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Supporting Distributed Teams: Managing Shared Understandings. Paul Dourish Information & Computer Science UC Irvine. disclaimer. “I do not even call this a talk, because it is impossible to give a good talk when you just wrote the slides the day before.” -- Daniel Schneider.
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Supporting Distributed Teams:Managing Shared Understandings Paul DourishInformation & Computer ScienceUC Irvine
disclaimer • “I do not even call this a talk, because it is impossible to give a good talk when you just wrote the slides the day before.” -- Daniel Schneider
why distributed teams? • why use distributed teams? • problems of scale • outsourcing and organizational collaboration • project-based work • but • greater problems of coordination • lower performance • why study distributed teams? • to gain insight into all forms of collaborative work • it’s already happening • small improvements can yield large benefits
what is “distributed” anyway? “distributed”
what is “distributed” anyway? temporally dispersed spatially dispersed culturally dispersed “distributed” practically dispersed organizationally dispersed
what do we know? • collaboration is a subtle, nuanced activity • the fine-grained detail of coordination • the emergence of action within specific settings • the problem with formalisms • making formalisms work • the formalisable work isn’t the problem • the overhead of coordination • workflow “relieves the burden of coordination” • but often, coordination is the important stuff • Harper
awareness • non-task-focused understandings of action • the basis of further coordination • the London Underground example • building technical support
trade-offs in portholes • from passive awareness to engaged interaction • access and privacy • granularity • history • scalability • follow-on work (e.g. DEC, Nynex, etc) • graphical presentation • e.g. tiered groups in the “theatre” • image blurring • incorporating other information
common information space • early CSCW focused on “shared workspaces” • computationally shared spaces • collaborative editors and whiteboards • document repositories • studies of work pointed out problems • information is not shared unproblematically • to share information, I need to make it available to you • I need to make it available in a way that you’ll understand • you need to recognise the relevance of the information • you need to apply it to your needs • problems of decontextualisaton and recontextualisation
context and information • what does it mean to say that info is shared? • does it mean we both see the same thing • does it mean we share an understanding • does it mean we will use it in the same way • true even in collaborative interfaces • morten: “do people have common understandings?” • the answer is no… • the architect, the client, the building engineer, the designer • … but this has nothing to do with the technology • repeating myself – information, meaning & practice
common information spaces • a common information space is • a shared information repository • the practices by which that information is used • again, the interrelation of practice and meaning • consider classification • a contextualisation that identifies the meaning of information • concerned with: • “the dialectical nature of these spaces, the frequent need for additional effort in order to put, or use, information ‘in common’, the need for both closure and openness in representations, [and] their simultaneous portability and immutability, etc.”
common information spaces • the role of physical copresence • making activities visible • accessibility of actors • but physical copresence is not sufficient • the case of the SICU • the SICU’s solution
representing action • information sharing is not sufficient • in fact, it can be detrimental • the case of the British government office… • again, context – in this case, releasing information • instead, we need to consider • different perspectives on work • how the information will be incorporated into work • the work involved in making information usable • how work practice evolves • challenges for distribution
outstanding issues • understanding colocated work • e.g. JPL’s “Team X” • balancing access and distance • e.g. RMJM • the problems of common culture • e.g. Boeing
this is bad… isn’t it? • the bad news • no silver bullet • no easy technical solution • no off-the-shelf, one-size-fits-all solutions • the good news • we understand the issues • we have ways of observing them at work • we know that they change!