Collaboration Systems and Technology Track

Track Chairs

Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN)

Topics for the minitrack papers include:

1. Theoretical frameworks that integrate aspects of theory from the fields of education or cognitive psychology (learning theories), social impacts of computing, and/or communication media.
2. Qualitative case studies or quantitative evaluations, which measure and assess how ALN courses differ from traditional Face to Face, or Computer-Assisted Instruction, or other modes of course delivery. This includes negative as well as positive impacts on processes and outcomes, for teaching staff and other stakeholders, as well as students.
3. Innovative software to support ALN or "computer-supported collaborative learning" in an anytime/anywhere format, which has actually been used and evaluated in one or more courses.
4. Innovative pedagogy using collaborative learning for ALN's in new ways (with some empirical evaluation reported to assess its effectiveness)
5. Research on social or policy issues that are related to "virtual universities."

Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs) use computer-mediated communication to support online courses of study, in which anytime, anywhere access to interactions among the students and the teacher/facilitator is a key element. Appropriate topics include:

Integrative theories; Experiences with software constructed to support ALN; Qualitative or quantitative research on pedagogical innovations or effectiveness of courses which use ALN, or policy and social issues related to "virtual universities".

Minitrack Chair

Collaborative Engineering of Processes and Systems

1. Collaborative approaches to model organizations as systems in order to gain insight into their structure, processes, and performance.
2. The (collaborative) application of this knowledge in engineering more effective organizations and information systems to provide value-added support for organizational evolution.
3. Approaches to model and design collaborative work processes and systems.

1. Approaches
   • joint modeling sessions
   • group communication, facilitation and coordination
   • analyst and stakeholder interaction and roles
   • assessment and measurement of system performance and effectiveness
   • theories and guidelines for organizational design and development
2. Modeling techniques
   • (dynamic) enterprise and process modeling
   • object-oriented modeling of organizations
   • diagramming techniques to capture time-related aspects
   • evaluation of various modeling methods used in organizational systems development
   • simulation/animation models
   • incorporation of external factors and influences
   • building flexibility and longevity into models
   • implications of choice of modeling technique
3. Supporting tools
   • interactive modeling workbenches and CASE tools
   • modeling support for (stakeholder) groups
   • simulation/animation tools
   • automated tools for model validation and consistency checking
   • use of design tools applied in organizational contexts
   • end-user development tools
4. Special application areas
   • gaming
   • (dynamic) models for decision support
   • (dynamic) models as training instruments
   • administrative logistics and project management
   • workflow management
   • production and transport chain logistics
5. Implementation issues
   • transferring models for design into actual implementations
   • change management
   • implementation success factors
   • coping with resistance to organizational change
   • impact on job content and quality of working life
   • stakeholder roles and responsibilities

Minitrack Chairs

Collaborative Systems for Social and Community Change

• New technologies to support community organizing and advocacy
• Pedagogy and technology for community and social change
• Field studies in the use of online systems to promote social and community change
• New uses of collaborative technologies to support community revitalization

Minitrack Chairs

Distributed GSS

The Distributed GSS mini-track, a staple at HICSS for the past several years, has spawned a variety of interesting research topics, discussions, approaches and methods. Past years have focused on such issues as groupware, desktop video-conferencing, media choice, distributed workgroups, telework, intranets and workflow management. The methods used to study these topics have ranged from quantitative to qualitative; from field studies to theoretical descriptions; and from lab experiments to case studies.

Continuing this tradition of diversity, we would like to solicit papers on a broad range of issues including (but not limited to) the following:

• Managing and evaluating virtual teams
• Facilitating distributed work globally in contexts such as outsourcing
• Supporting geographically distributed and culturally diverse workgroups
• Examining media differences and their impact on group work
• Building, deploying and maintaining intranets
• Understanding the antecedents and consequences of telecommuting
• Building trust and commitment in virtual teams
• Developing infrastructures for distributed teamwork
• Implementing tools such as desktop video conferencing and groupware to enable distributed collaboration
• Integrating distributed technologies to support traditional and online education
• Evaluating emerging tools for distributed collaboration including Web-based and Web-enabled devices
• Examining the convergence of technologies and industries and its impact on collaboration tools
• Exploring the differences in supporting temporally and geographically distributed workgroups
• Using Web-based tools for organizing and controlling virtual project-teams
• Integrating distributed work across technological and organizational boundaries

Minitrack Chairs

Global Applications of Collaborative Technology

While much of this technology has been developed within the cultural milieu of North America, and to a lesser extent Western Europe and Australia, the application domain is geographically and culturally much broader. Thus, not only do we see distributed groups within a single country, but also distributed groups with members from many different countries. Such applications, which span both time zones and cultures, involve considerable adaptation, interpretation and structuration of the technology to fit local norms and behaviors. In the future, it is likely that these distributed applications of the technology will become increasingly prevalent as the globalization of work intensifies and receives increased attention.

In this minitrack, we hope to present a wide-ranging set of contributions to this emerging field, focusing in particular on the practical lessons (for practitioners and researchers) that are emerging through global applications of these collaborative technologies. We are particularly interested in encouraging the submission of articles that employ field research methods (whether in the public or private sector, in profit-making or non-profit organizations, in educational, business or charitable organizations). Articles that challenge the status quo in current research and practice with respect to these collaborative technologies will be well received. With respect to epistemology, articles that espouse positivist, interpretivist or critical theory perspectives will be equally acceptable.

In general, while published examples of lab studies in cross-cultural settings exist, field studies that examine the global application of collaboration technologies are rather few and far between and as far as we are aware have not been grouped together in a single conference before. The two proposed co-chairs of this minitrack are currently editing a special section of the Communications of the ACM on this same topic - a one-off publication. The response to the call for paper for this special section has been considerably greater than was expected - some 36 submissions were received. Many of these submissions show great potential for further development, with intriguing applications described. The proposed co-chairs believe that there is considerable material in this area that can be tapped in the future - with representation from a wide variety of methodological, organizational and cultural perspectives.

Topics of relevance to this minitrack include, but are not limited to:

• Cross-cultural collaborative applications
• Organizational and inter-organizational case studies
• Theoretical frameworks
• Virtual team contexts
• Group authoring initiatives
• Video conferencing
• Synchronous & Asynchronous collaboration
• Multilingual systems that facilitate collaborative work
• Distributed software development
• Distributed education environments
• Distributed project management
• Conflict and culture
• Managing globally distributed knowledge

Minitrack Chairs

GSS Patterns: ThinkLets and Methodologies

This minitrack seeks theoretical, empirical, qualitative, interpretive, and philosophical papers relating to repeatable GSS patterns, and to the emergence of self-sustaining and growing communities of users.

Minitrack Chairs

Management of Distributed Projects
(cross-listed in the Organization Systems and Technology Track)

A number of business and technical forces are changing the fundamentals of project management as it had been developed over the past decades:

• First, advanced Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) enable cooperation in a distributed mode. Technologies like groupware and videoconferencing are increasingly becoming feasible for organizations to use in international projects.
• Second, globalization of markets and competition necessitate integration of global managerial and business processes in corporations. People working from geographically distributed sites in a given project achieve this corporate integration. Corporations expect organizational teams to cooperate on an international scale, dealing with business problems with a global impact.
• Third, organizations are increasingly adopting a strategy of global sourcing, not only in innovative sectors like microelectronics and semi-conductor industry, but also in the area of financial and business services as well as manufacturing and engineering operations. As these strategies require intensive cooperation between the organizations involved in these exchanges, projects including professionals from multiple organizations will occur.
• Fourth, cooperation from distributed sites around the world enables organizations to benefit from differences of time zones between locations. Improvement of project cycle time becomes feasible in such a distributed environment.
• Fifth, multinationals increasingly organize their R&D activities around globally distributed centers of excellence. Coordination of activities between these centers and integration with business operations require close cooperation of professionals. Thus, multinational organizations tap in local sources of competence and leverage this knowledge on a global scale. Globally distributed projects enable realization of these benefits and increase corporate performance.

Minitrack Chairs

Negotiation Support Systems

For HICSS-35, this minitrack will focus on the role of NSS in a Web-centric platform and with applications in electronic markets, with special focus on e-auctions and automated negotiation agents. The topic is the result of a feedback from HICSS-33 and -34 and keen interest in development of Web-based NSS.

This minitrack explores research issues related to the design, implementation, use and evaluation of negotiation support systems in business. Topics of special interest include, but are not limited to:

• Negotiation support in electronic markets (auctions)
• Negotiation support system and software agents
• Distributed negotiation
• Human and artificial negotiation agents environmental negotiation
• Systems to support intercultural negotiation and emotions

Minitrack Chairs

Next Generation Learning Platforms

• innovative methods and tools,
• architectures, and
• pilot projects from the area of distributed, collaborative, multimedia based authoring and learning.

The minitrack will highlight the need for integrated systems and investigate how they work best in a highly distributed web-based environment tackling problems such as

• collaborative computer aided authoring support,
• innovative design and usage of learning appliances,
• work benches for international coverage of learning topics,
• reusability support for learning fragments,
• specialized search engines,
• personalization of learning environments,
• remote tutoring support,
• on-demand retrieval of learning material on-demand and
• certification of learners achievements / quality control.

Minitrack Chairs

Prof. Dr. Max Muehlhaeuser
Darmstadt University of Technology
FB20 Telecooperation
Alexanderstr. 6, D-64283
Darmstadt, Germany
Tel: [+49](6151)16-3709
Fax: [+49](6151)16-3052
max@informatik.tu-darmstadt.de

Joerg M. Haake
GMD-IPSI
Dolivostr. 15
D-64293 Darmstadt
Germany
Tel: +49 6151 869 918
Fax: +49 6151 869 963
haake@darmstadt.gmd.de

Technology Supported Learning

• Innovative, theoretically grounded course tools with demonstrable learning outcomes.
• Theoretically grounded experiments that provide insight into the efficacy of TSL tools or techniques.
• Case studies or Action Research that investigates the effects of technology on learning
• Cases or qualitative accounts of TSL adoption/diffusion that identify cause and effect factors that contribute to the success or failure of diffusion across multiple courses, degree programs, or schools.
• Social, political, and ethical issues relating to TSL

• Increase understanding of learning phenomena,
• Examine the role of Information Technology in support of learning in the workplace and in schools
• Provide a forum for intellectual interchange in the domain of IT and learning
• Distribute research findings on Technology-Supported Learning
• Foster a community of technology researchers working in the learning domain

• TECHNOLOGIES
  • Just-in-time learning tools
  • Group Support Systems for learning
  • AI and Computer-aided instruction,
  • On-line tutorials
  • Hypermedia and learning Internet for learning
  • Technology for asynchronous course work
  • Other learning support tools
• LEARNERS
  • The nature of learning and implications for technological intervention
  • Processes and techniques for successful use of automated learning
  • Philosophical analysis of the role of electronic tools in learning
• FACULTY
  • Technology and the changing role of the instructor and student
  • Emerging skills required for teaching in technology-enhanced environments
  • Philosophical analysis of the role of technology to change learning processes
• PEDAGOGY TRANSFORMATION / EVALUATION
  • Telearning and teleteaching
  • Changing pedagogy for changing technology
  • Simulations and games
  • Methods and techniques for teaching with IT
  • New approaches to on-line tutorials
  • Comparisons of new tools and techniques to traditional methods, as well as comparisons of new techniques to one another
  • Descriptive and interpretivist field research that documents problems relating to technology supported learning
• INSTITUTIONAL AND SOCIETAL CHANGE
  • Implications of learning support technologies on the workplace, institutions of learning, and society
  • Technology and Organizational Learning
• TECHNOLOGY TRANSITION IN THE LEARNING COMMUNITY
  • Theoretical foundations for transition
  • Field experience with adoption and diffusion
  • Pragmatic and academic approaches to transition

Minitrack Chairs

Brad Wheeler
Department of Accounting & Information Systems
Kelley School of Business
Indiana University
1309 East Tenth Street
Bloomington, IN 47405
Tel: Office 812.855.3478
Fax: 812.855.8679
Tel: Home 812.334.2723
bwheeler@indiana.edu
http://wheeler.kelley.indiana.edu

User Experience:Collaboration Systems and Knowledge Management

This minitrack will focus on user experience from real organizations and real problems. The technological and process advances gained through years of research and practical experience are shared by the authors of papers in this session. The papers should describe the recent advances in groupware and knowledge management development and experiences. The authors should share insights and knowledge gained from their experiences.

You may consult last year’s program for a list of titles from HICSS-34 in this minitrack. The papers in this session describe efforts in process design and planning, and development of practical guidelines for collaboration and knowledge management. The papers should discuss insight and lessons learned to real world applications.

Minitrack Chair

Wireless Mobile Collaboration

• What types of wireless mobile technologies are available for collaboration and what is likely to emerge in the future?
• What types of infrastructure -- technology and human -- is required for successful deployment?
• Can wireless mobile technologies be used effectively by people collaborating with each other?
• How do regional, cultural, or regulatory differences influence deployment success?
• Why and how will people accept and embrace wireless mobile technologies?
• In what ways have, and will, people appropriate and adapt wireless mobile technologies?
• What effects will the use of wireless mobile technologies have on the processes and outcomes of individuals, groups, organizations, or society?
• How can wireless mobile technologies be deployed and managed effectively?

A broad range of topics and research approaches will be examined within the WMC minitrack. We are particularly interested in those topics that are likely to promote discussion within the sessions. These topics include, but are not limited to:

• Conceptual/theory development papers that are well focused, logically argued, and have the potential to define the scope of WMC research and practice;
• Experimental papers that are theoretically motivated, yet whose findings have the potential to interest practitioners;
• Field studies that develop new insight that has the potential to change current practice or lead to new theories;
• System design and development papers that move beyond the description of systems and their use by building new concepts for the design and use of future systems in a variety of settings;
• User adoption, acceptance, and diffusion of WMC technology papers for specific environments and / or applications; and
  • User experiences that describe the deployment and management of WMC technologies in education (e.g., wireless campus), organizations (e.g., mobile wireless workforce), and society (e.g., wireless shopping malls).

Minitrack Chair