E-profiles, Conflict, and Shared Understanding in Distributed Teams

In this research, we examine the efficacy of a technological intervention in shaping distributed team members’ perceptions about their teammates. We argue that, by exposing distributed team members to electronic profiles (e-profiles) with information emphasizing their personal similarities with one another, distributed teams should experience lower levels of relational and task conflict. In turn, reductions in conflict should facilitate a shared understanding among team members, which should increase their team effectiveness. The results of a laboratory experiment of 46 distributed teams generally support these assertions. Specifically, we found that a simple, technological intervention can reduce task conflict in distributed teams, which, in turn, improves shared understanding and team effectiveness. We also uncovered important differences in the antecedents and impacts of relational and task conflict. Although we found that the e-profile intervention was effective in accounting for variance in task conflict (R2 = .41), it was quite poor in accounting for variance in relational conflict (R2 = .04). The model accounts for 33% and 43% of the variance in shared understanding and team effectiveness, respectively. Taken together, the results of this research suggest that the information shared about team members in distributed team settings has important implications for their ability to collaborate, achieve a common understanding of their work, and accomplish their task effectively. We suggest that e-profiles may be a useful intervention for management to enhance effectiveness in distributed teams

Tunable SNAP Microresonators via Internal Ohmic Heating

We demonstrate a thermally tunable Surface Nanoscale Axial Photonics (SNAP) platform. Stable tuning is achieved by heating a SNAP structure fabricated on the surface of a silica capillary with a metal wire positioned inside. Heating a SNAP microresonator with a uniform wire introduces uniform variation of its effective radius which results in constant shift of its resonance wavelengths. Heating with a nonuniform wire allows local nanoscale variation of the capillary effective radius, which enables differential tuning of the spectrum of SNAP structures as well as creation of temporary SNAP microresonators that exist only when current is applied. As an example, we fabricate two bottle microresonators coupled to each other and demonstrate differential tuning of their resonance wavelengths into and out of degeneracy with precision better than 0.2 pm. The developed approach is beneficial for ultraprecise fabrication of tunable ultralow loss parity-time symmetric, optomechanical, and cavity QED devices

The Influence of Diversity and Experience on the Effects of Crowd Size

One advantage of crowds over traditional teams is that crowds enable the assembling of a large number of individuals to address problems. The literature is unclear, however, about the relationship between the size of crowds and its impact on outcomes. To better understand the effects of crowd size we conducted a study on the retention and performance based on 4,317 articles in the WikiProject Film community. Our results suggest that crowds benefit from their size when they are diverse, experienced, and have low retention rates.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136213/1/Robert and Romero 2017 (JAIST).pd

Crowdsourcing Coordination: A Review and Research Agenda for Crowdsourcing Coordination Used for Macro-tasks

Crowdsourcing has become a widely accepted approach to leveraging the skills and expertise of others to accomplish work. Despite the potential of crowdsourcing to tackle complex problems, it has often been used to address simple micro-tasks. To tackle more complex macro-tasks, more attention is needed to better comprehend crowd coordination. Crowd coordination is defined as the synchronization of crowd workers in an attempt to direct and align their efforts in pursuit of a shared goal. The goal of this chapter is to advance our understanding of crowd coordination to tackle complex macro-tasks. To accomplish this, we have three objectives. First, we review popular theories of coordination. Second, we examine the current approaches to crowd coordination in the HCI and CSCW literature. Finally, the chapter identifies shortcomings in the literature and proposes a research agenda directed at advancing our understanding of crowd coordination needed to address complex macro-tasks.National Science Foundation grant CHS-1617820Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150620/1/Kim and Robert 2019 Preprint Chapter 2.pdfDescription of Kim and Robert 2019 Preprint Chapter 2.pdf : Preprint Versio

Crowdsourcing Controls: A Review and Research Agenda for Crowdsourcing Controls Used for Macro-tasks

Crowdsourcing—the employment of ad hoc online labor to perform various tasks—has become a popular outsourcing vehicle. Our current approach to crowdsourcing—focusing on micro-tasks—fails to leverage the potential of crowds to tackle more complex problems. To leverage crowds to tackle more complex macro tasks requires a better comprehension of crowdsourcing controls. Crowdsourcing controls are mechanisms used to align crowd workers’ actions with predefined standards to achieve a set of goals and objectives. Unfortunately, we know very little about the topic of crowdsourcing controls directed at accomplishing complex macro tasks. To address issues associated with crowdsourcing controls formacro-tasks, this chapter has several objectives. First, it presents and discusses the literature on control theory. Second, this chapter presents a scoping literature review of crowdsourcing controls. Finally, the chapter identifies gaps and puts forth a research agenda to address these shortcomings. The research agenda focuses on understanding how to employ the controls needed to perform macro-tasking in crowds and the implications for crowdsourcing system designers.National Science Foundation grant CHS-1617820Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150493/1/Robert 2019 Preprint Chapter 3.pdfDescription of Robert 2019 Preprint Chapter 3.pdf : PrePrint Versio

Nonlinear propagation of a-few-optical-cycle pulses in a photonic crystal fiber-experimental and theoretical studies beyond the slowly varying-envelope approximation

The evolution of spectral and temporal profiles of 4.5 optical-cycle pulses propagating near zero-dispersion wavelength (ZDW) in a photonic crystal fiber is investigated experimentally and theoretically beyond the slowly varying-envelope approximation. The excellent agreement between the experimental and theoretical results suggests that the observed gap in the spectral profile, the most distinctive feature, originates from the self-steepening effect. This effect intensifies the spectral component shorter than the ZDW with the decay of higher order solitons and consequently induces the intrapulse four-wave mixing (FWM). As a result, the anti-Stokes and Stokes components produced by the FWM enables us to generate a supercontinuum from 480 to 1020 nm