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Interactive Aspects of the “Problem Solving” Process in Online Communities Christopher Lueg School of Computing University of Tasmania & ARC Research Network in Enterprise Information Infrastructure (EII). Background (I). Online communities Independent of geographic boundaries
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Interactive Aspects of the “Problem Solving” Processin Online CommunitiesChristopher LuegSchool of ComputingUniversity of Tasmania&ARC Research Networkin Enterprise Information Infrastructure (EII)
Background (I) Online communities • Independent of geographic boundaries • New “tribes”(Usenet/NetNews, Web forums but also social networking sites such as MySpace, FaceBook) • Different types including communities of practice, communities of interest (e.g., Carutenuto et al. 1999)
Background (II) Focus: Online tourism communities • People voluntarily helping other people make the most out of their trip • $$$$$Growing influence on Australia’s multi billion dollar tourism industry:--What places are worth going to? --How much time to spend at <some place>?--Worth spending $$$ on harbour bridge climb?
Collaboration Issues (I) Online tourism communities • Predominently communities of interest • “Intense collaboration” not an issuealso little technology support available:standard internet access at home, internet cafes while travelling,limited mobile internet access etc.(“everyday technology”) • ... but other distinct challenges!
Collaboration Issues (II) • Preliminary research suggests “problem solving” metaphor often inadequate: it’s about supporting information sharing & interaction! • How to encourage participation?(well-researched topic in the social sciences) • How to enable & support interaction within given technological constraints?
Interaction Challenges Given the constraints of everyday technology eg • How to identify / represent shared understanding? (eg emerging schedules) • How to represent alternatives? • How to utilize different types of media?(textual, graphic, movies, G**gle Earth, etc.) • ...
Relevance Beyond Tourism “supporting directed voluntary interaction” Examples: • Classic: Open Source software dev. • Research collaborations • Community development • ... Related areas: distributed decision making, distributed cognition, situation awareness, etc.
ARC Research Network in Enterprise Information Infrastructure • Activities framed in terms ofResearch Programs and Taskforces • Currently co-ordinating (with Jennie Carroll, Univ. of Sydney) Taskforce in “Mobile Information Access” • Just proposed (with Amanda Spink, QUT) “Information Use” Research Program • Join us!!! :-)
Thanks for listening! Christopher Lueg christopher.lueg@utas.edu.au