Computer-Supported Cooperative & Social Services Flashcards
4 Key Aspects of Social Interaction
■ Human communication
■ Participating in groups
■ Issues of Presence
■ Culture and Identity
Communication
Communication is a two-way process of reaching mutual understanding, in which participants not only exchange (encode- decode) information, news, ideas and feelings but also create and share meaning. (Businessdictionary.com, 2018)
Semiotics
Semiotics, or semiology, is the study of signs and how they function. Signs can take a variety of forms such as words, images, sounds, gestures or objects. (Benyon 2014)
Sign consists of
■ A signifier (concrete representation)
■ The signified (abstract concept that is denoted by the signifier)
■ The connotation (a wider interpretation)
Social Group
Social Group is a collection of more than two people who have the same social identity – they identify themselves in the same way and have the same definition of who they are, what attributes they have, and how they relate to and differ from specific outgroups. (Turner, J.C. (1982))
Group formation process
Forming Storming Norming Performing Decay
Coordination
Coordination is sharing information and resources so that each party can accomplish their part in support of a mutual object (Stoner, 2013).
Cooperation
Cooperation is important in networks where individuals exchange relevant information and resources in support of each other’s goals, rather than a shared goal. (Stoner, 2013)
Collaboration
Collaboration is working together to create something new in support of a shared vision. The key points are that it is not through individual effort, something new is created, and that the gule is the shared vision. (Stoner, 2013)
Layers of presence
Psychological Level (extended presence) ■ People interpret their observations in terms of the likely mode of cognition of the other person ■ Personality and motivations are key elements
Physiological Level (core presence):
■ Perception depends very largely on knowledge derived from past experiences of the individual and from evolutionary history
■ People infer the emotional stare of the person from how they are behaving
Physical Level (proto presence): ■ Movements play key role ■ People either confirm that the patterns of bodily movements are those of a recognized person or they register those of an unknown person
Social presence
Social Presence is the degree of salience of the other person in a mediated communication and the consequent salience of their interpersonal interaction. (Short et al., 1976, p. 65)
Sense of social presence includes
■ Feelings of being in the world
■ Sense of being in a place
■ Sense of being with other people
Facets: ■ Co-location ■ Mutual awareness ■ Co-presence ■ Psychological involvement ■ Behavioral engagement
Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)
Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is an interdisciplinary research topic, which deals with the question of how to support the work of individuals in teams supported by information technology.
CSCW is about groups of users – how to design systems to support their work as a group and how to understand the effect of technology on their work patterns. (Dix et al. 1998)
CSCW study of the electronic workplace – an organization-wide system that integrates information processing and communication activities. (Ellis et al. 1991)
Groupware vs CSCW
Groupware as software specifically designed:
■ To support group working and
■ To investigate algorithms fundamental to multi-user systems
■ With cooperative requirements in mind
Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)
■ Knowledge about the context of groupware design
■ Investigates individual/group/organizational requirements for multi-user systems
The 3C Model
CSCW enables different levels of social interaction
- Communication Support
- Coordination Support
- Cooperation Support
Classification by Time/Space Matrix
Groupware can be classified by:
■ When (same time or not) and where (same place or not) the participants are working
■ The function it performs for cooperative work
Common names for axes:
■ Time: Synchronous / Asynchronous
■ Place: Co-located / Remote
Key Challenges of CSWC
Disparity Between Who does the Work and Who Gets the Benefit
■ Effort of generating the content is done by only few persons
■ Content can be seen from many others => Can benefit of it
■ Remedy:
■ Promote clearly the collective benefits of the system
■ Provide some sort of advantage for everyone
Critical Mass
■ Group working needs a critical mass of people to participate to be effective
■ Appropriate amount of content providers is in particular critical when a new system is introduced (early adopters may give up before enough people participate to make use worthwhile)
Social Issues
■ Work is not just a rational activity, but a socially constructed practice (with all the shifting, conflicting motivations and politicking that this implies)
■ Introducing collaborative environments can disrupt the balance between private and public spaces
■ Blurring borders between work life and private life
Time-Space-Matrix
■ Classification of systems according the Time-Space-Matrix is a useful heuristic
■ Technologies can often be placed to more than one category
Articulation and Awareness
Articulation
■ Organizing and dividing activities into individual tasks
■ Refers to how work is broken into units and subtasks, its delegation among participants and its reintegration towards the goals of the work
Awareness
■ Appreciating what other people are doing or have done
■ Makes it possible to evaluate individual actions and the relevance of contributions in order to manage collaborative work
In collocated collaboration it is easier for people to see what one another are doing. In distributed collaboration designers need to attend to the design of interaction to
ensure that collaborators are aware of changes that happen
