Computer Supported Cooperative Work

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Computer SupportedCooperative Work

• Saul GreenbergProfessor
• Department of Computer ScienceUniversity of
  Calgary

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Motivation
I work by myself
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In the Near Future

• Computers will be ubiquitous
• Computers will be inter-connected
• Result
• through their computers, people will be able to
• communicate
• work together

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Histories of Polybius
2000 B.C.
in the year

• Let those who wish to communicate any matter of
  pressing importance to each other by fire-signals
  prepare two earthenware pots of exactly equal
  size both as to diameter and depth. Let the depth
  be 3 cubits, the diameter one

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Buck Rogers
2429 A.D.
in the year
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Definitions / Research Goals

• Groupware
• software that supports group work
• investigate algorithms architectures
  fundamental to multi-user systems
• Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)
• knowledge about the context of groupware design
• investigate individual/group/organizational
  requirements for multi-user systems

feedback
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Perspectives

• Why pursue collaboration through computers?
• consider massive change to society of
• printing press
• telephone
• facsimiles
• electronic mail
• world wide web

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The Groupware Paradigm Technologies

face to face interactions public computer
screens decision rooms brainstorming tools
continuous task team rooms group displays
shift work groupware project management
communicationcoordination email bulletin
boards asynchronous conferencing schedulers
version control...
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Anytime, any place groupware

same time
different times
same place
differentplaces
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Focus Real Time Distributed Meetings

• One or more participants are in different
  locations
• Telepresence
• can we give participants a sense they are in the
  same room?
• Teledata
• how can participants interact over their work
  artifacts?
• Casual Interaction
• how can participants get in touch with each other?

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Telepresence

• Giving participants a sense they are in the same
  room
• 1. Video Conferencing Rooms
• dedicated meeting rooms joined by audio video
• heavy weight to use
• talking heads

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Telepresence

• Giving participants a sense they are in the same
  room
• 2. Media spaces
• digitally switched ubiquitous audio and video
  on personal computers

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Telepresence

• Giving participants a sense they are in the same
  room
• Videos
• Digitally switched video technology
• Pandora (Olivetti)
• Eye contact, gestures and body language
• Talking heads (MIT)
• Magik (Keio University)
• GestureCam (University of Tsukuba)

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Telepresence Issues

• Size and Quality
• what is the image fidelity?
• Scalability
• how do I show several people?
• Camera positioning, focusing
• am I centered in the view of the camera?
• Eye contact
• is the other person looking at me?
• Body language
• can I see subtle body motions?

• Gaze awareness
• can I tell where the other person is looking?
• Gestures tied to artifacts
• can I gesture around objects
• Reciprocity
• if I can see them, can they see me?

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Teledata

• Letting participants interact over their work
  artifacts
• Shared visual workspaces
• views of computer artifacts are shared in real
  time

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GroupSketch (Calgary)

• Identical views, gestures, simultaneous activity

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Supporting awareness when views are not identical
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Supporting Awareness (Calgary)
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Supporting both telepresence and teledata (NTT)
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Casual Interaction and Awareness

• Questions
• who is around?
• are they available now?
• can they be interrupted?
• how can I initiate contact?

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The problem

• Groupware can only work after people make contact
  with each other

?
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Current approaches

• Glancing into offices via Montage (Sun
  Microsystems)

What I see
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Current Approaches

• Video walls (Bellcore)

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Current approaches

• Periodic Snapshots

Marks office (305pm)
Marys office (301pm)
Deens office (now)
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Current Approaches

• Iconic indicators (Calgary)

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Current Approaches

• Iconic indicators

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Current Approaches

• Active badges (Olivetti)

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Current Approaches

• Digital but physical surrogates (Calgary and
  Tsukuba)

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The Message

• In the near future
• people will regularly communicate and work
  together through computers through groupware
• Groupware design requires
• technical know-how
• deep knowledge of the human social factors
  behind communication
• telepresence
• teledata
• awareness and casual interaction

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Team Rooms