Activating the Social Workscape

Poster and Demonstration

Abstract: Most work carried out online is collaborative to some degree, involving activities that must be coordinated with other people. However, most user interfaces are resolutely single-user. We are exploring designs in which the single-user experience is extended to incorporate the wider social frame in which work takes place.

Based on the concepts of social networks and temporal rhythms, we present an infrastructure and tools for exploring the social workscape within which a user is embedded. Following this approach, we have developed a prototype that shows repeated temporal and social patterns within email and other communication media. This allows us to identify some key properties of social groups which can be incorportated into traditional interactive tools.

Bio: Danyel Fisher is a Ph.D. student in ICS, in the Information and Collaboration Technologies (ICT) group, working with Paul Dourish. His particular interests lie in online conversation and interaction, especially through email and shared information spaces; his research has included aspects of social network analysis and information visualization. He recieved his MS from UC Berkeley in Computer Science in 2000. He is the co-editor of the edited book "From Usenet to Cowebs: Dealing with Social Information Spaces" (Springer, 2003).