Readings - Week 3

J. Grundin: Computer-Supported Cooperative Work: History and Focus.

What factors and developments led to the establishment of the area of CSCW?

1. The area of Office Automation (OA) had reached the end of an era, due to a lack of understanding the system requirements needed.
2. The need to learn more about people working in groups and organizations and how technology affects that.
3. Although some MIS people acknowledged the need for collaborative systems, the vendor companies designing and building these systems ignored it for the most part
4. CSCW started as a joint effort between the system developers and specialists from a wide array of fields centered towards human interaction and behavioural science
5. Groupware development has largely been funded by goverment contracts and telecomunication companies who want to tap into the market of Small Groups and Projects (see figure). The complexity to support large government contracts provided a substantial incentive to spur the development of CSCW and groupware.
   

What are the differences between US and EU research traditions in CSCW?

• The US primarily focus on Human-Computer interaction thus focusing more on small-group applications.
• Here, computer research industry labs and industry support for University are more influential, research is more intertwined.
• Experimental and observational - Emperical Research
• They feel that their EU counterpart's work often lack substance.
• Conferences are organized for the larger audiences interested and focuses on the polished product, rather than the developmental stages.
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• The EU research stress organizational and large-project issues
• Not so intertwined, since most research is government funded and in-house focused.
• Driven by Social, Political or Economic theory which results in a broad platform being able to support a multitude of expansive software for collaborative approaches.
• Work also reflects a strong link to cultural norms and risks oversimplification.
• American workers strike EU as unmotivated or shallow
• Gatherings are attended by professionals and researchers to share current work and ideas and present.
  

J. Nunamaker: Collaborative Computing: The Next Millenium.

What does Nunamaker tell about the role of anonymity in groupware systems?

• When an organization decides to implement a groupware system or systems, anonymity could potentially be very useful for the initial/start-up phases. This is due to the "secretive" aspect where people feel that they are "safe" from reprimand and thus generate more comments with greater candour. This can help the organization greatly, since users will be totally honest about improvements that need to be done or potential downsides to the system. However, as soon as the whole system is running and for the most part being used, anonymity should be phased out. This will help the organization to poll users on which ideas they support most and also elevate the system to a platform of user-acceptance and consensus.
  

• Anonymity in this case is used conditionally, depending on what the organization wants to achieve. However, it can also be abused by some users who see it as a back-door to being rude, offensive or vindictive. Education and feedback are good ways to counter the above and to enable users to use the system for a collaborative advancement.

Does Distance Matter?

What are the major differences between collocated and distance work, and why does distance matter?

First off, personal connection is very important. People generally feel more comfortable around each other when there is a close connection, or common ground that has been established during their first meeting. With collocated work, team members are around each other whilst working and can observe behavioural changes and moods by simply looking at the other member. This is very difficult to do when distance becomes a factor. Another big difference is that of coupling. It is easier for collocated members to work on tightly coupled pieces of a project, since they can quickly form groups for discussion etc. Distance makes tight coupling very difficult, since it is time-consuming to set up the meetings for imprompto discussions. Collaboration Readiness and Collaboration Technology Readiness are also 2 major factors when answering the above question. Often enough, people do not want to work with the new technology since they are scared of it, or think that it might hinder their particular way of doing things. Then there are the language, cultural and time barriers that further enhance the divide between working together or over distances.

Will it be possible to make distributed teams as efficient as collocated ones in the future?

Personally, I do not think so. The world is built on communication, trust and the simple human interactions which are almost automatically generated by our subconscious when we meet new people. One adapts to the other person standing before you through body-language, quirks and gestures and also tone of voice coupled with facial expressions. There are a multitude of factors which only personal interaction can relay which will never be possible through the use of technology. There might be vast improvements on the technologies in the future, but none will surpass the personal interactive properties of close proximity...that which is needed to keep a well-oiled human project machine functioning at optimum speed and capacity.