Collective Search - a prototype

A Social Proxy for Collective Search Thomas Erickson IBM T. J. Watson Research Center CSCW 2010 Collective Information Search Workshop February 7, 2010 Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

About me
Tom Erickson
Where: Social Computing Group, IBM Research
Expertise: Qualitative Social Science + Interaction Design
Interests: CSCW, CMC, Social Computation, Urban Informatics, Visualization
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

Key Points
How might we design to support CIS?
Claim 1: Support self-organization and coordination by providing a shared visualization of the presence and activities of participants
Claim 2: Think in terms of an interaction ecology • how to draw people in • how to show them what can be done • how to coax them into more involved interactions
To see how this works, lets revisit the design sketch in my paper…

A three minute demo
A scenario
Our protagonist is Tim
Tim has been trying to install an application called “Cocoon,” but the install keeps failing

A three minute demo
Tim goes to the main Search Party page where there’s a list of current searches
He can scan down the list, and if curious he can take a peek

A three minute demo
He takes a closer look at one by clicking on the triangle
If he wished, he could join the search, but it doesn’t seem that relevant

A three minute demo
So Tim starts a new search
He calls it “Cocoon Install Failure”

A three minute demo
A search window appears
On the left is a visualization
On the right is a chat-and-search pane
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. The dot represents Tim The circle represents the chat-and-search pane

A three minute demo
Tim starts the search
In the chat he enters his query: “Install Cocoon on Websphere”
The visualization shows the query and the result set it has produced
Tim clicks on the small square to see the results in a new window
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. The line represents the query The square represents the search results (which Tim can look at in his web browser)

A three minute demo
MEANWHILE, back in the overview window, ‘Red’ notices Tim’s search

A three minute demo
Red peeks at the search, and decides to join it

A three minute demo
Red joins Tim’s search, and her presence is reflected in the visualization (as a dot)
Now Tim knows he has company
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. Because Red is only watching, she’s shown on the periphery

A three minute demo
Tim reports on the results
Seeing that someone is watching, Tim reports on the current set of results: “No good! Over 700 hits”

A three minute demo
Red makes a suggestion about how to refine the query
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. When Red types a chat utterance, her dot moves into the chat-and-search room, showing that she’s more involved

A three minute demo
Tim refines the query and executes a new search
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. The new search iteration generates a new line segment (for the query) and a new square (for the results)

A three minute demo
MEANWHILE, other onlookers show up. Tim is motivated by their apparent interest

A three minute demo
Tim inspects the new results and reports back
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. Tim goes to his browser to look at the results ... and reports back in the chat

A three minute demo
Another onlooker contributes
Jil makes a suggestion...
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. When Jil ‘talks’ in the chat, her dot moves inward

A three minute demo
And then does a search herself
… and so on…
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. When Jil does the search, she moves inward again

Recap of key points
Making the presence and activity of others visible through the social proxy and the content of the chat window
Using the visible activity to entice people into participating by providing a ladder of progressively more engaged activities

Collective Search - a prototype

by Thomas Erickson

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