Collective Search - a prototype

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A Social Proxy for Collective Search

Thomas EricksonIBM T. J. Watson Research Center

CSCW 2010 Collective Information Search WorkshopFebruary 7, 2010

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

About me

Tom Erickson• Where: Social Computing Group, IBM Research

• Expertise: Qualitative Social Science + Interaction Design

• Interests: CSCW, CMC, Social Computation, Urban Informatics, Visualization

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

Key Points

How might we design to support Collaborative Information Search?• Claim 1: Support self-organization and coordination by providing

a shared visualization of the presence and activities of participants

• Claim 2: Think in terms of an interaction ecology• how to draw people in• how to show them what can be done• how to coax them into more involved interactions

To see how this works, lets revisit the design sketch in my paper…

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A three minute demo

A scenario• Our protagonist is Tim

• Tim has been trying to install an application called “Cocoon,” but the install keeps failing

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A three minute demo

Tim goes to the main Search Party page where there’s a list of current searches• He can scan down the list,

and if curious he can take a peek

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A three minute demo

He takes a closer look at one by clicking on the triangle

• If he wished, he could join the search, but it doesn’t seem that relevant

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A three minute demo

So Tim starts a new search• He calls it “Cocoon Install Failure”

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A three minute demo

A search window appears• On the left is a visualization

• On the right is a chat-and-search pane

The dot represents Tim

The circle represents the chat-and-search pane

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A three minute demo

Tim starts the search• In the chat he enters his query:

“Install Cocoon on Websphere”

• The visualization shows the query and the result set it has produced

• Tim clicks on the small square to see the results in a new window

The line represents the query

The square represents the search results (which Tim can look at in his web browser)

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A three minute demo

MEANWHILE,back in the overview window, ‘Red’ notices Tim’s search

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A three minute demo

Red peeks at the search, and decides to join it

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A three minute demo

Red joins Tim’s search, and her presence is reflected in the visualization (as a dot) • Now Tim knows he has company Because Red is only watching,

she’s shown on the periphery

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A three minute demo

Tim reports on the results• Seeing that someone is watching,

Tim reports on the current set of results: “No good! Over 700 hits”

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A three minute demo

Red makes a suggestion about how to refine the query

When Red types a chat utterance, her dot moves into the chat-and-search room, showing that she’s more involved

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A three minute demo

Tim refines the query and executes a new search

The new search iteration generates

a new line segment (for the query)and a new square (for the results)

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A three minute demo

MEANWHILE, other onlookers show up. Tim is motivated by their apparent interest

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A three minute demo

Tim inspects the new results and reports back

Tim goes to his browser to look at the results ... and reports back in the chat

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A three minute demo

Another onlooker contributes• Jil makes a suggestion...

When Jil ‘talks’ in the chat,

her dot moves inward

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

A three minute demo

And then does a search herself

…and so on…

When Jil does the search, she moves inward again

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

Recap of key points

Making the presence and activity of others visible through the social proxy and the content of the chat window

Using the visible activity to entice people into participating by providing a ladder of progressively more engaged activities