Agenda today
• 2:00-3:00: lecture
• 3:00-5:00: The tutor Irene will demonstrate
an example of how to use Protocol
Analysis for your project.
Lecture 10: Organizational
Issues of CSCW/Groupware
Dr. Xiangyu WANG
CSCW/Groupware Organizational
Issues
• Organizational issues:
– Choosing Groupware systems appropriate
to task and organization
– Ensuring adoption and effective use of
Groupware systems
– Making necessary organizational changes
to ensure adoption and use
– Understanding how organizational change
comes about, is effectively managed.
Factors affecting Groupware
adoption (Orlikowski 1992)
• Cognitive Elements:
– Mental models: the mental models or frames
of references that individuals have about the
world, their organization, work, technology,
and so on.
– Technological frames: How users change their
technological frames in response to a new
technology is influenced by (i) the kind and
amount of product information communicated
to them, and (ii) the nature and form of
training they receive on the product.
Factors affecting Groupware
adoption (Orlikowski 1992)
• Structural properties of organizations
encompass the reward systems, policies,
work practices, and norms that shape and
are shaped by the everyday action of
organizational members.
Factors affecting Groupware
adoption (Orlikowski 1992)
• Methods of introduction
– Communication
– Training
– Support
– Time for Learning
Case Study (Orlikowski 1992)
• Notes (from Lotus Development
Corporation) into one office of Alpha.
• Notes is an application development
environment that can support
communication, coordination, and
collaboration within groups or
organizations.
Case Study (Orlikowski 1992)
• Study the implementation and use of Notes to
investigate whether and how the use of a
collaborative tool changes the nature of work
and the pattern of social interactions in the
office, and with what intended and unintended
consequences.
• Two organizational elements--cognitive and
structural- -influenced the participants’ adoption,
understanding, and early use of Notes.
Issues in Cognitive Elements
• Communication about Notes
– Weakly developed technological frames of a
new and different technology are a significant
problem in technology transfer because people
act towards technology on the basis of the
meaning it has for them.
– Poor circulation of information about Notes
– Lack of a formal implementation plan or
information dissemination strategy.
Issues in Cognitive Elements
• Solutions:
– Concrete demonstrations
– Learn groupware collectively
Issues in Cognitive Elements
• Users of Notes in the office developed
technological frames that either had
weakly developed notions of Notes, or that
interpreted Notes as a personal rather
than a group or firm productivity tool.
• Technological frames may change over
time and with changing contexts.
Issues in Structural Properties
• Reward Systems
– Expectation: all or most employee hours
should be “billable,” that is, charged to clients.
Issues in Structural Properties
• Policies and Procedures
– No formulated new work procedures or set
new policies around data quality,
confidentiality, and access control.
– Many participants indicated that their use of
Notes was inhibited by their lack of knowledge
about these issues, particularly concerns
about liability.
Lecture 10: Mobility in
Cooperative Work
DR. Xiangyu WANG
Mobile Shared Workspaces
• Many systems in CSCW address distributed
work, not so many mobile work.
• Supporting mobility is critical to enhancing
cooperative work.
• The emergence of mobile devices and new forms
of connectivity allows one to portray new
scenarios of cooperation.
• Mobility also promotes chance encounters with
people who are not in one’s usual working or
social surroundings, promoting new possibilities
for collaboration.
Challenges in Mobile Shared
Workspace
• Functional flexibility: Collaboration among
mobile people happens in a highly flexible
manner. Plus, different groups require different
functionality based on their domain of
collaboration, their culture of collaboration.
• Technical flexibility: The above collaboration
environment must be able to easily
accommodate new mobile technology.
UbiCollab client
UbiCollab Collaboration Model
Ubiquitous Computing
• Ubiquitous computing (or "ubicomp") is a postdesktop model of human-computer interaction in
which information processing has been
thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and
activities.
• At its core, the concept shares a vision of small,
inexpensive, robust networked processing
devices, distributed at all scales throughout
everyday life and generally turned to distinctly
quotidian ends.
Ubiquitous Computing
• Contemporary devices that lend some
support to this concept include:
– mobile phones,
– digital audio players,
– radio-frequency identification tags
– interactive whiteboards
–…
Roomware
• computer-augmented room elements
– integrated desk/wall displays for collaboration
– Inter-operation between devices
From the GMD Darmstadt web site on I-Land