Better than
“Being There”
Intel Research Collaboratory
Charles H. House
Director
Research Collaboratory
Intel Corporation
MLMI Meeting Archives Workshop
July 13, 2006
Vision
• We believe that team collaboration tools that
make it “BETTER THAN BEING THERE” are
possible to describe, define, and develop
Long-term Goal
• We believe that team collaboration tools that
improve team productivity by an order of magnitude
are possible to describe, define, and develop
2
Short-term MISSION
Establish an Intel Collaboration Lab that will become
both a Catalyst and a Magnetic Attraction for the best
large-scale collaboration capabilities available
Long-term MISSION
Make Intel a key player in the realization of
the next generation collaboration paradigm,
by defining, specifying requirements and
demonstrating the use of leading-edge technology and
behavior solutions and driving their global acceptance.
3
Strategic Objectives
•
•
Research, prototype, and design virtual team
collaboration solutions that comprehend future
business needs and emerging technologies
Make virtual team productivity a strategic advantage
for Operational Excellence and competitiveness
• Become an industry leader for global virtual
•
•
collaboration solution approaches
Energize the marketplace by promoting our collaboration
vision
Proactively partner with Intel product groups to influence
platforms architectures, and ISV’s in support of joint
collaboration initiatives (e.g., Digital Office 2010 Vision)
• Align with and “prepare” downstream
development and implementation teams
4
Intel Research Collaboratory
• New idea at Intel – more experimentalists than
true researchers
• Born of frustration w company IT backbone
• Loose federation of individuals
• Created a Virtuality Index, identified some key
problems, and created a “Concept Car” for the
company with a Flash Demo
• Obtained some (modest) funding
• “Underway” a few months now
5
Ecosystem Relationships
Digital Office
DPG UCD
Innov Strat
Digital
Office
Collab
Lab
ISTG Innovation Group
Folsom
Innovation
Center
CTG, e.g.,
Planet Lab
PE
Lab
IBM
IT Research
Xerox
Applied
Innov
& Arch
Virtual
Collaboratory
Stanford
MediaX
ISTG Employee
Productivity CAM
eWorkForce
HP Labs
Boeing
Panasonic
Oregon*
Innovation
Center
Shanghai
Innovation
Center
Malaysia
Innovation
Center
ISTG ESTS
Arch
TD
Beta
SI
MIT
MIT Media
Lab Europe
Ireland
Innovation
Center Collab
Lab
UC
Berkeley
UC
USC
Irvine
UC
CMU
SantaUC
B
San Diego
UIUC
6
Arizona*
Innovation
Center Collab
Lab
Israel
Innovation
Center
TMG
HVMRC/KLS
Office Computing SCS
University
of Reading
Edinburgh?
PNWRL
IDIAP
NIST
*new
Collaboration & Workstyles
Different Place
Collaboration is not
an application, it is
an attribute of an
application
Integrated
experience
required in
business
applications
Global collaboration
is a business
necessity that has
significant gaps
Source: 1 Collaboration Needs Finding Research 2004, 2: Boeing, 3: Forrester, 4 Yankee Group, July 2004. “Lack of Secure
Interoperable Protocols Hinders Enterprise IM and Online Collaboration”, 5: IDC
7
Collaboration barriers
• Synchronous Meetings
–
–
–
–
Connection times and Ease-of-Use
Time zone spans
Language, culture differences
Disparity of hub vs. remote participant
• Especially difficult for Mobile participant
• Especially difficult for particular communication modes
• Asynchronous
– Interactivity often key to effective communications
– ~ All PEOPLE are ~ASYNCHRONOUS to their TeamMates
• Lexicon
– We communicate lots of things
– We collaborate about HARD PROBLEMS
– HARD PROBLEMS are usually sophisticated
8
User Research Conclusions
• Less willing to embrace new technology
– While half are “Txperts, NEARLY ALL
prefer seamless, reliable, easy to use tools
won’t mess with technology while on the road
• Positive attitude towards IT and IT services
• Work style makes the segment harder
to train in new technology
• Opportunity to deploy remote access and wireless
productivity / enhancements
– Slowing pace of available external hotspots
impacts ability of segment to connect to Intel
– Segment is often frustrated since wireless
connectivity today is not simple or seamless
9
.
Better than “Being There”?
• Collaboration Tools (especially ROI analyses)
are often defended on two bases
– Saving of Travel $$$
– Saving of Travel Time
• Seldom defended on basis that it is truly better
– 30 years experimentation with Stanford  BETTER
GRADES (by a WHOLE LOT) Gibbons, JSB, House
– 2 years experimentation at Dialogic  BETTER
DECISIONS (by a WHOLE LOT) House
– 4 years study at Intel  MORE EFFECTIVE
ORGANIZATION (by a WHOLE LOT) Bless / Wynn
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Collaboratory Research Agenda Areas
1. Comprehensive virtual collaboration environment
2. Asynchronous Meetings and Teaming
3. Real-time Collaboration using Converged Multimedia Communications
4. Team member Expressivity, Identity, Location,
Presence
5. Mobile Collaboration
6. Immersive Collaboration Physical Environments
7. Team Relationships and Productivity
8. Collaborative Decision Making
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What are we actually doing?
• Metrics, esp. Activity-based assessments
• Time-zones and meeting structures re
effectiveness
• Archiving materials –
• Exploring dynamic video correlations
–
–
–
–
Scene reconstruction
Simulated Scene immersion
Multi-team, multi-plexed gaming
Kinesthetic comparisons
• Exploring Complex Data Set Analysis
12
Activity Based Performance Measurement
MIT Sloan School; IT Research; IT BV Program
VALUE TO INTEL
Overall Research
Objective
• • Methodology
to estimate benefits/costs
of important IT implementation(s) at
– Develop a methodology and tools to measure value creation
Intel
and costs at
activity
level and linke.g.,
those
measurements
to
• BV Justification
of the
internal
IT implementation,
Intel
SMG Smart Device
Pilot firm-level metrics
• • External
case study for IA based Smart Devices
Importance
• Unified
Business
Research
Model:
– Enable
firmsValue
to assess
future
value of IT and other
investments
• Challenges
Task Analysis and ABPM
MIT Process Handbook
ABPM Collection Process
Represents a unifying model for Task Analysis
information collected across a range of business
settings and environments
The Intel ITBV program lacks an
approach to unify the case
specific work done to date, even
through the measurement task is
similar
– Difficult to assess and measure value of IT and other
investments;
costs
are typically
well known
Case
Case
Case
Isolated Studies for high impact
Study
Study
Study
segments using Intel IT BV
P4/XP
CMT
PDA
– Managers
face investment
decisions at
the activity
level,
but
measurement
framework
– pre and
post intervention data used to
must justify them at unit or firm level determine the effect and BV
Productivity
=
Context
+
Variables
+
Timeframe
HFE/Business Value Knowledge
Information learned from supporting ITBV programs
HFE has substantial expertise in this area
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Core skills in accurately defining and
measuring business value within a
defined framework
TIME SEPARATION
RESEARCH
RESULTS on
Impacts of
Time Separation
• 5 configurations affect how teams coordinate and challenges
Global Team Coordination
•
•
•
•
•
– Co-located
American University; IT Research; ICG Flash Group
– North-South – same or close time zone
–Time
East-West
- substantial time zone difference
Separation
– Dispersed-balanced – team widely scattered across time zones
– The difference in time zones among distributed team members
– Dispersed-imbalanced – hub team site with a few scattered members
• Overall Research Objectives
Very little difference in coordination success among geographic
– Investigate
how effort
globalrequired
teams can
work more
effectively
when
configurations
but more
to achieve
success
in widely
time
they
are separated by time
separated
teams
Understand
howthe
time
separation
teammechanisms;
coordination
Time –separation
reduces
range
of team affects
coordination
– narrow
Identifyrapidly
whichand
processes,
and tools
help
options
severely mechanisms,
as more time zones
added
overcome
thealone
difficulties
of timea separation
Distance
separation
is no longer
critical factor due to
– Inform
theadoption
design of the OGA collaboration environment
collaboration
tools
Cognitive mechanisms are most important in distributed and timeseparated work (knowing who knows what, who has done what and when)
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Intel needs Collaboration Tools
that are One Generation Ahead
• No tools on the market meet the criteria*
– Interoperable integrated application environment
with synchronous to asynchronous continuity
– Coordination of all an individual’s team activities &
commitments from one portal
– Expressive, interactive, “sticky” environment that
invites regular use and provides encounters with
others —
“place-like”
Eight of us “banded together” in
2003 . (no one within 500 miles of another; 3
continents)
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* established in VCRT
Collaboration Elements
Integrated Collaboration Environment
Value
to me =
Me
My Productivity
What I’m
Doing
Who
I am
+
T1 T2
T3
T4
My Teams
Team Productivity
=
Synch
Asynch
Same Time
Diff Time
Personal Tools:
Office, PDA, etc.
Team Tools: Visualization,
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Sharing, LanguageTranslation, etc.
Value
to Intel
OGA Global Team
Collaboration
Environment
Virtual Collaboration Research Team
USAGE SCENARIOS
Meet in real time across space
VALUE TO INTEL
• Know who is participating
• Know where they are
• Increases Intel’s global teams’ productivity
• Know their time zone
– Influenced ISTG Roadmaps to address
upward global trending
Work asynchronously
• Track time & team progress
– 64% Intel employees on 3+ teams*
Coordinate
– 70% on teams with different tracking
methods*responsibilities
• Combined project timelines
– 80% employees on multi-cultural teams*
• Manage diverse AR’s
– 73% working across time zones*
•
•
•
•
•
Faster time to market and better product quality
CostUNIQUE
avoidanceCHARACTERISTICS
thru reduced travel, real estate
& BENEFITS
• See
all myIntel
multi-team
in one
place
Supports
Global
Culture
We
built
this
in aactivities
Flash
Demo,
• Work
without
time
& location
boundaries
Creates
pull
for Intel
platforms
and
products
with
a
few
DVDs
for
managers
• Interact
with remote
collaborators
Generation
of IPexpressively
/ Patent Application
/ Industry
Influence
• Move effortlessly among applications and team work
*Intel
Index Researchglobal
Study 2004-2005
Wynn, Lu
• First design
ofVirtuality
an integrated
team –environment!
17
Download Demo at
http://immersive.intel.com/collaboration_tool/120_VERSION_06.zip
3D Environment “Place”
INTEL Navigation and Manipulation System
• Derived from Intel Miramar architecture
• “Information Savannah”: tools and methods to arrange and
organize 2d workspaces in 3D environment
18
Peer Network with Interaction Objects
HP Croquet Vision
• Construction of live worlds as easy as web page
construction
• Pure P2P: no scaleability limits
• “HIVE on the desktop”
19
Current Research: Prototype of 3D
Immersive User Interface for OGA Collaboration
Shared 3-D Graph of spreadsheet data
These integrated objects will greatly facilitate
Data-Driven Decision-making
Visualization and shared simulation
of complex data
20
Research Differentiation
• Collaboration system built on replicated
computation
– Variable bandwidth
• True peer-to-peer collaboration system
– Highly scalable
• System will share simulations, not
documents
– Interactive what-if scenarios
– Built-in data visualization
• System will provide a comprehensive
personal multi-team environment
21
In conclusion
• We are tackling Group Communication
• We are trying to become allied with a consortium
of Academic and Industrial research teams
• We fully expect that whether for Learning,
Innovation, or Meeting Performance Goals, our
eventual environments will be
BETTER THAN BEING THERE
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