1. WikiConversation Scotty Allen Phong Le

2. Goal Support joint document production asynchronously via localized comment capability In context of different collaborative systems (EDC, class swiki, MediaWiki)

3. Why? Collaborative system based on the idea of distributed cognition (many minds better than one) Two types of interaction methods: synchronous (face-to-face) and asynchronous (different time and place) Asynchronous extends opportunity for participation

4. Central Challenge Providing context when not interacting face-to-face: What part of document comment refer to? Who made the comment? When?

5. Method Task centered user interface design Identify potential users Identify representative tasks Use tasks to structure interview to draw out design priorities Implement initial prototypes (using MediaWiki) Evaluate iteratively with users using representative task using talk-aloud protocols

6. What is a Wiki? Community created website Anyone can view and edit any page Links to pages within the wiki are created by page name New pages are created by creating a link and then following the link All changes are versioned Very simple markup language

7. Design Priorities Depend on tasks, systems used, and specific workflows, found common design priorities: What you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) rather than wiki markup Integration with other systems to match preferred workflow Provide social awareness cues, specifically task and social context

8. Design Description Initial prototype

9. Implementation Templates Comments appear in an iframe Comments table - comments are indexed by comment id, thread id, and page id

10. Lessons learned during implementation MediaWiki is very robust, but complex Restrictions on HTML in templates Caching was a barrier to testing Layout issues when comments were near top of screen

11. Next steps Evaluation Addition features Comments search / filtering Implement community based reputation systems Lightweight social tagging of comments

12. Questions?