Uta Pankoke-Babatz

Supporting cooperative awareness with local event mechanisms: the groupdesk system

An event distribution model for a computer based cooperative working environment is presented. The proposed model aims to provide information about the on-going and past activities of collaborating users, based on the semantics and contextual relationships of the shared artifacts and contributes to increase the awareness of the ongoing state of affairs without overloading the user with additional information. GroupDesk, a prototype implementation of this model is introduced. The system provides a simple environment for the coordination of cooperative document production. Support for shared awareness is achieved by visualizing the event information using the desktop metaphor.

POLITeam bridging the gap between Bonn and Berlin for and with the users

Supporting the cooperation of people in large organizations which are distributed geographically is one of the great challenges for the CSCW research. With POLIKOM, the German Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research, and Technology launched a framework in which telecooperation applications will be developed to support the distributed government in Bonn and Berlin. POLITeam is one project embedded in that framework. Its aim is to support asynchronous cooperation in administrative or industrial settings by an integrative groupware system that applies the metaphors of electronic circulation folders and shared workspaces. The development process is based on the approach of using an existing groupware system that is evaluated and redesigned in close cooperation with selected pilot partners. This paper describes the initial design, our development approach and the first experiences of the POLITeam project.

A report on the crossmedia game epidemic menace

Crossmedia games employ a wide variety of gaming interfaces based on stationary and mobile devices to facilitate different game experiences within a single game. This article presents the crossmedia game Epidemic Menace, introduces the game concept, and describes experiences from two Epidemic Menace game events. We also explain the technical realization of Epidemic Menace, the evaluation methodologies we used, and some evaluation results.

Designing groupware for congruency in use

In this paper, we present experiences from long-term groupware development, introduction, and use in an organization. We report lessons learned concerning how a complex design process operates and how its components interact. Our experiences suggest that the processes of requirement analysis, system development, and user support need to facilitate the merging of individual work patterns into congruent system usage. We confirm the changing nature of groupware use by reporting empirical results describing different learning phases.

Combining multiple gaming interfaces in epidemic menace

This paper presents the multiple gaming interfaces of the crossmedia game Epidemic Menace, including a game board station, a mobile assistant and a mobile Augmented Reality (AR) system. Each gaming interface offers different functionality within the game play. We explain the interfaces and describe early results of an ethnographic observation showing how the different gaming interfaces were used by the players to observe, collaborate and interact within the game.

Documented Norms and Conventions on the Internet

TheInternet plays an important role as a means for world wide social contact. The establishment and maintenance of social and group relationships within electronic worlds require social norms and behavioral conventions as in the real world. This article investigates some of the available electronic media: e-mail, mailing lists, newsgroups, chat rooms, and multiuser dungeons or multiuser domains (MUDs). Peculiarities of the media are analyzed through studying the documented behavioral norms and social conventions. We look at desired behavior, disruptive behavior, and sanction mechanisms. A conclusion that may be drawn is that within these virtual environments, explicitly documented norms and conventions play an underlying role in how individuals behave in addition to what type of behavior they expect from others.

Presenting Activity Information in an Inhabited Information Space

A group of people that work together in the same spatial environment relies on various possibilities to observe the activities of partners, to monitor the progress of a project or to recognise the development of group structures. Such activities are often recognised peripherally; nevertheless, they stimulate spontaneous and informal communication. Although the computer supported co-operative work (CSCW) research area yielded a number of systems and solutions that enable and support distributed co-operation processes, distributed work is still significantly more difficult to manage than co-located work. A significant reason for this is the missing perception of the activities and actions within a distributed group. Therefore, distributed groups often suffer from a lack of awareness of the common activities. Co-operation partners are often not aware of activities of other co-operation partners that are relevant for their own work. The synchronisation problems resulting from this often lead to decision problems, misunderstandings or duplicated work. Thus, effectiveness, spontaneity, and social orientation possibilities in distributed teams are limited. The social forces which facilitate the behaviourmilieu synomorphy in an environment – that is, in a behaviour setting (Barker, 1968) – are very limited in electronic spaces. Awareness support can make the difference between an electronic behaviour setting and a pure electronic space (Pankoke-Babatz, 2000). Apart from the lack of awareness of actions that could be co-operative, there are limited opportunities for chance meetings. In the local working environment, coincidental meetings often initiate communication and the exchange of experience and knowledge. Prussak (1997) describes this phenomenon very appropriately: “If the water cooler was 011

The AMIGO Project: advanced group communication model for computer-based communications environment

In this paper we discuss and elaborate on the conceptual requirements as well as the tools of the General AMIGO Model for group communication. The special features of the model are examined with particular reference to the social and ethical implications in the communication process. The applicability of the AMIGO Model is demonstrated by examples, and we give indications of further work to refine and advance the model.

Collaborative workspace for time deferred electronic cooperation

This paper proposes collaborative workspaces as an electronic environment for time deferred team-like cooperation. The design requirements are derived from an investigation of work practices employing simple collaborative workspaces in ministerial units. In addition to facilities for sharing of material among a dedicated group, a collaborative workspace needs to provide appropriate behavior and awareness information to support cooperation. A concept for the technical realization proposes CSCW enablers to allow flexible adaptation of collaborative workspaces to different purposes and to changing user needs.

Design in the PoliTeam project: evaluating user needs in real work practice

We report on a unique design approach used in the PoLfI’eam project, which introduces groupware into a German ministry. An existing groupware system was adapted to user and organizational needs, with the plan to improve and expand the system to a large-scale. We integrated new approaches of user advocacy and direct designer-user interaction, with an evolutionary cycling process. We focus in particular on the role of user advocacy in evaluating the users’ needs during actual system use. We explain the design process, and discuss the system requirements that emerged as a result of using this method. We also report the results of interviews with the users and design team and reflect on the impact that the design process had on them. Keyworde Participatory design, user advocacy, evolutionary cycling, groupwa.m, CSCW, shared workspace INTRODUCTION The plan to move the German Government from Bonn to Berlin has opened a new arena for the application of CSCW systems. The move will split some ministries between Bom and Berlin, which raises an urgent need to support telecooperation across different locations. The pOLI’?km project investigates how CSCW facilities can be used to support collaboration within government tninisrnes. Industry and research organizations formed a partnership to develop an appropriate solution and subsequently found a partner group within a Federal Ministry. Gne aim of the project was to balance user needs and technological innovation in the system design process. An unusual approach was chosen in PoLtTeatm the design process started with the introduction of an already-existing groupware system, and user needs were then evaluated through observing the system use in real work practice in the ministry. The product was adapted and improved to Permission to make digital/hard copy of part or all this work for personal or classroom USE is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage, the copyright notice, the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of ACM, Inc. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers, or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee DIS ’97 Amsterdam, The Netherlands Q 1997 ACM 0-89791 .863 -0/97 /0008..,