mike eisenberg dean and professor

Mike EisenbergDean and Professor

The Information SchoolUniversity of Washington

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Mike Eisenberg

Perspectives on Virtual Collaboration

January 24, 2002

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Outline

• Uses for Virtual Collaboration

• Barriers – Challenges - Issues

• R&D Agenda 2002

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Purpose

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Purpose

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Purpose

To facilitate human interaction To boost individual and group

performance– Effectiveness

– Efficiency

To add value by connecting people to people

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Uses

Connections Information sharing Information gathering Information use Cooperative work Education

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Challenge

Transition from: traditional teaching of

individuals in a highly social setting

to: adding the social setting to an

already individualized process.

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

“… The litmus test for developing technologies will be how well they meet that challenge.”

-- Bill Gibbons, Syracuse University email message 8/11/97

Challenge

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Related Issues

Affective responses as they relate to time and space

It’s more than just communication; it’s also about information

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Space & Time

The social and psychological dimensions: Nature of the connection in time Feeling regarding space Locus of control Richness of the media experience

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Email/Mail Lists

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Email/Mail Lists

Asynchronous Feeling of being “connected;” beginning of

sense of community Locus of control: email – individual; mail

lists – can be external (moderator) Media richness - limited

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Video Conferencing

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Synchronous

Feeling regarding space = sense of distance

Locus of control: shared

Rich medium

Video Conferencing

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Chat

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Synchronous

Feeling regarding space – sense of immediacy and connected

Locus of control: shared, but cumbersome

Medium not very rich

Chat

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Graphic Chat

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Graphic Chat

Synchronous

Feeling regarding space – immediacy, togetherness

Locus of control: shared, but still cumbersome

Rich medium

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Video Broadcast

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Synchronous Feeling regarding space – broadcast,

mass-media Locus of control: one-way Medium can be very rich

Video Broadcast

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

To put it all together: synchronous and interactivity of

video conferencing feeling of space immediacy and

togetherness of graphic chat sense of community of mail lists shared locus of control of video and

chat the medium richness of video

Challenge

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Other Challenge

It’s more than just

communications

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Other Challenge

It’s also about

information

It’s more than just

communications

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Information Issues

Human Information Behavior in Collaborative Situations– purpose and need, problems (overload) – uses and sharing– search and retrieval

Information Management– coping with information overload– representation and organization– storage and retrieval

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Agenda 2002

Study the affective - the emotional, psychological and social dimensions.

Develop systems that create sense of togetherness, not distance, in space and time.

Recognize and study the information side: uses, problems, behavior, management.

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

And Beyond…

Change:

Be prepared to break out of thinking in terms of existing systems (media, structure, format).

©M. Eisenberg, January 24, 2002

Thanks for

listening!

Thanks for

listening!