Chi09 Presentation

8/6/2019 Chi09 Presentation

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Making sense of strangers·Making sense of strangers·expertise from signals inexpertise from signals in

digital artifactsdigital artifacts

N. Sadat Shami, Kate Ehrlich, Geri Gay, Jeff Hancock





Proliferation of online information

Án abundance of information leads to a poverty of

attentionµ

- Herbert Simon



Outline of talk

Research question

Prior research

expertise search, self presentation

The use of signaling theory as a decision aid

Study design

Findings



General Research Question

¶People sensemaking·

When looking for specific expertise using a tool, how

do individuals make sense of different information

about a stranger conveyed through digital artifacts?



Context

Finding an expert to contact

Evaluating them by by viewing

online profile

Usually only after personal

networks are exhausted (Borgatti

& Cross, 2003; Cross & Sproull,

2004)

Context of study



Prior research

E xpertise search

Many tools built to find experts (Terveen &

McDonald, 2005)

Focus on finding ¶best expert·

Less attention on finding people likely to respond



Prior research

Self presentation

Selective self presentation (Goffman, 1959)

Identity claims and behavioral residue (Vizier &

Gosling, 2004)

Profiles on social networking sites (Donath, 2007;

Lampe et al. 2007)

Deception can occur (Hancock et al. 2007)



Signaling theory

Interpretive framework

Theory of communication

Process of discerning and interpreting

conveyed information

Useful for decision making under

uncertainty where deception can occur



Signaling theory

Reliable signals are pieces of information that are hard to

fake (Spence, 1973; Zahavi, 1975; Zahavi & Zahavi, 1997)



Signals in digital artifacts

Assessment signals

Quality correlated with trait

Quality is ¶wasted· in production

Conventional signals

Need not possess the trait

Social norms and mores maintain quality

Based on Donath, in press



Signals of expertise in digital artifacts

Assessment signalConventional signal



Study: Making sense of the different pieces of

Information on a profile page



Enterprise expertise locator system

SmallBlue, renamed to Atlas� (Ehrlich et al. 2007;

Lin et al., 2008)

Convenient platform for research

Description

Mines outgoing email and

instant messaging transcripts

Data aggregator

Opt in system



Participants

Email invitation

Performed at least 20 searches using SmallBlue

131 employees, 67 responded (51.15%)

Demographics

21 countries (majority US - 43.75%)

48 males, 19 females

Average tenure 10.5 years

Majority from consulting or sales (37.5%)



Find an expert in ¶AJAX·

On a committee evaluating a new project

proposal. Need a second opinion on whether AJAX is appropriate for the project.

Why ¶AJAX·?

Among top searches in SmallBl

ue

User Task



ÁJAXµ scenario: User Task

Shami, Ehrlich, Millen,CHI 2007, Pick me! Link selection in expertise search



Mailing listmembership

Socialbookmarkingtags

Recommendedand alternate connection paths

Corporatedirectoryinformation

Blog posts

Forum posts

Corporatedirectory selfreportedexpertise

Social bookmarks



Self reported rating data

Outcome variable (1-9 scale)

Likelihood of contacting a person

Predictor variables (1-9 scale)

Social software (tags + blogs + for ums)

Social connection information

Mailing list membership

Corporate directory info

Self-described expertise

Control variables

Familiarity with AJAX



Profile data

Outcome variable

Likelihood of contacting a person (1-9 scale)

Predictor variables

Participation in social software i.e. count of: tags +

blog posts + for um posts (0-1100)

Social closeness (0-6)

Mailing list membership (0-13)

Control variables

Familiarity with AJAX



Results from rating data: Social software

For each point increase in perceived helpfulness of social

software, likelihood of contact increased by 0.33 points (p < 0.01).

´People who use dogear or IBM Forums are more likely

to reach out to the community with their questions and

their expertise and therefore I would think they would

be more likely to assist in sharing their own expertise.µ



Results from rating data: social closeness

Í know the people that the system recommended to go

through. If I contact them, I'll be able to get straight to him.µ

´...it wouldn't be too much of a cold call to say ¶hi, I understand

you know my colleague so and so, I'm calling you about this

other topic.· I guess it would make me feel more comfortable

knowing that I could sort of name drop.µ

For each point increase in perceived helpfulness of social

connection information, likelihood of contact increased by 0.37

points (p < 0.01).



Results from profile data (counts)

Posting one more tag, blog, or for um post increased

likelihood of contact by 0.01 points (p < 0.001).

Each degree increase in social closeness corresponds to a

0.29 point increase in likelihood of contact (p < 0.01)



Signaling theory as a decision aid

Signaling theory in ¶people sensemaking·

Focus on information that is hard to fake

More credible, reliable, less open to deception Social software related to approachability

Social connection information related to accessibility and

verifying expertise.



Implications for design

¶Page rank· for experts

Analyze str uctural patterns to find ¶answer people· (Wesler

et al., 2007)

No systematic analysis of social software

Find others likely to respond



Thank you!

[email protected]

http://www.research.ibm.com/social

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Chi09 Presentation