Call for Participation
This one-day workshop is intended to bring together researchers studying the provision of awareness information in collaborative sytesms in order to develop a broad research program for determining what awareness information is needed in different situations.The provision of awareness information in remote collaborative systems is an important aspect of developing useful and usable collaborative systems. This workshop will bring together researchers from around the world to discuss their approaches and to develop a coherent research strategy The end result of this workshop will be a comprehensive research program for determining what type of awareness information is appropriate to particular situations, a set of proposed solutions, and a strategy to evaluate these solutions in the laboratory and in real world situations.
Types of awareness information vary from awareness of documents, projects, and tasks to awareness of the location and activities of co-workers. Telepointers, office snapshots, video glances, document/project tracking, and background noise are some of the various forms of providing awareness which have been used to date. In creating support for awareness, considerations include: what information to provide, how to provide it, how to give users control of the information, explicit and implicit sources of information, reciprocity, privacy, and interruptions. Also, when is information useful and when does it interfere with the collaborative process are important questions.
The purpose of this workshop is to develop a research strategy for evaluating the effect of awareness mechanisms on users and organizations, and to begin to develop guidelines for designing appropriate awareness solutions. In developing sucha a strategy we will examine the dimensions by which awareness mechanisms vary, clarify the various possible advantages and disadvantages of providing awareness information, and propose preliminary potential awareness solutions for varying situations.
This workshop is limited to 20 participants. Participants must submit a one-paragraph biographical sketch and a one to two page position paper outlining their views on providing awareness in CSCW systems. Please include full contact information (email address, conventional address, URL if available). We will evaluate the position papers and select participants based on a diversity of viewpoints and depth of involvement and insight into awareness issues. Position papers will be distributed to other participants via the Web prior to the workshop.Submissions should be posted to the World Wide Web and the URL sent to the workshop organizers at mcdaniel@umich.edu. Alternative methods of submission can be arranged by contacting the organizers.
Participants are expected to read the collection of position papers from other participants prior to the workshop. Specific activities in the workshop will be tailored to the participants' interests as stated in the position papers. Participants will be asked to assist in preparation of the workshop poster for the CHI'97 poster session.
Send submissions and questions to mcdaniel@umich.eduUp-to-date information on the workshop will be available at: http://www.usabilityfirst.com/groupware/awareness/workshop/chi97.html
Susan E. McDaniel and Tom Brinck
mcdaniel@umich.edu, brinck@umich.edu
Collaboratory for Research on Electronic Work (CREW)
University of Michigan
701 Tappan Street, C2420
Ann Arbor, MI 48019-1234
Tel: +1 734 764-6715
Fax: +1 734 936-3168
Tom Brinck has a master's degree in computer science from Stanford University and a master's in cognitive psychology from the University of Michigan, where he's currently a Ph.D. candidate in psychology doing research in communication with drawings. Tom has done education research at Apple Computer and CSCW research at Bellcore, where he was involved in the development of the Rendezvous groupware toolkit.Susan E. McDaniel is a Ph.D. candidate in computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan, where she is actively researching people awareness issues in remote computer-mediated collaborative situations. She has a master's degree in computer science from Colorado State University and has worked at US West Advanced Technology Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado.