1. Human Computer Interaction
Week 14
Groupware and CSCW

2. Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)
CSCW is a computer-assisted coordinated activity such as communication and problem solving carried out by a group of collaborating individuals.
CSCW focuses on the design and evaluation of new technologies to support the social processes of work, often among distant partners.

3. Groupware
Groupware is the multi-user software supporting CSCW systems.
Groupware is the information technology used to help people work together more effectively.
Groupware entails computer based systems that support groups of people engaged in a common task (or goal) and that provide an interface to a shared environment.

4. Three Key Aspects of Group Interaction
Communication: face to face, electronic mail, telephone.
Collaboration: people share information, granularity of sharing.
Coordination: provision of multiple access to shared subjects, control of activities.

5. Cooperative task examples
Focused partnerships
Lecture or demo
Conferences
Structured Work Processes
Electronic Commerce
Meeting and Decision Support
Teledemocracy

6. The Time-space Matrix (Ellis et al., 1991)
Same Time
Different Times
Same Place
Face to face (Classrooms, meeting rooms)
Asynchronous Interaction (Project Scheduling, Message System)
Different Place
Synchronous Distributed (Shared Editors, Video Windows)
Asynchronous Distributed ( , listservs, conferences)

7. Groupware Failure Five Factors (Grudin, 1990)
People who do additional work are not the ones who perceives a direct benefit from the use of the application.
Activity that violates social taboos, threatens existing political structures or demotivates users who are crucial to its success.
Do not allow a wide range of exception handling and improvisation that characterizes group activity.
Fail to learn from experience.
Poor intuition for multi-user applications.

8. The Electronic Mail System: An evaluation of the five factors
Who benefits: a balance benefits between senders and receivers. The sender has to do the typing for the convenience of the receiver.
Compatibility with social practice. The conversational format of allows us to apply existing social conventions.
Exception handling. The asynchronous, informal nature of makes it flexible.
Difficulty of evaluation. The overall costs and benefits of are difficult to access.
Poor intuition for groupware. Our intuition concerning may be improving as its use spreads.

9. Asynchronous Distributed: Email Different Place Different Time (1)
can be too loosely structured, sometimes overwhelming, transient.
tools (filtering, archiving, mailing lists, discussion groups).
typically text-only but increasingly includes other structured objects (graphics, sounds, animations, web pointers, video).

10. Asynchronous Distributed: Email Different Place Different Time (2)
voice mail.
Lotus Notes integrates electronic mail, newsgroups, telephone-call tracking, status reporting, text-database searching, document sharing, meeting scheduling, other cooperation tools).
making universal requires increased simplification, improved training, easier filtering.
lower-cost hardware and network services.

11. Asynchronous Distributed: Newsgroup Different Place Different Time (1)
focused electronic discussions by group of people
USENET newsgroups
each group dedicated (more or less) to one topic
like ordered posting on bulletin board
users read as many previous notes and related comments as they wish
open to all
listserv
individual must subscribe to receive notices
may be moderated by a leader
users can get flooded with listserv s
server machine keeps searchable archive or past notes and subscriber list

12. Asynchronous Distributed: Newsgroup Different Place Different Time (2)
online conference
in addition to listserv tools, may also include additional facilities such as voting, online directories of users, online directories of documents
online magazines and newsletters
network communities can be controversial
hackers
hate groups
para-military groups

13. Synchronous Distributed: Different Place Same Time (1)
Synchronous distributed applications
group editing
shared screens for customer assistance
give demonstrations simultaneously at multiple sites
allow sharing of information for various applications
interactive games
CHAT, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and TALK

14. Synchronous Distributed: Different Place Same Time (2)
videoconferencing
slow response times for entering and leaving session
distracting background audio
difficulty in determining who is speaking
inadequate lighting
difficulty in making eye contact
changed social status
small image size
potential invasion of privacy
need for convenient turn taking
need for document sharing

15. Synchronous Distributed: Different Place Same Time (3)
issues of ownership and control
private and public workspaces
identity of participants
location of actions
care with updating

16. Face To Face: Same Place Same Time
Innovative approaches to work and learning include:
Shared display from lecturer workstation
Audience response units
Text-submission workstations
Brainstorming, voting, and ranking
File sharing
Shared workspace
Group activities

17. Applying CSCW to Education
Virtual Classroom is an environment to facilitate collaborative learning for distance education students.
Constant communication with other learners is obvious.
Virtual Classroom is expected to exceed the traditional classroom in its ability to ‘connect’ students and course materials.

18. Further Reading
Shneiderman, B. 1998, Designing the User Interface, Chapter 14, pp