Anchored Discussion: Development of a Tool for Creativity in Online Collaboration

Open innovation and crowdsourcing rely on online collaboration tools to enable dispersed people to collaborate on creative ideas. Research shows that creativity in online groups is significantly influenced by the interaction between group members. In this paper, we demonstrate how theory can be effectively used to design and evaluate a tool for creative online collaboration. Specifically, we use the body of knowledge on creativity support systems to inform the development of a tool to support anchored discussions. Anchored discussions represent a new mode for creative interaction. In anchored discussion every comment is tied to some aspect of an idea. We evaluated the anchored discussion tool in a laboratory experiment, which generated insights for additional and refined research. Our results indicate that anchored discussion leads to a more structured discussion amongst group members and consequently to more creative outcomes. In a post session survey, participants made several suggestions on how to improve anchored discussion. This paper concludes that anchored discussion is promising as a new tool to aid online groups in creative collaboration. This paper extends a previous version presented at CRIWG 2015 [Link, 2015]

Investigating collaboration in art and technology

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Information Technology.With the rapid development in computer technology in recent years, the arrival of digital media and computational tools has opened up new possibilities for creative practice in art, where collaboration between digital art practitioners and computer technologists often happens. The study of interdisciplinary collaboration in art and technology offers great opportunities for investigation of creativity and the role of new technology. This thesis presents an investigation into interdisciplinary collaboration between artists and technologists based on a series of case studies selected from actual art- technology projects. Two analysis techniques were used in this research: context analysis, which provides the breadth of the analysis, and protocol analysis, which provides the depth of the analysis. During the analysis process, two coding schemes, which are the context analysis coding scheme and the protocol analysis coding scheme, were developed, evaluated and refined over a series of case studies. Using the coding schemes, the results of the analysis drawn from different cases are compared and the implications are discussed. The findings provide insights into art- technology collaboration in the creative process, in particular, the features of communication and the role of mediation tools. The outcomes of this thesis are: • The analysis framework, consisting of the context analysis coding scheme and the protocol analysis coding scheme, which has been developed and applied to a series of case studies and has been tested for effectiveness and reliability. • The findings, with the assistance of the analysis framework, provide a better understanding of the nature of the interaction between artists and technologists during a creative process. This includes: o How communication behaviour is distributed between artists and technologists; o What the role of computer tools is during the creative process and how these tools can affect artists’ and technologists’ communication behaviour; o How the collaborative creative process is facilitated by external mediation tools, such as computers, interactive artefacts and physical objects. There are two main contributions of the thesis: first, the analysis framework can serve as a powerful and robust analysis tool for future research in the filed of art- technology collaboration or other related domains. Second, the findings provide a better understanding of the collaborative process, in particular, how mediation tools support creative practice between artists and technologist

A new approach to collaborative creativity support of new product designers

Bitter-Rijpkema, M., Sloep, P. B., Sie, R., Van Rosmalen, P., Retalis, S., & Katsamani, M. (2011). A new approach to collaborative creativity support of new product designers. International Journal of Web Based Communities, 7(4), 478-492. DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2011.042992Effective collaborative creativity is crucial to contemporary professionals who have to continuously produce innovative products and services. The technological nature and complexity of the innovations require team work, among specialists from different disciplines. Often these teams work in a distributed fashion, across boundaries of time and place. Therefore they need electronic “spaces” that support (‘afford’) their creative collaboration. Co-creativity support is not only a matter of making appropriate groupware spaces available but also of providing concurrent support in all these dimensions. These considerations inspired the development of the idSpace platform. idSpace is a collaboration platform integrating a variety of creativity tools with pedagogy-based guidance. It aims to optimize both the use of creativity techniques themselves and of the supporting processes of team collaboration and knowledge creation. In this paper we zoom in on Knowledge-sharing Strategies for Collaborative Creativity (KS4CC). We show how collaborative creativity can be enhanced via integration of pattern-based pedagogical flow support, including suggestions of optimal use of creativity techniques. The KS4CC strategies consist of a merger of learning and collaboration flow patterns with support for the application of creative techniques

Angels, tooth fairies and ghosts: thinking creatively in an early years classroom

This chapter offers an evaluation and interpretation of the creative thinking and collaboration that took place in a class of five year olds in an English primary school during the academic year 2004–05. This school was committed to developing itself as a creative learning community by participating in a creativity-training programme, Synectics, more usually employed in an adult business context. This school wanted to develop its capacity for creative teaching and learning. This intent was in tune with national and international developments in education where strenuous efforts were being made to extend the reach of creative education which had for a long time been more or less exclusively associated with the arts. The chapter offers an outline of these developments to set the research in context. The research described is a case study and second phase of an evaluation of the project EXCITE! (Excellence, Creativity and Innovation in Teaching and Education) and was carried out by researchers from the Open University. Previous research suggests that when children first start school, they are already competent creative thinkers and storytellers and that both creative and narrative modes of thinking involve abductive rather than deductive inferential reasoning. It is argued that although children may need training in paradigmatic (deductive) modes of thought, they do not necessarily need further training in narrative modes of thought. The examples of young children’s thinking discussed in chapter support this argument. The Synectics creativity-training programme does not claim to ‘teach’ creative thinking per se. The evidence presented suggests that when teachers use Synectics tools and techniques to inform practice, these allow them to create a positive, emotional climate that allows young children to use analogy and metaphor to construct creative explanations and narratives through collaborative discussion

Internet-based support for creative collaboration

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Information Technology.This work shows that the sharing of non-deliberate communicative actions is important in creative collaboration and that such non-deliberate communications can be shared over the Internet Problem This work concerns computer support tor designers. Design work typically involves the solution of poorly-defined problems (Goel 1995; Lawson 1990), and it is often necessary during this process for designers to seek help from and to collaborate with others (Fischer 2000; Ancona and Caldwell 1990). Studies have revealed several patterns of collaboration in creative work (John-Steiner 2000; Candy and Edmonds 2002; Mamykina, Candy et al. 2002), the most successful of which typically involve collaborators working closely together rather than one person acting as an assistant to another. The selection of collaborators must go beyond assessing their expertise and must also include their level of enthusiasm, willingness or ability to become deeply involved with the problem. When we meet a person face to face, there are two sorts of information available to us in support of our formation of an impression of that person. People may make what Schutz (1967) describes as “expressive acts", deliberate actions intended to communicate some message or to give some impression. In addition, people make "expressive movements", which while informative to an observer, are unintentional and contribute to what Goffman might describe as the impression that the person "gives off" (Goffman 1959). There are many tools and processes that allow people to publish or display information about themselves for others to see and to send information to one another. That is, to make expressive acts. An area that has not been so thoroughly covered, either in research or in the design of tools, relates to the sharing of expressive movements. The problem that this work addresses is how computer-based tools might be used to support the formation of collaborative relationships. In particular, the concern is with the sharing of expressive movements over the Internet. Methods As part of the work described here, a number of studies have been carried out: • A user evaluation of an online scrapbook tool (WISA) described in (Weakley and Edmonds 2004) and with an extended discussion in (Weakley and Edmonds 2005) as well as in (Weakley and Edmonds 2004) • Three studies of creative collaborations. The first specifically related to requirements for tools to support collaboration (Costello, Weakley et al. 2004; Costello, Weakley et al. 2005). The others reported on experiences of using systems as they are being developed as communication tools while collaborating on a creative work (Turner, Neumark et al. 2004; Weakley, Johnston et al. 2005). • A survey of how people respond to expressive acts (in this case a person's curriculum vitae) compared with expressive movements (a photograph of the same person's bookshelf). • A series of repertory grid interviews investigating how people form impressions of others based on a photograph of their workspace (Weakley and Edmonds 2005). Key Results The studies showed that interpretation of expressive movements can lead to people forming new impressions about one another and that their exchange can support creative work. The survey confirmed that people gain different insight from expressive movements than they do from expressive acts. The interviews shed light on which of the artefacts that people surround themselves with contribute to which sorts of impression about them. A tool that goes beyond the exchange of deliberate expressive acts to include the exchange of expressive movements would be useful. The key aspects of such a tool are described

Investigations on design tools : towards a participatory tangible board

Today's computerized software design tools fail to support designers' creativity and collaboration. Investigations of designers show that paper and pencil is still the tool of choice for early design. Contemporary computerized tools allow designers to better communicate their designs. However, if tools lack adequate support for creative sketching and collaboration then they are not useful for supporting the design process, which is by nature creative and collaborative. The Participatory Tangible Board (P-Tab) project aims to improve this situation by creating a new sensing-based interactive and tangible environment that will support a group of designers in collaboratively designing and communicating. Our goal is to elicit the requirements for the P-Tab and offer guidelines for its implementation. The empirical studies we conducted show that the P-Tab must support the following requirements: sketching, rapid prototyping, model evaluation, a horizontal display surface for small groups and a vertical display surface for large groups

Mushroom Thief

This experimental short film was conceived, written and directed by Ashworth, and developed with the support of Seed Fold Films. The project builds on visual experiments with liquid environments begun in How Mermaids Breed (Ashworth 2002), through which Ashworth invented a new material, ‘graspable water’. Mushroom Thief explored another surface area with a dual identity, ‘liquid meadow’, across which the film’s heroine is able to move freely, diving through its membrane into a liquid representation of earth. Mushroom Thief was developed using innovative digital tools, facilitating outdoor stop-frame animation with instant playback. This early use of portable digital stop-frame tools has been readily adopted by a new generation of filmmakers. The script for Mushroom Thief was developed though creative writing workshops organised by author and RCA-based AHRC Fellow in Creative and Performing Arts, Deborah Levy. Levy also assisted in the initial research into visual and literary sources, including liquid meadows and the symbolism of hares and hunters, to inform the narrative of the film, which plays on the close bond found between women, water and earth. In the film, the young male hunter is unable to access the liquidity of the meadow, sliding on its hard surface. The film was produced in collaboration with cinematographer Hugh Gordon, actors Clare Bennett and James Hutchison, and composer Philippe Ciompi. The film was screened at a number of international events, including the ‘Edinburgh International Film Festival’ (2011), ‘Ottawa International Animation Festival’, Canada (2010) and ‘Melbourne International Animation Festival’ (2011). Marking a change in the appeal of Ashworth’s work to contemporary arts audiences, Mushroom Thief was also presented in the ‘Moves11: Intersections’ exhibition at The Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool (2011) and in a programme titled ‘Into the Woods’, curated by Marina Warner for the Deloitte Ignite Contemporary Arts Festival, Royal Opera House, London (2010)

Interactive Machine Learning for User-Innovation Toolkits – An Action Design Research approach

Machine learning offers great potential to developers and end users in the creative industries. However, to better support creative software developers' needs and empower them as machine learning users and innovators, the usability of and developer experience with machine learning tools must be considered and better understood. This thesis asks the following research questions: How can we apply a user-centred approach to the design of developer tools for rapid prototyping with Interactive Machine Learning? In what ways can we design better developer tools to accelerate and broaden innovation with machine learning? This thesis presents a three-year longitudinal action research study that I undertook within a multi-institutional consortium leading the EU H2020 -funded Innovation Action RAPID-MIX. The scope of the research presented here was the application of a user-centred approach to the design and evaluation of developer tools for rapid prototyping and product development with machine learning. This thesis presents my work in collaboration with other members of RAPID-MIX, including design and deployment of a user-centred methodology for the project, interventions for gathering requirements with RAPID-MIX consortium stakeholders and end users, and prototyping, development and evaluation of a software development toolkit for interactive machine learning. This thesis contributes with new understanding about the consequences and implications of a user-centred approach to the design and evaluation of developer tools for rapid prototyping of interactive machine learning systems. This includes 1) new understanding about the goals, needs, expectations, and challenges facing creative machine-learning non-expert developers and 2) an evaluation of the usability and design trade-offs of a toolkit for rapid prototyping with interactive machine learning. This thesis also contributes with 3) a methods framework of User-Centred Design Actions for harmonising User-Centred Design with Action Research and supporting the collaboration between action researchers and practitioners working in rapid innovation actions, and 4) recommendations for applying Action Research and User-Centred Design in similar contexts and scale

Improving User Involvement Through Live Collaborative Creation

Creating an artifact - such as writing a book, developing software, or performing a piece of music - is often limited to those with domain-specific experience or training. As a consequence, effectively involving non-expert end users in such creative processes is challenging. This work explores how computational systems can facilitate collaboration, communication, and participation in the context of involving users in the process of creating artifacts while mitigating the challenges inherent to such processes. In particular, the interactive systems presented in this work support live collaborative creation, in which artifact users collaboratively participate in the artifact creation process with creators in real time. In the systems that I have created, I explored liveness, the extent to which the process of creating artifacts and the state of the artifacts are immediately and continuously perceptible, for applications such as programming, writing, music performance, and UI design. Liveness helps preserve natural expressivity, supports real-time communication, and facilitates participation in the creative process. Live collaboration is beneficial for users and creators alike: making the process of creation visible encourages users to engage in the process and better understand the final artifact. Additionally, creators can receive immediate feedback in a continuous, closed loop with users. Through these interactive systems, non-expert participants help create such artifacts as GUI prototypes, software, and musical performances. This dissertation explores three topics: (1) the challenges inherent to collaborative creation in live settings, and computational tools that address them; (2) methods for reducing the barriers of entry to live collaboration; and (3) approaches to preserving liveness in the creative process, affording creators more expressivity in making artifacts and affording users access to information traditionally only available in real-time processes. In this work, I showed that enabling collaborative, expressive, and live interactions in computational systems allow the broader population to take part in various creative practices.PHDComputer Science & EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145810/1/snaglee_1.pd