By seeing or hearing the ways that an artifact changes, it is often possible to determine “what is being done to it”.

Conversations  Verbal communication: Talking to each other about awareness elements. Picking up others’ verbal shadowing - the running commentary that people commonly produce alongside their actions.  Gestures: Can be used to carry out intentional communication, e.g. pointing at things

WA information is used for?

Awareness techniques  GUTWIN & GREENBERG (2002) concentrated on real-time aspects of workspace awareness – elements that answer the who, what, and where questions.

Awareness techniques – What (2)

Where

Case Study: TeamWave  A groupware system that provides team rooms for groups whose members can work both co-located and at distance.

Collaboration in TeamWave  Workspace Awareness: Information about the happenings in the rooms.  Telepointers: each user has a telepointer that provides awareness on his/her actions.  Chat tool: For communication among the users.

Tools available in TeamWave  Standard: chat tool, shared whiteboard. special tools satisfying basic group needs, e.g.: concept map, voting tool, file transfer, external URL reference, …