"Supporting Awareness in Large Collaborative Spaces"

           Mary Beth Rosson, Associate Professor, Computer Science
			  November 10, 1998

                  Computer Science Graduate Seminar
                          CS 5944 Index 9743
                        Tuesday 3:30 - 4:45 pm
                  Newman Library 6th Floor Boardroom

			    Sponsored by:
			    	Department of Computer Science
				Information Systems
				University Libraries
				Digital Library Research Laboratory
				Internet Technology Innovation Center

Abstract: 
With the pervasive use of network technology, opportunities for
collaboration have increased tremendously.  For example, professors can now
teach to a much larger group of students, who are able to not only attend
video lectures, but also participate with other remote students in online
discussions and exercises.  Students and researchers can access and
contribute to large and evolving digital libraries.  A key usability issue
in the design of systems for such collaborative activities is how to best
support group awareness:  successful collaboration often depends on
coordinating and interleaving shared work, and this coordination depends
crucially on awareness of what others are doing (or have recently done).
In this talk I will survey issues and approaches to supporting awareness of
others' activities, in both synchronous and asynchronous collaborative work
spaces.


Biographical Sketch:
Mary Beth Rosson is Associate Professor of Computer Science at Virginia
Tech.  She has been at Virginia Tech for 5 years; prior to that she was a
Research Staff Member for 11 years at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center.
Her research interests are in development of new paradigms for research in
human-computer interaction, the use of network technology to support
collaboration, especially in learning contexts, and psychological issues in
the learning and use of the object-oriented design paradigm.

   rosson@cs.vt.edu     phone: (540) 231-6470