Tutorials

TUTORIAL 1: 9 a. m. - 4 p. m.

USER INTERFACE DESIGN FOR E-COMMERCE AND PERFORMANCE TOOLS with Aaron Marcus

Skillful user-interface and information visualization (UI+IV) design for e-commerce and performance tools is crucial to the success of innovative products and services. Effective organization and display of knowledge is especially important for applications of finance, healthcare, travel, education, and telecommunications as ubiquitous computers are absorbed into consumer products intended for diverse, international user communities. This tutorial will give researchers and developers valuable insight into key development issues and show how to achieve effective visual communication. The tutorial will introduce terminology, principles, guidelines, and techniques for designing metaphors, mental models, navigation, interaction, and appearance and provide case studies to show the benefits of good design.

Aaron Marcus, President of Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc., with offices in California and New York, is a pioneer, visionary, and industry leader in user- interface and information-visualization design. He was one of the world's first professional visual designers of computer graphics at AT&T Bell Labs, 1967. Since 1980, he has given tutorials at HICSS, SIGCHI, HCII, and SIGGRAPH conferences and at client sites internationally. He was the keynote speaker for SIGGRAPH 80 and keynote panel chair for SIGCHI99. He has written or co-authored four books and over 100 articles. Aaron@AMandA.com
 

TUTORIAL 2: 9 a. m. - 4 p. m.

WORKFLOW AUTOMATION: STATE OF THE ART AND RESEARCH CHALLENGES with Ted Stohr, Michael zur Muehlen, Carsten Huth, and J. Leon Zhao

This full-day tutorial provides an introduction to workflow automation. We provide an overview of the field, discuss issues arising from practice, demonstrate a commercial workflow management system (WFMS), and provide directions for future research. No prior knowledge of the subject will be assumed. Empirical studies show that the benefits of workflow automation can be dramatic. However, according to other studies, up to 50% of workflow projects end in failure. Our tutorial will provide a balanced view of workflow automation, stressing both managerial and technical considerations that are needed to develop successful applications.

We start with a managerial overview and provide some terminology and a discussion of the functions provided by a Workflow Management Systems (WFMS). This is followed by a demonstration of a commercial, state-of-the art WFMS, which also provides an overview of industry developments in the workflow area. Following this, we provide an overview of the important international standards that are in the process of development in the workflow area, and we will use this as a springboard to propose criteria for selecting a WFMS and developing a workflow-enabled process.

The last half of the tutorial covers a number of research issues. The first of these issues is the need to represent the organizational design as well as the process design within the WFMS. The organizational design includes the work relations in the business processes, the identification of the organizational members who carry out the work, and the information used in these organizational processes. This section of the tutorial provides an innovative and integrated approach to organization design and to the workflow technology needed to support this approach.

A discussion then follows about the management of interorganizational workflow systems, and, especially, of applications in electronic commerce that are pushing considerations of workflow management to the forefront. Important workflow applications include procurement management, payment processing, supply chain management, Internet-based auctions, and electronic market coordination. We close with an open discussion of research issues in the realm of workflow automation.

Michael zur Muehlen received a master's degree in information systems (Dipl.- Wirt. Inform.) from the University of Muenster, Germany, in 1997. He is a research assistant at the Department of Information Systems of the University of Muenster, with Prof. Dr. Joerg Becker, visiting lecturer at the University of Tartu, Estonia, and a lecturer at the Institute for Applied Computer Science of the University of Muenster in the fields of software project management and management of internet projects. Mr. zur Muehlen has participated in several industry projects, including a long-term business process redesign project of Germany's second largest facility management company, the identification of workflow-fit processes and the selec- tion and introduction of a workflow management system at a public utility enterprise and the introduction of SAP Business Workflow in an industrial enterprise. He haspublished several articles on the topics of meta modeling, process and workflow management. His main research interests include organizational aspects of workflow management systems, meta modeling, process and resource management. Mr. zur Muehlen is a member of the German Computer Society (GI), the Technical Committee of the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) and holds the chair of the WfMC working group "Resource Model". ismizu@wi.uni-muenster.de

Marcus Ott received his PhD and Masters in Business Computing (Diplome- Wirtschaftsinformatiker) from the University of Paderborn. His coursework included areas of concentration in organization theory and production management, computer operating systems and databases, and office systems and systems analysis. Dr. Ott's dissertation and research project ÒGroupOrga - Distributed and Participative Organization DesignÓ was part of workflow management activities and dealt with a distributed and Groupware-based, team-driven organizational design ap- proach for innovative office and workflow management systems. Dr. Ott also studied toward an MBA at Monash University with an awarded scholarship from the German foreign exchange association, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), while working as a freelance workflow consultant for Competitive Marketing Australia (CMA) and for PAVONE Informationssysteme GmbH. Since April 1999, Dr. Ott has been Key Manager for Babcock Dienstleistungs- GmbH (BDL). His primary responsibility is the organizational engineering and development of the Oberhausen-based Lotus Premium Partner. A feature of this is the conceptualization and design of BDLs workflow activities. Further information about Marcus Ott or the GroupOrga project can be found at gcc.uni-paderborn.de/GroupOrga. obbdl@bdl-ob.de

Eward Stohr holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree from Melbourne University, Australia, and M.B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Information Science from the University of California, Berkeley. For the period 1984-95 he served as Chairman of the Information Systems Department at the Stern School of Business, New York University. Currently, he is Director of the Center for Information Intensive Organizations at the Stern School. In 1992, Professor Stohr served as chairman of the executive board of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). He is on the editorial boards of several journals including the Journal of Information Systems Research, the International Journal of Decision Support Systems, and the Journal of Management Information Systems. Professor Stohr's research focuses on the problems of developing computer systems to support work and decision making in organizations. estohr@stern.nyu.edu

J. Leon Zhao is an Associate Professor in Information Systems at the University of Arizona and has taught in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the College of William and Mary. He holds a Ph.D in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. His current research focuses on development of database and workflow technologies and their applications in electronic commerce, procurement automation, and supply chain integration. He has published in Management Science, IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, Decision Support Systems, Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, and Journal of Intelligent Information Systems. jlzhao@u.arizona.edu
 

TUTORIAL 3: 9 a. m. - Noon

DISTRIBUTED COLLABORATION: TOOLS & METHODS TO SUPPORT SOFTWARE ENGINEERING with Douglas L. Dean, Ann M. Hickey, James D. Lee, and Jay F. Nunamaker, Jr.

Researchers at the University of Arizona have worked for the past several years to create collaborative groupware tools, procedures, and facilitation techniques that will enable groups of end-users to participate effectively in different phases of the software engineering process. This research has resulted in a new methodology, the Collaborative Software Engineering Methodology (CSEM), that combines general purpose Group Support Systems tools with advanced collaborative modeling tools with the best elements of systematic re-use, data integration, and rapid prototyping methods in order to produce integrated and interoperable systems.

The first generation of these collaborative tools included GroupSystems Activity Modeler, Group Data Modeler, and Windows Group Writer and focused primarily on support for face-to-face meetings. The second generation of tools have been designed to support both face-to-face and distributed meetings. Distributed collaboration presents a whole new set of challenges, both in development of tools and in methods to support the meeting environment.

Many of these tools were developed to support the specialized needs of software requirements and engineering activities. For example, the Collaborative Distributed Scenario and Process Analyzer (ColD SPA) was developed to support the capture of scenario and process information used during the require- ments phase of systems development. Others, such as Java GroupWriter, can be used to support more general group processes and activities. We will present lessons learned using these tools and methods for distributed collaboration. An overview of the methods, issues and challenges related to distributed meetings, and a demonstration of the second generation tools developed to support distributed collaboration will be presented. Tools include Collaborative Distributed Scenario and Process Analyzer (ColD SPA), CoReview (used for collaborative code inspections and documentation), and Java GroupWriter.

Douglas L. Dean is a research scientist, facilitator, and consultant at the Center for Management Information (CMI) at the University of Arizona. He received his Ph.D in MIS from the University of Arizona in 1995. His expertise includes electronic meeting system support of modeling, business process improvement, and information systems requirements collection. ddean@cmi.arizona.edu

Ann M. Hickey is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. She received her PhD in MIS from the University of Arizona in 1999. Dr. Hickey has also worked as a program manager and senior systems analyst for the Department of Defense. Her interests include collaborative requirements elicitation, systems analysis, and scenario and process modeling. ahickey@cmi.arizona.edu

James D. Lee is research scientist, consultant, and facilitator for CMI at the University of Arizona. He received his PhD in MIS from the University of Arizona in 1995. Dr. Lee's expertise includes electronic meeting support for activity/data modeling, BPR, systems analysis and design, and activity-based costing. He has developed software prototypes to support collaborative activity and data modeling. jlee@cmi.arizona.edu

Jay F. Nunamaker is Regents and Soldwedel Professor of MIS and Computer Science, and Director of the Center for the Management of Information at the University of Arizona. He founded the University's MIS department in 1974, and under his leadership, it has become known for expertise in collaboration technology and the technical aspects of MIS. Dr. Nunamaker's research interests include Group Support Systems and computer-aided support of systems analysis and design. nunamaker@bpa.arizona.edu
 

TUTORIAL 4: 9 a. m. - Noon

APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY TO INFORMATION SYSTEMS with Brian Whitworth and Janet Sniezek

This tutorial's aim is to illustrate applications of psychology to information systems, both current and potential. As IS develops beyond simple information processing, it inevitably moves into human areas, like online relationships and groups, where psychological primitives often underlie software and hardware primitives, and systems that do not ÒfitÓ people tend to fail. The sharp, positivistic world of computer engineering must then deal with the fuzzy, cognitive world of human activity. Consideration will begin with the individual, progress to interpersonal relationships and finish with group interaction. Areas considered include the brain, maturation, perception, motivation, emotions, social cognition, relationships and small groups. Each area will present a key concept with examples, and consider its relevance to IS. Attendee contributions will be welcome, as we seek to stimulate rather than convince, have the first word not the last, and open new lines of thought rather than deliver completed ones. This tutorial is for those interested in exploring the boundary between psychology and information systems.

Brian Whitworth is Assistant Professor, Department of Computer and Information Science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. After completing degrees in both psychology and mathematics, he received an M.A.(Hons.) in neuro-psychology from Auckland University, studying the implications of split-brain research. In the army he was the only specialist officer to complete the rigorous New Zealand Army Officer Cadet Training course. As Senior Army Psychologist he was responsible for officer selection boards, counseling and psychological testing. Moving into computing, he developed operational software and simulations, working in liaison with the Australian, Singapore and Malaysian Army War Game Centers. For the last ten years he has studied distributed electronic groups, completing a doctorate at Waikato University on generating agreement in computer-mediated groups. He designed and wrote the groupware that this experiment used, and is currently developing a version to simulate psychological aspects of group interaction, like roles, privacy, norms, sanctions, identification, ownership, leadership and delegation. He has written on the cognitive aspects of computer-mediated groups, the measurement of agreement, how general biological and social system concepts can carry over into IS design, and given presentations in Malaysia, Singapore and the United States. bwhtwrth@manukau.ac.nz

Janet A. Sniezek is Professor of Psychology and Business Administration and member of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received a PhD in Psychology from Purdue University and subsequently held faculty positions in Psychological Sciences at Purdue, and in organizational behavior and the Center for Behavioral and Economic Decision Research at the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University, and in behavioral sciences in the Center for Decision Research in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. Dr. Sniezek's research interests include the areas of judgmental forecasting, uncertainty assessment, decision technologies, and social decision making.

Dr. Sniezek is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Forecasting and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Her research has been published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Journal of Occupational Psychology, International Journal of Forecasting, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Group and Organization Studies, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, and presented before audiences in Canada, England, Finland, Israel, Italy, the U.S.S.R., and the United States. jsniezek@s.psych.uiuc.edu
 

TUTORIAL 5: 9 a. m. - Noon (Workshop)

PERSISTENT CONVERSATION with Tom Erickson and Susan Herring

The goal of the Persistent Conversation workshop is to set the stage for a dialog between CMC researchers and designers that will continue during the minitrack. The core of the workshop will consist of the examination of two cases: 1) a research approach to analyzing CMC, and 2) a CMC system design. Each case will be analyzed and discussed, with particular attention paid to the connections between design and research, and the questions and implications that each raises for the other.

These two cases will provide a common ground and starting point for the minitrack dialogue, as well as allowing participants to become familiar with the disciplinary perspectives represented in the minitrack. Those who have papers in the Persistent Conversation minitrack are automatically accepted to the workshop; a limited number of other HICSS attendees will be considered for admission. Interested parties should contact the workshop organizers.

Thomas Erickson is a Research Staff Member at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center. He specializes in studying and designing systems for supporting network-mediated interaction in groups and organizations; his approach to systems design is shaped by work in sociology, rhetoric, architecture and urban design. Before IBM he spent nine years in Apple's research division, and five years as a "user interface czar" in a small start-up. snowfall@acm.org

Susan Herring is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Texas at Arlington. She specializes in analyzing naturalistic computer-mediated communication on the Internet, especially that which takes place in public discussion groups and chat rooms. Her approach makes use of methods of discourse analysis and sociolinguistics to identify patterns of interaction and contextual factors which shape interaction in systematic ways. Along these lines, she is editing a collection of papers on "Computer-Mediated Conversation" for Oxford University Press. susan@ling.uta.edu
 

TUTORIAL 6: 1 p. m - 4 p. m.

TECHNOLOGY SUPPORTED LEARNING with Jay F. Nunamaker and Robert O. Briggs

This tutorial will focus on the process of creating a technology-supported learning infrastructure within an organization. Technology for learning takes many forms, ranging from one-way video broadcasts to web-based tutorials to computer-based instruction to fully-interactive on-line virtual learning environments with two way audio-video, 3D virtual spaces, shared digital objects, and a host of collaborative services. When deployed appropriately, technology can enhance and speed the learning process.

Even the simplest technologies can provide people with rich, engaging experiences that provide meaningful contexts within which learners can frame their learning. However, technology alone is not sufficient. An organization may only become self-sustaining with learning technology by dealing directly with a host of economic, social, political, economic, and cognitive issues. In this tutorial you will hear first hand about these issues from people who are energetically engaged in creating large-scale technology-supported learning infrastructures. You'll hear the war stories, the victories, the heartbreaking failures. They will discuss lessons learned the hard way, best practices, and guidelines. They will also explore the unanswered research questions that still must be addressed by the technology-supported learning academic community. Finally, veteran researchers and funding agencies will offer insights about how successfully to apply for and acquire funding for your technology-supported learning research.

Jay F. Nunamaker is Regents and Soldwedel Professor of MIS and Computer Science, and Director of the Center for the Management of Information at the University of Arizona. He founded the University's MIS department in 1974, and under his leadership, it has become known for expertise in collaboration technology and the technical aspects of MIS. Dr. Nunamaker's research interests include Group Support Systems and computer-aided support of systems analysis and design. nunamaker@bpa.arizona.edu

Robert O. Briggs investigates the use of technology to improve group productivity as a Research Fellow in the Center for the Management of Information at the University of Arizona. His work includes theoretical modeling of group productivity to support the design, development, use, and evaluation of new technologies developed at the Center. Recent work examines the use of Group Support Systems in the classroom to support cross-disciplinary problem-based learning. Dr. Briggs holds a PhD in information systems from the University of Arizona, and received his MBA and B.S. in information systems, as well as a B.S. in art history from San Diego State University. bbriggs@cmi.arizona.edu
 

TUTORIAL 7: 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

DESIGNING COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGY EXPERIMENTS with Alan Dennis and Joe Valacich

The goal of this tutorial is to facilitate a workshop on designing collaboration technology experiments. Prior to attending the workshop, participants should have developed an idea for an experiment, and have spent some time thinking through its key elements.

The workshop will begin by presenting a template for designing collaboration technology experiments. It will then briefly review several prior research projects using this template by examining each studyÕs research question(s), motivating theory, research design, analysis approach, and results, so that participants under- stand how to use the template.

In the second part of the workshop, participants will be organized into small workgroups. Each participant will design their experiment using this template and then present the design to other members of their workgroup. The facilitators and participants will critique each presentation to enhance and refine the design. Our goal is to help researchers design an experiment that could be publishable in leading MIS, management, and psychology journals.

Alan R. Dennis is a professor in the MIS Department in the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia. He has a Bachelor of Computer Science from Acadia University, an M.B.A. from Queen's University and his PhD from the University of Arizona. His research focuses on groupware and Internet technologies and led to the development of Consensus @nyWARE, a Web-based groupware system by Soft Bicycle Corporation.

Dr. Dennis is the Department Editor for Groupware at DataBase and is an Associate Editor for MIS Quarterly. His research has appeared many leading journals, including MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Management Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Academy of Management Journal. adennis@uga.edu

Joseph S. Valacich is George and Carolyn Hubman Distinguished Professor in Information Systems for the College of Business and Economics at Washington State University, Pullman. He received the B.S. degree in Computer Science and M.B.A. from the University of Montana, and the PhD degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Arizona. His current research interests include technology-mediated group decision-making, electronic commerce, the diffusion of technology in organizations, and distance learning.

Dr. Valacich serves on the editorial board of Small Group Research and is an Associate Editor for MIS Quarterly. His past research has appeared in publications such as MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Management Science, Academy of Management Journal, Communications of the ACM, Decision Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of Management, Communication Research, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Small Group Research, Information and Management, Decision Support Systems, Group Decision and Negotiation, and Journal of Computer Mediated Cooperative Work. jsv@mail.wsu.edu
 

TUTORIAL 8: 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL - Theory, Application, Evaluation with Fredric C. Gey

Information Retrieval algorithms support the computerized search of large document collections (millions of documents) to retrieve small subsets of documents relevant to a user's information need. Such algorithms are the basis for internet search engines and digital library catalogues.

Application areas are foreign language retrieval (for example Chinese where there are no word boundaries) and cross-language retrieval (where queries on one language are used to search document collections in another language), text summarization (wherein brief summaries of long documents are automatically constructed), and speech and broadcast retrieval. A new area which is receiving attention is music information retrieval.

Search engine performance can be subject to unbiased, objective large scale testing (hundreds of queries against millions of documents) as done in the Text REtrieval Conferences (TREC) sponsored by DOD Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

This course is designed to provide a fast-paced introduction to Information Retrieval and its application areas for academic and industrial researchers whose background is not in the Information Retrieval area. The attendees will obtain a basic understanding of models upon which modern text retrieval software is based, and how search engine performance is measured. The tutorial should provide each participant with a starting point for further self-education.

Fredric Gey's research specializes in probabilistic techniques, and cross-langauge retrieval of Asian Languages. He directs the UC Berkeley entries to the TREC conferences, and was the General Chairman for Association for Computing Machinery's SIGIR99, the 22nd Annual Conference of Research and Development in Information Retrieval, held at the University of California, Berkeley in August, 1999. He holds a PhD in Information Science from UC Berkeley. He is principal investigator of NSF grant IRI-9630765 ("Probabilistic Retrieval of Full-Text Document Collections Using Logistic Regression") and co- principal investigator of the DARPA research contract "Search Support for Unfamiliar Metadata"(1997-2000).