What makes mobile computer supported cooperative work mobile? Towards a better understanding of cooperative mobile interactions

Despite the high availability of mobile phones and personal digital assistants with online capabilities, mobile computer supported cooperative work is still in its infancy. So far, only little is known about the distinct attributes of mobile cooperative work in comparison to its stationary counterpart. Across which dimensions does cooperation via mobile devices differ from traditional hard-wired settings and what implications have to be drawn for future research? To bring more light to this question, we conducted an experimental business-case at Frankfurt University with 16 graduate students and analysed their collaborative behaviour across mobile and non-mobile channels of communication over a 5 week period. We find that mobile messages differed from stationary messages in terms of size and that the use of mobile emails prevailed over stationary emails under conditions of stress. Finally, we found that the social structure of mobile communication corresponded with the structure of stationary communication. This indicates that mobile communication technologies support existing communication relations rather than creating new relations. From the perspective of system designers, these results may serve as practical insights into the user behaviour of mobile technologies and might support the future development of mobile computer supported cooperative work environments.     

Social compensation or rich-get-richer? The role of social competence in college students’ use of the Internet to find a partner

Online dating continues to grow rapidly in popularity every day, yet the role of social competence in online dating behavior remains unclear. This study was designed to expand previous research and conduct a comprehensive investigation on how social competence is associated with college students’ online dating behaviors, perceptions, and attitudes. Two hypotheses were tested: The social compensation hypothesis (SCH)—socially incompetent individuals would engage in more online dating, and the rich-get-richer hypothesis (RGRH)—socially competent individuals would use online dating more than their incompetent counterparts. The results showed that incompetent individuals, despite their ability to see benefits in online dating, did not show a favorable attitude towards online dating. They indicated a more frequent use of and a stronger preference for face-to-face dating compared to online dating, which contradicted the SCH. There were weak associations between competence traits and online dating behavior. Socially competent individuals perceived less benefit and showed less interest in online dating, which disconfirmed the RGRH.     

Are digital natives a myth or reality? University students’ use of digital technologies

This study investigated the extent and nature of university students’ use of digital technologies for learning and socialising. The findings show that students use a limited range of mainly established technologies. Use of collaborative knowledge creation tools, virtual worlds, and social networking sites was low. ‘Digital natives’ and students of a technical discipline (Engineering) used more technology tools when compared to ‘digital immigrants’ and students of a non-technical discipline (Social Work). This relationship may be mediated by the finding that Engineering courses required more intensive and extensive access to technology than Social Work courses. However, the use of technology between these groups is only quantitatively rather than qualitatively different. The study did not find evidence to support popular claims that young people adopt radically different learning styles. Their attitudes to learning appear to be influenced by lecturers’ teaching approaches. Students appear to conform to traditional pedagogies, albeit with minor uses of tools delivering content. The outcomes suggest that although the calls for transformations in education may be legitimate it would be misleading to ground the arguments for such change in students’ shifting patterns of learning and technology use.     

Reading to make a decision or to reduce cognitive dissonance? The effect of selecting and reading online reviews from a post-decision context

This research challenges the presumption that reading online reviews solely affect reader attitudes toward a prospective decision. Instead, readers may strategically select and read reviews after a decision. This research advances and tests hypotheses proposing that: (1) post-decision readers select decision-supportive reviews earlier and more frequently; and (2) the reviews they read affect the subsequent cognitive dissonance they experienced. Two studies employed an original post-decision experiment and demonstrated that readers expressed biased review selection. Interestingly, the reviews they read affected and increased their cognitive dissonance. The findings contributed to understanding the complex dynamic of online reviews in a post-decision context.     

More questions than answers: an examination of “To drill or not to drill: a synthesis of experts’ judgments”

The original paper by Nezhad and Baharlou (1991) employed the analytic hierarchy process to estimate the volume of recoverable oil available from a reservoir. The method has undoubted strengths, in particular the rapidity with which it may be employed and the limited resources required to perform the calculations. It is argued here that more information could have been obtained from the original calculation. In addition, it is suggested that modifying some factors in the procedure could affect the outcome. Simple approximate algorithms are presented that are helpful in interpreting the final results     

To Plan or to Simply React? An Experimental Study of Action Planning in a Game Environment

Many contemporary computer games, notably action and role‐playing games, represent an interesting class of navigation‐intensive dynamic real‐time simulations inhabited by autonomous intelligent virtual agents (IVAs). Although higher level reasoning of IVAs in these domains seems suited for action planning, planning is not widely adopted in existing games and similar applications. Moreover, statistically rigorous study measuring performance of planners in decision making in a game‐like domain is missing. Here, five classical planners were connected to the virtual environment of Unreal Development Kit along with a planner for delete‐free domains (only positive preconditions and positive effects). Performance of IVAs employing those planners and IVAs with reactive architecture was measured on a class of game‐inspired test environments of various sizes and under different levels of external interference. The analysis has shown that planning agents outperform reactive agents if (i) the size of the problem is small or if (b) the environment changes are either hostile to the agent or infrequent. In delete‐free domains, specialized approaches are inferior to classical planners because the lower expressivity of delete‐free domains results in lower plan quality. These results can help to determine when planning is advantageous in games and for IVAs control in other dynamic real‐time environments.     

On the applicability of capability models for small software organizations: does the use of standard processes lead to a better achievement of business goals?

The ISO/IEC 15504 standard implies that the use of its level-based capability model for software process development leads to a better business performance. At capability level 3, this would mean that there is not only a positive correlation but also a causal relation from the use of standard processes to better achievement of business goals. In this paper, we make this claim explicit and challenge it with a counterargument in the context of small software organizations. We argue that in most part, the way the software is designed is what determines the business success in software development, and when application domains are complex socio-technical systems, relying on a standard process instead of human expertise not only fails to answer the promise of process stability but also presents business risks related to poor design, a loss of diversity, and reduced adaptability. With reasons to believe that the standard’s claim is weak in this context, we come up with alternative explanations for why some small software organizations nevertheless use standard processes. Through these hypotheses, we argue that the reasons are not necessarily process-related. In closing, we suggest further studies on how the standard’s notion of process capability and business goals relate to each other when the application domain is not just complicated but complex.     

Pursue or shoot? Effects of exercise-induced fatigue on the transition from running to rifle shooting in a pursuit task

To investigate to what degree exercise-induced fatigue influences behavioural choices, participants' transition from running to rifle shooting in a pursue-and-shoot task was assessed. Participants ran on a treadmill and chased a target in a virtual environment and were free to choose when to stop the treadmill and shoot at the target. Fatigue increased progressively throughout the 20-minute test. Results indicated that shooting accuracy was not affected by fatigue. However, the distance to the target at which participants decided to shoot showed a U-shaped relationship with fatigue, R² = 0.884, p = 0.013. At low fatigue levels (ratings of perceived exertion [RPE] < 6.5), the distance to the target at which participants shot decreased, whereas at higher fatigue levels (RPE > 6.5) shooting distance increased again. At high levels of fatigue, participants stopped running sooner, aimed at the target longer and shot less often. Findings indicate that physiological parameters influence not only perception but also actual transitions between different actions.     

Am I acceptable to you? Effect of a robot’s verbal language forms on people’s social distance from robots

This study is to examine the effect of robots’ language forms on people’s acceptance of robots. We applied a concept of social distance to measure people’s acceptance of robots. In an experiment, calling participants by name vs. not calling by name as well as the robot’s speech styles (familiar vs. honorific), were used to impose a verticality and horizontality of social relationships between participants and robots. After the conversation with a robot, participants rated the robot’s interpersonal traits and their comfortable approach distance to the robot, and their response to the robot during the experiment were analyzed. As a result, participants whom the robot called by their name perceived the robot as friendlier. They introduced themselves more actively, and were more intently focused on what the robot said. They asked the robot questions more frequently. Participants called by their names consequently approached the robot more closely than participants who were not called. An interaction effect was found between speech styles and whether names were used in regard to the perceived friendliness of robots, negative response to robots, and comfortable approach distance to robots. We discuss verbal interaction design for increasing people’s acceptance of robots.     

What causes users to switch from a local to a global social network site? The cultural,social, economic,and motivational factors of Facebook’s globalization

This study investigates what causes local users to switch or not to switch from a domestic to a global social network site (SNS), Facebook. In the prediction model using cultural, social, economic factors, and motives for using SNS, we found in S. Korean users that, along with entertainment motives, the expected benefit of a new global SNS was a positive predictor of transition to Facebook. The western cultural values of a global SNS and the sunk costs of using a local SNS were negative predictors of the intention to use Facebook as the main platform of online social networking. Given that global SNSs force anti-localization policies related to privacy protocols and relationship styles, the results highlight the fact that cultural values are a critical factor for resisting globalization of SNSs.     

Remote estimation of chl-a concentration in turbid productive waters — Return to a simple two-band NIR-red model?

Today the water quality of many inland and coastal waters is compromised by cultural eutrophication in consequence of increased human agricultural and industrial activities. Remote sensing is widely applied to monitor the trophic state of these waters. This study investigates the performance of near infrared-red models for the remote estimation of chlorophyll-a concentrations in turbid productive waters and evaluates several near infrared-red models developed within the last 34 years. Three models were calibrated for a dataset with chlorophyll-a concentrations from 0 to 100 mg m⁻³ and validated for independent and statistically different datasets with chlorophyll-a concentrations from 0 to 100 mg m⁻³ and 0 to 25 mg m⁻³ for the spectral bands of the MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) and MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The MERIS two-band model estimated chlorophyll-a concentrations slightly more accurately than the more complex models, with mean absolute errors of 2.3 mg m⁻³ for chlorophyll-a concentrations from 0 to 100 mg m⁻³ and 1.2 mg m⁻³ for chlorophyll-a concentrations from 0 to 25 mg m⁻³. Comparable results from several near infrared-red models with different levels of complexity, calibrated for inland and coastal waters around the world, indicate a high potential for the development of a simple universally applicable near infrared-red algorithm.     

Limits and opportunities for mathematizing communicational conduct for social robotics in the real world? Toward enabling a robot to make use of the human’s competences

Given the widespread goal of endowing robotic systems with interactional capabilities that would allow users to deal with them intuitively by using means of natural communication, the text addresses the question to which extent it would be possible to mathematize (aspects of) social interaction. Using the example of a robotic museum guide in a real-world scenario, central challenges in dealing with the situatedness and contingency of human communicational conduct are shown using fine-grained video analysis combining the robot’s internal perspective with the user’s view. On a conceptual level, the text argues to consider human and robot as one ‘interactional system’ that jointly solves a practical (communicational) task. This opens up the perspective to integrate the human’s interactional competences and adaptability in the design and modeling of interactional building blocks for HRI. If we provide the technical system with systematic resources to make use of the human’s competences, the limits of mathematization might gain an interesting twist. Through careful design of the robot’s conduct, a powerful resource exists for the robot to pro-actively influence the users’ expectations about relevant subsequent actions, so that the robot could contribute to establishing the conditions which would be most beneficial to its own functioning.