Groupware

1
Groupware Cyberspace

• Using Electronic Forums

In the electronic age, we wear all mankind as
our skins. Marshall McLuhan
Geoff Walkergeoffw_at_geoffwalker.net www.geoffwalke
r.net
2
Groupware

• Technology designed to facilitate the work of
  groups. This technology may be used to
  communicate, cooperate, coordinate, solve
  problems, compete, or negotiate. While
  traditional technologies such as the telephone
  qualify as groupware, the term is ordinarily used
  to refer to a specific class of technologies
  relying on modern computer networks, such as
  email, newsgroups, video-conferencing or chat.

3
Cyberspace

• An artificial, virtual, constructed mental
  environment or notional space developed using
  computers.
• Cyberspace is likely to become the dominant
  medium through which people create and share
  information and ideas in the future.

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Technological Relationships?

• We need to shift away from the notion of
  technology managing information and towards the
  idea of technology as a medium of relationships.
• MICHAEL SCHRAGE
• The new technologies enable conversations with
  new kinds of properties we need new concepts to
  understand their nature.
• JOHN SEELY BROWN

5
Categories of Community-Oriented Technologies

• 1. Knowledge Portals
• 2. On-line Project Space
• 3. Website Community
• 4. On-line Conversation Space
• 5. On-line Meeting Space
• 6. On-line Instruction
• 7. Knowledge Exchange
• 8. Knowledge Repositories
• Wenger, Etienne Survey of Community-Oriented
  Technologies ltwww.etiennewenger.comgt

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Why?

• Asynchronous Synchronous ?
• Flexible Robust ?
• Informal Formal ?
• Economic Costly ?
• Time-saving Time-Consuming ?
• Multi-media Uni-media ?

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The Tools

• Electronic Mailing Lists
• News Discussion groups
• Chat Rooms and Channels
• Virtual Meetings
• Virtual Conferencing
• Video Conferencing
• On-line Voting

8
Mailing Lists

• What are they for?
• How to find existing ones
• Joining a list
• Lurking
• Sending a message
• Netiquette

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Example One Archived Mailing List

• acelerated learning - carolina 173212 7/03/98
  (6)
• Re acelerated learning - Carlos Caripan Zenteno
  115203 12/09/98 (0)
• Re acelerated learning - rocio 204334 10/11/98
  (0)
• Re acelerated learning - Mireya Silva 152621
  9/16/98 (0)
• Re acelerated learning - Alejandro Ruiz Márquez
  191739 9/09/98 (2)
• Re acelerated learning - Christophe Clugston
  115245 10/20/98 (1)
• Re acelerated learning - Jorge D. Muñoz
  Hinojosa. 150211 1/25/99 (0)

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Four Types of Mailing Lists

• Unmoderated
• Moderated
• Fully moderated
• Announce

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Useful Mailing List URLs

• www.democracy.org.uk
• www.liszt.com
• www.greatcircle.com/list-managers
• groups.yahoo.com

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Pros and Cons Mailing Lists

• Keep up-to-date on topics of shared interest
• Share lessons learnt and best practice
• Build up personal contacts
• Useful for longtitudinal focus groups
• Remote researchers can work in close collaboration

• Network Overlords
• No body language, intonation or accent
• Netiquette Protocols Shouting Spamming Flaming

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Newsgroups

• A public discussion area, frequently distributed
  internationally, using the Usenet system

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Pros Cons Newsgroups

• Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
• Many in number 60,000 subjects covered
  Seewww.deja.com

• Difficult to establish through Usenet and the
  call for votes system
• Often poor in quality

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Channels

• Internet Relay Chat ltwww.mirc.comgt
• ICQ ltwww.icq.comgt
• PowWow ltwww.tribalvoice.comgt
• AOL Instant Messenger ltwww.aol.comgt

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Pros Cons Channels

• Very rich source of first-hand up-to-the-minute
  information
• Useful in emergency and high risk situations
• Easy to set up
• Have many add-on features including-
  whiteboards, joint surfing and file sharing

• Need to be on-line
• Easily abused and disrupted as some individuals
  seem to think it is fun to do this!

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Virtual Meetings

• A Virtual Meeting is a way of holding a
  discussion on an Intranet or through the
  Internet. Comments and documents can be attached
  to the discussion.

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Pros Cons Virtual Meetings

• Team and capacity building
• Break down organisational barriers
• Establish new ways of working

• Organisational culture
• Out-dated management systems

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Virtual Conferencing

• Virtual conferencing is a form of group
  discussion that uses text messages stored on a
  computer as a communication medium. It does not
  include various types of real-time, or
  synchronous, communication, such as "chat rooms",
  voice-based teleconferencing, or video
  conferencing.

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Pros Cons Virtual Conferencing

• Closely replicates a real conference
• Provides a familiar platform for new electronic
  networkers
• Many freeware packages available

• Need to spend considerable time on-line
• Need to have high level of groupware skills
• Need programming access to a server

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Video Conferencing

• A discussion between two or more groups of people
  who are in different places but can see and hear
  each other using electronic communications.
  Pictures and sound are carried by the
  telecommunication network and such conferences
  can take place across the world

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Pros Cons Video Conferencing

• Useful in communicating visual data
• Works well in one-to-many situations

• High quality is still expensive
• People are often intimidated by their own image

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On-line Voting

• http//www.sztaki.hu/services/voting/

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Hypothesis

• FTF CMC AV
• REAL Added Value can be created when Face-To-Face
  networks and Computer-Mediated-Communications are
  combined in a way that is appropriate to all
  participants within the network

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What do you need to consider?

• What types of communities are you trying to
  support?
• What are you trying to accomplish with the
  technology?
• Do you want technology to modify behaviour?
• What are the requirements of the technology?

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Geoff Walker

• Thank You!
• ? www.geoffwalker.net
• ? geoffw_at_geoffwalker.net