Aspects of Collaboration

Srinivas Edala

Andrew Snyder

Overview

Introduction

Background

Human to Human – Personal Issues

Human to Human – Group Issues

Human to Computer – Issues

Examples

References

Introduction

What is collaboration?Activity that involves both interaction and effort to complete a common goal.

Can involve humans in groups, humans using computer systems, and computers working together.

Examples

Introduction

Why is collaboration important?Multi-disciplinary approaches to product design are prevalent.

Why is understanding collaboration important?To establish communication rules

which will enable ways of seamlessly introducing new technology into complex environments.

• Businesses are looking for these engineering design tools.

Introduction

Systems that network people together include:email

operating systems

world wide web

Collaboration environments involve:people from multi-disciplines

using tools

sometimes at great distances

Background

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research in 1970’s was a “point” system

try “____”, see if it works

Theory eventually developed from there

Collaboration field is going the same way as HCI did, except that it is still in point system

no good theory is around yet

Human to Human – Personal Issues

Individual vs. group situational awareness

Novice vs. expert issues

Imputed knowledge

Shared knowledge

Cognitive workload (or overhead)

Human to Human – Group Issues

Behavior as a group

Are N+1 heads better?

Unshared information

Seasoned vs. ad hoc groups

Task type

Human to Computer - Issues

Salience

Group Support Systems (GSS)

Distributed engineering

Supervisory control – example to follow

Task-artifact cycle/SA – example to follow

Supervisory control

Supporting Informed Consent in Human-Machine Collaboration: The Role of Conflict Type, Time Pressure, and Display Design

by Wesley A. Olson and Nadine B. Sarter

As technology changes a pilot’s role, they become the system’s manager while the plane flies itself.

Showed that pilots prefer “informed consent” over the data link, and improper instructions were difficult to detect prior to execution.

Task-Artifact Cycle/Situation Awareness

Exploring the Impact of Advanced Alarms, Displays, and Computerized Procedures on Teams by Emilie M. Roth and John M. O’Hara

This study examined the impact of introducing advanced human-system interfaces (HSI) into an ongoing field of practice (nuclear power plant control room).

Crew structure changed because members worked more in parallel

They had to consciously inform other crew members of their status

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Olson, G. M., Olson, J. S., Carter, M. R. and M. Storrøsten (1992). “Small group design meetings: An analysis of

collaboration.” Human-Computer Interaction 7: 347-374.