Towards quantifying the impact of non-uniform information access in collaborative information retrieval

The majority of research into Collaborative Information Retrieval (CIR) has assumed a uniformity of information access and visibility between collaborators. However in a number of real world scenarios, information access is not uniform between all collaborators in a team e.g. security, health etc. This can be referred to as Multi-Level Collaborative Information Retrieval (MLCIR). To the best of our knowledge, there has not yet been any systematic investigation of the effect of MLCIR on search outcomes. To address this shortcoming, in this paper, we present the results of a simulated evaluation conducted over 4 different non-uniform information access scenarios and 3 different collaborative search strategies. Results indicate that there is some tolerance to removing access to the collection and that there may not always be a negative impact on performance. We also highlight how different access scenarios and search strategies impact on search outcomes

Supporting collaborative search based on understanding of knowledge sharing

科学研究費助成事業(科学研究費補助金)研究成果報告書：若手研究(B)2010-2011課題番号：2270024

Beyond Traditional Collaborative Search: Understanding the Effect of Awareness on Multi-Level Collaborative Information Retrieval

Although there has been a great deal of research into Collaborative Information Retrieval (CIR) and Collaborative Information Seeking (CIS), the majority has assumed that team members have the same level of unrestricted access to underlying information. However, observations from different domains (e.g. healthcare, business, etc.) have suggested that collaboration sometimes involves people with differing levels of access to underlying information. This type of scenario has been referred to as Multi-Level Collaborative Information Retrieval (MLCIR). To the best of our knowledge, no studies have been conducted to investigate the effect of awareness, an existing CIR/CIS concept, on MLCIR. To address this gap in current knowledge, we conducted two separate user studies using a total of 5 different collaborative search interfaces and 3 information access scenarios. A number of Information Retrieval (IR), CIS and CIR evaluation metrics, as well as questionnaires were used to compare the interfaces. Design interviews were also conducted after evaluations to obtain qualitative feedback from participants. Results suggested that query properties such as time spent on query, query popularity and query effectiveness could allow users to obtain information about team’s search performance and implicitly suggest better queries without disclosing sensitive data. Besides, having access to a history of intersecting viewed, relevant and bookmarked documents could provide similar positive effect as query properties. Also, it was found that being able to easily identify different team members and their actions is important for users in MLCIR. Based on our findings, we provide important design recommendations to help develop new CIR and MLCIR interfaces

Comparing collaborative and independent search in a recall-oriented task

Search interfaces are mainly designed to support a single searcher at a time. We therefore have a limited understanding of how an interface can support search where more than one searcher concurrently pursues a shared information need. This paper investigated the performance and user behaviour of concurrent search. Based on a recall-oriented search task, a user study was carried out to compare an independent search condition to collaborative search conditions. The results show that the collaborative conditions helped searchers diversify search vocabulary while reducing redundant documents to be bookmarked within teams. However, these effects were found to be insufficient to improve the retrieval effectiveness. We discussed the implications for concurrent search support based on our findings

INVESTIGATING SEARCH PROCESSES IN COLLABORATIVE EXPLORATORY WEB SEARCH

People are often engaged in collaboration in workplaces or daily life due to the complexity of tasks. In the information seeking and retrieval environment, the task can be as simple as fact-finding or a known-item search, or as complex as exploratory search. Given the complex nature of the information needs, exploratory searches may require the collaboration among multiple people who share the same search goal. For instance, students may work together to search for information in a collaborative course project; friends may search together while planning a vacation. There are demands for collaborative search systems that could support this new format of search (Morris, 2013). Despite the recognized importance of understanding search process for designing successful search system (Bates, 1990; M. Hearst, 2009), it is particularly difficult to study collaborative search process because of the complex interactions involved. In this dissertation, I propose and demonstrate a framework of investigating search processes in the collaborative exploratory search. I designed a laboratory-based user study to collect the data, compared two search conditions: individual search and collaborative search as well as two task types through the study. I first applied a novel Hidden Markov Model approach to analyze the search states in the collaborative search process, the results of which provide a holistic picture of the collaborative search process. I then investigated two important components in the collaborative search process – query behaviors and communications. The findings reveal the characteristics of query and communication patterns in the collaborative search. It also suggests that although the collaboration between two people on search did not achieve a higher performance than two individuals, the collaboration indeed make people feel more satisfied with their performance and less stressed. The results of this study not only provide implications for designing effective collaborative search systems, but also show valuable research directions and methodologies for other researchers

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筑波大学修士 (情報学) 学位論文・平成25年3月25日授与 (30967号