Felix-Robinson Aschoff

Weakly-structured workflows for knowledge-intensive tasks: an experimental evaluation

Knowledge work cannot typically be modeled sufficiently by classical, static process models. To enable a process-oriented knowledge management (KM) approach under these circumstances, the concept of weakly-structured workflows has been developed. This approach intertwines process modeling and workflow enactment and facilitates active information support in dynamically changing environments. Furthermore, the approach allows process knowledge itself to be used as a valuable resource in KM. In order to investigate whether this approach is viable and useful for supporting knowledge-intensive activities we designed and performed a comprehensive experimental evaluation. We outline the conceptual approach and realization in an agent-based software framework for organizational memories and describe the experimental settings. The results of the experiment demonstrate the viability of our key concepts.

Knowledge Mediation: A Procedure for the Cooperative Construction of Domain Ontologies

Up to now, there are few detailed proposals for the cooperative (and distributed) construction of ontologies (cf. [2]). The problem of how to establish a consensus and a shared conceptualization, especially when dealing with contradictory knowledge and conflicting interests has hardly been dealt with. We propose and evaluate a three-phased knowledge mediation procedure which is especially conceived to integrate different perspectives and information needs into one consensual ontology.

Enabling relationship building in tabletop-supported advisory settings

Recent research has shown that financial advisory encounters can successfully be supported with IT-artifacts. Tabletop scenarios, for example, can increase the transparency of the advisory process for customers. However, we have also had the experience that the relationship quality as experienced by customers can suffer severely when IT-artifacts are introduced. Based on these experiences, we developed guidelines for both, the artifact- design itself as well as for the environment in order to avoid this effect, and implemented them in one of our prototypes. The evaluation reveals that these measures proved to be effective. With the reported study, we seek to enhance our design knowledge of IT-supported advisory scenarios with a special focus on relationship building. In a larger context, we argue that the use of IT during sensitive face-to-face encounters will be of growing significance in the future but, as yet, is hardly understood. We make a contribution in this area with our generic requirements, design principles and evaluation.

How up-to-date are Online Tourism Communities? An Empirical Evaluation of Commercial and Non-commercial Information Quality

While social and economic aspects of online communities have been investigated broadly, the information exchanged has seldom been the subject of study. The article follows recent work on using an information systems metaphor for online communities: users specify queries and receive information from the online community members. In order to justify this metaphor, information needs to be at least up to classic information products. In this paper we present a framework for the evaluation of timeliness in online communities. An empirical study is presented which compares aspects of timeliness, namely up-to-dateness, for a wiki community and a printed guidebook. Results show that the community is at least as up-to-date as the printed guidebook. While further research is needed, results indicate that online communities can be used as information systems with reasonable information quality values

The mobile forum: real-time information exchange in mobile sms communities

In this paper we propose a definition for a mobile community based on the value of knowledge exchange among locally dispersed community members. Against this conceptual background, we propose a low-tech mobile community setting using SMS messaging and customary mobile phones. The feasibility of this approach is tested in a field study. Results show that successful information exchange is established with high user traffic and that participants judge the communication to be helpful. User requirements hint to the need for a better structuring of SMS messages, alternative input/output devices and location-based services. Implications for the future support of mobile communities are discussed.

Where should I send my post?: the concept of discourse quality in online forums and its dependency on membership size

Todays Web users are faced with a large number of available online communities for every domain. While there are rules-of-thumb for the choice of a specific community, the validity of these heuristics has hardly been tested empirically. Furthermore, there is a lack of well-founded measures that allow for a systematic comparison of different online forum communities. In this contribution, we propose the concept of discourse quality as a means to this end. This measure is conceptualized from a user perspective and combines quantitative as well as qualitative parts, including a codebook for content analysis. To show the applicability and the usefulness of this measure, we systematically compare 34 online forums with varying degrees of membership size. We are able to show that the forums with the most members online consistently show high discourse quality. Finally, we discuss the potential of benchmark measures for future online community research.

MetAgora: a meta-community approach to guide users through the diversity of web communities

Online communities have become an essential instrument for obtaining valuable information on the web. With todays community jungle, however, users find it increasingly difficult to find and decide on appropriate online communities. Therefore, we propose the concept of a meta-community conceived as being a social gateway to guide users through a vast number of different online communities within a certain domain. We present a proof-of-concept study of our meta-community prototype and discuss implications for the community landscape as well as for the satisfaction of user needs.

The mobile campfire a new user paradigm for mobile social web scenarios

This article starts with a discussion of user paradigms in (business) informatics and the human-computer interaction field in general. Based on this analysis a new user paradigm for mobile social Web scenarios is proposed: the mobile campfire paradigm. We contrast this approach to other paradigms, like the ldquouser as information processorrdquo perspective. Finally, implications of this metaphor for the design of future mobile devices and services are discussed and exemplified by a field study from own work.