N. Sadat Shami

Searching for expertise

It is well established that there is a need to find experts to get answers or advice. A variety of expertise locator tools have emerged to help locate the right person. But there is little systematic study on what people are really looking for when such systems are used and how external factors such as job role may shape that search. We conducted a study of 75 employees who were current users of an expertise locator system. An analysis of the reasons for their search revealed that people in client facing roles are primarily seeking to have a dialog with an expert, while others are just as likely to seek answers to technical questions. We also surveyed various tools for finding experts and found that corporate directories and personal networks were most often cited as alternatives to an expertise locator. We discuss the implications of these results for the design of tools for finding experts and expert knowledge.

Pick me!: link selection in expertise search results

Expertise locator systems have been designed to help find experts within organizations. While there are many examples of these systems in the literature, there has not been any systematic analysis of the factors that predict whether a particular expertise search result will be selected for further exploration. This paper describes a study of 67 employees from 21 countries that performed a specific expertise search to find an expert using an expertise locator system. Rank order and social connection information displayed in snippets of search results were found to significantly predict whether a user considers a particular search result for further exploration. Implications for the design of expertise location systems and future research directions are discussed.

A globalization simulation to teach corporate social responsibility: design features and analysis of student reasoning

There is an increasing need for business students to be taught the ability to think through ethical dilemmas faced by corporations conducting business on a global scale. This article describes a multiplayer online simulation game, ISLAND TELECOM, that exposes students to ethical dilemmas in international business. Through role playing and perspective taking, the authors wanted students to actively work through problems related to both ethics and corporate social responsibility. Qualitative analysis of simulation data demonstrated that students were successful in perspective taking, they considered trade-offs between profitability and social responsibility, and they were able to come up with creative solutions to difficult trade-offs.

Context of use evaluation of peripheral displays (CUEPD)

A gap exists between the growing prevalence of peripheral displays and appropriate methods for their evaluation. Mankoff et al. [11] present one attempt to bridge this gap by adapting Nielsen’s Heuristic evaluation to the defining characteristics and goals of peripheral displays. In this paper, we present a complementary approach that depends on active user participation and emphasizes the experience of using peripheral displays. The Context of Use Evaluation of Peripheral Displays (CUEPD) captures context of use through individualized scenario building, enactment and reflection. We illustrate the CUEPD method in a study to evaluate two peripheral displays. The evaluation using CUEPD revealed important design recommendations, suggesting that the method may be an important advance in evaluation methods for peripheral displays.

Measuring affect in hci: going beyond the individual

The measurement of affect in HCI research is a challenging and complex issue. Although a number of techniques for measuring affect have been developed, a systematic discussion of their effectiveness and applicability in different contexts remains lacking, especially in social contexts with multiple users. As computing shifts to increasingly collaborative and ubiquitous models, it is important to discuss affect measurement beyond the individual level. This workshop will provide a forum where designers, practitioners, and researchers can 1) introduce novel methods of affect measurement that go beyond physiological and self-report measures, 2) advance our understanding of existing measurement methods and how they can be expanded, and 3) critically evaluate issues of affect measurement.

Let's get emotional: emotion research in human computer interaction

Emotion is a topic of growing interest in the HCI community. Studying emotion within the HCI discipline is an exciting interdisciplinary task. This can be facilitated by the exchange of thoughts and ideas with others working on related projects. The aim of this SIG is to bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners actively working on projects where emotion is an essential component. The goals of the SIG are to identify current themes related to emotion specific HCI work and discuss strategies for moving forward.

Machine Learning and Grounded Theory Method: Convergence, Divergence, and Combination

Grounded Theory Method (GTM) and Machine Learning (ML) are often considered to be quite different. In this note, we explore unexpected convergences between these methods. We propose new research directions that can further clarify the relationships between these methods, and that can use those relationships to strengthen our ability to describe our phenomena and develop stronger hybrid theories.

Understanding employee social media chatter with enterprise social pulse

The rise of social media in the enterprise has enabled new ways for employees to speak up and communicate openly with colleagues. This rich textual data can potentially be mined to better understand the opinions and sentiment of employees for the benefit of the organization. In this paper, we introduce Enterprise Social Pulse (ESP) -- a tool designed to support analysts whose job involves understanding employee chatter. ESP aggregates and analyzes data from internal and external social media sources while respecting employee privacy. It surfaces the data through a user interface that supports organic results and keyword search, data segmentation and filtering, and several analytics and visualization features. An evaluation of ESP was conducted with 19 Human Resources professionals. Results from a survey and interviews with participants revealed the value and willingness to use ESP, but also surfaced challenges around deploying an employee social media listening solution in an organization.

Social media participation and performance at work: a longitudinal study

The use of social media at work is gaining traction, and there is evidence to suggest that various benefits accrue from its use. Yet the relationship between using social media at work and employee performance is not clear. Through a study of 75,747 employees of a large global company over the course of 3 years, we find that some social media usage (number of forum posts, forum post length, and status update length) was positively associated with performance ratings. This study is one of the first to show the relationship among different forms of social media use and employee performance ratings.

Avatars meet meetings: design issues in integrating avatars in distributed corporate meetings

The difficulties remote participants of distributed meetings face are widely recognized. In this paper we describe the design of an avatar-based e-meeting support tool named Olympus, which aims to ameliorate some of the challenges remote participants face in distributed meetings. Olympus provides a customizable peripheral display on the bottom of existing e-meeting solutions. An initial observational study was conducted of the use of Olympus in 6 meetings, three each of a status meeting and a presentation meeting. By illustrating how avatars were used in the two meeting types, we hope to surface design issues and refine our understanding of how avatars may be useful in the design of online meeting spaces.