INFO 447 - L04 - January 14, 2005
Notes by: Fortier, Rose, Egaas, Horm, Prins, Serim


** Rear View Mirror paper **
    - Looks at how people who are geographically separated work together
        - geographically in terms of Seattle to Japan
    - Did it bring anything new to the table?
        - group chat already exists in other systems
        - the picture was new at the time
        - Ability to change icon (represents persona)

Home brew or ready made?
    Home Brew:
        Advantages: easy to control server/network/client
                    able to strip out unnecessary features
        Disadvantages: more work!
    ready made:
        Advantages: previously tested, tried and true
                    more features
                    

Deployment
    - Focus on pairs
    - One-on-One training
        - Problem because what do you go online alone?
        - You need a group to train the users on groupware
    - Opt-in policy
        - German Law
        - Researchers built this to monitor and track, union rep wanted opt-in

Usage Statistics
    - Wanted to get critical mass, but they really got about 10% of users on the first iteration
    - In the second iteration they had two groups: management and architects
        * Management had forced use, but had very little message traffic

How the changed deployment
    - The automated registration
    - Train in teams
    - Introduce persistence in group chat
    - Bug Fixes
    - 

Insights
    - "water cooler" talk vs work talk
    - early adopters is not enough to get critical mass
    - individual users make individual choices about using buggy software
    - group application has to hit a higher standard
        - how do companies deal with this then?
    - needs to explain the problem it is trying to solve

** y do tngrs luv 2 txt msg? **
    - 10 teenagers (5 male / 5 female)
    - logged messages
    - discussion
    - Language was/is evolving
    - Can do it anywhere (with reception)
    - Quicker since you skip over pleasantries
    - Which means cheaper
    - Socially safer

    Problems with study:
        - Possibly changed habits of participants
        - Required subjects to carry a log, doubtful that they used it 100%

Issues of Usage
    - Discretionary usage vs. mandatory usage
        - Teenagers text message because they want to (discretionary)
        - Chat in the workplace was mandated (mandatory)
    - Technology push: a technology is being pushed onto users
    - Technology pull: users are drawn to a technology

Next Readings:
    Video conferencing and ...
    Communication is focus, not job task

#END#