How can I help you? User instructions in telephone calls

We a small corpus of instructions given in phone calls to customers who need support for programming their universal remote control, to make it suitable for their particular TV set VCR, Audio, etc. Typically, in these calls the operator or 'agent' coaches the client while the client is performing actions with the equipment (turning it on, pressing buttons and codes, directing it towards the TV, etc.). We compared these oral instructions with the concept of a 'streamlined step procedure' (Farkas, 1999) and other principles that are well-known from the literature about written instructions. Our conclusion is that many problems arise because the operator does not provide 'meta-communication' about the goals that have to be achieved, and because the feedback given by the client is neglected or misinterpreted

Relative cellular algebras

In this paper we generalize cellular algebras by allowing different partial orderings relative to fixed idempotents. For these relative cellular algebras we classify and construct simple modules, and we obtain other characterizations in analogy to cellular algebras. We also give several examples of algebras that are relative cellular, but not cellular. Most prominently, the restricted enveloping algebra and the small quantum group for $\mathfrak{sl}_{2}$, and an annular version of arc algebras.Comment: 39 pages, many figures, revised version, to appear in Transform. Groups, comments welcom