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Information Science Colloquium
Attention in Distributed Collaboration

Speaker: Jeremy Birnholtz, Assistant Professor of Communication, Cornell University

Date: Wednesday, October 10; 4:00p - 5:00p

Location: 5130 Upson

Note: 3:45 - 4:00p will be our reception, in the 5th Floor Upson Lounge. Following the talk, the reception will continue from 5:00 - 5:15p.

Abstract:

As work in geographically distributed groups becomes more common, it is increasingly important to provide fluid and natural support for shifts in attention between simultaneous activities. People frequently move between tasks, points of visual focus, and conversations in various media. Existing theories of attention and coordination, however, do not provide an adequate framework for understanding and addressing these phenomena at the detailed level

required for the effective design of technologies that are attention-sensitive and unobtrusive. In this talk, I present results from two exploratory studies in making the argument that theories of common ground in communication can be used as a guiding framework for better understanding attention in collaborative tasks. In the first study, a field study of open-plan offices, I illustrate how attention can be used to reshape our understanding of interpersonal awareness. In the second, a laboratory study, I show the performance benefits of an automated camera control system for groups performing a collaborative task, and use these results to extend prior theory via the notion of "coupling" in providing shared visual information.

Bio:

Jeremy Birnholtz is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University. Jeremy received his Ph. D. from the School of Information at the University of Michigan in 2005 and recently completed a postdoc in the Knowledge Media Design Institute at the University of Toronto. He is interested in improving the usefulness and usability of collaboration technologies, and in the intersections of social science theory and technology design. He has conducted field research in a diverse range of settings including civil engineering laboratories around the US, the CERN particle accelerator in Geneva, and a children's summer camp in northern Michigan. Jeremy also received a B.S. degree in Radio/TV/Film from Northwestern University in 1996 and an MS in Information from the University of Michigan in 2001.

For more information, please contact Phoebe Sengers.

9-19-2007 Sarah