ECSCW 1993: Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work

https://dl.eusset.eu/handle/20.500.12015/1868

13–17 September 1993, Milan, Italy

General Chair: Carla Simone, University of Milan, Italy
Program Chair: Giorgio De Michelis, University of Milan, Italy

Editors: De Michelis, Giorgio, Simone, Carla, Schmidt, K. (Eds.)

Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is an interdisicplinary research area devoted to exploring the issues of designing computer-based systems that enhance the abilities of cooperating workers to coordinate and integrate their activities in an efficient, effective, and flexible manner. This rigorously selected volume represents both practical and theoretical approaches from many of the leading researchers in the field. As an interdisciplinary area of research, CSCW is characterized by bringing together widely disparate research traditions and perspectives into an arena of collaboration and contention. The selected papers reflect the diverse approaches and cultures of this multi-disciplinary field.

This collection will be of interest to a wide audience - because of the huge practical import of the issues and because of the interdisciplinary nature of the problems and the solutions proposed. In particular, the volume will be of interest to researchers and professionals in computing, sociology, cognitive science, and human factors.

Authors with most documents  

Bellotti, Victoria
2
Rodden, Tom
2
Anderson, Bob
1
Arita, Kazuho
1
Beck, Eevi E.
1
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    Frontmatter
    (ECSCW 1993: Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1993)
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    A Spatial Model of Interaction in Large Virtual Environments
    (ECSCW 1993: Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1993) Benford, Steve; Fahlén, Lennart
    We present a spatial model of group interaction in virtual environments. The model aims to provide flexible and natural support for managing conversations among large groups gathered in virtual space. However, it can also be used to control more general interactions among other kinds of objects inhabiting such spaces. The model defines the key abstractions of object aura, nimbus, focus and adapters to control mutual levels of awareness. Furthermore, these are defined in a sufficiently general way so as to apply to any CSCW system where a spatial metric can be identified - i.e. a way of measuring position and direction. Several examples are discussed, including virtual reality and text conferencing applications. Finally, the paper provides a more formal computational architecture for the spatial model by relating it to the object oriented modelling approach for distributed systems.
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    Culture and Control in a Media Space
    (ECSCW 1993: Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1993) Dourish, Paul
    Media spaces integrate audio, video and computer networking technology in order to provide a rich communicative environment for collaboration. The connectivity which they provide brings with it important concerns regarding privacy, protection and control. In order to derive the fullest befefit from this technology, it is essential that these issues be addressed. As part of our investigation of media space systems, we developed a computational infrastructure addressing these problems our own working environment. A key aspect of this work is the relationship between two aspects of this control system - the technological components which determine how the system will behave, and the social components which determine acceptable use and behavior. This paper discusses our expieriences with the privacy and control aspects of our RAVE media space environment, specifically with regard to connection management, and compares them to the experiences of other research groups. We discuss the nature of the relationship between technological and social elements in using this technology, and discuss the consequences for the design of such systems.
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    The Designers' Notepad: Supporting and Understanding Cooperative Design
    (ECSCW 1993: Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1993) Twidale, Michael; Rodden, Tom; Sommerville, Ian
    We describe the development of a system to support cooperative software design. An iterative development approach has been used, based upon the observation of system use in authentic design sessions. This allows us to correct interface errors, and also to learn more about the nature of collaborative design. The observations of use and the resulting refinements of the system are described. In particular we note the variability in design activity both amongst designers and according to circumstances. We also note the way in which concepts mutate over time (often involving frequent and rapid revision) leading to an evolution of structure.
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    Improving Software Quality through Computer Supported Collaborative Review
    (ECSCW 1993: Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1993) Johnson, Philip; Tjahjono, Danu
    Formal technical review (FTR) is a cornerstone of software quality assurance. However, the labor-intensive and manual nature of review, along with basic unresolved questions about its process and products, means that review is typically under-utilized or inefficiently applied within the software development process. This paper introduces CSRS, a computer-supported cooperative work environment for software review that improves the efficiency of review activities and supports empirical investigation of the appropriate parameters for review. The paper presents a typical scenario of CSRS in review, its data and process model, application to process maturation, relationship to other research, current status, and future directions.
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    Design for Privacy in Ubiquitous Computing Environments
    (ECSCW 1993: Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1993) Bellotti, Victoria; Sellen, Abigail
    Current developments in information technology are leading to increasing capture and storage of information about people and their activities. This raises serious issues about the preservation of privacy. In this paper we examine why these issues are particularly important in the introduction of ubiquitous computing technology into the working environment. Certain problems with privacy are closely related to the ways in which the technology attenuates natural mechanisms of feedback and control over information released. We describe a framework for design for privacy in ubiquitous computing environments and conclude with an example of its application.
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    Supporting The Design Process Within An Organisational Context
    (ECSCW 1993: Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1993) Anderson, Bob; Button, Graham; Sharrock, Wes
    This paper attempts to take what has been essentially abstract thinking about how to support the design process and relocates it within the working and organisational context of design. Through a single case analysis we analyse how organisational exigencies affect design activities and design train of thought. On the basis of this study we consider how tools that have been developed to support the design process do not take account of the collaborative, interactional, and organisational ordering of the design process and make recommendations as to the features that one family of support tools, design rational tools, should poses.
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    Bringing Media Spaces into the Real World
    (ECSCW 1993: Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1993) Pagani, Daniele S.; Mackay, Wendy E.
    This paper descirbes a filed studiy to evaluate the use of audio and video connections in a "real world" setting, that is a distibuted product development organization within a large multinational corporation. We installed two types of media space connections: a focused dial-up video-phone for engineering problem solving between designers in England and the shop floor of a factory in the Netherlands and an unfocused "office share" to support administrative tasks. We observed that users quickly intergrated the new video links into their existing media space of telephone, beepers, answering machines, video conference, fax, e-mail, etc. Users easily learnt how to shift from one medium to another. This suggests that "real world" media spaces should be designed to allow a user-driven smooth transition from one medium to another according to the tasks at hand and the bandwith available: from live video to stored video, from moving video to still frames, from multimedia spaces to shared computing spaces for synchonous sketching and asynchonous message posting, and from two user conversation to multi-user conference calls.
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    Sharing To-Do Lists with a Distributed Task Manager
    (ECSCW 1993: Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1993) Kreifelts, Thomas; Hinrichs, Elke; Woetzel, Gerd
    We describe a simple and powerful tool for the management of distributed work: the Task Manager. Common tasks may be shared and manipulated independently by a number of people. They are represented as shared to-do lists at the user interface. With the help of the tool, users may organize cooperative tasks, monitor their progress, share documents and services, and exchange messages during task performance. The paper gives the motivation for the development of the Task Manager, implementation details, and a first assessment of its usefulness.
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    Building Shared Graphical Editors Using the Abstraction-Link-View Paradigm
    (ECSCW 1993: Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1993) Brinck, Tom; Hill, Ralph
    We have written several multi-user graphical editors in the Rendezvous system. In our approach to building these editors, the applications are first written as single-user editors. When multiple users wish to share a drawing surface, the drawing surfaces of their individual editors are connected using the Abstraction-Link-View (ALV) architecture. "Links" communicate the diting operations among the editors the connect. Links are designed to be invisible to the applications they are attached to, allowing the interface for each user to be highly customized. Links can also attach editors to the interface of a running RENDEZVOUS application, allowing the interface to be edited as the application is being used.