INFO 447 - L2 - January 7th 2005
CSCW Discussion: Notes by ASDDR
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** Grudin Article: CSCW: History and Focus **
CSCW is filling a space (philosophical)
Expanding to networking/computing
Is "work" really apart of what makes it CSCW? (or social stuff like chatting?)
    - Then, think about what "work" really is? (entertaining, professional, fun, playing)

Some applications that fall under the CSCW domain:
    - Telemedicine (virtual surgery, monitoring vital signs, remote consultation, management of records, harvesting patient data)
    - Knowledge Management Systems
    - GDSS (Group Decision Support System)
        * Top down management > Old
        * Moving decision making down the ladder > New Way
        * Changed to GSS

No talk about Search and Retrieval systems.

Differences between US and Europe
    - US is more empirical (quantitative)
    - European os more based on philosophical theories (qualitative)

Small group vs Large groups
    - Small group focuses on cooperation whereas large group works on coordination activities

Cooperation vs Coordination
    - Cooperation is more like a department
    - Coordination is the putting together the parts of the various departments

Groupware
    - Chart on page 24 figure 2
    - An implementation of CSCW?
    - Facilitate collaboration
    - Any multi-user software
        * Databases
        * Chat
        * Any thing that can be edited by many users
        * E-Mail?
            - Not one by itself, but it has the potential to be one--think of distribution lists
        * UNIX talk
            - Usage: talk user [ttyname]
    - How group aware does groupware need to be before it becomes groupware?
        * Where do you draw the line on what it is or isn't?
        * Important to talk about because you have to be able to clearly define it
    - If you are working towards the organizational goal it could make it groupware.
    - Do we call something groupware because of its design or because of its usage?
        * UPS tracking wouldn't be groupware for the end user, but could be groupware for the delivery people.

Figure 3: Place and Time attributes of applications
    - Note: article is old (wouldn't email on the road back then)
    - PLACE meaning place
    - TIME meaning over time

    Same/Same
        - Smart Whiteboard
        - OneNote
        - SubEthaEdit
        - Collaborative Note Taking
        * What makes us be in the same place to participate?
            - Better performance (LAN parties)

    DIFF UNPREDICTABLE/DIFF UNPREDICTABLE
        - Web forums
        - Knowledge Base
        - Wiki (Wikipedia)
        - Blogging

Dimensions to add
    - Size (Obvious one)
    - Quality

** Kling Article: Cooperation, Coordination and Control in CSCW **
What might be different between the two articles?

What is it about?
    - Technology alone is not enough, you need to look at the social aspects of business

Why?
    - Not enough attention is paid to conflict?
    - Technological-utopianism
        * Technology is always good, more is always better

Computer Supported *Combative* Work
    - DDoS
    - Law System
    - Rush Hour
    - Flame Wars

Subtle and Multivalent Relationships
    - Multi faceted, don't cancel each other out
    - The fact that everybody has their own group agenda
        * Don't share the same goal, but that is the goal
    - How the differences in relationships are managed is very subtle 
    - Notion of conflict or disagreement
    - All relationships are not the same (duh) (i.e. w/ boss and coworker)
    - other relationships are the same (i.e. w/ the university and a hooker)

** Angier Article: Why We're So Nice: We're Wired to Cooperate **
There is something about collaboration that is in the brain
Difference between the game and the results of the study

Prisoner's Dilemma
    - Two participants
    - Both admit no wrongdoing (Cooperation) = better for both (but not the best)
    - One admits (No Cooperation) = Bad for one (worst position b/c of self interest)
    - Both admit = Bad for both
    - All about Backstabbing
    - Can fix it as a reward thing as opposed to a penalty thing

Doing MRI at the time to see the brain activity when they were cooperating.
The instance it to collaborate as opposed to thinking of oneself.
They thought it would be more along the lines of self interest.
Maybe brain activity due to them winning money and not collaborating.
Maybe study is too sugarcoated... people are always winning. They never loose anything.

Are we really wired to cooperate?
    - Uh, it depends, dude..
    - Nature vs. Nurture
    
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