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Poster: Collaborative Information Seeking

Student: Madhu Reddy

Advisor: Paul Dourish

Abstract: Information is a central feature in organizational life and everyday activities. Although information seeking is viewed as an important aspect of collaborative work activities, we have very little empirical knowledge of how people collaborate to find needed information. We conducted a field study examining the information practices of work groups in an information-rich, high-pressure, collaborative environment. We found that information seeking practices are closely integrated into the work being conducted by these different groups. We argue that information repositories are not merely places where information is stored and retrieved, but rather places where work is done; and, conversely, that work systems need to provide people with solutions to information needs and problems. In other words, these two activities go hand-in-hand and the technologies to support them must also be intertwined.

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