USING A ROOM METAPHOR TO EASE TRANSITIONS IN GROUPWARE
Date
1998-01-01
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Abstract
Many groupware systems contain gaps that hinder or block natural social
interaction or that do not let people easily move between different styles
of work. We believe that the adoption of a room metaphor can ease people's
transitions across these gaps, allowing them to work together more naturally.
Using the TeamWave Workplace system as an example, we show how particular
gaps are removed. First, we ease a person's transition between single user
and groupware applications by making rooms suitable for both individual and
group activity. Second, people can move fluidly between asynchronous and
synchronous work because room artifacts persist. People can leave messages,
documents and annotations for others, or work on them together when occupying
the room at the same time. Third, we ease the difficulty of initiating real
time work by providing people with awareness of others who may be available
for real-time interactions, and by automatically establishing connections as
users enter a common room. Fourth, we discuss how a technical space can be
transformed into a social place by describing how a group crafts meaning
into a room.
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Computer Science