stanford hci group / cs376 u Amal Dar Aziz · 08 April 2008 CSCW Discussion

Beyond Being There (1992)  Face-to-face vs. distant interactions  Focus on tools people would use with face-to-face interactions  Benefit of audio + video  Human communication: needs, media, mechanisms

Palen Reading (1999)  Groupware Calendar Systems (GCSs)  Evaluation + design from multiple perspectives  technologically-, individually-, socially-centered  Focus on Sun’s “Calendar Manager”  Study highlights: single-user demands, interpersonal communication, socio-technical evolution

Olsons Reading (2007)  We are social animals  Understanding small group behavior (and change) from a psychology perspective  We can design artifacts and social processes to embody cognition  Development and loss of trust  Motivation to contribute to common good

Distributed Cognition  Emerged during 1980s, by Edwin Hutchins  Social aspects of cognition  Individual Artifacts  Human knowledge is not confined to the individual

Common Ground  Comes from research on the psychology of language  Importance of conversational conventions and constraints of communication channels  Ability to reach mutual understanding

Activity Theory  Psychological meta-theory paradigm  Engagement with environment => production of tools  “Exteriorized mental processes”  Mental processes transform into tools useful for social interaction

Quick, mini-experiment.

Premise: You need to explain to your groupmate your needfinding plan to understand how Facebook can broaden its user base.

Start/End Action or Process Decision or Branching Point Flowchart Shapes and Symbols