Artefactual Multiplicity: A Study of Emergency-Department Whiteboards

Whiteboards are highly important to the work in emergency departments (EDs). As a collaborative technology ED whiteboards are usually placed in the dynamic centre of the ED, and all ED staff will approach the whiteboard regularly to organize their individual yet interdependent work. Currently, digital whiteboards are replacing the ordinary dry-erase whiteboards in EDs, which bring the design and use of whiteboards in ED to our attention. Previous studies have applied the theoretical lenses of common information spaces, coordination, and awareness to the investigation of whiteboard use and design. Based on an ethnographic study of the work practices involving two differently designed ED whiteboards, we found these concepts insufficient to explain one essential characteristic of these heterogeneous artefacts. In this paper, we suggest an additional theoretical concept describing this characteristic of heterogeneous artefacts; namely artefactual multiplicity. Artefactual multiplicity identifies not only the multiple functions of heterogeneous artefacts but also the intricate relations between these multiple functionalities.     

EDITORIAL

The process undertaken by an information seeker, in order to form relevance decisions regarding documents, is defined as “Document Triage.” To better facilitate users’ needs in their triage activities, interactive interfaces have begun to evolve within on-line academic repositories. In order to complement current work on interface design and interaction, and produce custom guidelines to inform the creation of triage interfaces, we examine how interfaces that alter the document presentation and structure affect information seekers’ visual and navigational attention. We present a set of heuristics for both creating and evaluating such interfaces.     

BUTTER：一种基于主题模型和异构网络的缺陷分发方法

当软件缺陷被提交到缺陷跟踪系统并经过确认之后,它会被分发给开发人员进行缺陷修复．这个过程就叫做缺陷分发．随着被提交到系统的缺陷报告日益增多,手工分发缺陷报告会变得越来越困难．提出了一种自动分发缺陷的方法BUTTER．与其他方法不同的是,BUTTER不仅利用主题模型分析缺陷报告中的文本信息,而且创新性地建立了一个包含提交者、缺陷和开发者三种节点及其相互关系的异构网络,从该异构网络中抽取了更多的结构信息．实验证明,BUTTER进行自动缺陷分发较其他缺陷自动分发方法要好．     

In Search for the Perfect Pathway: Supporting Knowledge Work of Welfare Workers

This paper investigates the collaborative practices and computational artifacts that welfare workers use in a public welfare agency. Specifically, the paper focuses on caseworkers’ knowledge practices related to assessing unemployed citizens and identifying ‘perfect’ pathways. I draw upon an ongoing ethnographic study, carried out in one of the largest municipal jobcentres in Denmark. Findings from this research point out that existing computational artifacts support compliance with welfare policy, while limited support is provided to caseworkers in helping citizens obtain an employment. The contribution of the paper is three-folded: 1) identifying fundamental characteristics of the caseworkers’ knowledge work entailed in assessing unemployed citizens and identifying appropriate pathways, 2) examining the conditions surrounding these knowledge practices, and 3) discussing implications for the design of computational artifacts that better support local knowledge practices. While maintaining support to policy compliance, I argue that computational artifacts can also support ‘data-driven knowledge’, meaning the creation of knowledge that is based on data collected from the wide range of cases of unemployed.     

Transforming Scholarly Practice: Embedding Technological Interventions to Support the Collaborative Analysis of Ancient Texts

e-Research and Cyberinfrastructure programmes actively promote the development of new forms of scientific practice and collaboration through the implementation of tools and technologies that support distributed collaborative work across geographically dispersed research institutes and laboratories. Whilst originating in scientific domains, we have more recently seen a turn to the design of systems that support research practices in the social sciences and the arts and humanities. Attempts to embed large-scale infrastructures into research settings has brought to the fore the necessity of understanding the knowledge, skills and practices of researchers within a variety of disciplines that might use these technologies. In this paper, we consider an approach to gathering requirements through the introduction of various technical interventions for relatively short term periods so that we may come to an understanding their impact on routine work practices. Drawing upon an analysis of the detailed ways in which classicists work with digital images, we discuss the requirements for systems that support them as they collaborate in the interpretation of particular types of images. We discuss implications for the development of infrastructures to support research collaboration in this area and conclude with reflections upon the experiences gained from conducting naturalistic studies in parallel with design interventions.     

Collocated Social Practices Surrounding Photo Usage in Archaeology

Archaeology is a domain of work where photographs play a relevant role: here they are used in different phases of the archaeological work for many purposes, some of which are common to other domains or to home usage (e.g., archiving). We focus our attention on one of the initial phases of the archaeological process, namely excavation, since the related activities use photographs in a very particular way and under the constraints of a very demanding physical setting. Moreover, in this phase the use of digitized photographs is recent, and in their adoption they are interestingly combined with photographs printed on paper. This paper presents the results of a study performed at an archaeological site in the south of Italy: it reports the observed collocated collaborative practices surrounding photographs and discusses these practices to identify some functionalities of a supportive technology.     

An Analysis of Merge Conflicts and Resolutions in Git-Based Open Source Projects

Version control systems such as Git support parallel collaborative work and became very widespread in the open-source community. Whilst Git offers some very interesting features, resolving conflicts that arise during synchronisation of parallel changes is a time-consuming task. In this paper we present an analysis of concurrency and conflicts in official Git repository of four projects: Rails, IkiWiki, Samba and Linux Kernel. We analyse the collaboration process of these projects at specific periods revealing how change integration and conflict rates vary during project development life-cycle. We also analyse how often users decide to rollback to previous document version when the integration process generates conflicts. Finally, we discuss the mechanism adopted by Git to consider changes made on two continuous lines as conflicting.     

Translation practice in the workplace: contextual analysis and implications for machine translation

This paper reports the results of a qualitative study which investigated localisation activities performed by translators working in two Language Service Providers. It argues that maintaining the appropriate quality level in this setting is a collaborative task which involves several translators. This perspective entails taking a broader view of the translation process than usually found in the Machine Translation (MT) literature and detailing the various knowledge sources which are deployed in this collaborative effort. The impact of collaboration on trust is examined, and a comparison is made between the relatively seamless flow of work between translators and the more strained relationships with remote contributors. In support of this view, the paper contrasts the flexibility of the analysed work practices with the rigid ways which tend to be followed when introducing MT into this setting. We identify the need to support collaboration and communication more actively as a broader issue in translation settings. While current strategies for introducing MT tend to further isolate translators from remote contributors, we propose that MT can serve as the catalyst for establishing a more dynamic and collaborative relationship between them.     

Communicating content: development and evaluation of icons for academic document triage through visualisation and perception

This work seeks to identify key features and characteristics for the design of icons that can support the tasks of information seekers in academic document triage interfaces. Such icons are meant to act as visual links to the specific elements or sections in an academic document. We suggest that icons in triage interfaces are better able to communicate information, provide feedback and enable faster user interactions than text, particularly in mobile-based interfaces. Through investigation of visualisation and perception processes, we are able to propose five primary icon categories, the two most dominant being iconic and symbolic: iconic representations mostly apply to graphically and spatially distinct document elements (i.e. Title, Abstract, Tables and Figures), externalising the elements’ surface propositions. Symbolic representations are largely associated with elements of greater semantic value (Introduction, Conclusion, Full text and Author), drawing upon the elements’ deep propositions.     

‘Worksome but Rewarding’ –Stakeholder Perceptions on Value in Collaborative Design Work

In this paper, we examine collaborative design projects in school contexts with many different stakeholders. We look at the value created for and by different stakeholders, focusing on value as a benefit, which is experienced – perceived and determined – by the beneficiaries themselves in the value co-creation process. As our focus is in “value-in-use”, i.e., value which emerges through activities taking place in a specific space, time, and context, we define value through subjective experience of people involved. We apply in our study the concept of value co-creation, where value is understood emerging from collaborative activity between actors participating in the activity. We see that the value co-creation lens provides a useful means for the CSCW community to scrutinize and make sense of collaborative design projects. We categorized the perceived value for each stakeholder and discuss how these categories can help in gaining a deeper understanding of the value gained in collaborative design work as well as how value co-creation lens in more general can be used as a tool in collaborative design projects.     

A paradoxical perspective on technology renewal in digital transformation

To realize their strategic goals and maintain a competitive advantage in the digital era, organizations must periodically renew their digital platforms and infrastructures. However, knowledge about such technology renewal is scattered across diverse research streams, so insights into the process are both limited and fragmented. In this article, we consolidate insights from previous research to conceptualize technology renewal as an inherently paradoxical digital transformation process that requires organizations to simultaneously remove their technological foundation and build on the practices that depend on it to implement a new technological foundation. Previous research suggests that technology renewal initiatives are driven by three paradoxical tensions: (a) established vs renewed technology usage, (b) deliberate vs emergent renewal practices and (c) inner vs outer renewal contexts. We apply this framing to a longitudinal case study in which we analyse and explain how an organization's responses to manifestations of these tensions eventually led to a vicious cycle of continued investments into two overlapping and largely incompatible digital platforms over a 9‐year period. Based on these conceptual and empirical insights, we theorize technology renewal as a paradoxical, and increasingly critical, digital transformation process that forces managers to make decisions in complex and ambiguous choice situations.     

How to get mature global virtual teams: a framework to improve team process management in distributed software teams

Managing global software development teams is not an easy task because of the additional problems and complexities that have to be taken into account. This paper defines VTManager, a methodology that provides a set of efficient practices for global virtual team management in software development projects. These practices integrate software development techniques in global environments with others such as explicit practices for global virtual team management, definition of skills and abilities needed to work in these teams, availability of collaborative work environments and shared knowledge management practices. The results obtained and the lessons learned from implementing VTManager in a pilot project to develop software tools for collaborative work in rural environments are also presented. This project was carried out by geographically distributed teams involving people from seven countries with a high level of virtualness.     

Reviewing Practices in Collaborative Writing

This paper presents an interview study in which 11 academics as interviewees participated for the purpose of revealing common collaborative writing practices, with particular focus on reviewing documents. First, we present the findings obtained concerning the issues of co-operating strategies underlying the reviewing process, how people revise their documents and comment on them, what they use the previous revision history for, and to what extent current technology is used in the reviewing process. Second, we also discuss aspects of the design of collaborative writing tools.     

Understanding group maintenance behavior in Free/Libre Open-Source Software projects: The case of Fire and Gaim

In this paper, we investigate group maintenance behavior in community-based Free/Libre Open-Source Software (FLOSS) development teams. Adopting a sociolinguistic perspective, we conceptualize group maintenance behavior as interpersonal communication tactics—specifically, social presence and politeness tactics—that help maintain relationships among group members. Developer email messages were collected from two FLOSS projects with different development statuses, and their content was analyzed to identify frequently used group maintenance tactics. We then compared the group maintenance tactics used in the two projects, finding differences that reflect changes in the project work practices. Our work theoretically contributes to FLOSS research and has practical implications for FLOSS practitioners.     

Views of work and the design and use of group support systems

The view of work embodied in a group support system constitutes a designer's understanding of how work gets done in collaborative settings. This paper argues that a designer's view of collaborative work shapes the design space of a group support system. This in turn affects the system's functionality, as well as the manner in which it is used. An analysis of the views of work underlying four group support systems used in research and commercial domains, reveals sharp differences in their perspectives on collaborative work. Our approach suggests three implications. First the design process should be driven by an explicit articulation of the view of work. Second, examining convergence between a system's view of work and the work practices of a setting, can usefully indicate whether the system is appropriate for the setting. Finally, research on the mediating role of the view of work in the effectiveness of group support systems, can lead to a richer understanding of the impact of such systems.     

Cyber-physical-social collaborative sensing: from single space to cross-space

The development of wireless sensor networking, social networking, and wearable sensing techniques has advanced the boundaries of research on understanding social dynamics. Collaborative sensing, which utilizes diversity sensing and computing abilities across different entities, has become a popular sensing and computing paradigm. In this paper, we first review the history of research in collaborative sensing, which mainly refers to single space collaborative sensing that consists of physical, cyber, and social collaborative sensing. Afterward, we extend this concept into cross-space collaborative sensing and propose a general reference framework to demonstrate the distinct mechanism of cross-space collaborative sensing. We also review early works in cross-space collaborative sensing, and study the detail mechanism based on one typical research work. Finally, although cross-space collaborative sensing is a promising research area, it is still in its infancy. Thus, we identify some key research challenges with potential technical details at the end of this paper.     

Cognitive,collaborative, conceptual and creative — Four characteristics of the next generation of knowledge-based CAD systems: A study in biologically inspired design

We envision that the next generation of knowledge-based CAD systems will be characterized by four features: they will be based on cognitive accounts of design, and they will support collaborative design, conceptual design, and creative design. In this paper, we first analyze these four dimensions of CAD. We then report on a study in the design, development and deployment of a knowledge-based CAD system for supporting biologically inspired design that illustrates these four characteristics. This system, called DANE for Design by Analogy to Nature Engine, provides access to functional models of biological systems. Initial results from in situ deployment of DANE in a senior-level interdisciplinary class on biologically inspired design indicates its usefulness in helping designers conceptualize design of complex systems, thus promising enough to motivate continued work on knowledge-based CAD for biologically inspired design. More importantly from our perspective, DANE illustrates how cognitive studies of design can inform the development of CAD systems for collaborative, conceptual, and creative design, help assess their use in practice, and provide new insights into human interaction with knowledge-based CAD systems.     

Rank aggregation methods comparison: A case for triage prioritization

This paper seeks to test and to determine a suitable aggregation method to represent a set of rankings made by individual decision makers (DMs). A case study for triage prioritization is used to test the aggregation methods. The triage is a decision-making process with which patients are prioritized according to their medical condition and chance of survival on arrival at the emergency department (ED). There is a lot of subjective decision-making in the process which leads to discrepancies among nurses. Four rank aggregation methods are applied to the prioritization data and then an expert evaluates the results and judges them on practicality and acceptability. The proposed recommendation for preference aggregation is the method of the estimation of utility intervals. Expert opinion is highly valued in a decision-making environment such as this, where experience and intuition are key to successful job performance and outcomes.     

A semantic analysis approach for assessing professionalism using free-form text entered online

This paper presents the results of an experimental study to measure professionalism for the purpose of assessing a professional development program. Soft skills such as professionalism are increasingly recognized as important, yet measuring and assessing these skills, typically best acquired experientially, has remained challenging. Following established research, we conceptualize professionalism as a construct with the dimensions of autonomy, commitment, belief in public service, self-regulation, and the use of a professional organization as a major referent. We demonstrate how these dimensions can be expressed and the professionalism of free-form text responses measured. These responses are reflections submitted online by participants in a professional development program for undergraduate business majors known as the Management Achievement Program (MAP). Latent semantic analysis is employed to measure the professionalism of these responses and to assess MAP along each of the five dimensions. The method demonstrated in this paper has several advantages over existing methods for assessment, which can be costly, require considerable time and training, and are often tied to subjective interpretation. The method demonstrated here is suitable for replication that leads to continuous improvement by “closing the loop.”