SUPPORTING COLLABORATIVE INTERPRETATION IN DISTRIBUTED GROUPWARE
Date
2000-06-08
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Abstract
Collaborative interpretation occurs when a group interprets and
transforms a diverse set of information fragments into a coherent set of
meaningful descriptions. This activity is characterized by emergence, where
the participants' shared understanding develops gradually as they interact with
each other and the source material. Our goal is to support collaborative
interpretation by small, distributed groups. To achieve this, we first
observed how face-to-face groups perform collaborative interpretation in a
particular work context. We then synthesized design principles from two
relevant areas: the key behaviors of people engaged in activities where
emergence occurs, and how distributed groups work together over visual
surfaces. We build and evaluated a system that supports a specific
collaborative interpretation task. This system provides a large workspace and
several objects that encourage interpretation through emergence. People
manipulate cards that contain the raw information fragments. They reduce
complexity by placing duplicate cards into piles. They suggest groupings as
they manipulate the spatial layout of cards and piles. They enrich spatial
layouts through notes, text and freehand annotations. They record their
understanding of their final groupings as reports containing coherent
descriptions.
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Computer Science