Informal, desktop, audio-video communication

Audio-Video systems have been developed to support many aspects and modes of human communication, but there has been little support for the informal, ongoing nature of communication that occurs often in real life. Most existing systems implement a call metaphor. This presents a barrier to initiating conversation that has a consequent effect on the formality of the resulting conversation. By contrast, with informal communication the channel is never explicitly opened or closed. This paper examines the range of previous systems and seeks to build on these to develop plans for supporting informal communication, in a desktop environment

Information and Communication Technologies and Informal Scholarly Communication: A Review of the Social Oriented Research

This article reviews and analyzes findings from research on computer mediated informal scholarly communication. Ten empirical research papers, which show the effects and influences of information & communication technologies (ICTs), or the effects of social contexts on ICTs use in informal scholarly communication, were analyzed and compared. Types of ICTs covered in those studies include e-mails, collaboratories, and electronic forums. The review shows that most of the empirical studies examined the ICTs use effects or consequences. Only a few studies examined the social shaping of ICTs and ICT uses in informal scholarly communication. Based on comparisons of the empirical findings this article summarizes the ICT use effects/consequences as identified in the studies into seven categories and discusses their implications

Informal Communication & its Relation to Employees, Managers, & Job Satisfaction

Color poster with text, images, graphs, and tables.Past research has shown that informal communication in the workplace is associated with job satisfaction (Nielson, Jex, & Adams, 2000). There are significant gaps in research regarding how managers perceive informal communication among employees in the workplace. Furthermore, little to no research has been conducted from an employee's point of view regarding informal communication and how it affects their job satisfaction. This study focuses on how employee's job satisfaction relates to their comfort communicating informally with co-workers and with managers, and if they perceive their managers to encourage friendships within the workplace.University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Knowledge Flows through Informal Contacts in Industrial Clusters Myths or Realities?

The role of informal networks in the development of regional clusters has received a lot of attention in the literature recently. Informal contact between employees in different firms is argued to be one of the main carriers of knowledge between firms in a cluster. This paper empirically examines the role of informal contacts in a specific cluster. In a recent questionnaire, we ask a sample of engineers in a regional cluster of wireless communication firms in Northern Denmark, a series of questions on informal networks. We analyze whether the engineers actually acquire valuable knowledge through these networks. We find that the engineers do share even valuable knowledge with informal contacts. This shows that informal contacts are important channels of knowledge diffusion.Informal contacts, regional clusters, communication technology

Supporting informal communication and closeness through video snapshots

As organisations grow and the physical distance between individuals increases, the simple informal communication that is essential for creativity declines. This paper presents a prototype system that was designed to increase informal communication by restoring awareness between physically distant employees. The key representation of individuals within this prototype was through frequently updated video snapshots. Users of the system reported feeling 'closer' to each other. We also suggest further experiments to assess the effects of video snapshots on trust

Evaluation of an awareness distribution mechanism: a simulation approach

In distributed software engineering, the role of informal communication is frequently overlooked. Participants simply employ their own ad-hoc methods of informal communication. Consequently such communication is haphazard, irregular, and rarely recorded as part of the project documentation. Thus, a need for tool support to facilitate more systematic informal communication via awareness has been identified. The tool proposed is based on the provision of awareness support that recognises the complete context of the evolution of software artefacts rather than single events. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networking has been successfully employed to develop various distributed software engineering support tools. However, there are scalability problems inherent in naive P2P networks. To this end a semantic overlay network organisation algorithm has been developed and tested in simulation prior to deployment as part of a forthcoming awareness extension to the Eclipse environment. The simulation verified that the self-organisation algorithm was suitable for arranging a P2P network, but several unexpected behaviours were observed. These included wandering nodes, starved nodes, and local maxima. Each of these problems required modification of the original algorithm design to solve or ameliorate them

Don\u27t Abandon the Water Cooler Yet: Flexible Work Arrangements and the Unique Effect of Face-to-Face Informal Communication on Idea Generation and Innovation

[Excerpt] Flexible work arrangements (FWAs), especially those offering employees a degree of control over when and where they work, have become increasingly prevalent in recent years.Research has shown that these arrangements generally lead to higher levels of job satisfaction as well as lower levels of stress, work-family conflict, absenteeism, and turnover among employees.At the same time, however, some suggest that FWAs may not be appropriate in all situations, particularly in the context of creative teamwork (i.e., in the prototypical 21st century organization). It is important, in this view, to have all team members face to face in the office to encourage informal interactions that spark insights and innovations. Surprisingly, this supposition has yet to be rigorously tested. Flexible work arrangements (FWAs), especially those offering employees a degree of control over when and where they work, have become increasingly prevalent in recent years.Research has shown that these arrangements generally lead to higher levels of job satisfaction as well as lower levels of stress, work-family conflict, absenteeism, and turnover among employees.At the same time, however, some suggest that FWAs may not be appropriate in all situations, particularly in the context of creative teamwork (i.e., in the prototypical 21st century organization). It is important, in this view, to have all team members face to face in the office to encourage informal interactions that spark insights and innovations. Surprisingly, this supposition has yet to be rigorously tested. The present study was designed to fill this void, first by examining the effects of remote work (i.e., percent of time team members work outside the office) on the frequency, spontaneity, content, and mode of their communication and, then, by assessing the extent to which variations in team communication patterns influence the level of team creativity (i.e., the degree to which teams generate novel ideas that lead to improvements in work processes and/or to new and innovative products and services). As Figure 1 on page 5 shows, the study primarily distinguished between two types of team communication: (1) formal face-to-face communication (e.g., planned meetings about work-related matters) and (2) informal face-to-face communication. Within informal face-to-face communication, two forms were examined: (2a) spontaneous communication about work-related matters and (2b) non-work-related communication. Further, in examining the efficacy of both forms of informal communication for team idea generation and innovation, the study compared electronic modes (e.g., email, instant message, audio/visual) to face-to-face interactions

Contract Enforcement by the Gods

We propose a theory that explains why rational agents start to believe in a causal relationship between unrelated events. Agents send and collect messages through a communication network. If they are convinced of a relationship between two events, they send messages confirming their belief with higher probability than messages contradicting it. The network aggregates this communication bias over individuals. Therefore, agents may find a strong relationship between unrelated events even if the communication bias is very small. We apply this model to an informal economy where the fear of punishment by supernatural forces prevents agents from cheating others. --Informal Contract Enforcement,Communication,Learning,Networks

The Assam Fever

'Wellcome History' is an easy and regular channel of communication between all Wellcome historians. It aims to be an informal, user-friendly centre of debate