Christine Dufour

User strategies for handling information tasks in webcasts

Webcast systems support real-time webcasting, and may also support access to the stored webcasts. Yet, research rarely examines issues concerning the interface to webcast systems, another form of multimedia system. This paper focuses specifically on how stored webcasts are re-used. Sixteen participants performed three typical information tasks using ePresence, a webcasting system that handles both live and stored video, and contains several tools: a video window, a timeline of the webcast, slides used by the presenter, and a moderator-generated table of contents, that facilitate user access to the intellectual content of a stored video. Use takes place at the level of the webcast, and our analysis assessed user interactivity. The results showed that different types of tasks need different strategies and tools.

Assessing tools for use with webcasts

This research assessed the effectiveness of selected interface tools in helping people respond to classic information tasks with Webcasts. Rather than focus on a classic search/browse task to locate an appropriate Webcast to view, our work takes place at the level of an individual Webcast to assess interactivity within the contents of a single Webcast. The questions guiding our work are: (1) Which tool(s) are the most effective in achieving the best response? (2) How do users use those tools for task completion? In this study, 16 participants responded to a standard set of information tasks using ePresence, a Webcasting system that handles both live and stored video, and provides multiple techniques for accessing content. Using questionnaires, screen capture and interviews, we evaluated the interaction, assessed the tools, and based on our results, make suggestions for improving access to the content of stored Webcasts

Understanding how webcasts are used as sources of information

Webcasting systems were developed to provide remote access in real-time to live events. Today, these systems have an additional requirement: to accommodate the “second life” of webcasts as archival information objects. Research to date has focused on facilitating the production and storage of webcasts as well as the development of more interactive and collaborative multimedia tools to support the event, but research has not examined how people interact with a webcasting system to access and use the contents of those archived events. Using an experimental design, this study examined how 16 typical users interact with a webcasting system to respond to a set of information tasks: selecting a webcast, searching for specific information, and making a gist of a webcast. Using several data sources that included user actions, user perceptions, and user explanations of their actions and decisions, the study also examined the strategies employed to complete the tasks. The results revealed distinctive system-use patterns for each task and provided insights into the types of tools needed to make webcasting systems better suited for also using the webcasts as information objects.

The Impact of the Introduction of Web Information Systems (WIS) on Information Policies: An Analysis of the Canadian Federal Government Policies Related to WIS.

This communication presents the results of an analysis of the Canadian federal government information policies that govern its Web information systems (WIS). The goal of this study was to better understand how the Canadian federal government has adapted its information policies to the WIS. A side-by-side analysis of 53 policy instruments was done. The results indicate that the Canadian federal government has crafted new instruments to take into account the WIS context. These policies build upon generic information management and information technologies policy instruments. These policy instruments have a good coverage of the tasks underlying the WIS life-cycle. Among the many players present in the policy instruments, one of the key player is the Treasury Board Secretariat that plays an important coordination and evaluation role.

Transborder data flow: Implications for information dissemination and policies between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Sponsored by SIG IFP, III

The convergence of computing and networking has affected the ways in which people live, work and learn; the way institutions operate; and raised new issues and challenges for governments. National and global initiatives have been implemented to address the blurring of boundaries -geographical and political-caused by electronic data transfer over these global networks. The flow of electronic data and digital content across jurisdictional lines calls for novel -or updated- laws and regulatory solutions (e.g., data protection, privacy, content regulation, etc.). This panel offers a comparative analysis of national laws and policies regulating the transport of data across national boundaries, with a special focus on the implications for information dissemination and access. A series of panelists from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives will explore these issues and describe how these are framed and debated in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The discussion should both inform and entice the audience to reflect on and pursue these timely problems.