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

When Routine Work Becomes Social: How Virtual Social Facilitation Increases Performance on Simple IT-Based Tasks

With the advent of social applications, the question arises of how organizations can utilize such technology for improving task performance. While social applications certainly bear the potential to trigger the development of radically new business models and business processes, we seek to study how the enrichment of IT-based routine work (simple tasks) by complementing social features (audience condition) may advance performance. In 280 experiments with altogether 40 participants, we investigate the impact of a) monitoring, b) measurement, and c) feedback dialogs on performance of simple IT-based tasks. We compare the effects of these three treatments in a setting of physical presence and in a setting of virtual presence. The results show that monitoring has the strongest effect in the physical presence setting while, in the virtual presence setting, both monitoring and feedback dialogs can improve task performance significantly. Theory-wise, we draw on social psychology and develop a (design) theory of virtual social facilitation that bears major implications for designing routine work information systems and technology

Bridging the Digital Divide: Telephone Tutoring at the Center

As many academic support centers transitioned from in-person to online from March 2020 onward, center professionals were looking for technology that would assist them to do the job right. In one Midwest, private, comprehensive university, students had already self-selected the phone as their answer to seeking writing assistance before the pandemic arrived. This essay will share findings from that study in the writing center as well as theorize why phone conversations make good sense in academic support centers. Writing centers and communication centers should adopt phone tutoring with online formats as a means to fully and justly connect with students, ensuring that diverse voices are heard and included and to enable all students to have an equitable experience amidst the digital divide

Exploring the potential of video technologies for collaboration in emergency medical care: Part I. Information sharing

We are investigating the potential of 3D telepresence, or televideo, technology to support collaboration among geographically separated medical personnel in trauma emergency care situations. 3D telepresence technology has the potential to provide richer visual information than current 2D video conferencing techniques. This may be of benefit in diagnosing and treating patients in emergency situations where specialized medical expertise is not locally available. The 3D telepresence technology does not yet exist and there is a need to understand its potential before resources are spent on its development and deployment. This poses a complex challenge. How can we evaluate the potential impact of a technology within complex, dynamic work contexts when the technology does not yet exist? To address this challenge we conducted an experiment with a post-test, between-subjects design that takes the medical situation and context into account. In the experiment we simulated an emergency medical situation involving practicing paramedics and physicians, collaborating remotely via two conditions: with today’s 2D videoconferencing and a 3D telepresence proxy. In this paper we examine information sharing between the attending paramedic and collaborating physician. Postquestionnaire data illustrate that the information provided by the physician was perceived to be more useful by the paramedic in the 3D proxy condition than the 2D condition. However, data pertaining to the quality of interaction and trust between the collaborating physician and paramedic show mixed results. Post-interview data help explain these results

Human-computer interaction and sociological insight: A theoretical examination and experiment in building affinity in small groups

The juxtaposition of classic sociological theory and the, relatively, young discipline of human-computer interaction (HCI) serves as a powerful mechanism for both exploring the theoretical impacts of technology on human interactions as well as the application of technological systems to moderate interactions. It is the intent of this dissertation to contribute to the knowledge of both HCI and sociology through a brief discussion of the state of sociological theory and its shortcomings, the design and evaluation of a system to promote social affinity in dyadic work, a method for empirically measuring affinity free from the social desirability bias of surveys, and a proposal for a new direction for HCI to include classic sociological theories. Ultimately, this dissertation serves as an introduction to a series of future research projects by laying the theoretical and methodological foundations for exploring indirect technological mediation of social interactions

Virtual smarts - optimizing the coalescing of people for collective action within urban communities

Despite the importance of individuals coming together for social group-activities (e.g., pick-up volleyball), the process by which such groups coalesce is poorly understood, and as a consequence is poorly supported by technology. This is despite the emergence of Event-Based Social Network (EBSN) technologies that are specifically designed to assist group coalescing for social activities. Existing theories focus on group development in terms of norms and types, rather than the processes involved in initial group coalescence. This dissertation addresses this gap in the literature through four studies focusing on understanding the coalescing process for interest-based group activities within urban environments and a design of a mobile user interface aimed at increasing collective action initiation. Study One examined how well people\u27s needs for social group activity engagement are being met in the context of an urban university. The analysis of 60 interviews highlighted how participants considered activity leadership a burden, where it took too much time and was difficult to find others. Study Two (a mixed methods study of 763 Meetup.com groups in the NY/NJ/CT Tri-State) and Study Three (A survey of 511 students at an urban university) corroborated results that attendance and participation at the first meeting determined long-term success by giving the organizer belief that their group would be successful. Study Four involved the design and testing of a mobile group coalescing user-interface (UI) that featured several lightweight coalescing features hypothesized to reduce the challenges to organizing. Results from the 2000 participant study indicated that the UI increased the likelihood non-leaders would initiate collective action. The models generated from the study data suggested that a new theory is required to understand the role of critical mass in collective action. The combination of these investigations into interest-based group activity coalescing uncovered important gaps in the current knowledge of interest-based group activity coalescing and collective action initiation. This work extends our knowledge about how to improve coalescing support and encourage non-leaders to initiate activity coalescing, which will lead to a greater number of activities forming. Finally, this research uncovers the need to redefine collective action and critical mass models to include motivation to organize and its moderators

Collaborative Working Environments : Group Needs Approach to Designing Systems for Supporting Spatially Distributed Groups

Collaboration in spatially distributed groups requires technological support for mediating collaborative activities and members’ interactions over time and distance. Technology provides multiple tools for supporting individual, social and task requirements of collaborative groups. Nevertheless, many aspects of computer-mediated interactions are not sufficiently explained and creating an effective computer-supported environment for collaborative groups as a combination of these tools remains a challenge. Meeting this challenge requires taking into consideration different aspects of collaborative interactions from both social and technological perspectives. This thesis discusses the social and technical aspects of collaboration in spatially distributed groups and introduces a design approach for collaborative working environments. Firstly, it presents a comprehensive overview of research on collaborative groups, summarizing three interrelated elements under the umbrella of the group needs approach: individual, task and group maintenance needs. Secondly, it proposes a design approach for collaborative working environments on the basis of group needs and thus presents an alternative for designing computer-supported environment for collaborative groups. This research considers two main types of systems for supporting collaborative groups – groupware and social software – and discusses functionalities originating from these systems. It introduces the Quality Function Deployment method and utilizes its House of Quality concept in order to develop and initially evaluate the First-Stage Prototype – the prototypical implementation of the collaborative working environment combining these two main types. The presented framework is used as a benchmarking tool on the basis of which selected existing platforms for supporting collaboration are evaluated. This research contributes to the area of the Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and discusses actual trends in development of collaborative systems related to the application of new social tools for purposes of computer-supported collaboration.Kollaborative Arbeitsumgebungen – der Gruppenbedürfnisansatz zur Entwicklung von Systemen für die Unterstützung räumlich verteilter Gruppen Die Zusammenarbeit in räumlich verteilten Gruppen erfordert technologische Unterstützung um Interaktionen innerhalb der Gruppen über Zeit und Distanz zu ermöglichen. Dabei bieten heutige Technologien verschiedene Tools zur Unterstützung von individuellen, sozialen und aufgabenorientierten Anforderungen der Gruppen. Allerdings sind viele Aspekte von computervermittelten Interaktionen nicht ausreichend erforscht und die Gestaltung von effektiven computerunterstützten Umgebungen für zusammenarbeitende Gruppen als eine Kombination dieser Tools bleibt eine Herausforderung. Die Erfüllung dieser Anforderungen erfordert die Berücksichtigung unterschiedlicher Aspekte der Gruppeninteraktionen sowohl aus sozialer als auch aus technologischer Perspektive. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die sozialen und technischen Aspekte der Zusammenarbeit in räumlich verteilten Gruppen und präsentiert einen Entwicklungsansatz für Systeme zur Unterstützung der Zusammenarbeit. Zum einen gibt sie einen umfassenden Überblick über den aktuellen Forschungsstand zum Thema kooperative Gruppen und fasst dabei die drei verbundenen Elemente individuelle Bedürfnisse, Aufgabenbedürfnisse und Bedürfnisse zur Aufrechterhaltung der Gruppen unter dem Dach des Gruppenbedürfnisansatzes zusammen. Zum anderen präsentiert die Arbeit ein Entwicklungskonzept für kooperative Arbeitsumgebungen auf Grundlage dieses Ansatzes und somit eine Alternative für die Gestaltung von computerunterstützten Umgebungen für kollaborative Gruppen. Für diese Forschungsarbeit werden im Wesentlichen zwei Arten von Systemen sowie deren Funktionalitäten zur Unterstützung von kollaborativen Gruppen diskutiert – Groupware und Social Software. Um eine prototypische Implementierung einer kollaborativen Arbeitsumgebung zu entwickeln und eine erste Evaluation durchzuführen, wird die Quality Function Deployment Methode und das damit verbundene House of Quality Konzept verwendet. Die Forschungsergebnisse leisten einen Beitrag auf dem Gebiet der computerunterstützten Gruppenarbeit (Computer-Supported Cooperative Work) und diskutieren aktuelle Trends im Bereich der Entwicklung kollaborativer Arbeitsumgebungen, die sich mit der Integration von neuen sozialen Tools zum Zweck computerunterstützter Zusammenarbeit beschäftigen

Dynamic adaptation of streamed real-time E-learning videos over the internet

Even though the e-learning is becoming increasingly popular in the academic environment, the quality of synchronous e-learning video is still substandard and significant work needs to be done to improve it. The improvements have to be brought about taking into considerations both: the network requirements and the psycho- physical aspects of the human visual system. One of the problems of the synchronous e-learning video is that the head-and-shoulder video of the instructor is mostly transmitted. This video presentation can be made more interesting by transmitting shots from different angles and zooms. Unfortunately, the transmission of such multi-shot videos will increase packet delay, jitter and other artifacts caused by frequent changes of the scenes. To some extent these problems may be reduced by controlled reduction of the quality of video so as to minimise uncontrolled corruption of the stream. Hence, there is a need for controlled streaming of a multi-shot e-learning video in response to the changing availability of the bandwidth, while utilising the available bandwidth to the maximum. The quality of transmitted video can be improved by removing the redundant background data and utilising the available bandwidth for sending high-resolution foreground information. While a number of schemes exist to identify and remove the background from the foreground, very few studies exist on the identification and separation of the two based on the understanding of the human visual system. Research has been carried out to define foreground and background in the context of e-learning video on the basis of human psychology. The results have been utilised to propose methods for improving the transmission of e-learning videos. In order to transmit the video sequence efficiently this research proposes the use of Feed- Forward Controllers that dynamically characterise the ongoing scene and adjust the streaming of video based on the availability of the bandwidth. In order to satisfy a number of receivers connected by varied bandwidth links in a heterogeneous environment, the use of Multi-Layer Feed-Forward Controller has been researched. This controller dynamically characterises the complexity (number of Macroblocks per frame) of the ongoing video sequence and combines it with the knowledge of availability of the bandwidth to various receivers to divide the video sequence into layers in an optimal way before transmitting it into network. The Single-layer Feed-Forward Controller inputs the complexity (Spatial Information and Temporal Information) of the on-going video sequence along with the availability of bandwidth to a receiver and adjusts the resolution and frame rate of individual scenes to transmit the sequence optimised to give the most acceptable perceptual quality within the bandwidth constraints. The performance of the Feed-Forward Controllers have been evaluated under simulated conditions and have been found to effectively regulate the streaming of real-time e-learning videos in order to provide perceptually improved video quality within the constraints of the available bandwidth