Online Communities and Social Computing: Third International Conference, OCSC 2009, Held as Part of HCI International 2009, San Diego, CA, USA, July ... Applications, incl. Internet Web, and HCI)

Lecture Notes in Computer Science Commenced Publication in 1973 Founding and Former Series Editors: Gerhard Goos, Juris Hartmanis, and Jan van Leeuwen

Editorial Board David Hutchison Lancaster University, UK Takeo Kanade Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Josef Kittler University of Surrey, Guildford, UK Jon M. Kleinberg Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA Alfred Kobsa University of California, Irvine, CA, USA Friedemann Mattern ETH Zurich, Switzerland John C. Mitchell Stanford University, CA, USA Moni Naor Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel Oscar Nierstrasz University of Bern, Switzerland C. Pandu Rangan Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India Bernhard Steffen University of Dortmund, Germany Madhu Sudan Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA, USA Demetri Terzopoulos University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA Doug Tygar University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA Gerhard Weikum Max-Planck Institute of Computer Science, Saarbruecken, Germany

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A. Ant Ozok Panayiotis Zaphiris (Eds.)

Online Communities and Social Computing Third International Conference, OCSC 2009 Held as Part of HCI International 2009 San Diego, CA, USA, July 19-24, 2009 Proceedings

13

Volume Editors A. Ant Ozok UMBC, Department of Information Systems 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA E-mail: [email protected] Panayiotis Zaphiris Cyprus University of Technology Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts 3036 Lemesos, Cyprus E-mail: [email protected]

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009928838 CR Subject Classification (1998): K.4-6, K.8, C.2, H.5, H.4, H.3, J.1, J.3 LNCS Sublibrary: SL 3 – Information Systems and Application, incl. Internet/Web and HCI ISSN ISBN-10 ISBN-13

0302-9743 3-642-02773-3 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York 978-3-642-02773-4 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. springer.com © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009 Printed in Germany Typesetting: Camera-ready by author, data conversion by Scientific Publishing Services, Chennai, India Printed on acid-free paper SPIN: 12708697 06/3180 543210

Foreword

The 13th International Conference on Human–Computer Interaction, HCI International 2009, was held in San Diego, California, USA, July 19–24, 2009, jointly with the Symposium on Human Interface (Japan) 2009, the 8th International Conference on Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics, the 5th International Conference on Universal Access in Human–Computer Interaction, the Third International Conference on Virtual and Mixed Reality, the Third International Conference on Internationalization, Design and Global Development, the Third International Conference on Online Communities and Social Computing, the 5th International Conference on Augmented Cognition, the Second International Conference on Digital Human Modeling, and the First International Conference on Human Centered Design. A total of 4,348 individuals from academia, research institutes, industry and governmental agencies from 73 countries submitted contributions, and 1,397 papers that were judged to be of high scientific quality were included in the program. These papers address the latest research and development efforts and highlight the human aspects of the design and use of computing systems. The papers accepted for presentation thoroughly cover the entire field of human–computer interaction, addressing major advances in knowledge and effective use of computers in a variety of application areas. This volume, edited by A. Ant Ozok and Panayiotis Zaphiris, contains papers in the thematic area of Online Communities and Social Computing, addressing the following major topics: • • • • •

Designing and Developing Online Communities Social Behavior of Humans and Artificial Agents in Online Communities Web 2.0: Emerging Challenges Learning, Education and Culture Online Games Online Communities and Society

The remaining volumes of the HCI International 2009 proceedings are: • • • • •

Volume 1, LNCS 5610, Human–Computer Interaction––New Trends (Part I), edited by Julie A. Jacko Volume 2, LNCS 5611, Human–Computer Interaction––Novel Interaction Methods and Techniques (Part II), edited by Julie A. Jacko Volume 3, LNCS 5612, Human–Computer Interaction––Ambient, Ubiquitous and Intelligent Interaction (Part III), edited by Julie A. Jacko Volume 4, LNCS 5613, Human–Computer Interaction––Interacting in Various Application Domains (Part IV), edited by Julie A. Jacko Volume 5, LNCS 5614, Universal Access in Human–Computer Interaction––Addressing Diversity (Part I), edited by Constantine Stephanidis

VI

Foreword

• • • • • • • • • • •

Volume 6, LNCS 5615, Universal Access in Human–Computer Interaction––Intelligent and Ubiquitous Interaction Environments (Part II), edited by Constantine Stephanidis Volume 7, LNCS 5616, Universal Access in Human–Computer Interaction––Applications and Services (Part III), edited by Constantine Stephanidis Volume 8, LNCS 5617, Human Interface and the Management of Information––Designing Information Environments (Part I), edited by Michael J. Smith and Gavriel Salvendy Volume 9, LNCS 5618, Human Interface and the Management of Information––Information and Interaction (Part II), edited by Gavriel Salvendy and Michael J. Smith Volume 10, LNCS 5619, Human Centered Design, edited by Masaaki Kurosu Volume 11, LNCS 5620, Digital Human Modeling, edited by Vincent G. Duffy Volume 13, LNCS 5622, Virtual and Mixed Reality, edited by Randall Shumaker Volume 14, LNCS 5623, Internationalization, Design and Global Development, edited by Nuray Aykin Volume 15, LNCS 5624, Ergonomics and Health Aspects of Work with Computers, edited by Ben-Tzion Karsh Volume 16, LNAI 5638, The Foundations of Augmented Cognition: Neuroergonomics and Operational Neuroscience, edited by Dylan Schmorrow, Ivy Estabrooke and Marc Grootjen Volume 17, LNAI 5639, Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics, edited by Don Harris

I would like to thank the Program Chairs and the members of the Program Boards of all thematic areas, listed below, for their contribution to the highest scientific quality and the overall success of HCI International 2009.

Ergonomics and Health Aspects of Work with Computers Program Chair: Ben-Tzion Karsh Arne Aarås, Norway Pascale Carayon, USA Barbara G.F. Cohen, USA Wolfgang Friesdorf, Germany John Gosbee, USA Martin Helander, Singapore Ed Israelski, USA Waldemar Karwowski, USA Peter Kern, Germany Danuta Koradecka, Poland Kari Lindström, Finland

Holger Luczak, Germany Aura C. Matias, Philippines Kyung (Ken) Park, Korea Michelle M. Robertson, USA Michelle L. Rogers, USA Steven L. Sauter, USA Dominique L. Scapin, France Naomi Swanson, USA Peter Vink, The Netherlands John Wilson, UK Teresa Zayas-Cabán, USA

Foreword

Human Interface and the Management of Information Program Chair: Michael J. Smith Gunilla Bradley, Sweden Hans-Jörg Bullinger, Germany Alan Chan, Hong Kong Klaus-Peter Fähnrich, Germany Michitaka Hirose, Japan Jhilmil Jain, USA Yasufumi Kume, Japan Mark Lehto, USA Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, USA Shogo Nishida, Japan Robert Proctor, USA Youngho Rhee, Korea

Anxo Cereijo Roibás, UK Katsunori Shimohara, Japan Dieter Spath, Germany Tsutomu Tabe, Japan Alvaro D. Taveira, USA Kim-Phuong L. Vu, USA Tomio Watanabe, Japan Sakae Yamamoto, Japan Hidekazu Yoshikawa, Japan Li Zheng, P.R. China Bernhard Zimolong, Germany

Human–Computer Interaction Program Chair: Julie A. Jacko Sebastiano Bagnara, Italy Sherry Y. Chen, UK Marvin J. Dainoff, USA Jianming Dong, USA John Eklund, Australia Xiaowen Fang, USA Ayse Gurses, USA Vicki L. Hanson, UK Sheue-Ling Hwang, Taiwan Wonil Hwang, Korea Yong Gu Ji, Korea Steven Landry, USA

Gitte Lindgaard, Canada Chen Ling, USA Yan Liu, USA Chang S. Nam, USA Celestine A. Ntuen, USA Philippe Palanque, France P.L. Patrick Rau, P.R. China Ling Rothrock, USA Guangfeng Song, USA Steffen Staab, Germany Wan Chul Yoon, Korea Wenli Zhu, P.R. China

Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics Program Chair: Don Harris Guy A. Boy, USA John Huddlestone, UK Kenji Itoh, Japan Hung-Sying Jing, Taiwan Ron Laughery, USA Wen-Chin Li, Taiwan James T. Luxhøj, USA

Nicolas Marmaras, Greece Sundaram Narayanan, USA Mark A. Neerincx, The Netherlands Jan M. Noyes, UK Kjell Ohlsson, Sweden Axel Schulte, Germany Sarah C. Sharples, UK

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Foreword

Neville A. Stanton, UK Xianghong Sun, P.R. China Andrew Thatcher, South Africa

Matthew J.W. Thomas, Australia Mark Young, UK

Universal Access in Human–Computer Interaction Program Chair: Constantine Stephanidis Julio Abascal, Spain Ray Adams, UK Elisabeth André, Germany Margherita Antona, Greece Chieko Asakawa, Japan Christian Bühler, Germany Noelle Carbonell, France Jerzy Charytonowicz, Poland Pier Luigi Emiliani, Italy Michael Fairhurst, UK Dimitris Grammenos, Greece Andreas Holzinger, Austria Arthur I. Karshmer, USA Simeon Keates, Denmark Georgios Kouroupetroglou, Greece Sri Kurniawan, USA

Patrick M. Langdon, UK Seongil Lee, Korea Zhengjie Liu, P.R. China Klaus Miesenberger, Austria Helen Petrie, UK Michael Pieper, Germany Anthony Savidis, Greece Andrew Sears, USA Christian Stary, Austria Hirotada Ueda, Japan Jean Vanderdonckt, Belgium Gregg C. Vanderheiden, USA Gerhard Weber, Germany Harald Weber, Germany Toshiki Yamaoka, Japan Panayiotis Zaphiris, UK

Virtual and Mixed Reality Program Chair: Randall Shumaker Pat Banerjee, USA Mark Billinghurst, New Zealand Charles E. Hughes, USA David Kaber, USA Hirokazu Kato, Japan Robert S. Kennedy, USA Young J. Kim, Korea Ben Lawson, USA

Gordon M. Mair, UK Miguel A. Otaduy, Switzerland David Pratt, UK Albert “Skip” Rizzo, USA Lawrence Rosenblum, USA Dieter Schmalstieg, Austria Dylan Schmorrow, USA Mark Wiederhold, USA

Internationalization, Design and Global Development Program Chair: Nuray Aykin Michael L. Best, USA Ram Bishu, USA Alan Chan, Hong Kong Andy M. Dearden, UK

Susan M. Dray, USA Vanessa Evers, The Netherlands Paul Fu, USA Emilie Gould, USA

Foreword

Sung H. Han, Korea Veikko Ikonen, Finland Esin Kiris, USA Masaaki Kurosu, Japan Apala Lahiri Chavan, USA James R. Lewis, USA Ann Light, UK James J.W. Lin, USA Rungtai Lin, Taiwan Zhengjie Liu, P.R. China Aaron Marcus, USA Allen E. Milewski, USA

Elizabeth D. Mynatt, USA Oguzhan Ozcan, Turkey Girish Prabhu, India Kerstin Röse, Germany Eunice Ratna Sari, Indonesia Supriya Singh, Australia Christian Sturm, Spain Adi Tedjasaputra, Singapore Kentaro Toyama, India Alvin W. Yeo, Malaysia Chen Zhao, P.R. China Wei Zhou, P.R. China

Online Communities and Social Computing Program Chairs: A. Ant Ozok, Panayiotis Zaphiris Chadia N. Abras, USA Chee Siang Ang, UK Amy Bruckman, USA Peter Day, UK Fiorella De Cindio, Italy Michael Gurstein, Canada Tom Horan, USA Anita Komlodi, USA Piet A.M. Kommers, The Netherlands Jonathan Lazar, USA Stefanie Lindstaedt, Austria

Gabriele Meiselwitz, USA Hideyuki Nakanishi, Japan Anthony F. Norcio, USA Jennifer Preece, USA Elaine M. Raybourn, USA Douglas Schuler, USA Gilson Schwartz, Brazil Sergei Stafeev, Russia Charalambos Vrasidas, Cyprus Cheng-Yen Wang, Taiwan

Augmented Cognition Program Chair: Dylan D. Schmorrow Andy Bellenkes, USA Andrew Belyavin, UK Joseph Cohn, USA Martha E. Crosby, USA Tjerk de Greef, The Netherlands Blair Dickson, UK Traci Downs, USA Julie Drexler, USA Ivy Estabrooke, USA Cali Fidopiastis, USA Chris Forsythe, USA Wai Tat Fu, USA Henry Girolamo, USA

Marc Grootjen, The Netherlands Taro Kanno, Japan Wilhelm E. Kincses, Germany David Kobus, USA Santosh Mathan, USA Rob Matthews, Australia Dennis McBride, USA Robert McCann, USA Jeff Morrison, USA Eric Muth, USA Mark A. Neerincx, The Netherlands Denise Nicholson, USA Glenn Osga, USA

IX

X

Foreword

Dennis Proffitt, USA Leah Reeves, USA Mike Russo, USA Kay Stanney, USA Roy Stripling, USA Mike Swetnam, USA Rob Taylor, UK

Maria L.Thomas, USA Peter-Paul van Maanen, The Netherlands Karl van Orden, USA Roman Vilimek, Germany Glenn Wilson, USA Thorsten Zander, Germany

Digital Human Modeling Program Chair: Vincent G. Duffy Karim Abdel-Malek, USA Thomas J. Armstrong, USA Norm Badler, USA Kathryn Cormican, Ireland Afzal Godil, USA Ravindra Goonetilleke, Hong Kong Anand Gramopadhye, USA Sung H. Han, Korea Lars Hanson, Sweden Pheng Ann Heng, Hong Kong Tianzi Jiang, P.R. China

Kang Li, USA Zhizhong Li, P.R. China Timo J. Määttä, Finland Woojin Park, USA Matthew Parkinson, USA Jim Potvin, Canada Rajesh Subramanian, USA Xuguang Wang, France John F. Wiechel, USA Jingzhou (James) Yang, USA Xiu-gan Yuan, P.R. China

Human Centered Design Program Chair: Masaaki Kurosu Gerhard Fischer, USA Tom Gross, Germany Naotake Hirasawa, Japan Yasuhiro Horibe, Japan Minna Isomursu, Finland Mitsuhiko Karashima, Japan Tadashi Kobayashi, Japan

Kun-Pyo Lee, Korea Loïc Martínez-Normand, Spain Dominique L. Scapin, France Haruhiko Urokohara, Japan Gerrit C. van der Veer, The Netherlands Kazuhiko Yamazaki, Japan

In addition to the members of the Program Boards above, I also wish to thank the following volunteer external reviewers: Gavin Lew from the USA, Daniel Su from the UK, and Ilia Adami, Ioannis Basdekis, Yannis Georgalis, Panagiotis Karampelas, Iosif Klironomos, Alexandros Mourouzis, and Stavroula Ntoa from Greece. This conference could not have been possible without the continuous support and advice of the Conference Scientific Advisor, Prof. Gavriel Salvendy, as well as the dedicated work and outstanding efforts of the Communications Chair and Editor of HCI International News, Abbas Moallem.

Foreword

XI

I would also like to thank for their contribution toward the organization of the HCI International 2009 conference the members of the Human–Computer Interaction Laboratory of ICS-FORTH, and in particular Margherita Antona, George Paparoulis, Maria Pitsoulaki, Stavroula Ntoa, and Maria Bouhli. Constantine Stephanidis

HCI International 2011

The 14th International Conference on Human–Computer Interaction, HCI International 2011, will be held jointly with the affiliated conferences in the summer of 2011. It will cover a broad spectrum of themes related to human–computer interaction, including theoretical issues, methods, tools, processes and case studies in HCI design, as well as novel interaction techniques, interfaces and applications. The proceedings will be published by Springer. More information about the topics, as well as the venue and dates of the conference, will be announced through the HCI International Conference series website: http://www.hci-international.org/

General Chair Professor Constantine Stephanidis University of Crete and ICS-FORTH Heraklion, Crete, Greece Email: [email protected]

Table of Contents

Part I: Designing and Developing Online Communities A Discussion System for Knowledge Sharing and Collaborative Analysis of Incidents in Nuclear Power Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Saizo Aoyagi, Hidenori Fujino, Hirotake Ishii, Hiroshi Shimoda, Hiroshi Sakuda, Hidekazu Yoshikawa, and Toshio Sugiman Universal Navigation through Social Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mahsa Ghafourian, Hassan A. Karimi, and Linda van Roosmalen Collaborative Work in 3D Virtual Environments: A Research Agenda and Operational Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B´eatrice S. Hasler, Thierry Buecheler, and Rolf Pfeifer

3

13

23

Workflow-Based Architecture for Collaborative Video Annotation . . . . . . Cristian Hofmann, Nina Hollender, and Dieter W. Fellner

33

Catalysing the Development of a Conference Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jukka Huhtam¨ aki, Ossi Nyk¨ anen, and Jaakko Salonen

43

Dialogues of Locations: BlueSpot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Andr´ as Kangyal and L´ aszl´ o Laufer

53

Instant Online Communities as a Means to Foster Conferences . . . . . . . . . Martin Christof Kindsm¨ uller, Jan Milz, and Johannes Schmidt

62

Mobile Social Service Design for Large-Scale Exhibition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Huanglingzi Liu, Ying Liu, Wei Wang, and Bin Wang

72

Accessibility of Registration Mechanisms in Social Networking Sites . . . . Gabriele Meiselwitz and Jonathan Lazar

82

A Visualization Approach for Group Behaviors, Beliefs and Intentions to Support Critical Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Colleen L. Phillips, Norman D. Geddes, and Justin T. Simms Measuring Usability via Biometrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anjali Phukan Structuring the Social Subsystem Components of the Community Based E-Museum Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Suriyati Razali, Nor Laila Md. Noor, and Wan Adilah Wan Adnan

91 101

108

XVI

Table of Contents

Notice Board as Metaphor for Social Media Service in Chemical Factory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sampo Ter¨ as and Petri Mannonen

117

A Study on the Interface for Viewing the Information Menu of a Town from Intersections Using a Digital Compass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Misa Tsuchihashi and Katsuhiko Ogawa

126

Email Accessibility and Social Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brian Wentz and Jonathan Lazar

134

Part II: Social Behaviour of Humans and Artificial Agents in Online Communities Why People Use Social Networking Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Petter Bae Brandtzæg and Jan Heim Automatic Generation of Non-verbal Behavior for Agents in Virtual Worlds: A System for Supporting Multimodal Conversations of Bots and Avatars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Werner Breitfuss, Helmut Prendinger, and Mitsuru Ishizuka Preliminary Findings from a Cross Cultural Usability Study on the Internationalization of User Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joyram Chakraborty, Linda Hansen, Darren A. Denenberg, and Anthony F. Norcio Credibility On-Line: Quality Metrics for Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Francisco V. Cipolla Ficarra, Ernesto Vivas, and Joaquim Romo

143

153

162

172

A Life-Like Agent Interface System with Second Life Avatars on the OpenSimulator Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hiroshi Dohi and Mitsuru Ishizuka

182

Multi-dimensional Moderation in Online Communities: Experiences with Three Norwegian Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gheorghita Ghinea, Bendik Bygstad, and Christoph Schmitz

191

Modding as Rating Behavior in Virtual Communities: The Case of Rooster Teeth Productions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stefan Haefliger, Philip Reichen, Peter M. J¨ ager, and Georg von Krogh Personalized and Deformed Avatars for Realizing Avatar-Mediated Real Person-to-Person Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Masayuki Heike, Kinya Fujita, and Takahiro Tanaka Ghatcha: GHost Avatar on a Telework CHAir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yutaka Ishii, Kouzi Osaki, and Tomio Watanabe

197

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Distributed Leadership, Trust and Online Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jill Jameson

226

Metacommunication Patterns in Online Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Arto Lanam¨ aki and Tero P¨ aiv¨ arinta

236

Collective Content as a Facilitator of Community Interaction: A User Study of Four Close-Knit Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas Olsson, Hannu Toivola, Minna W¨ aljas, Kaisa V¨ a¨ an¨ anen-Vainio-Mattila, and Jaakko Lehikoinen Analysis of Information Disclosure on a Social Networking Site . . . . . . . . Katherine Peterson and Katie A. Siek Attribution of Identity in Autonomous Action of Remotely Operated Robot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yugo Takeuchi and Hikaru Nakagami Supporting Acceptable Dialogue Start Based on User Uninterruptibility Estimation for Avatar-Mediated Multi-tasking Online Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Takahiro Tanaka, Kyouhei Matsumura, and Kinya Fujita Developing Believable Interactive Cultural Characters for Cross-Cultural Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Glenn Taylor and Ed Sims

246

256

265

272

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Part III: Web 2.0: Emerging Challenges Weighting Structures: Evolutionary Dynamics of Innovation Networks in Virtual Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vitaliano Barberio and Alessandro Lomi

295

User Reputation Evaluation Using Co-occurrence Feature and Collective Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jeong-Won Cha, Hyun-woo Lee, Yo-Sub Han, and Laehyun Kim

305

Innovation Networks: A Report on Creating a Specialist Professional Social Network, Offline and Online, to Foster Innovation in the New Media Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bob Cotton The Innovation Architectures of Facebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Susan Shepherd Ferebee and James Davis Improving Personal Tagging Consistency through Visualization of Tag Relevancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Qin Gao, Yusen Dai, and Kai Fu

312 322

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“I Heard It on the Grapevine” – Blogging, Facebook, YouTube, and Student Self-Organization during a Faculty Strike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Emilie W. Gould

336

Evaluation of User Reputation on YouTube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yo-Sub Han, Laehyun Kim, and Jeong-Won Cha

346

Critical Success Factors for Web 2.0 – A Reference Framework . . . . . . . . . Pedro Isa´ıas, Paula Miranda, and Sara P´ıfano

354

User Innovation Networks and Research Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Niki Lambropoulos, Pan Kampylis, and Aneesha Bakharia

364

Web Interface for Designing and Sharing Sound Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seiya Matsuda, Shingo Ikeda, and Tomohito Yamamoto

374

Who Are the Web Composers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Evandro Manara Miletto, Marcelo Soares Pimenta, Aurelio Faustino Hoppe, and Luciano Vargas Flores

381

Social Adaptation of ERP Software: Tagging UI Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marcus Nitsche, Martin Christof Kindsm¨ uller, Udo Arend, and Michael Herczeg

391

Propagation Modeling and Analysis of Incidental Topics in Blogosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Li Zhao, Ruixi Yuan, Xiaohong Guan, and Mingyang Li

401

Part IV: Learning, Education and Culture The Coming Revolution in Competence Development: Using Serious Games to Improve Cross-Cultural Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bjorn Andersen, Manuel Fradinho, Paul Lefrere, and Veli-Pekka Niitamo Learning Computer Science Fundamentals through Virtual Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . James Braman, Giovanni Vincenti, Ana Maria Arboleda Diaz, and Andrew Jinman A Discussion of Video Capturing to Assist in Distance Learning . . . . . . . Michael Conlon and Vasos Pavlika

413

423

432

The Whole Story: Retrieving Narratives for Cross-Cultural Understanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alex Davis

442

When Social Worlds Collide: Charting the Intersection of Social Media and Courseware/Course Management Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Christopher A. Egert, Stephen Jacobs, and Susan B. Barnes

452

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The First Two W’s: Fostering Multicultural Awareness in Children . . . . . Noah Falstein and Nicolle Ruetz

462

Creating Community through the Use of a Class Wiki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kirsten A. Johnson and Jamie Bartolino

471

Benefits and Challenges of Using Collaborative Development Environments with Social Software in Higher Computer Science Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Daniel Kadenbach and Carsten Kleiner Virtual Communities Adapted to the EHEA in an Enterprise Distance e-Learning Based Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rafael Pastor, Timothy Read, Salvador Ros, Roberto Hernandez, and Rocael Hern´ andez Evaluating the Social Dimension in Online Learning Communities . . . . . . Francesca Pozzi Heuristics for Implementation of Wiki Technology in Higher Education Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Portia Pusey and Gabriele Meiselwitz Mobile Phone Interfaces for Informal Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J´ ulio Cesar dos Reis, Rodrigo Bonacin, and Maria Cec´ılia Martins A Proposed Movie Recommendation Method Using Emotional Word Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mina Song, Hyun Namgoong, Hong-Gee Kim, and JuHyun Eune Cultural Prescription vs. User Perception of Information Architecture for Culture Centred Website: A Case Study on Muslim Online User . . . . Wan Abdul Rahim Wan Mohd. Isa, Nor Laila Md. Noor, and Shafie Mehad Leveraging Mobile Devices to Develop Intercultural Competency for Digital Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Matthew Willis and Elaine M. Raybourn

479

488

498

507

515

525

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545

Part V: Online Games Game Usability Heuristics (PLAY) for Evaluating and Designing Better Games: The Next Iteration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heather Desurvire and Charlotte Wiberg Cheating Behaviors in Online Gaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henry Been-Lirn Duh and Vivian Hsueh Hua Chen

557

567

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Flow Experience in Second Life: The Impact of Telepresence on Human-Computer Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anthony Faiola and Olga Smyslova

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EmoHeart: Automation of Expressive Communication of Emotions in Second Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alena Neviarouskaya, Helmut Prendinger, and Mitsuru Ishizuka

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Antecedents of Attributions in an Educational Game for Social Learning: Who’s to Blame? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amy Ogan, Vincent Aleven, Julia Kim, and Christopher Jones

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Intercultural Competence Game That Fosters Metacognitive Agility and Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elaine M. Raybourn

603

A Content Analysis of Interviews with Players of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Play Games (MMORPGs): Motivating Factors and the Impact on Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jacqui Taylor and James Taylor Uncanny as Usability Obstacle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Angela Tinwell Gamers’ Implicit Knowledge on the Psychological Influence of Game-Playing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alexander E. Voiskounsky, Olga V. Mitina, and Anastasiya A. Avetisova Intercultural Socializing via Mobile Games for Backpackers . . . . . . . . . . . . Chui Yin Wong, Kimberly Chu, Chee Weng Khong, and Sheila Paul

613 622

632

641

Part VI: Online Communities and Society Designing Inclusive Social Networks: A Participatory Approach . . . . . . . . Leonelo Dell Anhol Almeida, Vˆ ania Paula de Almeida Neris, Leonardo Cunha de Miranda, Elaine Cristina Saito Hayashi, and Maria Cec´ılia Calani Baranauskas

653

City Ragas: Building an Intercultural Dialogue between People . . . . . . . . Lipika Bansal

663

Are Online Communities Good for the Civic Audit of Public Spaces, Services, and Officers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fiorella De Cindio and Cristian Peraboni

673

Social Features in Online Communities for Healthcare Consumers – A Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Annie Y.S. Lau and Trevor M.Y. Kwok

682

Table of Contents

Usability and User Acceptance for Personal Health Records: A Perspective from Healthcare Citizens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A. Ant Ozok, Ayse P. Gurses, Huijuan Wu, Melissa Nelson, David Moen, and June Wei Measuring E-Democracy Opportunities: A Global Perspective . . . . . . . . . Farid Shirazi

XXI

690

700

Ethnographic User Study and Concept Design for Chinese Migrant Workers’ Social Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jie Wang, Wei Wang, Ying Liu, Xia Wang, and Qiuhong Chen

710

Medication Adherence among the Elderly and Technology Aids: Results from an Online Survey Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Huijuan Wu and A. Ant Ozok

719

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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A Discussion System for Knowledge Sharing and Collaborative Analysis of Incidents in Nuclear Power Plants Saizo Aoyagi1, Hidenori Fujino2, Hirotake Ishii1, Hiroshi Shimoda1, Hiroshi Sakuda3, Hidekazu Yoshikawa4, and Toshio Sugiman5 1

Graduate School of Energy Science, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan {aoyagi, hirotake, shimoda}@uji.energy.kyoto-u.ac.jp 2 Safety Research Institute, West Japan Railway Company 1-2 -2 Matsuzaki, Abeno, Osaka, Japan [email protected] 3 Institute of Nuclear Safety System, incorporated 64 Sata, Mihama-cho, Mikata-gun, Fukui 919-1205, Japan [email protected] 4 College of Nuclear Science and Technology, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, 150001, China [email protected] 5 Graduate School of Human and Environmental studies, Kyoto University, Yoshida-nihonmatsu-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan [email protected]

Abstract. Incident analysis is an important activity to maintain the safety of nuclear power plants. Much discussion is required to utilize the collected incidents effectively in the incident analysis activity. On-line Computer Mediated Communication(CMC) activity is an appropriate circumstance for geographically dispersed workers in nuclear power plants to discuss about the incident analysis. Some studies, however, indicate that the discussion activity in CMC tends to stagnate after a short period of time. For this study, the authors developed a discussion system for knowledge sharing and collaborative analysis of incidents, and proposed a method to promote discussion among users through introduction of "Active Participant". The Active Participant always behaves actively, and such behaviors are expected to promote the other members' incident analysis in the discussion group. To evaluate the effectiveness of the introduction of the Active Participant and obtain concrete guidance of the Active Participant, an experiment was conducted with nuclear power plant workers who were asked to evaluate the discussion system. The results of the experiment show that Active Participant can promote discussion among group members if enough number of incidents are submitted to the discussion system. Keywords: knowledge sharing, incidents analysis, online discussion and promotion of discussion. A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 3–12, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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1 Introduction Incident analysis activity is a kind of efforts for prevention of accidents in safetycritical domain in which there are many dangers, such as medical workplace, building industries, nuclear power plants. Incident analysis is a procedure for collecting, analyzing and utilizing cases of incidents in which a danger was removed before accident occurs, or there was no damage by chance despite oversight of danger for safety [1], [2], [3]. For effective incident analysis activity, many cases of incidents must be collected. In addition to that, active discussion which triggers utilization of the collected cases is required in order to extract useful lessons for accident prevention by analyzing a case from diverse points of view, and application of these lessons. Japanese electric companies nowadays have made company-wide efforts to collected cases of incidents, and many cases are continuously collected. However, all collected cases are not always discussed sufficiently and utilized effectively. The purpose of this study is to propose a method to promote discussion among workers for effective incident analysis.

2 Proposal of a Method for Promoting Discussion among Workers The authors developed a discussion system for knowledge sharing and collaborative analysis of incidents which provides Asynchronous Computer Mediated Communication(CMC) environment as an effective way of incident analysis activity. Moreover, the authors designed a behavior guideline for active participants who are the special participants expected to activate the discussion among the group workers. 2.1 Discussion System for Knowledge Sharing and Collaborative Analysis of Incidents The discussion system is a Internet-based incident sharing tool which consists of Incident Sharing Page, Incident Registering Page, Electronic Bulletin Board and others. The user can submit incident information on the Incident Registering Page according to a framework of Root Cause Analysis as shown in Fig. 1 [4]. All users can refer the submitted incidents on the Incident Sharing Page. Moreover, the users can discuss about the incident on the Electronic Bulletin Board which is prepared for each submitted incident. 2.2 Active Participant Some studies for education or knowledge management indicate that the discussion activity in CMC tends to stagnate. In particular, because workers in nuclear power plants are very busy, even if the discussion system can solve a problem that the workers are geographically separated, psychological resistance to participation still exists and stagnation of discussion occurs. Some studies of social psychology indicate that human conforms to others' action in group activity when some members of the group show consistent action [5]. Applying

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this conforming behavior, introduction of "Active Participant (AP)" is proposed in this study as a way for promoting CMC discussion of incidents analysis. AP shows consistently active behavior in group incidents analysis, and this behavior indirectly promotes actions of other members of the group through their conforming to the AP. In addition to this indirect way, applying knowledge of educational studies [6] the AP implements direct intervention to discussion of incidents analysis, such as questioning to other members.

3 Experimental Method In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the introduction of AP and obtain more concrete action guideline for AP, an experiment was conducted in which workers in nuclear power plants join incidents analysis activity using the developed discussion system. Thirty workers who are task managers in Japanese nuclear power plants and six APs who are nuclear safety researchers having experience of working at nuclear power plants joined the experiment. The participants were divided into six groups which consist of five normal participants from three different plants and one AP. The division was made based on the machines which they have charge of in their daily work. The participants were explained that the purpose of the experiment is to evaluate the developed discussion system, and were requested to (1) evaluate the discussion

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system in a group of about five workers, (2) access to the discussion system every two days and above, (3) submit at least five incidents which was actually occurred or imaginary cases and (4) actively post messages in bulletin boards of the discussion system to discuss about the incidents with group members. APs were requested to (1) behave actively to show the way to other participant, and (2) activate discussion by asking many questions to other participant with a favorable comment. Before starting the experiment, twenty two incidents were submitted by the experimenter to the discussion system. The experimental period was from January 13th, 2009 to February 6th (25 days). All participants received a gift which worths ten thousand Japanese yen after the experiment. Basic information and psychological factors which probably affect the participant's behavior in the discussion activity were measured using achievement motivation scale and interpersonal orientation scale before the experiment. In the experimental period, action log, submitted incidents, and posted messages were collected. In addition, impressions towards other members' behavior in the group were questioned by web-based questionnaire after the experiment.

4 Results and Discussion 4.1 Activity Trends of Each Group Fig. 2 shows the accumulated total number of cases submitted and opened by all participants of each group(open cases). Fig .3 shows the accumulated total number of messages posted to the bulletin boards by each group. In the first week (from day 1 to day 7), group 1, 2 and 5 submitted several cases and group 1 posted a few messages. In the second week (from day 8 to day 14), group 1 shows few activity, and group 2, 5 and 3 submitted many cases and posted many messages. Group 4 and 6 submitted a few cases. In the third week(from day 15 to day 21), group 2, 3, 4 and 5 increased cases and messages. In the last 4 days(from day 22 to day 25), group 2 and 3 submitted many cases and posted many messages. These figures show that each group activity did not show equivalent patterns. Six groups can be categorized into three patterns of activity. First pattern, which group 1 and 6 show, is a stagnating pattern. In these groups (stagnating groups), few cases had been submitted, and few messages had been posted. Second pattern, which group 2 and 5 show, is an activated pattern. In these groups (activated groups), the activity was very active throughout the experimental period by submitting many cases and posting many messages. The total number of actions of the activated groups was twice as many as that of the stagnating groups. Third pattern, which group 3 and 4 show, is a middle pattern. In these groups (middle groups), a stagnating trend appears at the beginning. Nevertheless, they were activated after the middle of the experimental period and outweigh some groups. 4.2 Activity Trends of Active Participants The result of the experiment shows that the normal participants' activity does not have much correlation with AP's activity. In this experiment, all APs did not submit many cases. APs of group 1, 2, 3, and 5 posted many messages, and APs of group 4 and 6

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didn’t post many messages. However, AP of group 5 posted messages after normal participants had done. Therefore activation of group 5 was caused by the AP at least on the beginning. Consequently, there may be the other factors which activate the groups besides the AP's behavior. Next, detailed results of three patterns are discussed to clarify cause of such difference of activity in the experimental period. 4.3 Activated Groups A comparison of Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 shows that the posted messages increased after the submitted cases increases in the activated groups (group 2 and 5). In the first week, a few cases were submitted but any messages were not posted. In the second week, a few messages were posted which are related to the cases submitted in the first week. Then, many cases were submitted around day 8. After about a week, many messages were posted. 120 se100 g as se 80 m f 60 o re b 40 m u n 20

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These facts indicate that increasing of new cases promote posting messages. The reason of these phenomena will be discussed later. 4.4 Stagnating Groups Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 show accumulated total number of open cases and messages of group 1. The participants were requested to submit at least 5 cases, but two participants in the group 1 submitted no cases. The AP in the group 1 also did not submit any cases. This group shows stagnating trend especially in the middle of the experimental period. During this period, anyone submitted no cases and only one message was posted in day 17 except the messages by the AP, in spite that the AP posted messages continuously. Such stagnation was also observed in group 6. However, differently from the group 6, the messages posted by the AP in the group 6 were not ignored completely. The activity in the group 1 stagnated in spite that there were some replies to the AP's messages and a few messages between two normal participants were exchanged. 18 16 se g 14 as se 12 m 10 f or 8 e b 6 m u 4 n 2 0

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4.5 Middle Groups Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 show accumulated total number of open cases and messages of group 4. The group 4 is one of the middle groups which were activated in the middle of the experiment. Although there were no submitted cases or posted messages at the beginning, a sudden activation was occurred in day 15. Some cases and messages were suddenly inputted in day 15, followed by posting a few messages and submitting some cases during the period between day 16 and 25. Group 3 also experienced a sudden activation during the period between day 8 and day 10. In the group 3, the cases and messages increased continuously and reached at the largest number among all groups at the end. On the other hand, a few cases and messages were inputted at the end of the experiment in the group 4. 4.6 Analysis of Middle Groups’ Activation We pay attention to the sudden activation of group 3 and group 4. Fig. 8 shows action time-line chart of group 4 in day 15. Vertical axis of this chart is time, and each action is arranged by participant. The arrows represents that the end point case is a target of an action such as viewing cases or posting messages. Fig.8 shows that the first action in day 15 was AP's post of fifteen messages. After that, the participant 4 viewed some cases which the AP posted some messages to. Then, the participant 4 submitted three cases and posted one message to case 25, which was submitted by the participant 2 in day 2. This message was replied by the participant 3 in the afternoon. After that, the participant 4 thanked the participant 3 for the reply using "evaluate button" which is a special function of the bulletin board of the discussion system. The last action in day 15 was viewing cases by the participant 1. Although Fig. 8 has no information about participant's intention and causal relationships of actions, the AP probably triggered other members' actions. That is because the other participants hadn't submitted any cases and posted any messages before the AP posted some messages. Similarly, AP triggered other members’ action in other group. Sudden activation of group 3 between day 10 and day 8 seem to be triggered by AP’s posting one message in day 3.

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5 Conclusion The results of the experiment indicate that AP could promote discussion activity through triggering other members' actions in the middle groups. Nevertheless, even if the AP was active as mentioned in 4.2, the activity of group 1 stagnated in the middle of the experimental period. To explain this difference of APs' effectiveness, we pay attention to the difference in number of submitted cases of group 3, group 4 and

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group 1. When the discussion was activated, many cases were submitted by participants in group 3 and group 4. On the contrary, few cases were submitted in group 1. One interpretation of these facts is that submitting new cases is required for activation of discussion in bulletin boards. The fact that posted messages increased after submitted new cases increases in activated groups, as mentioned in 4.4, also supports this interpretation. This is probably because a new case provides a topic for discussion. Moreover, this interpretation implies that cases which the experimenter had submitted before the experiment were inappropriate as a topic of discussion. This is probably because pregnant topics are needed for discussion. These are cases of general incidents in nuclear plants and are not about special domain or machines. Therefore these cases are not so worth because of lack of professional implication. Another probable reason of why new case is needed is responsibility to answer the question. If a participant has a question to a case, he will ask about the case to other participant who submitted the case. This is because the participant who submitted the case should know the background of the case. However, if the case was submitted by the experimenter, any participants don't know all about the case. The only option is asking about the case without specifying who should answer this question. However anyone have no responsibility to answer and could not answer such a question. Therefore, the question will be left without answered. This is the cause of the stagnation of the discussion. Therefore, not experimenter but participants and AP have to submit cases for the promotion of discussion. Therefore, if APs submit many proper cases, and post messages, discussion activity of other members is expected to be activated. The AP of group 1 should have submitted cases of incidents for providing new topics, in the middle of the experimental period. However, in this experiment, the APs were not workers of nuclear power plants, but researchers in the area of safety management. Consequently, because they have much other task to do, and don't have occasion of experience of incidents in nuclear power plants, they could not submit cases frequently. Therefore, AP should be selected from nuclear power plant workers, or someone who has proficient knowledge about incidents. In this article, we proposed a method to promote discussion activity in a discussion system for knowledge sharing and collaborative analysis for incidents analysis which is effective to maintain safety of nuclear power plants, and the evaluation experiment was conducted. However, not all results of the experiment were analyzed. In particular, only qualitative data of the results are analyzed. In the future, contents of cases and messages and ex-post questionnaire will be analyzed in qualitative way in order to verify the implication discussed in this article. Moreover, interview survey will be conducted, to collect evidences which support our hypotheses.

References 1. Reason, J.: Managing the risks of organizational accidents. Ashgate, Aldershot (1997) 2. Nishigaki, S., Vavrin, J., Kano, N., Haga, T., Kunz, J.C., Law, K.: Humanware, Human Error, and Hiyari-Hat: A Template of Unsafe Symptoms. J. Constr. Engrg. Mgmt. 120, 421– 442 (1994)

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3. Barach, P., Small, S.D.: Reporting and preventing medical mishaps: lessons from nonmedical near miss reporting systems, vol. 320, pp. 759–763 (2000), http://www.bmj.com 4. Doggett, A.M.: A Statistical Comparison of Three Root Cause Analysis Tools. Journal of Industrial Technology 20, 1–9 (2004), http://www.nait.org 5. Sherif, M.: A study of some social factors in perception. Archives of Psychology 187 (1935) 6. Walker, S.A.: Socratic strategies and devil’s advocacy in synchronous CMC debate. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 20, 172–182 (2004)

Universal Navigation through Social Networking Mahsa Ghafourian1, Hassan A. Karimi1, and Linda van Roosmalen2 1

Geoinformatics Laboratory, School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, 135 North, Bellefield Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA [email protected], [email protected] 2 Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology, 2310 Jane St Suite 1300, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15203 USA [email protected]

Abstract. In today’s complex metropolitan and aging society, navigation, which is an essential mobility activity, has become increasingly challenging for many individuals. This is particularly true for individuals who are unfamiliar with the area or require special navigation assistance due to visual, physical, or cognitive impairments. While there have been much advancements in navigation systems, they are one-size-fits-all and not universal. In this paper, we present the concept of Universal NAVIgation Technology (UNAVIT), which is a framework providing navigation assistance anywhere, anytime, and for any user through social networking (UNAVIT-SN). We discuss UNAVIT-SN, its components and features, and present key algorithms for providing suitable navigation solutions both indoors and outdoors, at different times and for users with a variety of needs and preferences. Keywords: Universal navigation, social networking, social matching, route recommender, navigation assistance.

1 Introduction Navigation systems assist users with determining their current location and providing directions to desired destinations. While early navigation systems were one-size-fitsall and offered limited functionality, today’s navigation technology offers a wider range of functions that appeal to more users resulting in a higher demand for its use. However, despite much advancement, today’s navigation technology falls short of being universal. By universal we mean a navigation system which provides navigation assistance to users with different needs and with different preferences, anywhere and anytime [1]. To overcome the shortcomings of modern navigation technology, in this paper, we present Universal NAVIgation Technology (UNAVIT) and discuss a new approach in addressing the universality of navigation in UNAVIT [1]. We define navigation as any activity requiring locations and the means to reach them. Examples of navigation that fit this definition include points of interest (POIs), routes, and directions. To address universality of navigation, Ghafourian and Karimi [2] have developed three algorithms, ANYWHERE (indoor-to-outdoor and outdoor-to-indoor seamless transitions), ANYTIME (time-specific navigation), and ANYUSER (personalized navigation). The A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 13–22, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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work presented in this paper is focused on a novel approach which provides navigation assistance through “social connection” and “social matching” using social networks. This is in contrast to the current navigation approach which is purely computational. The premise of the social networking approach in navigation stems from two observations: (a) social networking has become widespread, enabling the possibility of tackling some of the navigation challenges that computation alone could not and (b) developing a computing solution that can address all aspects of universal navigation is a major undertaking and may not even fully be realized due to several technical and non-technical challenges. We believe the social networking approach is viable in that UNAVIT-SN will be able to address the issue of universality through existing and emerging social networks, especially when the element of “trust” is considered and computing is only used when no navigation solutions can be provided by social networks or the solutions need to be augmented. In this paper, we present a technique that searches for navigation information through UNAVIT-SN, which consists of several social sub-networks (SSNs) each supporting a group of individuals with common navigation needs. The structure of this paper is as follows. In Sections 2, social networking and its relevance to navigation are discussed. In Section 3, the concept of UNAVIT-SN, an ontology, and an infrastructure are discussed. In Section 4, our social networking approach to address the requirements of universal navigation is described. Finally, in Section 5, we discuss our future research.

2 Background A social network is a structure that consists of a group of people in which each member is represented by a node and one or more relationships exist among members [5]. The emergence of mobile technologies has changed the ways in which people communicate with one another [6] and share information in such a way that separation of space and time is virtually nonexistent. Research in social psychology shows that people construct a shared reality within social networks, and not only share the information, but also have agreement on them [13]. In a study conducted by Gray et al. [4] it was shown that social participation by individuals with mobility limitations is affected by environmental barriers. Some of these barriers are the inaccessibility and complexity of the man-made environment with busy roads, dangerous intersections, dark alleyways, inaccessible buildings, among others. Other barriers include the inability of people to navigate due to physical, cognitive and sensory limitations, impeding their participation in society. Among numerous existing social networks, each with a different purpose and interest, we focus here on those social networks that are relevant to navigation. Millen and Feinberg [7] have developed a “social tagging” method, using bookmarking, which provides navigation recommendation. MobSoC [8] is an approach which offers a variety of services to users including POIs recommendation based on users’ interest. Wiggle Stick [9] is a technique which enables pedestrians with “media tagging” at specific locations as well as presenting directions. In order to meet the quality of services within a social network, the exchanged information among the members must be based upon “trust”, i.e., receiving recommendations and information from trusted friends who have similar preferences. This

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trust-based approach helps users receive effective and relevant information. To address trust in quality of services and quality navigation recommendations, a variety of techniques have been proposed, such as collaborative filtering [10], a technique for measuring social tie strength offered by [11], and a fuzzy model used by [12].

3 UNAVIT-SN To overcome the shortcomings of existing navigation technology, we propose UNAVIT-SN. UNAVIT is defined as a navigation environment capable of providing a variety of navigation information for any user regardless of their location in any situation with the capability of transparency and adaptability [1]. While a social networking approach can address the universality aspect of navigation, computation can still play a role. It can be used as augmentation and/or verification. By augmentation we mean the possibility of sending a navigation solution found and offered by UNAVITSN to navigation web services to assist the user with real-time navigation (e.g., stepby-step instructions on the recommended route). Verification aims at providing a reliable solution, i.e., if the navigation solution offered by UNAVIT-SN is deemed unreliable, then a solution from navigation web services will be requested, and after comparing the two solutions, the one which closely matches user’s requested Navigation Quality of Service (NavQoS) is chosen as the response to the query. However, the focus of this paper is navigation assistance through social networks. Figure 1 shows the overall concept of UNAVIT-SN, whose main features include AnyUser, AnyWhere, AnyTime, Transparency, and Adaptability [2] through social networking. Users will be able to access UNAVIT-SN’s services using cell phones. A user can either recommend or request navigation information. Recommendations are posted in the user’s SSNs. Upon user’s request for navigation information, UNAVIT-SN searches within the user’s SSNs, and if it cannot find a match, it refers it to other SSNs.

Fig. 1. The concept of UNAVIT-SN

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Fig. 2. UNAVIT ontology

3.1 Ontology We address the universality aspect of navigation by taking a social networking approach. We believe this approach is viable since social networks have been widely accepted and utilized by people across the globe. Therefore, UNAVIT-SN’s infrastructure should allow navigation information through SSNs, where individuals have similar navigation needs. Figure 2 shows an ontology for UNAVIT-SN. It highlights the main concepts of universal navigation through social networking and the relationships among them. In this ontology, user plays a central role by sharing their profiles to other members of the SN. User’s profile consists of special needs (elderly, cognitively impaired, mobility impaired, and visually impaired) and preferences for routes (shortest distance, fastest time, least turns). The user can recommend navigation information and can receive navigation recommendations from other members. A request can be made for a route or for a POI. A recommendation can also be on a route or a POI. 3.2 Infrastructure In this section, we discuss UNAVIT-SN that is based on UNAVIT’s infrastructure [2]. In the following, the architecture of UNAVIT-SN and its components are discussed. NavKiosk: NavKiosk is the major component of UNAVIT-SN’s infrastructure and is responsible for receiving navigation queries from users. NavKiosk for indoors (IndoorNavKiosks) is responsible for indoor navigation queries and NavKiosk for outdoors (Outdoor-NavKiosks) is responsible for outdoor navigation queries. NavKiosk consists of three sub-components: QPE, MetaNav, and NavNet which are described below. Query Processing Engine (QPE): QPE is responsible for analyzing and understanding queries using NavQoSs. Upon analyzing a query and understanding its requirements, QPE will structure the query in a manner compatible with MetaNav, NavNet, and NavWSP.

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MetaNav: MetaNav is a directory of information about UNAVIT-SN and its members, and all other NavKiosks (both indoors and outdoors). Examples of items stored in MetaNav are SSN types, social ties and characteristics within and among SSN members and among SSNs, and the geographic extent covered by each NavKiosk. Navigation Networking (NavNet): UNAVIT-SN will allow users to establish their own social networks as well as accessing existing social networks for the purpose of sharing navigation information. Through NavNet, UNAVIT-SN will facilitate sharing the experience of trusted members and groups with similar needs and preferences. NavNet uses information about trusted members and social networks stored in MetaNav to connect members and groups who have sharable navigation experiences. Navigation Web Service Provider (NavWSP): NavWSPs provide a variety of navigation services, including map data, POIs, and directions, as an augmentation and/or verification to social networking solutions. It uses the Internet and can be accessible directly through cell phones. An example of a NavWSP is Routing NavWSP.

4 Social Matching In order to share navigation experiences among individuals and groups through UNAVIT-SN we make distinctions between five social sub-networks (SSNs): General (G); Mobility-Impaired (M); Cognitively Impaired (C); Elderly (E); Visually Impaired (V). Each of these SSNs provides navigation information specific to their members’ special needs. For instance, a recommended route in M is a route that a wheelchair-seated individual can take as it avoids slopes over a certain degree and avoids inaccessible POIs. Each SSN is connected to one another (i.e., fully connected graph). The graph is weighted and directed. Each node of the graph represents a SSN as a sub-graph, which is also fully connected. The idea behind having a fully connected graph is that once a user becomes a member of a SSN, they can share and access navigation experiences of all members in that SSN. In the following we discuss users’ interactions within SSN, i.e., recommendations and requests. 4.1 POI and Route Recommendation Each member of a SSN can recommend navigation information. While a variety of information is possible, most recommendations are expected to be POIs and/or routes. Upon recommending a POI, the type of POI and the value of recommendation are specified by the user (recommender). We categorized POIs into five types: Restaurant/Fast Food, Gas-Station, Library/Bookstore, Shopping Mall, and Grocery Store. Each recommendation is assigned a value which represents the importance (strength) of the recommendation. We define three recommendation strengths: Low, Medium, or High. For recommendations on a route, we define three criteria for each route: Shortest Distance (SD), Fastest Time (FT), and Least Turns (LT). If the user does not

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specify the criterion for the recommended route, the information from user profiles will be used. A route recommended by a user may indicate a level of importance (weight) on each criterion. The weight for each criterion may range between 0 and 1 and the sum of the weights for the three criteria must be 1. Each recommendation must also have a quality rate, i.e., Low, Medium, or High denoted by 11, 12, and 13, respectively. The algorithm for recommendation is shown in Figure 3.

Input: user recommendation If recommendation = “POI” then T Å Get type of POI; R Å Get recommendation rate; If recommendation = “route” then SD Å Get shortest distance value; FT Å Get fastest time value; LT Å Get least turns value; R Å Get recommendation rate; If SD = null or FT = null or LT= null SD Å SD from user’s profile; FT Å FT from user’s profile; Lt Å LT from user’s profile; Fig. 3. Recommendation Algorithm

4.2 Navigation Information Request Users acquire navigation information by sending request to UNAVIT-SN. It is assumed that users prefer to receive information from trusted members within their SSNs. Therefore, UNAVIT-SN first tries to find a match between users’ request and a trusted member’s recommendation. We define “trust” as the number of referrals/interactions between each pair of members. This referral has a direction, as user A might refer to user B many times, but user B may refer to user C rather than user A for navigation information. Thus, in each SSN, the direction of information between each set of nodes (members) denotes the orientation of the referral by one member to another. NRij indicates the number of referrals by individual i to individual j. Initially, NRij = NRji =1. Over time NR will increase as more referrals are made. UNAVIT-SN must find a trusted member within the SSN whose recommendation meets user’s requested NavQoSs. The probability of referral of i to j, Pij is defined as follows: (1) Also, Pij + Pji =1. Thus, in the initial stage when there are no referrals in the SN, NRij = NRij =1 and Pij = Pji =0.5.

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Input: User “A”, User’s NavQoS, User’s SSN (“S”) 1) For each recommendation within the “S” in UNAVIT-SN Find solutions which are recommended by trusted friends, and which matches NavQoSs. 2) For each found solution recommended by member i Exclude the ones with PAi = 0.5 and NRAi = 1. 3) Among remaining solution, choose the one with the highest value of SM and insert its value into variable SMM. 4) If no solution is left then SMM Å 0 5) If SMM is less than a predefined threshold, then Result Å Referring_SSN(NavQoS, “S”); If Result = “No Result” then Return the solution to the user with low confidence. 6) Otherwise, Increment NRAi; ;

;

Fig. 4. Request Algorithm

The difference between the values of Pij and Pji indicates how much i and j trust one another. The less the difference, the more the trust (thus more chances of referrals), unless NR=1, which means that these members have never referred to each other. Once user i refers to user j, the value of NRij increments by one. The same concept can be applied to the relationship between SSNs. That is, SSN-A is connected to SSN-B through a weight, NR. Initially, NRs value is 1. However, the value of NR will increase as more referrals between SSNs are made. The idea behind having connections between SSNs is that if UNAVIT-SN cannot find a navigation solution or a reliable solution for a request within a SSN, it refers to another SSN to find a reliable solution. Figure 4 shows an algorithm for request. The inputs to the algorithm are user’s query, NavQoSs, and the SSN to which the user belongs. For a recommendation to socially match the user’s request, the value of SM in the algorithm must be greater than or equal a threshold. Figure 5 shows an algorithm (Referring_SSN) which is invoked when there is a need to search of navigation solution in another SSN. In this algorithm, upon a successful referral, NRs between SSNs are updated. The inputs to this algorithm are NavQoSs and the relevant SSN, i.e., “S”.

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Input: user’s NavQoS, User’s SSN (“S”) 1) For each SSN, i, with PSi ≥ 0.5 do Find recommended solutions by majority of members, which match NavQoSs; 2) For each found solution recommended by SSN “i” Exclude the ones with PSi = 0.5 and NRSi = 1; 3) For the remaining solutions Choose the one with the highest value of SM and insert it into SMM; 4) If SMM < δ then Return “No Result”; 5) Else Increment NRSi; ;

;

Fig. 5. Referring_ SSN Algorithm

In order to compute “social matching”, we divide navigation requests into two groups: POIs and Routes. POI There are three variables that define a POI: Type, Recommendation, and Distance. Type consists of five categories: Food, Gas-station, Library/Bookstore, Shopping Mall, and Grocery Store. Each Type category can be initialized by either “match” or “exact match”. For each Recommendation, three values are defined: Low, Medium, and High. Finally, for Distance, which is the distance between user’s current/specified location and a POI, the value can be either entered by user or suggested by the system. Consider user A’s request for an Italian restaurant, which is in the category of Restaurant/Fast Food within 10 miles. User A must indicate whether he/she is interested in an “exact match”, i.e., an Italian restaurant, or a “match”, i.e., any restaurant but preference will be Italian restaurants. Also user A must specify the degree of recommendation by members, i.e., whether the rate of the recommendation is “High”, “Medium”, or “Low”. If user A chooses “exact match” with “Medium” recommendation, QPE analyzes the query and sends it to NavNet to find an Italian restaurant recommended (with “Medium” rate) by trusted members of user’s SSN. To select those restaurants within 10 miles, user’s current location is used by a NavWSP to perform proximity calculation based on actual road distances. For “social matching”, NavQoS is defined as follows: NavQoS = T * R .

(2)

where T and R represent the distinct values for Type and Recommendation, respectively.

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The set of values {1,2,3,4,5} corresponds to POI types, i.e., {Restaurant/Fast Food, Gas-Station, Library/Bookstore, Shopping Mall, Grocery Store}, and {11,12,13} correspond to POI recommendation rate, i.e., {Low, Medium, High}. And “social matching” is defined as follows: .

(3)

where i corresponds to a member of SSN whose recommendation is considered and A corresponds to the requester. The more the value of PiA (i.e., close to 0.5) and the less the value of (i.e., close to zero), the higher the social match, i.e., the recommended POI socially matches user’s request. Route Recommendation Options We consider three criteria for routes, Shortest Distance (SD), Fastest Time (FT), and Least Turns (LT), as the most preferred criteria, among others. Each criterion can be assigned a value between 0 and 1. However, the sum of the values must be equal to 1. Members who recommend routes are encouraged to initialize the recommended route’s criterion and the level of each recommendation, R, i.e., Low, medium, or High. If users do not enter route criteria, those specified in their profiles will be used. There could be two cases when user A requests a route from Origin (O) to Destination (D), with for example SD = 0.5, FT= 0.3, LT=0.2. In the first case, UNAVIT-SN searches user’s SSN for a route from O to D with criteria equal or close to values 0.5, 0.2, and 0.2, respectively. In the second case, UNAVIT-SN is not able to find a route from O to D, but it finds one or more routes that overlap candidate routes between O and D and have equal or close criteria values. If these routes pass through O-D, the one with closest “social match” is returned to the user. In both cases, either finding a path from O to D or a path that passes through O and D, NavQoS is defined as follows: NavQoS = ST * FT * LT* R .

(4)

where again the set of {11, 12, 13} corresponds to the values for R, i.e., {Low, Medium, High}. In order to select an appropriate recommendation among the available ones, social matching score, which is defined as follows, must be greater than or equal a threshold. .

(5)

where i corresponds to the recommendation from member I, A corresponds to the requester, and PAi is the value of trust between A and i. The more the value of PAi (i.e., close to 0.5), and the lower the value of (i.e., close to zero), the higher the social matching score, i.e., the more the recommended route socially matches user’s request.

5 Summary and Future Research In this paper we presented the concept of UNAVIT-SN as a universal navigation technology through social networking which provides navigation solutions to any

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user, anywhere, and at anytime, transparently and adaptively. We then discussed a social networking approach that allows users request navigation information and receive navigation recommendations from members of their social networks. We presented the algorithms for navigation recommendation and navigation request which meet NavQoSs. Future research includes development and validation of a prototype UNAVIT-SN with selected SSNs (e.g., general, elderly, mobility impaired, visually impaired, cognitively impaired) to facilitate navigation recommendation and request through cell phones.

References 1. Karimi, A.H., Ghafourian, M.: Universal Navigation. GIM International (May 2009) 2. Ghafourian, M.: Karimi, H.A.: Universal Navigation Concept and Algorithms. In: World Congress on Computer Science and Information Engineering (CSIE). IEEE Press, LosAngeles/Anahiem (2009) (accepted) 3. Golbeck, J.: Sharing and Using Links in Social Networks. IEEE Intelligent System, 85–86 (2005) 4. Gray, D.B., Hollingsworth, H.H., Susan, S., Kerri, M.A.: A subjective measure of environmental facilitators and barriers to participation for people with mobility limitations. Disability and Rehabilitation, 1–10 (2007) 5. Jamali, M., Abolhassani, H.: Different Aspects of Social Network Analysis. In: Proceedings of the 2006 IEEWICIACM International Conference (2006) 6. LaRue, E.M., Mitchell, A.M., Karimi, H.A., Kasemsuppakorn, P., Roongpiboonsopit, D.: COMPANION: Social Support Networking Technology For Survivors of Suicide. In: International Conference on Health Informatics (HEALTHINF 2009), Porto, Portugal (2009) 7. Millen, D.R., Feinberg, J.: Using Social Tagging to Improve Social Navigation. In: Workshop on the Social Navigation and Community-Based Adaptation Technologies Conjunction with Adaptive Hypermedia and Adaptive Web-Based Systems (AH 2006), Dublin, Ireland (2006) 8. Borcea, C., Gupta, A., Kalra, A.: The MobiSoC Middleware for Mobile Social Computing: Challenges, Design, and Early Experiences. In: Mobilware 2008, pp. 1–6 (2008) 9. Jimison, D., Sambasivan, N., Pahwa, S.: Wiggle Stick: An Urban Pedestrian Mobile Social Navigation System. In: Georgia Tech Graduate Symposium, Georgia Tech, Atlanta (2007) 10. Jung, J.J., Kim, K., Lee, H., Park, S.: Are You Satisfied with Your Recommendation Service? Discovering Social Networks for Personalized Mobile Services. In: Nguyen, N.T., Jo, G.S., Howlett, R.J., Jain, L.C. (eds.) KES-AMSTA 2008. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 4953, pp. 567–573. Springer, Heidelberg (2008) 11. Adams, B., Phung, D., Venkatesh, S.: Extraction of Social Context and Application to Personal Multimedia Exploration. In: MM 2006, Santa Barbara, California, pp. 3–4 (2006) 12. Korfiatis, N., Sicilia, M.A.: Social Measurement and Flexible Navigation online Contact Networks. In: Fuzzy Systems Conference (2007) 13. Nowak, A., Vallacher, R.R.: Information and Influence in the Construction of Shared Reality. IEEE Intelligent System, 90–93 (2005)

Collaborative Work in 3D Virtual Environments: A Research Agenda and Operational Framework Béatrice S. Hasler, Thierry Buecheler, and Rolf Pfeifer Artificial Intelligence Lab, Department of Computer Science, University of Zurich, Andreasstrasse 15, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland {bhasler, buecheler, pfeifer}@ifi.uzh.ch

Abstract. We propose a conceptual framework based on input-process-output models adapted from traditional group research for the systematic analysis of virtual teamwork. A research agenda contains a list of research questions that will be investigated in a controlled field study in the context of “The ShanghAI Lectures”, a global teaching and international student collaboration project. The research questions are formulated regarding processes and outcomes of global virtual teamwork and focus on usability and sociability issues in collaborative work in 3D virtual environments. An operational framework is provided for collecting the relevant data in a structured manner by using qualitative and quantitative process measures of group behavior. Keywords: Global virtual teams, 3D collaborative virtual environments, group interaction processes, behavioral tracking.

1 Introduction There is a general agreement that getting people to cooperate in geographically dispersed teams is crucial for global organizations in the 21st century [1]. As companies begin to compete globally, virtual teams, which consist of members who work and live in different countries, are becoming increasingly common. They typically do not meet physically but communicate and coordinate their tasks using information technology in order to accomplish their goals [2]. In recent years, 3D Collaborative Virtual Environments (3D CVE) have been developed to facilitate the work process of virtual teams. 3D CVE not only make it possible for virtual teams to communicate synchronously via chat or audio channels but also to perform actions simultaneously using various types of shared applications (e.g., text processor, presentation or spreadsheet programs) while being present in the same virtual room embodied as avatars. The main advantage of 3D CVE is that team members can jointly look at and manipulate objects in a shared virtual space [3]. Popular press indicates that organizations are increasingly using such virtual worlds as a new way to enable collaboration among geographically dispersed work teams [4, 5]. Gartner [6] estimates that 70 percent of all organizations will have established their own 3D virtual worlds by 2012 but reports that 90 percent of corporate virtual world projects fail within 18 months due to an insufficient understanding of A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 23–32, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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the mechanics, dynamics, and the right application areas for virtual world technologies. Therefore, it is crucial that we advance our understanding of how the design of 3D CVE influences group processes and why global virtual teams succeed or fail. However, empirical research on the usability and sociability of 3D CVE is still at an early stage [7, 8]. Our aim is to provide a research agenda, which extends the topics that previous virtual team research has been typically concerned with to the context of 3D CVE [2, 9]. Likewise, we will apply the issues discussed in virtual world research to global virtual teamwork following Kahai et al. [10]. Based on a conceptual framework for the systematic analysis of virtual team behavior, several research questions are derived that focus on the specific usability and sociability issues that emerge from synchronous communication, shared visual representations, and avatar embodiment. An operational framework is provided for collecting the relevant data of group interaction processes in a structured manner by using behavioral observation and coding techniques and a behavioral tracking method. 1.1 “The ShanghAI Lectures” - A Controlled Field Study on Virtual Teamwork in 3D CVE The context of this research outline is provided by “The ShanghAI Lectures”1, a higher education initiative using a mixed-reality approach for global teaching and international student collaboration. Its core components are a lecture series on embodied – natural and artificial – intelligence and accompanying multicultural and interdisciplinary task assignments for students. The lectures will be presented by the third author from Jiao Tong University in Shanghai in fall term 2009 and will be broadcast via video-conference to different universities around the globe. Students will collaborate in self-managed global virtual teams on project-based group assignments, view and annotate lectures, and meet with experts, embodied as avatars in a virtual world. In order to comply with the requirements of large-scale global collaboration, a 3D CVE named “UniWorld” is currently being developed at the University of Zurich using Sun Microsystems' Project Wonderland toolkit2 (see Figure 1). This opensource toolkit enables the customized design of the virtual environment, the extension of communication tools (e.g., immersive audio and cameras into the real world [13]) and collaboration features (e.g., virtual team rooms with shared applications), and the implementation of authentication schemes and virtual business cards. “The ShanghAI Lectures” also serve as a research platform to carry out studies that are embedded in a general research agenda for the systematic investigation of collaborative work in 3D CVE. The research project aims to explore various aspects of virtual team behavior in 3D CVE and to generate lessons learned that can guide further research. The educational context makes it possible to carry out a controlled field study with experimental manipulation of context factors (i.e. “input variables”) and to administer online surveys and interviews (e.g., using the online evaluation tool “chataca”3). In addition, a data collection mechanism is implemented in “UniWorld” in order to spatially and temporally track and reconstruct users' in-world behavior. 1

http://shanghailectures.org/ https://lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net/ 3 http://www.chataca.com 2

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Fig. 1. Snapshot of the “UniWorld” environment. A group of students discussing an instructional video on robotics displayed on a screen in “UniWorld” - the 3D CVE that will be used in “The ShanghAI Lectures”. The screen shot is taken from a pilot study with a prototype of the virtual world.

Behavioral tracking offers the opportunity to collect longitudinal data of in-world behavior in an unobtrusive way [12]. Although the advantages of tracking methods have been recognized by virtual world researchers, behavioral tracking is typically difficult to realize as commercial providers of virtual environments do not allow direct access to their databases [12, 13]. Therefore, observational studies of in-world behavior have mostly used screen recorders, which provide qualitative data that are time consuming to analyze [3]. However, recorded team interactions using Project Wonderland's built-in movie recorder provide valuable qualitative information in addition to the quantitative behavioral tracking data. Audio and chat communication data as well as work artifacts (e.g., shared work documents) are stored and can be used for quantitative and qualitative analysis of content.

2 A Conceptual Framework for the Study of Virtual Teamwork in 3D CVE We propose an input - process - output model adapted from traditional group research [14, 15] that serves as a framework for the discussion of a range of issues surrounding virtual teamwork in 3D CVE (see Figure 2). Input variables can be experimentally manipulated in order to study their effect on group interaction processes and outcomes. The processes during group interactions are expected to have consequences on the individual, intra-group, and inter-group level, which may change over time.

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Fig. 2. An input - process - output model of virtual team work in 3D CVE

2.1 Input Variables Input variables refer to the composition characteristics of the virtual team, the design of the task, and the context in which the team operates. Group composition is defined by the number and characteristics of people who are assigned to a team. Team members can differ from one another in their sex, age, cultural backgrounds and associated social norms, technical expertise, or intercultural competences and foreign language skills that are important for global virtual teamwork. In some cases the group structure (e.g., roles or hierarchies) is predefined while in other contexts – as will be the case in “The ShanghAI Lectures” – virtual teams are self-managed with no predefined structure. Task design refers to the type of the task (e.g., idea generation, problem-solving, decision making or contest) [14], training, resources, supervision, requirements (e.g., the level of autonomy or interdependence required for task completion, or the skills required to solve the task), and task goals (e.g., defined by evaluation criteria of deliverables). Environmental factors refer to both the virtual and physical space in which groups operate. In 3D CVE the technical environment is a three-dimensional virtual space in which users are embodied as avatars and offered different communication and collaboration facilities. A factor that has often been neglected in virtual team research is the physical environment from which team members access the virtual environment [8]. They can be located at different physical places (e.g., conducting remote work from home or in a shared office) and at different time zones. Both the physical as well as the technical environment pertain to a socio-cultural context in which interactions among individuals can occur. 2.2 Group Interaction Processes Group interaction processes are characterized by the form and content of communication and coordination between individuals who may belong to the same or a different group. The form of interaction is determined by the communication mode that is used at a given time for a particular purpose. The content of interaction can be task-related (e.g, coordinating task work, seeking information) or socio-emotional (e.g., engaging in personal conversations, providing mutual support). Group interaction processes engender different types of communication and coordination patterns from which

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consequences emerge for individuals regarding their amount of contribution, the extent to which they experience a sense of social presence and identify with their group. Consequences also arise for relations among group members, such as emerging roles, group cohesion and trust, group norms, and conflict resolution strategies. Group research has often focused on these internal group dynamics and little is known about the context outside of a group [16]. Therefore, we also integrate inter-group relations as defined by conflict and competition or cooperation between members of different groups. 2.3 Output Variables The outcome of the group interaction process is typically defined as the dependent variable in virtual team research and refers to team performance and personal success. Team performance can be defined by the effectiveness (i.e. quality) and efficiency of teamwork (i.e. productivity as determined by the resources and time needed to accomplish a task). Personal success can be determined by perceived work satisfaction and the acquisition of knowledge and skills. If feedback is provided to a virtual team based on outcome-related evaluations, this may again influence group processes in terms of a new input variable for the following stage in the group interaction process.

3 Research Agenda The input variables provided in the conceptual framework can be regarded as independent variables to study their effect on group interaction processes and outcomes. For example, we can examine for what types of tasks 3D CVE are most effective or how the group composition influences work satisfaction and team performance by comparing homogeneous and heterogeneous teams. In order to determine factors that contribute to the usability and sociability of 3D CVE we take a closer look at the actual group behavior and team members' subjective experience thereof. The following research questions are non-exhaustive lists of studies that will be conducted in the context of “The ShanghAI Lectures”. 3.1 Behavioral Indicators of High- and Low-Performing Teams A differentiation of high- and low-performing teams based on their outcomes is required in order to determine why virtual teams succeed or fail. Several research questions can be formulated regarding the following levels. • Form and content of team interaction: Can we identify communication and coordination patterns of high- and low-performing teams, and do they differ regarding the amount of socio-emotional and task-related content? • Individual level effects: Do members of high-performing teams show higher motivation and higher levels of identification with their group? Is the individual level contribution balanced in high-performing teams? • Intra-group effects: Can we find differences between high- and low-performing teams regarding emerging roles (e.g., concentrated vs. shared leadership)? What leadership styles are employed by (emerging) leaders of high-performing teams?

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• Inter-group effects: Can we find differences between high- and low-performing teams regarding the number and type of inter-group relationships? Do high-performing teams benefit from “weak ties” to other groups [17]? 3.2 Sociability Factors Sociability is determined by the extent to which a 3D CVE induces a sense of social presence among interacting users and enables team members to interact well with each other – despite the lower “social bandwidth” due to the limited transmission of nonverbal cues (through avatar facial expressions and gestures), which are crucial for the transmission of meaning, conversational management, and the expression of emotional states. Besides analyzing what types of relationships are formed during group interactions, sociability analysis should also focus on how those relationships are performed in shared activities [18]. The following factors are assumed to contribute to the sociability of 3D CVE and appear worthwhile to be investigated: • Perceived presence: How well do users identify with their avatars and do they feel present in the virtual environment? Does perceived social presence facilitate the establishment of group cohesion and trust among team members? • Social conventions: Are there any cultural differences regarding what behaviors in the virtual space are perceived as effective and appropriate? Do social conventions that can be observed in face-to-face interactions (e.g., proxemics) transfer to the virtual environment [13]? • Relationship formation: What types of relationships occur and how do they change over time? Are there any cultural differences in the way relationships develop? • Emerging roles: What roles are emerging during group work? Can we identify a set of behaviors that determines particular emergent roles, such as leadership? 3.3 Usability Factors Usability can be defined as a precondition for team effectiveness and efficiency, and refers to the extent to which the technological environment supports successful team performance and work satisfaction. In order to identify user needs to derive design guidelines for 3D CVE, we need to investigate what virtual teams actually do and how they use the communication and collaboration facilities provided by the 3D CVE [8]. The following research questions provide insights of how users cope with the environment and may highlight possible usability issues: • Communication modes: What communication modes (audio and chat) are being used, how often, by whom, and accompanying which tasks? • Collaboration tools: What collaboration tools are being used, how often, and for what purpose? What problems occur when using these tools? • Support facilities: What types of support (e.g., technical, conflict mediation, task-related) are most requested, by whom, and at what stage of teamwork? • Perceived usability: How does team members' subjective experience of technical and social aspects of 3D CVE interactions relate to observed behavioral patterns of virtual teamwork?

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4 Operational Framework for the Study of Group Interaction Processes in 3D CVE The analysis of group interaction processes requires multiple measurement times or continuous measurement as they are likely to change over time – and these changes are the main objects of interest. For example, the analysis of emerging roles and relationships require either subjective reports by team members or the collection of longitudinal behavioral data and cannot be measured at a single post-process measurement time. In order to observe group interaction processes, the acts and roles of collaborative people have to be made explicit [8], which calls for different types of behavioral observation tools that will be discussed below. Due to space restrictions, we limit our discussion to objective behavioral measures and leave out self-report methods that are typically used in virtual world studies and critically discussed elsewhere [19]. 4.1 Behavioral Coding of Video-Recorded Interactions and Communication Artifacts Some research questions require the analysis of content-related behaviors based on video-recorded interactions or communication artifacts. For example, the content of group interactions is relevant in order to extract information about the frequency of socio-emotional and task-related processes, to identify leadership styles, the kind and frequency of conflicts that occur and what strategies teams employ to resolve them. Bales' Interaction Process Analysis [20], the classic behavioral coding system, provides guidelines for collecting quantitative data from recorded observations, which require manual classification of content-related behavioral units. Specific coding schemes also exist, for example, to identify different leadership styles based on communication artifacts (e.g., the Leaderplex framework adapted to virtual team research [21]). In addition, qualitative analysis of video-recorded fragments of team interactions can be used for detailed description of the group dynamics involving all behavioral aspects of the social interaction within the given context [3]. 4.2 Behavioral Tracking for Automated Quantitative Data Collection When open-source tools, such as Project Wonderland, are being used to build a 3D CVE, temporal and spatial activities of users do not have to be coded manually by investigators but can be automatically tracked by the system and can be exported from the database for sequential analysis of in-world events and shared activities: • Temporal tracking includes the frequency and duration of events or actions that users perform either individually or in cooperation with others. • Spatial tracking captures all aspects of avatars' locomotion (i.e. position and movement), also providing information about visited virtual places. • Event tracking registers the type of activities users engage in (e.g., using shared applications for collaborative writing, drawing, or programming, watching a movie on a screen, annotating video-recorded lectures, reading FAQs for different types of issues, exchanging virtual business cards, etc.)

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It is important to consider that groups do not interact – but individuals do. Therefore, we track and analyze group interaction processes based on the actions that individuals perform. In order to analyze communication and coordination patterns and emerging relationships among individuals, the frequency and duration of (inter)actions can be tracked, which requires meta-data such as time stamps, the number of participants involved, and possibly where the interaction took place. These data can then be analyzed at the dyad or group level, or between groups (see Figure 3). We suggest to generate separate interaction matrices for chat and audio communication, and for coordination of shared actions. For example, the number of messages exchanged within a group of actively participating individuals can be taken as a measure of “interaction intensity” between the members of that conversational group. At the individual level, the number of messages sent or amount of speech can be used as an indicator for the individual's level of contribution. The interaction intensity between any two users can be tracked over time and statistically aggregated to estimate the strength of intra-group or inter-group relations. The analysis can be carried out for different time spans, for example, for multiple team meetings in order to observe changes in communication intensity among team members over time. However, it has to be taken into consideration that the quality and quantity of a team's output can be expected to higher than the aggregated individual contributions. In order to study inter-group relations in 3D CVE, the design of the virtual world has to be taken into account, which determines how much access users have to one another and how different virtual spaces foster the density of networks [22]. We also have to differentiate between focused collaboration (i.e. active participation) and unfocused collaboration (i.e. monitoring of group activities without getting involved) [8]. Furthermore, the duration of an interaction does not necessarily imply higher effectiveness but can be an indicator for misunderstandings between team members, possibly due to language barriers. Therefore, quantitative tracking data and qualitative analysis of group interactions should be used in complementary fashion in order to gain a better understanding of how virtual teams work in 3D CVE as both methods have their limitations.

Fig. 3. Interaction matrix based on communication and coordination intensity calculation

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5 Conclusions The conceptual framework and the illustrations of the ways in which it can be used to derive relevant research questions show the importance of a theoretical foundation for research on collaborative work in 3D CVE. We believe that the automated behavioral tracking approach is an important step towards the systematic analysis of group interaction processes. However, there are still open issues to be resolved on how to best combine and statistically analyze the large amounts of behavioral data in order to derive guidelines on how to effectively plan, structure, and support the work of globally distributed teams in 3D CVE.

References 1. Boudreau, M.-C., Loch, K.D., Robey, D., Straub, D.: Going Global: Using Information Technology to Advance the Competitiveness of the Virtual Transnational Organization. Academy of Management Executive 12, 120–128 (1998) 2. Powell, A., Piccoli, G., Ives, B.: Virtual Teams: A Review of Current Literature and Directions for Future Research. The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems 35, 6–36 (2004) 3. Schroeder, R., Heldal, I., Tromp, J.: The Usability of Collaborative Virtual Environments and Methods for the Analysis of Interaction. Presence 15, 655–667 (2006) 4. Kharif, O.: The Virtual Meeting Room. BusinessWeek (April 16, 2007), http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/ tc20070416_445840.htm 5. King, R.: The (Virtual) Global Office. BusinessWeek (May 2, 2008), http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/ tc20070416_445840.htm 6. Gartner Press Release (May 18, 2008), http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=670507 7. Schroeder, R., Axelsson, A.-S. (eds.): Avatars at Work and Play. Collaboration and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments. Springer, Dordrecht (2006) 8. Tromp, J.G., Steed, A., Wilson, J.R.: Systematic Usability Evaluation and Design Issues for Collaborative Virtual Environments. Presence 12, 241–267 (2003) 9. Furst, S., Blackburn, R., Rosen, B.: Virtual Team Effectiveness: A Proposed Research Agenda. Information Systems Journal 9, 249–269 (1999) 10. Kahai, S.S., Carroll, E., Jestice, R.: Team Collaboration in Virtual Worlds. The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems 38, 61–68 (2007) 11. Gardner, M., Scott, J., Horan, B.: Reflections on the Use of Project Wonderland as a Mixed-Reality Environment for Teaching and Learning. In: ReLIVE 2009 Conference, Open University, UK (2008) 12. Yee, N., Bailenson, J.N.: A Method for Longitudinal Behavioral Data Collection in Second Life. Presence 17, 594–596 (2008) 13. Friedman, D., Steed, A., Slater, M.: Spatial Social Behavior in Second Life. In: Pelachaud, C., Martin, J.-C., André, E., Chollet, G., Karpouzis, K., Pelé, D. (eds.) IVA 2007. LNCS, vol. 4722, pp. 252–263. Springer, Heidelberg (2007) 14. McGrath, J.E.: Groups: Interactions and Performance. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1984)

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15. Hoegl, M., Gemuenden, H.G.: Teamwork Quality and the Success of Innovative Projects: A Theoretical Concept and Empirical Evidence. Organization Science 12, 435–449 (2001) 16. Wittenbaum, G.M., Moreland, R.L.: Small-Group Research in Social Psychology: Topics and Trends Over Time. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2, 187–203 (2008) 17. Granovetter, M.: The Strength of Weak Ties: A Network Theory Revisited. Sociological Theory 1, 201–233 (1983) 18. Brown, B., Bell, M.: Play and Sociability in There: Some Lessons from Online Games for Collaborative Virtual Environments. In: Schroeder, R., Axelsson, A.-S. (eds.) Avatars at Work and Play. Collaboration and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments, pp. 227– 245. Springer, Dordrecht (2006) 19. Slater, M.: How Colorful Was Your Day? Why Questionnaires Cannot Assess Presence in Virtual Environments. Presence 13, 484–493 (2004) 20. Bales, R.F.: Interaction Process Analysis: A Method for the Study of Small Groups. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1951) 21. Carte, T.A., Chidambaram, L., Becker, A.: Emergent Leadership in Self-Managed Virtual Teams. Group Decision and Negotiation 15, 323–343 (2006) 22. Schroeder, R.: Social Interaction in Virtual Environments: Key Issues, Common Themes, and a Framework for Research. In: Schroeder, R. (ed.) The Social Life of Avatars. Presence and Interactions in Shared Virtual Environments, pp. 1–18. Springer, London (2002)

Workflow-Based Architecture for Collaborative Video Annotation Cristian Hofmann1, Nina Hollender2, and Dieter W. Fellner1 1

Interactive Graphics Systems Group, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Fraunhoferstr. 5, 64283 Darmstadt, Germany 2 Center for Development and Research in Higher Education, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Hochschulstr. 1, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany {cristian.hofmann, d.fellner}@gris.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de, [email protected]

Abstract. In video annotation research, the support of the video annotation workflow has been taken little into account, especially concerning collaborative use cases. Previous research projects focus each on a different essential part of the whole annotation process. We present a reference architecture model which is based on identified phases of the video annotation workflow. In a first step, the underlying annotation workflow is exemplified with respect to its single phases, tasks, and loops. Secondly, the system architecture is going to be exemplified with respect to its elements, their internal procedures, as well as the interaction between these elements. The goals of this paper are to provide the reader with a basic understanding of the specific characteristics and requirements of collaborative video annotation processes, and to define a reference framework for the design of video annotation systems that include a workflow management system. Keywords: Video Annotation, Video Analysis, Computer-Supported Collaborative Work.

1 Introduction A group of students use a web-based video annotation tool to analyse video sequences taken from TV panel discussions with regard to the use of a range of specific argumentation tactics. Their task is to mark and categorize objects and sequences within the video, to annotate these selections with descriptions and own interpretations, and to compare and discuss their results with others, also by exploring databases of already analyzed videos. Users that work with a specific video analysis software are often confronted with a large number of available tools and, consequently, with a hardly comprehensible user interface. In order to ensure a fluent course of activities, a system is required that provides information about the sequence in which these tasks are to be accomplished, as well as which tools can be used referring to a certain task. Furthermore, the application should support transitions between successive work steps. A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 33–42, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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Research activities in the area of computer-supported video annotation have increased during the last years. Corresponding solutions have been implemented in various application areas, e.g. interactive audiovisual presentations in e-Commerce and edutainment or technical documentations [4], [25]. In our research work, we focus on the support of collaborative video analysis in learning settings performed by applying video annotation software. A growing number of application scenarios for (collaborative) video analysis in education can be identified. Pea and colleagues report on a university course of a film science department, in which two different movie versions of the play „Henry V“ are analysed by a group of students with respect to the text transposition by different actors and directors [23]. Other examples for the application of video analysis in education are motion analyses in sports and physical education, or the acquisition of soft skills such as presentation or argumentation techniques [16], [23], [25]. A large number of different research fields and approaches have been involved in Video Annotation and Analysis Research. Nevertheless, one relevant aspect has been taken little into account: The support of the analysis workflow, which comprises the management of annotation data with related tasks and system services. Thus, a majority of today’s applications do not consider the needs of the users regarding a complete workflow in video annotation [12]. This is especially the case for collaborative settings. By workflow-support, we mean the facilitation of loops and transitions between the single workflow steps and tasks on the one hand. On the other hand, appropriate tools and information can be provided at the proper time, depending on the current state of the work. Consequently, we expect a reduction of the learners’ and tutors’ load with regard to the use of such applications and hence enhancement of efficiency. The main contribution of this paper is the presentation of a reference architecture which is based on identified phases and tasks of the video annotation workflow. In section 3, the underlying annotation workflow is going to be illustrated considering its single phases and recursive loops that can be especially associated with the collaborative processes taking place. Our investigations addressed the specific needs of users who work in teams with a special focus on educational settings. The results are based on interviews and discussions conducted with experts and users regarding the sequence of tasks and work steps within the annotation process, as well as on a summary and reflection of the existing literature. In addition to that, we performed an analysis of the functionalities, the user interface, and interaction design of fifteen video annotation and analysis applications. In section 4, the system architecture is going to be exemplified with respect to its single elements, the interaction between these objects, as well as internal procedures within the elements of the architecture. The goals of this paper are to provide the reader with a basic understanding of the specific characteristics and requirements of collaborative video annotation processes, and to provide a structural framework for the design of video annotation systems that include a workflow management framework.

2 Related Work Bertino, Trombetta, and Montesi present a framework and a modular architecture for interactive video consisting of various information systems. The coordination of these components is realized by identifying inter-task dependencies with interactive rules,

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based on a workflow management system [4]. The Digital Video Album (DVA) system is an integration of different subsystems that refer to specific aspects of video processing and retrieval. In particular, the workflow for semiautomatic indexing and annotation is focused [31]. Pea and Hoffert illustrate a basic idea of the video research workflow in the learning sciences [22]. In contrast to our research work, the projects mentioned above do not or only to some degree consider the process for collaborative use cases. The reconsideration of such communicative and collaborative aspects requires modifications and enhancements of the existing approaches and concepts.

3 Collaborative Video Annotation Workflow The reference architecture for collaborative video annotation relies on a already presented model that implies the single phases, tasks, and loops within the video annotation workflow [15]. We identified the phases of configuration, segmentation, annotation, exploration, and externalization. In the following, the particular items of these steps are going to be pictured. Before starting an annotation project, the environment has to be configured. Participants are assigned to accounts and user groups that are associated with specific roles and access rights. Furthermore, the annotation tasks can be distributed among the individual users [18], [30]. Specific project preferences can be adjusted and the graphical user interface may be customized [7]. In video analysis projects, category systems need to be fed into the system. The also may be modified during the annotation process [5]. The segmentation, annotation, and exploration tasks can be seen as one unit. Thus, video annotators alternately segment, annotate, and need to browse own results or data belonging to other annotators or annotation projects [5], [16], [22]. This process is accompanied by data reviews, comparisons, and consequently modifications [22], [24], [28]. Annotators start chunking the video into segments they want to refer to, drawing on different apporaches [2], [3], [10], [14], [17], [22], [27]. Video segments can be defined either by a single person or by an assigned group in a collaborative manner. Thus, annotations that serve as communication contributions are resources for the coordination of collaborative segmentation activities. In some of the identified use cases, the segmentation task is partitioned and assigned to users or groups. Users continue with the annotation of these subsets and with arranging annotations into a certain order. One type of annotation is the linking of metadata or descriptive data [1]. Users may also describe observed behaviours, events, or objects within the video. In most cases, they are allowed to enter free textual annotations. In fact, other types of media formats like images or sounds are possible [10]. During the annotation phase, a further task can be the transcription of verbal and non-verbal communication [20]. In video analysis, the annotation phase also includes interpreting, rating, and reflecting. These activities can be performed either qualitatively, e.g. in discussions, or quantitatively, by means of statistic methods provided by specialized software [12], [22]. Like the segmentation task, annotation may be partitioned and distributed among different groups. When a collaborative group works separately, members need to discuss their results with other participants [6], [7], [21]. Thus, discussion is a central element within the collaborative annotation process. It is a means of agreement and consistency of different annotators’ results and leads to a return to previous steps of the workflow [26]. Pea and Hoffert assume that exploring one’s own

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data is required to properly conduct an analysis [22]. Especially in collaborative annotation, users also need to search for results of co-annotators, experts, or other sources [16]. In addition to discussion, this can be regarded as key activity concerning revision of own results and re-entries to previous workflow steps. The externalization phase includes activities without the use of the annotation application, and consists of any kind of publishing operations. It begins with editing and converting the data into several formats, and moves on to presenting this information in corresponding media [22]. E.g., databases of annotated video material can serve as digital resource for information retrieval in subsequent annotation sessions. In video analysis, it is often necessary to export data for further inspection with specific applications [12], [22].

4 Workflow-Based Reference Architecture In this section, we present an architecture model which is based on the workflow model pictured above. This architecture provides a basic structure for video annotation systems which include a workflow management framework. Design decisions particularly base on our endeavour to support given operating procedures within the annotation workflow. In that context, we identified basic requirements that have to be fulfilled by the architecture: Workflow Control: Transitions between workflow phases and the control of sequences of sub operations have to be supported. Also loops and re-entries to other phases of the workflow must be considered. Enclosure: The identified phases and tasks need to be pooled into functional units that are mutually delimited. Thus, task areas can be typecasted and invoked by addressing respective modules. Extensibility: The architecture must enable administrators to integrate, replace and remove tools that can be assigned to task-related modules. Consistency: Since multiple tools read and possibly write on the same data, the consistency of shared parts of the data set has to be ensured at every point of the annotation process. In addition to that, there are further requirements with regard to annotated data and collaborative activities. Thus, an appropriate handling of media files and its annotated information, as well as their organizational structure must be provided. With respect to collaborative use cases, the architecture model has to realize the data exchange between multiple spatial separated users of the application. For this purpose, stored information must be made available to every participant of the group. Consequently, consistency of data must also be warranted for every peer in the shared system. As showed in Figure 1, the reference architecture was conceptualized as component-based client-server model. The elements of the architecture are structured by a combination of the Model View Controller and Mediator patterns [8], [11], [29]. In the following sections, the single aspects are going to be illustrated. 4.1 Client-Server Model A fundamental condition for collaborative processes is the interconnectedness of every peer taking part for information exchanging purposes [7], [10]. A range of optional models can be considered, e.g., client-server, peer-to-peer, or web-based approaches. We suggest a client-server architecture, not only due to its wide spreading in the area of information systems [7]. The server application realizes the centralization of the information space and, at the same time, makes the data system available

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Fig. 1. Workflow-based Reference Architecture Model

for any client that is connected. Additionally, it provides several services such as authentication of annotators, and management of accounts and access rights. It is also responsible for consistent storage and management of global project configurations and video annotation information, but also workflow-related data like workflowtemplates and available tools. The central application provides support for distributed authoring process, e.g. tracking of changes made by co-annotators. The client application handles user entries and interaction on the graphical user interface. It provides authoring options and assigned tools for video and annotation editing purposes. 4.2 Model View Controller and Mediator Pattern In order to realize an appropriate management of media files and its annotated information, we rely on existing approaches with regard to video annotation or video linking. In the area of hypermedia research, several models can be identified, e.g. the Dexter Hypertext Reference Model. The Dexter model divides the system into three delimited layers, separating data, the given hyper structure, and its representation [13]. The Model View Controller Model (MVC) equally divides the application into three levels: the model layer represents the involved data, views display the information and assume user interaction, the controller layer processes user entries and is enabled to modify data in the model. Furthermore, data consistency is warranted through a specific notification policy [8]. In the presented workflow-based reference architecture, the model layer consists of data and information from video files, video segments and assigned annotations to project configuration information. Particularly, workflow-related data are stored workflow templates (which can be predefined by tutors) and a listing of the available tools. The view layer represents any visual component at the graphical user interface. Besides the general elements of the user interface, the single views display the available tools and methods which are previously assigned to respective tasks of the annotation workflow. The controller layer includes two different kinds of controllers: local controllers are assigned to every component of the view (as well as the server communication component) and act as interfaces between component and application. The broker component serves as global controller and implements the included Mediator pattern.

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The Mediator pattern provides a central instance which defines the cooperation and interaction of multiple objects. This central unit holds an intermediary role and coordinates the overall behaviour of the system [11]. Thus, workflow control can be supported with regard to transitions between workflow phases, sequences of sub operations, passing through loops, and re-entries to other phases of the workflow. The specific processes and sequences within the annotation workflow are defined by task groups and sub operations, which can be pooled into several system components. 4.3 Task-Related Components As mentioned above, the identified phases and tasks need to be pooled into functional units that are mutually delimited in order to typecast task areas that can be invoked by the mediator object. Furthermore, the architecture must enable administrators to integrate, replace and remove tools that can be assigned to these task-related modules. Thus, the phases of the workflow are implemented as software components. A software component can be seen as an enclosed unit which provides specific services. It can be embedded into a higher-level system and combined with other components. The concrete implementation of a component is concealed from its accessing instance, the communication is provided by specific interfaces [29]. Within our architecture model, the components are abstract and serve as containers for previously assigned tools and methods. Furthermore, they may be implemented several times. Thus, extensibility of the framework is supported. Based on the identified workflow phases and tasks, we conceived and included the components Broker, Administration, Workflow, Video, Segmentation, Annotation, Timeline, Search, and Server Communication. In order to comprise sequences of tasks and sub operations, as well as possible loops and re-entries, we defined functions, internal procedures, and interaction with other elements of the architecture for each single component. In the following, the task-related components of the reference architecture are going to be exemplified, with a focus on their specific functions. The Broker Component implements the mediator pattern and servers as global controller within the controller layer of the MVC model. It does not hold information about the concrete implementation of the system components; the communication is conducted via the components’ controllers which serve as interfaces. The workflow component informs the broker instance that this task has to be performed. In order to control the whole task processing, the broker activates and highlights, or disables and hides respective components. In addition to that, it controls the interaction and communication between involved system components. Once modifying operations are performed by one component, changes must be registered in the data system one the one hand. On the other hand, other components have to be notified. Thus, the specific notification policy of the MVC model is realized. Information annotated to dynamic media like video comprises temporal conditions [9], [10], [14]. Thus, the representation of segmentation and annotation data has to be synchronized with the playing video. The Administration Component is responsible for all administrative processes and configuration of the application. It provides input interfaces for configuration of general application and project properties as well as the management of user accounts, groups, roles, and access right. In addition to that, workflow- and task-related settings can be edited, e.g., creating, editing and removing of workflow templates. Workflow templates define the tasks that have to be accomplished, the operating order and

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sequences, as well as the available tool(s) that are assigned to a certain task. Furthermore, distribution of tasks to different users or user groups can be stored. In general, the administration component provides interfaces for different types of information entry, and allocates data to its proper destination. Conjointly with the broker and administration components, the Workflow Component forms the workflow management framework of the system. On the graphical user interface, the workflow component visualizes the tasks that have to be accomplished, and enables users to select an item in order to perform a certain task. After the selection of a task item, the broker instance is notified for workflow control purposes. Once all relevant procedures are finished, the broker notifies the workflow component about the previously selected task being accomplished. In that case, the representation of the workflow is updated. The Video Component displays the assigned video file(s), as well as respective video segments and annotated data. Common interactive elements such as play, pause, stop, rewind, etc. are provided. In addition to that, further potentially services have been identified during the comparative analysis of the state-of-the-art, e.g. (synchronized) playback of multiple videos, multiple types of playback and control, or provision of keyboard shortcuts. For this purpose, the video component needs to provide appropriate interfaces. In close collaboration with the segmentation component(s), video chunking activities can be performed upon the video display area. The Segmentation Component includes required video chunking approaches. Since segmentation activities are usually performed on other components like video players or timelines [17], [19], this component must provide multiple interfaces for coordination of the segmentation performance. Concrete implementations of the Annotation Component enable supply, representation and editing of annotated data such as metadata, descriptions, categorization, commentary, etc. The annotation component has read access to the annotation data in the model layer in order to represent this information synchronized with the respecting video and segment(s). The selection of an annotation instance by the user must be enabled. With regard to this, the broker component has to be notified in order to initialize components like video player or timeline to update their representation of the respective data. For explorative purposes, the representation of annotated data needs to be modified. I.e., tools for grouping, sorting, filtering, etc. must be provided. This bears not only on a user’s own annotated information, but also on external data like co-annotators’ results or annotations within previous video annotation projects. Any modification performed upon the annotation component has to be registered in the central data system. Thereto, the broker instance has to be notified. The conducted expert interviews and the comparative analysis of current applications revealed that segmentation and annotation activities are often performed along a Timeline representation [15], [17], [19]. One fundamental reason is the temporal conditions of information that is annotated to video-based media [9], [10], [14]. In addition to that, other system components may use a timeline representation of annotated information, e.g. statistical comparisons of multiple users’ results. The Exploration Component provides essential functionalities for browsing, searching, and comparing several kinds of information. Among this information are own results, results of co-annotators or experts, annotation data of other projects that are located

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in the same data system, and also external resources. Consequently, the exploration component must provide an appropriate representation for different kinds of data. The Server Communication Component is responsible for communication, transaction, and data exchange between clients and the central server application or the data layer. For this purpose, the component has to know the employed protocol(s) and support marshalling procedures.

5 Conclusion and Future Work In this paper, we present a workflow model for collaborative video annotation processes. Based on this model, we illustrate a reference architecture that particularly supports transitions between phases and sub tasks of the (collaborative) video annotation workflow by complying the basic workflow-related requirements control, task enclosure, extensibility, and information consistency. The applied client-server model realizes co-annotator interconnectedness and information exchange by means of a centralized data system. Furthermore, services for user management, distributed authoring, and data consistency are provided. By pooling work items and tasks into enclosed software components, the regulation and control of the annotation process by a central broker instance is facilitated. An arrangement of the architecture elements along a MVC model ensures appropriate handling and management of the video files and respective additional information. Thus, it can be drawn on the presented architecture model in order to design (collaborative) video annotation software with an integration workflow management framework. Up to date, we implemented the exemplified system architecture as well as basic software components. Elementary workflow sequences (which are under permanent further development) can be passed through. Future steps relate to the representation and user interaction referring to information displayed at the graphical user interface. This bears especially on the described workflow component and the control of the different tools that are provided on the user interface.

References 1. Baecker, R.M., Fono, D., Wolf, P.: Toward a Video Collaboratory. In: Goldman, R., Pea, R., Barron, B., Derry, S.J. (eds.) Video Research in the Learning Sciences, pp. 461–478. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, London (2007) 2. Banerjee, S., Cohen, J., Quisel, T., Chan, A., Patodia, Y., Al-Bawab, Z., Zhang, R., Black, A., Stern, R., Rosenfeld, R., Rudnicky, A., Rybski, P.E., Veloso, M.: Creating multimodal, user-centric records of meetings with the carnegie mellon meeting recorder architecture. In: IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, Meeting Recognition Workshop (2004) 3. Bertini, M., Del Bimbo, A., Cucchiara, R., Prati, A.: Applications ii: Semantic video adaptation based on automatic annotation of sport videos. In: 6th ACM SIGMM International Workshop on Multimedia Information Retrieval, pp. 291–298. ACM Press, New York (2004) 4. Bertino, E., Trombetta, A., Montesi, D.: Workflow Architecture for Interactive Video Management Systems. In: Distributed and Parallel Databases, pp. 33–51. Springer, Netherlands (2002)

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5. Bortz, J., Döring, N.: Forschungsmethoden und Evaluation für Human- und Sozialwissenschaftler, 4th edn. Springer, Berlin (2006) 6. Brugman, H., Crasborn, O.A., Russel, A.: Collaborative annotation of sign language data with peer-to-peer technology. In: 4th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, pp. 213–216. European Language Resources Association, Paris (2004) 7. Brugman, H., Russel, A.: Annotating multi-media / multi-modal resources with ELAN. In: 4th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, pp. 2065–2068. European Language Resources Association, Paris (2004) 8. Buschmann, F., Meunier, R., Rohnert, H., Sommerlad, P., Stal, M.: Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture. A System of Patterns, vol. 1. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (1996) 9. Chambel, T., Zahn, C., Finke, M.: Hypervideo Design and Support for Contextualized Learning. In: IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, pp. 345–349. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos (2004) 10. Finke, M.: Unterstützung des kooperativen Wissenserwerbs durch Hypervideo-Inhalte. Dissertation, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany (2005) 11. Gamma, E., Helm, R., Johnson, R., Vlissides, J.: Design Patterns - Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1995) 12. Hagedorn, J., Hailpern, J., Karahalios, K.G.: VCode and VData: illustrating a new framework for supporting the video annotation workflow. In: Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces, pp. 317–321. ACM Press, New York (2008) 13. Halasz, F., Schwartz, M.: The Dexter Hypertext Reference Model. Communications of the ACM 37(2), 30–39 (1994) 14. Hofmann, C., Hollender, N.: Kooperativer Informationserwerb und -Austausch durch Hypervideo. In: Mensch & Computer 2007: Konferenz für interaktive und kooperative Medien, pp. 269–272. Oldenbourg Verlag, München (2007) 15. Hofmann, C., Hollender, N., Fellner, D.W.: A Workflow Model for Collaborative Video Annotation - Supporting the Workflow of Collaborative Video Annotation and Analysis performed in Educational Settings. In: International Conference on Computer Supported Education 2009 (to appear, 2009) 16. Hollender, N., Hofmann, C., Deneke, M.: Principles to reduce extraneous load in webbased generative learning settings. In: Workshop on Cognition and the Web 2008, pp. 7– 14 (2008) 17. Kipp, M.: Spatiotemporal Coding in ANVIL. In: 6th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation. European Language Resources Association, Marrakech (2008) 18. Lin, C.Y., Tseng, B.L., Smith, J.R.: Video Collaborative Annotation Forum: Establishing Ground-Truth Labels on Large Multimedia Datasets. In: TRECVID 2003 Workshop (2003) 19. Link, D.: Computervermittelte Kommunikation im Spitzensport. Sportverlag Strauß, Köln (2006) 20. Mikova, M., Janik, T.: Analyse von gesundheitsfördernden Situationen im Sportunterricht: Methodologisches Vorgehen einer Videostudie. In: Mužík, V., Janík, T., Wagner, R. (eds.) Neue Herausforderungen im Gesundheitsbereich an der Schule. Was kann der Sportunterricht dazu beitragen? pp. 248–260. MU, Brno (2006) 21. National Research Council Comittee on a National Collaboratory: National Collaboratories: Applying information technology for scientific research. Nation Academy Press, Washington (1993) 22. Pea, R., Hoffert, E.: Video workflow in the learning sciences: Prospects of emerging technologies for augmenting work practices. In: Goldman, R., Pea, R., Barron, B., Derry, S.J. (eds.) Video Research in the Learning Sciences, pp. 427–460. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, London (2007)

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23. Pea, R., Lindgren, R., Rosen, J.: Computer-supported collaborative video analysis. In: 7th International Conference on Learning Sciences, pp. 516–521. International Society of the Learning Sciences (2006) 24. Ratcliff, D.: Video Methods in Qualitative Research. In: Camic, P.M., Rhodes, J.E., Yardley, L. (eds.) Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology: Expanding Perspectives in Methodology and Design, pp. 113–130. American Psychological Association, Washington (2003) 25. Richter, K., Finke, M., Hofmann, C., Balfanz, D.: Hypervideo. In: Pagani, M. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Multimedia Technology and Networking, 2nd edn., pp. 641–647. Idea Group Pub., USA (2007) 26. Seidel, T., Prenzel, M., Kobarg, M. (eds.): How to run a video study. Technical report of the IPN Video Study. Waxmann, Münster (2005) 27. Snoek, C.G.M., Worring, M.: Multimodal video indexing: A review of the state-of-the-art. Multimodal Tools and Applications 25(1), 5–35 (2005) 28. Stahl, E., Finke, M., Zahn, C.: Knowledge Acquisition by Hypervideo Design: An Instructional Program for Univiversity Courses. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia 15(3), 285–302 (2006); Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, Chesapeake 29. Szyperski, C.: Component Software - Beyond Object-Oriented Programming. AddisonWesley, Reading (1999) 30. Volkmer, T., Smith, J.R., Natsev, A.: A web-based system for collaborative annotation of large image and video collections: an evaluation and user study. In: 13th Annual ACM international Conference on Multimedia, pp. 892–901. ACM Press, New York (2005) 31. Zhang, Q.Y., Kankanhalli, M.S., Mulhem, P.: Semantic video annotation and vague query. In: 9th International Conference on Multimedia Modeling, pp. 190–208 (2003)

Catalysing the Development of a Conference Workspace Jukka Huhtamäki, Ossi Nykänen, and Jaakko Salonen Tampere University of Technology, Hypermedia Laboratory, Korkeakoulunkatu 1, FI-33720 Tampere, Finland {jukka.huhtamaki, ossi.nykanen, jaakko.salonen}@tut.fi Abstract. Modern Web introduces new means to support conference information retrieval and, moreover, social tools that enable conference delegates to actively contribute to a conference. Simultaneously, existing case studies show that collecting explicitly represented conference data is possible in real-life settings. From these grounds, methods and tools of component-based information visualisation can be used to process conference data, firstly, in order to create visualisations of the conference data, and, secondly, to produce data for populating interactive conference tools. We claim that when coupled with usage tracking and analysis, the automated creation of visualisations and population data can catalyse the iterative development of a conference workspace. In this article, we present case OPAALS 2008 where formal conference data was successfully harvested and utilised to partly automate the creation workflow of the conference workspace. Moreover, we introduce the methods that were used to gain insight on the dynamics of the workspace usage. Keywords: information visualisation, online communities, Semantic Web, information modelling, social media.

1 Introduction Most of the conferences and workshops today have a homepage including information about the venue, program, and presenters. Some events offer delegates the possibility to define their profile and to contribute to the conference online. Lately, work for equipping conference delegates with appropriate interactive tools has been done in the field of online conferences. Traditionally, the role of a conference delegate has been rather passive. Related to unconferencing, Winer [1] claims that “[t]he sum of the expertise of the people in the audience is greater than the sum of expertise of the people on stage”. Although this surely is always not the case, we agree that the usefulness of a conference can be added with tools supporting delegates to find their way to see the right talks, to meet other delegates with complementing interests and to contribute to the conference discussion before, during and after the event. In chemistry, catalysts increase the probability of a reaction by reducing the activation energy needed for a reaction to happen. Reducing “activation energy” is important in data-sharing systems [2] and we see that the same analogy is applicable to conference workspace development. We claim that once the conference data is presented in a form explicit enough to enable automated processing, pipeline-based data processing methods that are commonly used in information visualisation can be used A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 43–52, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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to partly automate the creation process of a conference workspace. First, views can be created for visualising the conference data, possibly based on user preferences, and, secondly, conference data can be transformed into formats that can be used to populate conference community and other interactive conference tools. Together with a tracking-based, visualisation-driven feedback loop of the workspace usage, the automation of the workspace creation process can catalyse the iterative and incremental development of a high-end conference workspace: alterations to workspace content or structure can be made quickly as the understanding on the requirements of a workspace improves over time. In this article, we present work done related to the 2nd International Conference on Open Philosophies for Associative Autopoietic Digital Ecosystems (OPAALS 2008)1. OPAALS 2008 was organised on 7th and 8th October 2008 in Tampere, Finland by the Hypermedia Laboratory (HLab) of Tampere University of Technology (TUT) in association with Mindtrek Conference2 and W3C Finnish Office3. OPAALS 2008 was a relatively small conference with about 50 registered delegates representing fields of, among others, social science, biology, and computer science. OPAALS 2008 is related to OPAALS Network of Excellence (FP6-034824). The two main objectives of OPAALS are to build a sustainable interdisciplinary research community in the area of Digital Ecosystems (DE) and to develop an integrated theoretical foundation for DE research. A significant part of OPAALS is building an Open Knowledge Space (OKS) to support the work done in the project. To simplify, we describe OKS as a repository and a model for capturing and managing OPAALS knowledge in an evolutionary manner in the spirit of open source. Currently, OKS wiki is the main tool used by the members of OPAALS. As a partner of the OPAALS consortium, HLab is working to develop an information visualisation system for the OKS. As HLab was also responsible for organising OPAALS 2008, the development process of the conference workspace was selected as a real-life pilot scenario for the visualisation system. The first objective of this article is to describe a semi-automatic process of preparing and setting up a data-driven conference information infrastructure that also supports the task of bootstrapping the related conference community. The second objective is illustrating the pipeline-based mash-up and visualisation technology (reported elsewhere) in this context, analysing the critical factors of technically and socially sound applications. The rest of the article is organised as follows. In Chapter 2, we review inspiring work related to case OPAALS 2008. The development workflow of OPAALS 2008 is presented in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 includes an informal analysis of our work and Chapter 5 concludes the paper.

2

Background and Existing Work

Let us next briefly review some inspiring work and insights related to (1) conference data modelling, (2) conference author social network visualisation, and (3) the possibilities of 1

http://matriisi.ee.tut.fi/hypermedia/events/opaals2008 http://www.mindtrek.org/conference 3 http://www.w3c.tut.fi/ 2

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using formal conference data to support conference delegates in making the most of the time spent in a conference. Moreover, we introduce Wille, a lightweight information visualisation framework that was applied in OPAALS 2008 to automate the processing of the conference data. In order to demonstrate the real-life usage of Semantic Web technologies and to test the workflows and tools needed to collect semantically rich data in a realistic setting, or to eat the “Semantic Web Dog Food”, conference metadata about people, papers and talks has been created for a number of European and International Semantic Web Conferences (ESWC and ISWC) [3]. The metadata is represented in Resource Description Framework (RDF) format following the ESWC2006 Conference Ontology. The ontology combines concepts of the Friend of a Friend (FOAF) vocabulary4 to concepts specific to the conference domain. Currently, data representing six academic conferences is available online5 both as a browsable repository and via an Application Programming Interface (API) supporting SPARQL Query Language for RDF (SPARQL)6. Moreover, a simple geographic map of “Dog Food Organisations”7 is provided as an additional mean for navigating the data. A profound case of academic conference data visualisation was done related to IRIS (Information Systems Research Seminar in Scandinavia) conference [4]. To visualise the evolution of the social network of authors and the research topics of IRIS on a period from 1978 to 2006, data representing articles and their authors was collected manually from web pages, conference proceeding CDs and other sources and inserted into a database. A dynamic network visualisation tool Commetrix was used to visualise the data. The outputs of the work include animations of the evolution of IRIS co-authorship and of the diffusion of terms in IRIS community8. In addition to solving the issues related to heterogenous sources of data, manual work was needed to identify the authors whose names or origins were written in various ways. In particular, Scandinavian letters (å, ø, ä, ö, æ, etc.) caused problems for data collectors since author names including such letters are expressed in various ways. In his winning proposal for the Semantic Conference Design Challenge of the 3rd Annual European Semantic Web Conference, Grimnes [5] nicely sums up many of the needs of a conference delegate: delegates should be able to efficiently browse conference program and tag talks, on basis of which a conference system, where the user data could possibly be initialised with existing profile information in FOAF format, could guide the delegate intelligently through the conference. Today, such intelligent online communities can be built via integrating and tailoring existing community engines and other Web 2.0 development tools. The underlying objective of information visualisation is to serve as an amplifier of the cognition of a user through expressive views giving insight on a certain phenomena represented by the data [6]. In order to support the development of information visualisations for the Open Knowledge Space and other sources of explicit or heterogenous information, information visualisation framework Wille is being developed by the Hypermedia Laboratory [7]. A visualisation designer can use Wille to build 4

http://www.foaf-project.org/ http://data.semanticweb.org 6 http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/ 7 http://data.semanticweb.org/organization/ 8 http://chacini.cs.tu-berlin.de/Commetrix/iris/iris.html 5

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information processing pipelines that connect to different sources of data, process the data through series of queries and transformations and create stand-alone visualisations to visualisation users. Alternatively, Wille can be applied to produce data for existing information visualisation tools including Vizster (see [8]). An example of applying Wille is a social network visualisation of OKS wiki contributors where Wille is used to access and process OKS wiki data to create a representation of wiki editing history in a format supported by Vizster [9]. Two main versions of Wille exist, Wille Phase 1 and Wille Phase 2. Due to the early stage of development of Wille Phase 2, the batch-processing based Wille Phase 1 was used for conference data processing and visualisation creation.

3 Development of OPAALS 2008 Workspace The OPAALS 2008 development workflow is depicted in Fig. 1. Conference data is collected and represented in an explicit format enabling the automation of workspace creation. Moreover, the usage of the workspace is tracked and visualised to gain insight on workspace dynamics.

Fig. 1. A diagram presenting the workflow of OPAALS 2008 workspace development

A detailed description of the workflow follows. 3.1 Collecting and Modelling OPAALS 2008 Data Traditional conference management tools were used to collect OPAALS 2008 data. Articles were submitted through an online open source conference management

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system OpenConf9 that was installed for OPAALS 2008. Conference delegates registered via Mindtrek registration system. The registration data was delivered to the OPAALS 2008 team every now and then via email. Since OpenConf (we used version 2.01) does not provide a separate management process of camera-ready articles, authors submitted the final versions of articles via email in Portable Document Format (PDF). The files were named according to a uniform naming scheme to enable link generation. OPAALS 2008 conference data is composed of article data (id, author(s), title, session, keywords, abstract, full article in PDF format), delegate profile information (id, name, conference community username, email, organisation, location [city, country] and a list of interests) and session information (id, title, type, chair, start time, end time). Moreover, for members of OPAALS, additional profile information (image, additional list of interest) was collected from the OKS. For this, OPAALS username was added to the conference data to connect the OPAALS member identities to respective OPAALS 2008 delegate identities. In order to avoid time-consuming software development, a (human) conference data manager conducted the aggregation of conference data, an effort resulting to an Open Office Calc spreadsheet (opaals2008.ods in Fig. 1). A few iterations were made to collect sufficient data that fully supported the creation of the needed visualisations. Although a human actor was needed to manage data collection and aggregation, efforts were made to smoothen the process. For exporting article information from the submission management system via a Web interface, a data API capable of accessing the OpenConf database and exporting the data in a machine-readable format was implemented. Moreover, a set of Wille pipelines were developed for processing the data: Two previously developed pipelines, one for getting OPAALS member data in canonical FOAF format (opaals.foaf in Fig. 1) (see [9] for more information) and another for fetching OPAALS member images were re-used. In addition, a dedicated OPAALS 2008 data pipeline was developed for picking the spreadsheet content from the Open Office Calc file (which is, effectively, a zip file including spreadsheet content in XML format), scraping the data load, geocoding delegate origins with Google Maps API10, adding pre-fetched OPAALS member profile information and, finally, creating an Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of the conference data (opaals.xml in Fig. 1). 3.2 OPAALS 2008 Workspace The OPAALS 2008 conference workspace11 is designed to support conference delegates to (1) prepare for the conference, (2) work effectively during the conference and (3) follow-up discussion and initiatives after the physical event. The workspace is two-folded: a traditional conference homepage is spiced up with conference data visualisations and complemented with a dedicated conference community driven by an open source social network engine Elgg12. 9

http://www.openconf.com/ http://maps.google.com 11 http://matriisi.ee.tut.fi/hypermedia/events/opaals2008/ 12 http://elgg.org/ 10

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The following visualisations are included in the workspace. Interactive program is a densely hyperlinked view to the conference program. Presenter list introduces all the presenters appearing in OPAALS 2008. Article list enumerates all the articles published in OPAALS 2008 proceedings. The full version of each article is linked to Article list in PDF as well as the related conference presentations that were delivered to the OPAALS 2008 team. A keyword cloud, a tag cloud (see e.g. [10]) based on a histogram of conference article keywords is provided to support browsing the articles by their subject. Finally, Presenter map, a traditional map-based mash-up utilising Google Maps, shows the whereabouts of each presenter giving a talk in OPAALS 2008. The interlinking of the different views of the workspace is tight, thus providing flexible means to browse the conference contents. Moreover, conference sessions are linked to discussions running in the conference community and author information to their user profiles in the community. A simple Content Management System (CMS) was built to serve the static content as well as the generated views within a page template providing a uniform navigation scheme and general look and feel to the conference homepage. The CMS does not implement user session management or authentication, thus creating e.g. a personal tagging system for program was not possible. A general Workshop pipeline was built to produce the needed visualisations and population data files. The pipeline is composed of components Workshop program and Workshop community, first creating the Interactive program, the Delegate list, the Article list and marker data for the Presenter list (markers represent information in a Google Map) and second creating a data file (community.xml in Fig. 1) used to populate the conference community. A set of tailored XML vocabularies are used to represent the data within the pipelines. Most of the data processing is implemented as Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT). The visualisations are based simply on Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Stylesheets (CSS). In addition, Presenter Map uses Google Maps basic technologies, Keyhole Markup Language (KML) and the Javascript API of Google Maps. A mildly tailored version of Elgg (version 0.9) was used to run the conference community. A bash script was implemented to create a community account for each delegate, to populate the community profiles with collected data and to deliver the account information to delegates via email. To minimise the efforts of delegates and to enable linking from the Presenter list to the conference community, the conference data manager defined the community usernames manually into the conference data. In addition to the online conference workspace, a stand-alone version of the workspace was created through parameterisation of the Workshop pipeline and disseminated as a CD-ROM. Finally, a manually edited version of OPAALS 2008 proceedings in PDF was included both into the conference homepage and the CD-ROM. 3.3 Gaining Insight on Workspace Dynamics During the development of the OPAALS 2008 workspace, feedback from different visualisations and features of the conference workspace was collected from the members of the OPAALS 2008 team in face-to-face meetings and, in addition, from social network usefulness experts through informal discussions and reviews. Moreover, in order to provide the workspace development team with concrete data on the

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Fig. 2. A visualisation of the evolution of the conference delegate social network (two frames)

workspace usage before, during and after the conference, we installed Google Analytics13, an online usage tracking and visualisation tool, for collecting and visualising the usage data. In addition, a tailored log collector was implemented to the conference community platform by utilising the extension mechanism of Elgg. Google Analytics enables us to gain insight on the usage of the workspace in a general level. Moreover, on basis of the community log information, we are e.g. able to generate a visualisation of the evolution of the social structure of the community. Two excerpts of the development are shown in Fig. 2. Nodes represent the community members and the theme groups in the conference community and lines represent the interconnections between them. The graph representation of the community is created with a social network analysis tool Pajek14. In OPAALS 2008, the profile views constitute the majority of the community activity, thus making the social network data less significant. Similar means can, however, be used to create social network visualisations in conferences where online interaction is more diverse. Moreover, animations of social network evolution can be created from the log data e.g. with SoNIa, a tool for visualising dynamic, longitudinal network data15. The information derived from usage tracking and visualisation can be used to reflect the dynamics of the workspace. For instance, we decided to separate the traditional, static homepage of the conference from the more interactive workspace. This meant that we had two versions of the conference program, one with hyperlinks to different parts of the workspace and another without. In the period of September 15, 2008 to February 15, 2009, the unlinked version of the program was viewed twice as much as the interactive version. We suspect that this may have had a major effect on the popularity of the other parts of the workspace. In the future, we would create only one program that would initially be a static one and would be replaced by the interactive version once enough data for creating one is available. 13

http://www.google.com/analytics/ http://pajek.imfm.si/ 15 http://www.stanford.edu/group/sonia/ 14

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4 Discussion and Informal Analysis Case OPAALS 2008 serves as an example of the potential of data driven development of online workspaces. We have showed that when sufficient technical expertise is available in a conference team, explicitly represented conference data can be collected with traditional conference management software, spreadsheets and other state-ofthe-art tools and, moreover, a useful workspace can be created from this data for supporting the conference delegates. From the end-user point-of-view, an optimal solution for a conference workspace would be achieved through a fully integrated system supporting submission management, registration, collaborative tagging, discussions and communication, networking and conference data visualisation. Since developing such a tailored system is not always possible and application needs vary, a lightweight alternative created by utilising explicitly represented conference data, component-based information visualisation pipelines and contemporary mash-up and community technologies provides a valid option. An automated publishing process has several advantages in addition to enabling an iterative, data-driven development of a conference workspace. Examples include the possibility to create a consistent Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) space for the workspace to enable deep linking of conference artefacts and third-party created complementing metadata, following the principles of design for reuse [11]. Programmatically created views to the conference data are, due to their predictable structure, both browsable (by humans) and crawlable (by machines), thus forming a repository of digital conference artefacts. Moreover, it is possible to refresh the format of the data views e.g. by adding support for Microformats16 for representing the conference schedule and the profile information of article presenters. In general, the automation introduces means to conference source data normalisation, thus adding to the data quality by preventing errors in data replication and insuring the referential integrity of links within the data and the generated views. The dynamics of the workspace usage can be better understood through tracking and visualisation of the usage providing insight on the popularity of individual views, the navigation paths and even the structure of the social network of the delegates. While Google Analytics provides useful general views to workspace usage, the usage data collected with Google Analytics is still quite imprecise. Importantly, the users identity remains unknown, thus we are not able to connect users e.g. to their demographic information. Using only Google Analytics for the public part of the conference workspace hinders us to follow the paths of individual conference community users outside the community where a built-in tracking mechanism does enable user-specific tracking. Several efforts can be made to further add to the usefulness of a conference workspace. Using a temporary community for a conference does not encourage the use. Moreover, system-specific authentication credentials hinders the use of the community. Applying OpenID17 or some other general authentication scheme would enable the use of existing digital identities in such a short-lived community. Also, more advanced conference data can be collected. Article references, for example, can be 16 17

http://microformats.org/ http://openid.net/

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formalised e.g. with Zotero18. A general identification scheme for authors and articles is, however, needed in addition to a consistent reference representation scheme to enable advanced computing on basis of the reference information.

5 Concluding Remarks Complemented with component-based data processing pipelines and extensive export and import mechanisms of individual conference tools, explicit representation of conference data provides means to decouple the unique, invaluable data from the individual conference tools that tend to change on yearly basis as more prominent technologies emerge. Data processing pipelines can be developed to create the needed visualisations views directly and to generate data files in formats suitable for feeding various visualisation players and social platforms. Iterative development is supported through the possibility to add new views to existing data by implementing new publishing routines and to refine the workspace by tailoring the existing ones. Once collected, a formal conference data set can be utilised in the future e.g. by aggregating the data with other existing sets of data or by creating new representations of the data in appropriate formats. However, to ensure the option to use a certain data format, the characteristics of the format should be taken into account so that all the necessary pieces of information are collected. The system developed for OPAALS 2008 is a combination of a publishing framework, an information visualisation system and a conference management system. Following the presented approach in a series of future conferences, we are able to analyse and also actively steer the development of workspaces for academic conferences and other communities. The OPAALS 2008 conference workspace serves as a firm basis for the development of future workspaces. Work on tailoring existing components and pipelines and creating new ones is, nevertheless, needed when new workspaces are created, insisting on experience in utilising Wille. In order to fully understand the dynamics of the conference workspace and thinking of the workspace users, the methods of user-centered design and qualitative research methods should be used to complement the measures and figures created through quantitative means. However, usage visualisation surely serves as means to facilitate the discussion on workspace development both for the archive of OPAALS 2008 as well as for future conferences. To enable the emergence of a conference ecosystem composed of individual services capable of communicating dynamically to each other, APIs are needed for data access and easily machine-readable formats for data interpretation. Shared policies and practices, however, ultimately define whether such a system will emerge. Acknowledgments. The authors would like to express their gratitude to Thumas Miilumäki for creating the social network visualisations with Pajek, Arto Liukkonen for tailoring the conference community and Matti Haapaniemi for the development of early prototypes of workshop data visualisation. Moreover, we appreciate the help and feedback from the OPAALS community. 18

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References 1. Winer, D.: What is an unconference? (March 5, 2006), http://scripting.wordpress.com/ 2006/03/05/what-is-an-unconference/ 2. Smith, K., Seligman, L., Swarup, V.: Everybody Share: The Challenge of Data-Sharing Systems. Computer 41(9), 54–61 (2008) 3. Möller, K., Heath, T., Handschuh, S., Domingue, J.: Recipes for Semantic Web Dog Food — The ESWC and ISWC Metadata Projects. In: Aberer, K., Choi, K.-S., Noy, N., Allemang, D., Lee, K.-I., Nixon, L., Golbeck, J., Mika, P., Maynard, D., Mizoguchi, R., Schreiber, G., Cudré-Mauroux, P. (eds.) ASWC 2007 and ISWC 2007. LNCS, vol. 4825, pp. 802–815. Springer, Heidelberg (2007) 4. Molka-Danielsen, J., Trier, M., Slykh, V., Bobrik, A., Nurminen, M.: IRIS (1978-2006) Historical Reflection through Visual Analysis. In: IRIS30, Tampere, Finland (2007) 5. Grimnes, G.: Semantic Conference Program. In: Sure, Y., Domingue, J. (eds.) ESWC 2006. LNCS, vol. 4011. Springer, Heidelberg (2006), http://www.eswc2006.org/technologies/designchallenge/ semantic-conference-program.pdf 6. Ware, C.: Information Visualization: Perception for Design. Elsevier, San Francisco (2004) 7. Nykänen, O., Salonen, J., Haapaniemi, M., Huhtamäki, J.: A Visualisation System for a Peer-to-Peer Information Space. In: 2nd International OPAALS Conference on Digital Ecosystems, pp. 76–85. Tampere University of Technology, Tampere (2008) 8. Heer, J.: boyd, d.: Vizster: Visualizing Online Social Networks. In: 2005 IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization (INFOVIS 2005), pp. 33–40. IEEE Computer Society, Washington (2005) 9. Huhtamäki, J.: Community visualisations in Open Knowledge Space: Uncovering rabbit holes in a digital ecosystem. In: 1st OPAALS workshop. opaals.org (2007) 10. Hearst, M.A., Rosner, D.: Tag Clouds: Data Analysis Tool or Social Signaller? In: 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, p. 160. IEEE Computer Society, Washington (2008) 11. Vinoski, S.: Serendipitous Reuse. IEEE Internet Computing 12(1), 84–87 (2008)

Dialogues of Locations: BlueSpot András Kangyal1 and László Laufer2 2

1 Guanxi, Garas u. 9, 1052 Budapest, Hungary Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Egry J.u.1., 1111 Budapest, Hungary [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. We designed and implemented an experimental communication system called BlueSpot, which was functioning for 3 months in Budapest, Hungary. It was a free communication system that connected nearly 50 geographical locations in the city into a network. In BlueSpot users could send messages to localities instead of people using the Bluetooth service of their mobile phones. Messages were received by all users present at the target location. We are describing the system architecture and our experiences with the interaction design of the BlueSpot application. We also provide an analysis of the content of the messages, revealing user experiences in a synchronous location based communication system. Keywords: Location Based Services, Messaging system, Bluetooth, Interaction design.

1 Introduction In most European countries the penetration of mobile phones almost reached, in some cases has already exceeded a 100 percent. Most of these devices are only used for talking and for sending short messages. Other potentials are still waiting to be unleashed by both the providers and the users. In the recent decade there was a lot of research carried out to utilize one of the most important information of these mobile ICT users: their location. Although Location Based Services (LBS) has become a very popular research area in recent years, only after the release of the iPhone it got significant public attention. According to the GFK Technology Research, in the 4th quarter of 2008 in the US one third of iPhone owners used LBS, as opposed to the overall of 10% of all mobile users of the 25-34 age group [1]. On one hand this fact shows the unused potentials of these services, on the other hand it also draws attention of the importance of the high entry threshold of being able to access LBS. In this article we would like to discuss a Hungarian experimental Location Based Service called BlueSpot [2]. The system ran for 3 months in 2007 in Budapest, and was specially designed to be accessible on all mobile phones, not just for GPS or even G3 capable smartphone owners. In the following paragraphs we would like to give a short overview of some classifications of LBS, and try to define our system according A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 53–61, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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to these concepts. We describe the functionality and the purpose of BlueSpot and finally share the results and our experiences we gathered in the test period.

2 Overview of Location Based Systems According to the definition of Virrantaus LBSs are information services accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the location of the mobile device [3]. As we previously mentioned the spread of mobile communication technologies necessarily resulted in the need for such services and thus lots of pilot systems were developed. As a consequence of the experimental nature of the field there is no unified classification of LBS exists. In his paragraph we do not try to create such a standard taxonomy, we just collected some considerations which are useful for us to describe our system and we also provide our own classification revealing the importance of our developments. 2.1 Classifications of LBSs One of the most important factors that characterizes LBS is the source and the granularity of the location information. According to Dix [4] it is useful to differentiate between three different kinds of location detection. Some of the systems have access to the coordinates of the users, like GSP enabled mobile devices or other systems that determine the location on the basis of nearby Wi-Fi routers or GSM antennas. In these systems the location is in some sort of explicit dimensional representation. In a zonal system the devices are located within some area of a sensor. The granularity of these zones can vary from a few millimeters (enter a door with an RFID card and a reader) to a few meters (automatic road toll paying service) or even more (e.g. in the case of BlueSpot it was up to 10 meters). In the zonal system the exact location of the user is not know, thus the service provided must be relevant within the whole zone. Near Location Based Systems (NLBS), which allow users to access information based on their surroundings, typically belong to this category. The third group of systems uses relational location detection, where objects report some form of relative location information. Usually these users are within a few meters distance of each other (e.g. Bluetooth devices which are close to each other). Due to technical reasons these services also differ whether the device is used indoors or outdoors. Several modalities of location detection like GPS cannot be used indoors, or less accurate within a building like GSM based positioning, while others like infrared is more problematic to use in an open space. From the HCI perspective the focus of the applications have a more significant importance. Steiniger [5] defined 8 categories of LBS systems based on the type of information they provide: Navigation (e.g. routing), Information (e.g. travel guide), Tracking (e.g. product tracking), Games (e.g. geocaching), Emergency, Advertising, Billing (e.g. road toll), Management (e.g. customer relationship) and Leisure (e.g. instant messaging). He also expresses that it is hard to define long lasting categories, because of the accelerated evolution of devices and application in this field.

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2.2 Location in the Communicational Process According to our understanding of LBS, it is also important to treat the location as a form of information, which is being used up in a communicational process. To characterize this process we can differentiate between the number of users participating and the synchronicity of the communication. Along these dimensions we found two major clusters of applications, which do not cover all location based systems, and to some extent overlap with each other. Nevertheless we think it is important to describe them as they characterize a lot of recent LBS developments. We think that one of the major categories of these applications has a focus on the social network of the users. These Social Network Based LBSs function as a locative extension of the well known social network services. The most typical application in this group is the so called buddy search. In these systems the users know the people who they are interacting with (most commonly by instant messaging with each other), and location serves as an important supplementary information in the dialogue. Another important attribute of these social networked based LBS is that they are synchronous communicational tools. The location information gains its importance if the user gets to know where the people are in his social network right now. In some cases the history of the location information of his/her friends is also presented. Typically it is a one to one communication tool, sometimes a one to many, where the receivers are the whole social network of the user. It is a very popular form of LBS: Google Latitude [6] or the Nok-Nok [7] system of Nokia are commonly known representatives of this category. We think that another emerging focus of LBS is Location Based Tagging. In these systems there is a database of places with different granularity of location information, and some specialized type of information is being attached to these localities. To some extent it can be treated as a form of augmented reality. Usually the information assigned to the location already exists at time of the interaction, and as a result the communication between the information provider and receiver is asynchronous. Like other knowledge sharing systems these LBSs typically serve as a many to many communicational tool. Most location based iPhone applications (e.g. iSushi, or travel tip services) fit into this category.

3 The BlueSpot Location Based Chat System The purpose of the BlueSpot system was to provide a special location based chat application, in which the participants of the dialogues are not representing themselves, but their location. The system was only available in specific places like bars, cafes, and other scenes of social life. To create such a system we only needed a zonal granularity of the location information. This Near LBS only had to detect whether the user is present in that specific place or not. The system harnessed the Bluetooth capability of the mobile phones, and connected the users with each other through special Bluetooth routers, which were connected to the internet. As we discussed previously most location based chat services rely on the social network of the user. These services could be better described as Location Based Instant Messaging systems, as the users are selecting their partners from a previously

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defined contact list. On the web the killer feature of chat rooms and IRC channels is that unidentified (not necessarily anonymous) users participate in a virtual public space. In this way IRC and chat is very similar to hanging out in a bar, talking to friends and getting acquainted with strangers in a public space. These communicational tools are not just using and strengthening the already existing strong social links, but also provide a possibility to expand the network of the participant. In Instant Messaging, text messaging (SMS) and telephony partners mostly know each other, so these channels of communications are taking place in a virtual private space. These services are metaphors of inviting friends to our home, or our office and having a discussion with them in our private space. In virtual spaces no matter if they are public or private; the users are staying in their real private space: mostly sitting in their room or at their office, instead of a real public space. There are just a few examples of technology being used in public spaces to enhance the communication of the people present. The most commonly used service is the SMS Wall, which provides a common platform for the people located at the same public space. There has not been any technology developed yet, which enables public spaces to communicate with each other. Real life public spaces incubate an ad-hoc community of people being present at the same time at the same place. But these communities remain isolated. When youngsters decide to hang out in an evening, they have very limited information about what is happening at a specific place. The information they have about an event or a public space is mediated by an asynchronous communication channel (website, magazine etc.). If nobody is present there from their social network they cannot get information about the ongoing event at a location. In 2008, one year after the BlueSpot experiment, the rise of Twitter microblogging service showed the importance of this type of synchronous communication, since this is one of the most important themes of the tweets. In BlueSpot, the user staying at a location could send a message to another location with his/her phone. The people present at the other location could reply, creating one dialogue between the two public spaces. All the other people present can follow and take part in the discussion. On the other hand dialogues within one location were not supported; from the same place the senders` messages could only be seen in the history of the dialogue thread after someone replying form the addressed location. We also created a client, accessible from the web, grouping all the web users to one location, which could be regarded as "home". Although these users were at different places they were all behaving similarly, as they were all asking questions from their home, which determined the topics of the discussions. 3.1 System Architecture The key idea in BlueSpot was to try to develop a free mobile messaging service not restricted to be used on smartphones only. Therefore the most important requirement of the system was to demand a low entry threshold. The service had to be free, so we had to provide the technical infrastructure, which was completely independent from the Hungarian mobile networks. Taking part in the project demanded minimal effort from the users. For this, we developed hotspots connected to each other through the internet and communicating with the mobile clients via Bluetooth. Therefore, the communication of the users relied only on their Bluetooth enabled mobile device and

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the BlueSpot system. The whole project was based on Open Source solutions, and the infrastructure consisted of three levels of devices: a central webserver, hotpots (Bluebox) placed at special locations and mobile clients running on the users' phones. Webserver. On the top level there was a webserver which was connected to the hotspots through the Internet. We used PostgreSQL as database system, and PHP as programming language above a standard Debian Linux system. The communication between the different levels was based on standard XML requests. The webserver was basically a transmitter between the hotspots. It distributed the messages to the different locations and collected data on the actual state of the whole system. It counted how many reachable users had been logged in and how many users had participated in the discussions. The server sent this information to every user via the hotspots.

Fig. 1. System architecture of BlueSpot: mobile clients, Bluetooth hotspots and the webserver

Bluebox Hotspots. The Bluebox hotspots were specially designed for the BlueSpot infrastructure, making them the most interesting part of the system. These devices were hacked ASUS WLAN HDD. They wirelessly connected to a Wi-Fi router or to a modem via LAN cable. We dismantled the boxes and changed the hard drive to a 128MB memory card. We ran an OpenWRT embedded Linux application on these cards, which ensured the communication between the webserver and mobile phones as a mediator. These cards stored the downloadable mobile client applications as well. We plugged in a Bluetooth dongle to the USB port of the Bluebox, which maintained the connection with the mobile phones. The range of the dongles was the bottleneck of the system. It was only 8-10 meters maximum, and when a user left the covered area, the connection was lost. In some cases in order to cover the whole location we had to use multiple boxes. Mobile Clients. When the system detected a new mobile phone with a Bluetooth device turned on, the user got a message to download the Java based (J2me) mobile phone client application from the Bluebox. If they accepted the message, they could install the application. This was the most sensitive part of the interaction, as most of the users did not know the source and the purpose of the program they were about to install. The functionality of the client was very similar to a text messaging system.

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Fig. 2. Our first GUI concept, where the positions of the keys were constant on the screens, but they were representing different functions on every screen. This made the interaction similar to the ones on touchscreen devices, but with a normal mobile numeric keypad. Usability tests proved it to be difficult for the users to learn.

The messages were displayed in threads of discussions. Besides this the map of the city with the participating places was another important function. Each place was represented with dots of different sizes on the map. The magnitude corresponded with the number of logged in users at the location, and the color of the dot showed how active their communication was at the moment. The users could browse and reply to previous messages, but also had the possibility to start a new conversation with another location. 3.2 Graphical User Interface Originally we wanted to enable average phones to have functions that only smartphones have. Besides their GPS capability these phones also have a bigger display and the interaction does not only rely on the numeric keyboard, but a touchscreen or a stylus as a pointer is also being used. In our original interface design we wanted to create a pseudo-touchscreen, where 10 areas of the screen correspond to the 10 numerical buttons of the keyboard (See Fig. 2). The corresponding areas of each button remained the same during the whole interaction, so the user could learn the positions of each key and did not have to pay attention on pressing the right button. As we tested this idea with paper prototyping we had to accept that the users rejected this concept. Although when using up/down/left/right navigation on simple mobile screens they use the keyboard in a similar way, the constantly changing functions of the keys confused the users. As a result of the usability tests, we decided to return to the commonly used mobile menu system (See Fig. 3).[8] This proves that composite metaphors in mobile interfaces are as important as in a desktop environment. When we repeated our usability tests with the menu driven interface all the users could easily learn the navigation in the menu system. A major and unsolvable usability problem was that when entering a message the text editor interface was the native editor surface of each mobile phone. This meant that by replying or writing a message, the users often thought they have exited the program, and started to enter a normal text message in their mobile phones` menu system. Unfortunately we could not get around this problem, and had to put up with this disturbing part of the interaction.

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Fig. 3. The same screens in the final version of the GUI (in Hungarian) The contents of the screen from left to right: 1. Notification when receiving a new message; 2. Map of locations with the number of users logged in; 3. Content of an incoming message; 4. Menu of incoming messages; 5.Login screen.

4 Results Since BlueSpot was an academic experiment, and it only ran for 3 months, it did not get a lot of publicity from the media. Still, with its 47 locations (+1 web client), and its 1500 users it was one of the biggest Locative Media projects at the time. Most of the users were informed about the service from the welcome messages of Blueboxes at the public locations. The routers could only notify those mobile owners, who had the Bluetooth service turned on their phones permanently. In this period there were approximately 40000 users notified, out of which only 2600 user initiated the software download. Due to software installation problems only 1500 users succeeded, and were able to use the service. One third of the users actively participated in the discussion, by not just reading, but also writing messages to others. In the social media scene this ratio of passive and active users is considered to be high. According to a contemporary survey of Pew Internet Research, only one fifth of the blog readers wrote blogs at that time [9]. Unfortunately the average BlueSpot user wrote only 2.5 messages and the number of simultaneously logged in users rarely exceeded 10. As a result of these conditions the service has not reached a critical mass, thus did not evolve to become a synchronous communication channel of locations. Opposed to other location based tagging services, which do not demand parallel presence of their users, and could successfully rapidly increase their number users. One major portion of the messages was related to the BlueSpot service. Every user initially sent a "Hello world" type of message, to test the system. After this first message those who were brave enough to continue were either expressing their enthusiasm or asked a question related to the system. Messages sent for abroad through the web client also had similar content. The Web2Location type of conversation was initiated by the users of the web client. As the web users were located at their homes, these messages were about asking information about a specific location. Most of the time the web users were thinking about visiting that spot, and wanted to know if there was free table, if it was crowded, or asked about the current atmosphere. In the cases of open air spots, most often they were asking about the whether situation. These dialogues were good examples of synchronous communication between “home” and a location, as the immediacy of the information was a key factor in the discussion.

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A smaller, but still significant portion of the dialogues belong to the Location2Location type, and took place between two public spaces. The users were planning to leave a location, and asking whether it was worth to travel to the other spot (bar hopping). In some cases users organized common activities, like invited users from another locations to join their foosball tournament or simply to come over to party with them. The participants of these activities often used the system to write short coverages on the current situation, their moods etc. As a small group of the users regularly logging into the system had a kind of “BlueSpot user identity”. One a bartender, who was actively participating in the discussions, offered a free beer to everyone who came over to his place and said "abt natural", which is a well known joke from Woody Allen’s “Take the Money and Run" movie.

5 Conclusion BlueSpot system was an experiment to convert the screen of the mobile phone to a public display: everything the user wrote to someone at another place, everybody else could see in that location, and everything he received, all the people around him/her saw as well. Although there was no limitation of message size, users usually sent short SMS size messages, as they were used to do so from their mobiles. They did not know who is going to read their message so they addressed the public place as a whole. The contents of the messages showed that all users enjoyed the experience of these locative chat rooms. The system was working for a relatively short period of time and the vast majority of the people got introduced to it by an automatic notification message sent by the Bluetooth router, and an installation of unknown software from an unidentified source was required initially. Despite these factors the system was a great accomplishment with over a 1500 users at the time. The original goals of the BlueSpot, to provide a free infrastructure for people with simple mobile phones, and making it possible for the average mobile user to experience location based synchronous communication was successfully met. Acknowledgements. The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Hungarian National Office for Research and Technology, T-Mobile Hungary, Media Research Center at BUTE, Hungarian Wireless Community, Automata AB. In addition, the authors are thankful to the developers at Nextlab.hu, iMind.hu, Cjp.hu and Kitchen Budapest (Kibu.hu) for their valuable contributions.

References 1. One in Three iPhone Owners Used a Location Based Service in Q4 (2008), http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/ one-three-iphone-owners-used-location-based-service-q4-2008 2. BlueSpot, http://bluespot.hu/en_3.html 3. Virrantaus, K., Markkula, J., Garmash, A., Terziyan, Y.V.: Developing GIS-Supported Location-Based Services. In: Proc. of WGIS 2001 – First International Workshop on Web Geographical Information Systems, Kyoto, Japan, pp. 423–432 (2001)

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4. Dix, A., Friday, A., Koleva, B., Rodden, T., Muller, H., Randell, C., Steed, A.: Managing Multiple Spaces. In: Turner, P., Davenport, E. (eds.) Spaces, Spatiality and Technology. Springer, Heidelberg (2005) 5. Steiniger, S., Neun, M., Edwardes, A.: Lecture Notes: Foundations of Location Based Services. Department of Geography, University of Zürich (2006) 6. Google Latitude, http://www.google.com/latitude/ 7. Nok-Nok, http://noknok.tv/ 8. BlueSpot menu system, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2IxVbbyXWw 9. Lenhart, A., Fox, S.: Bloggers: A portrait of the internet’s new storytellers (2006), http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/ PIP%20Bloggers%20Report%20July%2019%202006.pdf

Instant Online Communities as a Means to Foster Conferences Martin Christof Kindsmüller1, Jan Milz2, and Johannes Schmidt2 1

University of Lübeck, Institute for Multimedia & Interactive Systems, Ratzeburger Allee 160, D-23538 Lübeck, Germany [email protected] 2 Sixgroups INSTANT Communities GmbH, Karlstraße 19, D-22085 Hamburg, Germany {jm,js}@sixgroups.com

Abstract. In this paper we introduce an instant online community (IOC) solution as an add-on for existing websites. The IOC enables social interaction between the main content provider and visitors of one or more websites. We present the successful application of the sixgroups.com Livecommunity in the context of a joint conference to support communication between organizers and attendees, and attendees amongst each others. All stakeholders are supported throughout the conference, from preparation until follow-up. Yet, the main focus lies in accompanying them while they are attending the conference. The lessons learned and conclusions from this application are discussed, as well as the steps to be taken in improving the sixgroups.com Livecommunity. Keywords: Online Communities, Web 2.0, Conference Management.

1 Online Communities Preece and Maloney-Krichmar state in the introduction to their special thematic section “Online Communities: Design, Theory, and Practice” of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication that “Community has become the 'in-term' for almost any group of people who use Internet technologies to communicate with each other.” [1]. This statement seems especially true in the business world, if one recalls the 580 million US dollars that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp paid in July 2005 for taking over an online community – namely the social networking website MySpace [2]. This statement can also to apply for the academic field of computer science. Searching in the ACM Digital Library gives 995 hits for the search terms “online community” or “virtual community”1. According to [3] online community can be defined as “…a voluntary group of users who partake actively in a certain computer-mediated service”. The emphasis lies on: 1

Search conducted by the authors on February, 24th 2009. To relate this results to other common terms in computer science: searching the ACM Digital Library e.g. for the term “turing complete” leads to 222 hits, searching for the term “semantic web” to 2,997 hits.

A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 62–71, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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(1) voluntary engagement, (2) using a technical carrier service, (3) interacting online as opposed to face-to-face, and (4) being aware of being a member of that special community. In other publications (e.g. [4, 5]) the term “virtual community” is used for denominating the very same concept. In the following, we use the term “online community” (short OC) as it denotes the character of the community more accurately: community members are interacting online as opposed to face-to-face. As the aforementioned definition indicates, the basic constituents of OCs include individual issues, group-related issues, as well as technology-related issues. Whereas the technical carrier system of an OC can be engineered using state-of-the-art software and usability engineering methods [6, 7, 8], the underlying social system cannot be founded or created from scratch: “Recipe-based fabrication of online communities is, at the very least, a bold venture if not an illusionary enterprise” [cf. 3]. Or as Rheingold [4] states: “…communities grow organically and tend to follow their own rules”. The underlying social system evolves over time because of social relationships, common interests, and goals or other circumstances people share. Therefore, we refer to this process as enabling or supporting communities rather than founding or building them. 1.1 Communities of Interest, Practice, Purpose or Circumstance A large number of smaller OCs exist in the World Wide Web other than the few, but massively popular OCs, like MySpace, Facebook, or Friendster. OCs do not only differ in size, but can be classified into several types, like communities of interest, practice, purpose, or circumstance [10]. Some of them are not even meant to be an OC in the first place. Every situation where a content provider (producer) creates content on a website which is consumed by a number of recipients (visitors) has the potential to form a community of circumstance and interest [9]. Users share a common interest of visiting a website because of its content or its relation to a topic of general interest. In this situation, users may not know that they are involved in a community. The community exists at this time often only virtually (as opposed to in fact). The circumstance of visiting a specific website is part of the common ground of the visitors (for common ground cf. [11, 12]). On many of those websites the dialogue between producer and recipients and recipients amongst themselves is not well supported. Visitors are not aware who else is interested in the same content, webmasters do not know who their visitors really are. Producer recipient interaction is described by two classes of goals for the different perspectives. The goals of the content providers are: (P1) communicating with visitors, (P2) gathering feedback from visitors, (P3) providing support for visitors, (P4) increasing customer loyalty and stickiness. Goals of visitors are: (V1) knowing who else is or was online, (V2) interacting and communicating with others interested in the same content, (V3) giving feedback to the content provider, (V4) expressing loyalty to the content provider. In the following section, we introduce the idea of an instant online community – a service that addresses these goals by enabling social interaction. 1.2 What Is an Instant Online Community? An instant online community (IOC) instantly enables social interaction for online communities. By instant, we mean supporting an online community ad hoc from an

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already existing group of visitors of a website by providing visibility, awareness, and means of interacting between one another. A precondition for an IOC to work would be that people are located at the same virtual place, i.e. on a website, over a period of time. A defining feature for an IOC is the community enabling support by establishing the awareness of being a member of a community. Community activities for establishing this awareness of being a member are not well supported yet on many websites. Visibility, awareness information, and the possibilities of social interaction are limited. Visibility implies that there is a place in general where community activity can take place. Awareness information allows members to see who is or was online and which resources have been contributed by other users at what time. Social interaction is supported by personal profile pages, private messages, “friendships”, and conversations via chat messages.

2 The Sixgroups.com Livecommunity The sixgroups.com Livecommunity is an IOC which is interwoven with an embedding website (hosting site) by widget technology (JavaScript/HTML-snippet). Once integrated, the Livecommunity shows up as a small bar at the top of each page of the hosting site (cf. Fig. 1). Interaction takes place in an overlaying window – technically an iframe – which opens on click events. All content that is related to the Livecommunity is hosted and delivered by the sixgroups.com server infrastructure, whereas the original website is left untouched with the exception of a small code snippet that has to be integrated. 2.1 Elements of the Livecommunity The following elements are located in the closed bar (Fig 1, from left to right): (B1) sixgroups.com logo to access sixgroups.com website (e.g. to create a new IOC); (B2)

Fig. 1. The sixgroups.com Livecommunity bar embedded in the hosting website of the conference Mensch & Computer 2008

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number of users who are currently online; (B3) triangle – opens the Livestream; (B4) last entry of the Livestream showing community activity and/or events (in Fig. 1, a message about a new member joining the VielMehr Community is pictured); (B5) “What is this?” – a link to a short introduction to the sixgroups.com Livecommunity; (B6) link to login or join the community; (B7) Search field for Google search. A click on the triangle (B3) opens an overlay including the six elements (Fig. 2): (O1) register and login: users can create a personal profile page, and login. (O2) Message form: authenticated users as well as guests can post a chat message here (the administrator can restrict this feature to members only). (O3) Livestream: all items such as messages, events, and media resources are shown in chronological order and can be filtered by media type such as Twitter message (Tweet) or Flickr photo. At the same time, the filter settings show the number of items of each media type in the Livestream. The recent four items in the Livestream include a status message (1), a Twitter message (2), a photo from Flickr (3), and a friendship message (4). (O4) Information area: some essential aspects and benefits of the Livecommunity are explained here. (O5) Latest visitors: members who are online now or have visited the website in the past are presented. Finally, (O6) list of partnersites: a Livecommunity can be integrated into multiple websites which are listed as partnersites. This can be characterized as webring, a known concept of connecting multiple independent websites which share a common subject via hyperlinks.

Fig. 2. The sixgroups.com Livecommunity overlay superimposing the hosting website of the conference Mensch & Computer 2008

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2.2 Use Cases The sixgroups.com Livecommunity approach supports different use cases. The use cases are related to different requirements of the focused user groups. In this paper we will center on the use case Support for Conferences. Some simpler use cases are introduced briefly. Use Case 1: One Livecommunity per Website. A Livecommunity is set up on a single website. A webmaster establishes a Livecommunity in order to provide a social context and to enable interaction between visitors of this certain website. Use Case 2: One Livecommunity for Multiple Websites. A Livecommunity is distributed over multiple independent websites. This can be considered as an advancement of the concept of webrings. Different websites are not only interconnected via hyperlinks, but via one IOC that enables user interaction across the connected websites. 2.3 Use Case “Support for Conferences” – Real-Time and on Location Support One crucial requirement for a successful conference is to establish a vivid social interaction between organizers and attendees, and attendees among themselves. All stakeholders need to be supported from the preparation to the follow-up of the conference. However, particular attention must be paid to supporting stakeholders while they are attending the conference. Therefore, the real-time and on location support is the most critical element for an IOC set up for a conference. In the sixgroups.com Livecommunity approach, the so-called Livestream (Fig 2, O3) acts as the core feature that establishes a communication and awareness channel for all stakeholders. Attendees can use it for gathering and disseminating relevant information and networking before, during, and after the conference. Furthermore, the Livestream visualizes the syndication of media resources through the use of tags. Media resources include all kind of media such as photos, videos, slideshows, blog posts, and messages from remote content providers such as Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter. Thus, the Livestream makes an existing information space accessible in a new way. Syndicating relevant content from remote repositories in one media stream generates awareness of the general web activity about conference related subjects in almost real-time, as opposed to only the activity on the conference website itself. To support presence awareness [13, 14], a user list showing the online status for each user is presented (Fig 2, O5). Everyone who is online in the Livecommunity can start a conversation via chat messages (Fig 2, O2). Registered users are represented by nickname or first name, and a profile image, if available. Attendees preparing for the conference can use the Livecommunity to get in touch with other attendees or the organizers of the conference via chat and private messages. During the conference, attendees can furthermore arrange ad hoc meetings and presentations, or just arrange lunch meetings. Single text messages can be transformed into a threaded discussion by answering a message. This feature can be used as a directed feedback channel if speakers and audience agree to use a certain discussion as a session specific room. Speakers, organizers, and attendees, as well as other interested parties, can join such a contextual feedback channel and also subscribe to

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such channels using RSS feeds. This feedback aspect is a significant value for the organizers and speakers as well. Conference related resources like presentation slides, photos, or videos are found by agents that scan available external services like Slideshare, Flickr, YouTube for the matching tags. All resources are fed into the Livestream in almost real-time. Users' activities and resources as well as all discussions are represented in the chronologically ordered Livestream which can be filtered by media type. Questions and answers remain visible in the system and constitute an information repository.

3 IOC for Conferences, a Case Study In the following sections, the focused use case is illustrated by a case study covering the application and use of the sixgroups.com Livecommunity system at the HCI conference Mensch & Computer 2008 (M&C)2. The IOC was set up on the main conference website (http://vielmehr.org) and four subordinated sites, whereas each sub-site represents one of the conferences of the joint conference VielMehr3. Building such a webring helped to reach the critical mass of traffic in the Livestream and also helped to bring the attendees of the subconferences together to enhance thinking and acting outside the box. In order to promote and support the IOC throughout the conference, certain measures were taken. We introduced the IOC in a pre-conference email to all attendees and program committee members. The IOC was also presented in the opening keynote. In addition, there were data projectors that showed the Livestream in the foyer and in every session room. The first community activity occurred one week before the beginning of the conference. Attendees announced their arrival times and anticipations. They asked about accommodations or arranged ride-sharing. In this case, the Livecommunity also assisted to coordinate the conference. On the first day, the IOC acquired the attendees' attention considerably. People noticed that their contributions in other systems (mostly Twitter messages and photos from Flickr) were showing up in the Livestream when the correct tags/hashmarks (“vielmehr08”/“#vielmehr08”) were used. First conversations about sessions and possible meeting places occurred. A constant usage of the IOC became established during the following two days. After 16 days a total of 1009 “events” (unique entries) occurred in the Livestream. These events where triggered by the users (community activities) or by the agents (syndicated content). The community activity was supported by a total of 82 users, which is about 13 % of all conference attendees. Table 1 gives a summary of the community activities and the syndicated content in the VielMehr-Livecommunity. As Table 1 reveals, a significant amount of traffic in the Livestream was generated via Twitter (237 out of 495 text messages were Tweets). 2

Mensch & Computer (Human Being & Computer) is an annual HCI conference for the German speaking HCI community, jointly organized by the Gesellschaft für Informatik (German Informatics Association) and the German Chapter of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery). 3 VielMehr (German for “much more”) was the Motto of the joint conference.

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Table 1. Summary of the activity in the VielMehr-Livecommunity recorded during the conference (expanded period from 09/01/2008 - 09/17/2008)

Gener al Sta tis tic s Conf. Attend ees 6 30 IOC memb ershi ps 58 24 Uniq ue gu ests To ta l e vents 10 09

Com munity Activ ity Conve rsation s 2 58 38 "Frie ndsh ips" Pri vate messag es 97

Syndic ated Conte nt Picture s Twee ts Blo g posts Vid eos

38 5 23 7 37 13

4 Lessons Learned The following lessons learned have been extracted by sixgroups.com and the organizers of the M&C conference. The analysis of specific measures, which have been mentioned in the last section, as well as interviews with organizers and attendees during the conference uncovered several shortcomings. 4.1 Providing More Visibility One issue was a lack of visibility of the IOC. The closed Livecommunity widget (Fig. 1) was apparently unable to obtain enough attention on the conference website. Therefore, a deeper integration of the Livecommunity into the hosting website in order to increase the visibility and the interconnection of the contents is one of the core objectives in the further development. This can be achieved by a more salient design of the bar (cf. section 4.4) or by making features like the message and comment box directly accessible from the hosting website via widget technology. By this means it would be possible to start a discussion about a certain presentation by clicking a button related to this presentation in the program overview page on the conference website. 4.2 Explicit Communication and Visibility of Benefits A second aspect was that the benefits of the IOC have not been made explicit to all attendees. Only about 13 % of all visitors of the conference were present Livecommunity. This aspect covers three dimensions which must be considered: (1) make the user interface communicate these benefits, (2) offer adequate help texts, and (3) offer suitable introductions into the benefit and use of an IOC at the conference (e.g. via email in advance, or as part of the opening keynote). The organizers can easily emphasize the value of an IOC as an information and feedback channel if they take care that the Livestream is already filled with great share of relevant and up-to-date content at an early stage of the IOC life cycle. 4.3 Better Referencing in Presentations Every speaker should be briefed on the availability of the IOC. The speakers then should encourage their audience to use it for feedback on and during their presentations. Predefined structures (e.g. one thread per session) can simplify this procedure. The deep integration concept can further help in referencing the presentations as discussed in

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Fig. 3. Redesign of the sixgroups.com Livecommunity bar. The interface was purified in compare to the original design shown in Fig. 1.

section 4.1. Announcing short URLs for every thread (session or presentation) is another means for better referencing in presentations. 4.4 Take Usability Issues Seriously A main challenge in usability as well as in user experience is the seamless integration of the IOC into the hosting website. Possible duplicate elements like login link, search field, or logo in the Livecommunity bar can interfere with the hosting site. Therefore the elements in the bar were reduced to those which were necessary in the Livecommunity context. To further enhance the usability several redesign efforts were undertaken. Most of them resulted in purifying the interface (Fig. 3). Compared to Fig. 1 the new interface solved the problem of the competing navigation elements such as login/logout link and search field. The new version of the closed bar shows information and navigation elements which are provided by Livecommunity only. The bar now shows the name of the Livecommunity in a prominent position. The “Open” button has become the focused element. The triangle of the old design is still there and acts as a memory trigger for users familiar with the old version. The button works as a toggle to open and close the overlay containing the Livestream.

5 Conclusions This last section is dedicated to the conclusions derived from using the sixgroups.com Livecommunity as an IOC for the M&C/VielMehr conferences. The organizers of the joint conference consider the integration of the IOC into the conference websites of all sub-conferences as successful. Attendees, as well as others interested – but unable to attend the conference – were connected to the event by recognizing and using the IOC on the conference website. Community activity in the IOC took place in different ways: (1) extending one's social network by establishing friendships (the social graph), (2) private peer-to-peer communication, and (3) using the Livestream as a general public communication and awareness channel. A final, more general, conclusion reflects a new type of community that we believe to have discovered during this and similar applications of the sixgroups.com Livecommunity. We will discuss this in the following section. 5.1 Communities Emerging around Shared Common Subjects Syndicated content (or rather the fact that content can be syndicated) suggests that the application of a sixgroups.com Livecommunity can create a community that spreads beyond the boundaries of a single system or service. One particular feature that encourages this process is the Livecommunity backchannel.

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Fig. 4. Shared common subject spreading beyond system boundaries

At the moment the Livecommunity supports a backchannel for Twitter messages: a reply to a Twitter message shown in the Livestream can (via the Twitter API) also show up as a Twitter reply in the Twitter system itself. Therefore, it can be recognized by the person who originally posted the message on Twitter. Thus the boundaries of separated online communities are becoming increasingly fuzzy. This causes a paradigm shift: The identification with a specific group of people using the same technical carrier system is no longer the defining feature of community membership. Now a community can emerge around a shared common subject beyond the borders of computer mediated services. Therefore, the boundaries of online communities have to be specified in a new way. They are not anymore constituted by a certain technical carrier system or service (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.), but by a shared common subject (e.g. “HCI”, “Usability Engineering”, etc.) (Fig. 4). 5.2 Outlook Further work will be applied to enable online communities that can grow beyond the boundaries of technical systems or services. There are two main challenges that have to be addressed. On the one hand, there are technical challenges: (1) Can a login and authentication process be established that can use one account/identity to authenticate users against multiple services? At the moment there are several promising developments such as OpenID4 and OAuth5 that can be used towards solving this issue. (2) Can user reactions (comments, ratings, etc.) on distributed content be transferred back to the content source (bidirectional transfer via APIs), so that the contributing user is able to recognize them if the technical environment is heterogeneous? These challenges can be summarized under the general issue of standardization. On the other hand, there are usability, user experience and privacy challenges: (1) How is membership in OCs defined if identity is shared e.g. by OpenID? (2) How do users cope with fuzzy boundaries? (3) How can one provide appropriate awareness: 4 5

OpenID is a single-sign-on-system, see http://openid.net OAuth is a protocol to allow secure API authorization, see http://oauth.net

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Where am I? Where are the other community members? Where is my content going to be published? (4) How can the users protect their (virtual) identity/identities? In summarizing our lessons learned and conclusions it becomes obvious that for the advancement of the IOC approach like described further research is necessary.

References 1. Preece, J., Maloney-Krichmar, D.: Online communities: Design, theory, and practice. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 10(4) (2005) 2. Reiss, S.: His Space. WIRED magazine (14/07, 2006), http://www.wired.com/wired/archiv e/14.07/murdoch.html 3. Kindsmüller, M.C., Melzer, A., Mentler, T.: Online Communities and Online Community Building. In: Khosrow-Pour, M. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, 2nd edn., pp. 2899–2905. Information Science Publishing, Hershey (2009) 4. Rheingold, H.: The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier (revised edition). MIT Press, Cambridge (2000) 5. Kollock, P., Smith, M.A.: Managing the virtual commons: Cooperation and conflict in computer communities. In: Herring, S. (ed.) Computer-mediated communication: Linguistic, social, and cross-cultural perspectives, pp. 109–128 (1996) 6. Palmer, S.R., Felsing, J.M.: A Practical Guide to Feature-Driven Development. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River (2002) 7. Holtzblatt, K.: Rapid Contextual Design: A How-to Guide to Key Techniques for UserCentered Design. Morgan Kaufmann, London (2005) 8. Krohn, T., Kindsmüller, M.C., Herczeg, M.: User-Centered Design meets Feature-Driven Development. An Integrating Approach for Developing Social Software. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Human Centered Design 2009 (2009) (in print) 9. Marathe, J.: Creating Community (1999), http://jay.marathe.net/profile/articles/1999-11community.htm 10. Marsh, G.: The community of circumstance - a tale of three cities: community participation in St Kilda, Knox, and Lewisham. In: Chekki, D.A. (ed.) Research in community sociology. Varieties of community sociology, vol. 9, pp. 65–88. Jai Press, Greenwich (1999) 11. Clark, H.H., Brennan, S.E.: Grounding in communication. In: Resnick, L.B., Levine, J.M., Teasley, S.D. (eds.) Perspectives on socially shared cognition, pp. 127–149. American Psychological Association, Washington (1991) 12. Monk, A.: Common ground in electronically mediated communication: Clark’s theory of language use. In: Carroll, J.M. (ed.) Toward a multidisciplinary science of HCI, pp. 265– 290. MIT Press, Cambridge (2003) 13. Dourish, P., Bellotti, V.: Awareness and coordination in shared workspaces. In: Proceedings of the ACM CSCW 1992, pp. 107–114. ACM, New York (1992) 14. Carroll, J.M., Rosson, M.B., Convertino, G., Ganoe, C.H.: Awareness and teamwork in computer-supported collaborations. Interacting with Computers 18(1), 21–46 (2006)

Mobile Social Service Design for Large-Scale Exhibition Huanglingzi Liu, Ying Liu, Wei Wang, and Bin Wang Nokia Research Center, Beijing {linda.2.liu, ying.y.liu, wei.23.wang, bin.6.wang}@nokia.com

Abstract. In order to improve the exhibition service, technology enhanced visitor experience is gradually gaining more attention. In this paper, we follow user-centered design to explore the possibility of building a mobile social service for a large-scale exhibition. User data from interviews, questionnaires and field studies have been analyzed. Five factors influencing visitor’s social engagement are analyzed and implications for new mobile social service designs in large-scale exhibitions are discussed: personal requirement on the knowledge of exhibits, time cost of social interaction, exhibitor’s requirement on information distribution and collection, the maintenance of a temporary social network and coordination with the exhibition environment. Keywords: user-centered design, social awareness, mobile social service, exhibition service.

1 Background The exhibition industry in China has witnessed a rapid increase in the last few years. From 2006 to 2007, the annual growth rate of the Chinese exhibition industry is around 20%, and the figure in the European exhibition industry is 2%-3% [8]. In order to improve the effects of the exhibition, a technology enhanced visitor experience has started to gain more attention. For example, Expo 2010 Shanghai plans to provide an interactive Internet platform to support visitor’s remote experience. Social software has seen a tremendous growth in user penetration over the past few years and social software has already been integrated into mobile devices [5]. Many studies have been done on the utilization of mobile technologies to enhance social interaction among visitors in the museum context. O. Stock et al (2007) proposed to design technologies to construct a structured group and foster their social activities [12]. Groupware is then used. In ‘The Fire and The Mountain’ exhibition, hybrid interactive artifacts (i.e. installations that support visitors manipulating and interacting with physical and digital exhibits) are utilized to enhance social interaction [7]. Some researchers use social awareness to help visitors create social experiences. For example, in the Imprints system [1], visitors are supported to leave personalized marks at exhibits. They use an icon to represent themselves and attach that icon to museum exhibits so that each can seek out the traces of other visitors. In Artlinks system [4], visitors are allowed to see other visitors, their reactions to an exhibit, and connections among visitors through these reactions. It’s supposed that providing demographic and museum-going information allows people A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 72–81, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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to make connections based on similarity of circumstance. People might, for instance, feel closer to someone who is about the same age, or who have visited the museum for similar reasons [4]. Awareness of social cues in physical information space enables ‘social navigation.’ The benefits of social navigation not only give users a sense of social presence and of not being alone in the space, but also provide users a relative guide based on the knowledge accumulation [13]. Generally, there are two main types of social navigation [6]. Direct social navigation takes the form of recommendations and guides, enabling people to search for information/products based on their criteria, or based on content. Indirect social navigation instead focuses on aggregating information of an entire community of users. Compared with the museum context, the exhibition is more complex and it would be interesting to explore and see if mobile technologies can be applied to promote social interactions in such a context and how to make it. Moreover, mobile technologies provide a good platform for the further development of social interactions because of their high penetration in end users. There are different kinds of exhibitions. In this paper, we mainly discussed those that are open to the public, large in scale and organized systematically so that exhibitors can promote their products or services. Social contexts in exhibitions are more complex than those in the museum. Exhibitors would like to attract the attention of visitors by various means, which, on the other hand, might distract visitors in the surrounding people. Whether the social interactions among visitors in exhibitions are valuable for all visitors, exhibitors and organizers is still an open question. A mobile social interaction service may not be accepted and used by end users if it only facilitates social interactions without being aware of its user’s context. The user-centered design process emphasizes user and task analysis before the concept design. We followed the process in the study and tried to analyze and understand social activities in the exhibitions first, and then consider the possibility of social technology design for exhibitions.

2 User Study Procedure We firstly conducted individual interview with participants to collect narratives through open questions, and evaluations on social service requirements through interview-guided questionnaire. Then shadowing method was carried out in exhibition context. Participant’s real exhibition experiences were observed. For recruiting we asked help from a marketing research firm. 29 participants were recruited and interviewed in this study. Among the interviewees, 2 are exhibition staff working in a professional exhibition design company, 4 are exhibitors, 4 are exhibition organizers and 19 are visitors who have visited at least two open-to-public exhibitions in a recent half year and at least one exhibition exceeded 100,000 visitors. 3 categories of exhibition are covered in this user study: culture exhibition, like travel exhibition or tea expo; industrial exhibition, like Moto exhibition; and trade exhibition like import & export trade show. All the participants come from Beijing and Shanghai, two major exhibition cities in Mainland of China. Before interview procedure, 19 visitors filled in the pre-questionnaire so that the demographic characters and the general issues relative to exhibition visit could be known. Among the 19 visitors, 10 are male and 9 are female, aged between 17 and 60

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years (mean=36, median=33).Then the visitors were asked several open questions mainly designed to explore their real exhibition experiences. After the open interview, a 5 point questionnaire was filled in by all the interviewees to collect their both qualitative and quantitative remarks on the necessity of various social interaction features. 7 of 19 visitors agreed that researchers would observe them in one exhibition which they selected according to their own personal needs. Not only the 7 visitors and their company were observed, but also other social activities happened on site and were recorded by researchers. After the ethnographic participant observation, researchers asked several questions mainly intended to let the participant clarify their behavior and purposes. The data analysis mainly focuses on how people make sense of their social world in an exhibition environment.

3 Exhibition Visitor’s Social Experience For exhibition visitors, there are generally three roles to interact with: exhibitors, mates, and unfamiliar visitors. The following three kinds of connections were analyzed based on the qualitative and quantitative data. 3.1 Connection with Exhibitors Obviously, the connection between visitors and exhibitors is the most important link. People come to the exhibition mainly to know the exhibits or be known by some interested exhibitor. For exhibitors, knowing visitors and being known by visitors is their main target. When visitors are asked to describe their visiting experiences, most of them mentioned the activities related to exhibitors. For example, business card exchange, printed brochures distribution, gift distribution, discussion with the responsible interpreter on some exhibits or possible cooperation, and photos taken of the exhibits or even with exhibitors. In order to promote brands or advertise their exhibits, exhibitors manage to attract as much of the visitors’ attention as possible. They usually do a lot of preparation work before the exhibition, for example, designing an exhibit booth, displaying the product introduction poster, brochure and videos or interactive media, and so on. Except for this design work, exhibitors also hold some on-site activities like gift distribution, on-site lectures or performance shows, etc. to access a group of approaching visitors. Exhibitors tend to gather people to enhance the promotional effects, but they have problems categorizing people. When asked about on-site gift distribution issues, exhibitors during the interview explained their embarrassments: “We’d like to distribute good gifts to those potential customers…However we don’t know whether they are potential customers before we meet them…” “Of course gifts are small…Could you imagine a visitor carrying big pieces and going around the exhibition?” 3.2 Connection with Companions Petrelli and Not (2005) reports that only 5% of visitors come to a museum alone while 45% come in organized groups, 20% with friends and 30% with children [11]. Our questionnaire survey reached similar findings. 19 participants who have attended

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exhibitions at least twice in a recent half a year reported 44 exhibition visits all together, 79% visits have been with company. Based on the interview and observation result, we can generally categorize visitor groups into three main categories according to their on-site activities: • The “always together” group in which members would like to go everywhere together • The “linked group” in which members may have some parting during the visiting procedure, but try to have each other in the field of vision or be aware of each other’s location from time to time. • The “leave-together group” in which members visit the exhibition separately and make an appointment to leave together When they are asked why they go to an exhibition with someone else, 2 main reasons can be deducted: • better effects, such as better memory and a better impression can be achieved from an exhibition A visitor of an ordinary supplies exhibition said: “We discussed the various exhibits, compared their strong points and weak points during the visiting procedure…A wiser decision could be made based on a full discussion of different opinions.” • The exhibition itself could be a social platform for visitors and their companions A visitor of an auto exhibition mentioned: “It won’t be lonely if someone comes with you to attend an exhibition…It’s also a good opportunity to talk about common interests…” However, these connections to companions are not encouraged by the exhibition environment. Firstly, crowding is a major problem for most exhibitions in China. It’s not easy to maintain the “always together” group. Once the group members are separated by the flood of people, it will be difficult to ‘see’ where each other is. So “the linked group” may find that they have lost the link to their company. Even worse, making a phone call in the crowded and noisy environment to connect with friends is absolutely not an easy task. Secondly, as for ‘leave together group,’ although they are supposed to interact with the exhibits or exhibitors individually, they still would like to share the visiting experience with their mates from time to time, even to discovery more about exhibits together under some condition. For example, one visitor mentioned “when I saw something really outstanding, I would like to recommend this to my mates immediately, even to friends who didn’t come…If I know my mate is also interested in my recommendation, I may wait for him and exchange comments on site, then visit individually…. ” In the questionnaire survey session, we designed four questions related to the requirements of the connection with their friends. • Is it necessary to provide you a special service/device so that you can locate your friend(s) on the exhibition map? • Is it necessary to provide you a special service/device so that you can recommend an exhibit/exhibition stall to your friend(s) on site? • Is it necessary to provide you with a special service/device so that you can send appointment (including venue, time) to your friend(s) on site?

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recommend exhibits

make appointment

share comments

Fig. 1. Visitor remark on the necessity of ‘connection with mates’

• Is it necessary to provide you a special service/device so that you can exchange comments or impressions with your friend(s) on site? Participants described the necessity on five-point scale. Fig 1 showed the average requirement level of 19 visitors on the above 4 aspects. People tend to accept the designs to enhance the connections with their mates in an exhibition environment if the cost of interaction is not very high. As to ‘locate friend’,’ recommend friends exhibits’, ‘make appointment with friends in the exhibition’, all of the three average scores of necessity are higher than 3.5, participants can easily point out the use scenarios and described the benefits that the technology may bring them. For example, one male visitor described: “with the service (locate friend),I can find my mates in the crowded exhibition…I could be very relaxed during the whole exposition since I know where my friend is and we can meet somewhere if we want to visit together in the midway… If I find something interesting, I can recommend it to my friend or let him join in my visit…” At the same time, they also showed concerns about the usability and feasibility, especially on the ‘share comments with friends’ aspect. Most participants have difficulty in imagining the use scenario of ‘sharing comments with friends under the help of technologies in exhibition.’ Some visitors expressed: “Why not share comments face-to-face? We come to the exhibition together…We can find plenty of opportunities to discuss together.” Some of them even require the researchers to describe the solution in a much detailed way. “What kind of comments are you talking about? ... How can I take these comments down? ... It’s too boring if it needs a lot of input…” 3.3 Connection with Surrounding People According to social learning theory, people can learn by observing the behavior of others and the outcome of those behaviors [10]. In an exhibition environment, visitors are absolutely influenced by the unfamiliar people around them. They may imitate other’s behavior; modify their visiting plan based on the observation results. For example, visitors observed that some take photos of some exhibit, and they were motivated to take a photo of that exhibit also. If they saw that some exhibition booth was

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surrounded by people, even if they could not push in through the crowd, they were curious and eager to know what happened at the popular place. Although there are quite a lot of implicit interactions happening among unfamiliar visitors besides observing what others do, like overhearing what others say, feeling other people’s moods and the whole atmosphere of an exhibition booth, etc, visitors think that an exhibition visit is mainly a personal experience rather than a social activity. During the interview session, they expressed that exhibits are their visiting focuses and they have no interests in the unfamiliar people surrounding them. Actually, our observations proved that they told us one aspect of truth. Visitors seldom discussed with each other on a specific exhibit on site. And they usually have no idea of other people walking around them or looking at similar things around them. A male visitor said: “I buy the entrance ticket to see the exhibits, not the visitors like us…Why should I know what they are doing, what they are thinking? They have nothing to do with us…If I need more knowledge about the exhibits, I could ask the exhibitors there.” A female visitor told us: “…No, I would like to share my impressions with others…but not on the scene…After an exhibition, I may write something on my blog or post some remarks on an online forum…” In the questionnaire survey session, we designed five questions relative to the requirement of the connection with unfamiliar people. • Is it necessary to provide you a special service/device so that you can chat with other visitors on site? • Is it necessary to provide you a special service/device so that you can exchange exhibit’s introduction files with other visitors on site? • Is it necessary to provide you a special service/device so that you can exchange business cards or profile information like interests with other visitors on site? • Is it necessary to provide you a special service/device so that you can exchange criticisms or remarks relative to exhibits/exhibitors on site? • Is it necessary to provide you with a special service/device so that you can share your visiting-experiences, like visiting routes, with other visitors? Participants described the necessity in five-point scale. Fig 2 showed the average requirement level of 19 visitors on the above 5 aspects. 5 4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 exchange profile

exchange files

exchange critisisms

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Fig. 2. Visitor remark on the necessity of ‘connection with other visitors’

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The average scores of the necessity on the five social features are between 2.5 and 3.5; which means social interaction among visitors in an exhibition situation is an uncertain demand. Some visitors may think it would be ok to have such kind of support but some think it is useless, or most people feel it’s difficult to make a judgment on the necessity since they can’t imagine the use scenario once the supporting technology is there. However, participants respond differently to the 5 questions. If the social interaction requirement is described in a more detailed way or the social activity is exhibit/exhibitor oriented, it seems people are more likely to accept it.

4 Concept Design Implications Exhibition visitors do have some motivation to use mobile social services, but at the same time, the barriers of adoptions are obvious also. Factors influencing visitors’ social engagement are analyzed and implications for new mobile social service designs in exhibitions are presented in this section. 4.1 Relate the Social Interaction with the Personal Requirement on the Knowledge of Exhibits For general visitors, knowing where, what, and how is their main exhibition visit target. Any technology designed for exhibition use, should be adapted to assist visitors in reaching this target. As we have discussed earlier, if users are more affirmative, they can get valuable information about the exhibits and they are more likely to accept the social feature of our designed technology. 4.2 Satisfy Exhibitor’s Requirement on Information Distribution and Collection As the designer and organizer of an exhibition, exhibitors would like to dominate and foster mutual communication with visiting customers so that they can spread and promote their products/techniques. In order to improve the communication effect, they need to classify visitors. Meanwhile, similar groups of visitors could be organized and various on-site social activities for different categories of visitors could be held to expand or strengthen exhibition influence. 4.3 Reduce Time Cost of Social Interaction to the Least ‘Time critical’ is important for exhibition visitors. If the information consumption based on social interaction is time-consuming, there is no real advantage of having access to surrounding people and get information through mobile technology, because they are already located in an information-rich environment. To reduce time cost of social interaction among visitors, context-aware UI is required. Explicit input from visitors may interrupt the relationship with the physical world. Context could reduce the input cost and make the communication much more efficient [9]. With the help of context aware computing, the ways that people engage in social interaction in exhibitions could adapt to several situations involving user’s locations, nearby exhibits, personal interests, and social activity history, etc.

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4.4 Extend the Temporary Social Network to the Real, Long-Term Based Social Network The social network we are going to build in the exhibition context is a kind of rapidly formed network based on a short-term goal since the service is exhibition scenario oriented. In order to attract more users participating in this temporary social network and the relationship with “real,” it is suggested that along-term based social network be built. Compared to being connected to people they do not know, visitors show more interest in being connected with their mates and remote friends. As we discussed above, before going to an exhibition, some visitors may communicate with people online to get some information, or contact people who possibly have similar interests and also go there. After the exhibition, visitors may talk about what’s interesting within their social network; publish comments, photos on Facebook, WebBlog or BBS; which means the sociality is mainly experienced by visitors before and after the exhibition. In the exhibition, visitors required more of the connection with their mates or remote friends than the unfamiliar people surrounding them. Incentive or reputation structures should be built toward the transformation from temporary social gathering to real, long-term based social networking. 4.5 Encourage Multi-channel Social Interaction According to our observations, visitors keep interacting with various physical tools like indoor signs, product brochures, printed posters, public displays, touch sensitive screen and so on. Among these physical tools, the printed brochure is the most important communication medium between visitors and exhibitor. Exhibitors may write down the supplementary information on the printed leaf according to a visitor’s requirement. Exhibitors and visitors may exchange information face-to-face based on the printed material. Visitors can take notes in the printed leaf and keep it as long as they like. These direct interactions that happen in an exhibition should not be interrupted by the technology supported social interactions and should not be an obstruction to social interaction, which could be a big challenge for designers. Use environmental design is required. It would be a way that the newly designed mobile social service could be coordinated with other exhibition facilities, which means the new design is a component of the whole exhibition service ecosystem rather than take the place of all existing facilities like a printed visiting guide, guiding signs, public digital display, products brochures on exhibition site, etc. The following concept description gives an example on how to make a mobile social service coordinate with the exhibition environment. Public displays in the exhibition show the popularity of each exhibition booth (number of tagged times) and the crowding status. John sometimes changes his visiting route according to the information (Fig 3).Sometimes the public display shows a game registration ad which encourages visitors to vote for something or compete with other participants using mobile handhelds. John wins a digital lunch coupon because he posts an advertising slogan for a car model and gets the most votes.

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Fig. 3. Public display as another platform for social interaction

5 Conclusion and Future Work People gathering to visit exhibitions are a kind of temporary social network. Whether it is possible to involve mobile social services in this context is the main research focus of this paper. In order to provide background material and find design opportunities, we collected data from interviews, questionnaires and field studies to understand visitor’s visiting experience and corresponding social features. Based on the user research results, we identified some design implications for social technology use in the exhibition environment and proposed a brief concept based on visiting route sharing. For exhibitors, they could utilize the service as a platform to collect visitors’ information. For visitors, they are allowed to move easily and be supported by a dynamic group of people. Anyway it’s a high risk job of designing the social technology for exhibition visitors since people have limited time during an exhibition visit and they don’t want to be interrupted by bad learnable or unusable services. Future work will be dedicated to the concept development. Several design and implementation challenges need to be overcome, especially sensor networking architecture in the exhibition hall and a context-aware UI for the client application.

References 1. Boehner, K., Thom-Santelli, J., Zoss, A., Gay, G., Hall, J.S., Barrett, T.: Imprints of Place: Creative Expressions of the Museum Experience. In: Proc. CHI 2005 Extended Abstracts, pp. 1220–1223 (2005) 2. Cheverst, K., Mitchell, K., Davies, N., Smith, G.: Exploiting Context to Support Social Awareness and Social Navigation. SIGGROUP Bulletin 21 (2000) 3. Ciolfi, L., Bannon, L.: Learning from Museum Visits: Shaping Design Sensitivities. In: Proc. HCII (2003) 4. Cosley, D., Lewenstein, J., Herman, A., Holloway, J., Baxter, J., Nomua, S., Boehner, K., Gay, G.: ArtLinks: Fostering Social Awareness and Reflection in Museums. In: Proceedings of CHI 2008 (2008)

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5. Counts, S., ter Hofte, H., Smith, I.: Mobile Social Software: Realizing Potential, Managing Risks. In: CHI 2006 workshop, April 22-27 (2006) 6. Dieberger, A.: Where did all the people go? A collaborative Web space with social navigation information. In: WWW9 (May 2000) 7. Garzotto, F., Rizzo, F.: Interaction Paradigms in Technology-Enhanced Social Spaces: a Case Study in Museums. In: Proceedings of the 2007 conference on Designing pleasurable products and interfaces (2007) 8. Jurong, G. (ed.): The Report on Development of China’s Convention & Exhibition Economy in 2006-2007. Social Science Literature Press (2007) 9. Hong, D., Chiu, D.K.W., Shen, V.Y.: Requirements elicitation for the design of contextaware applications in a ubiquitous environment. In: Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Electronic commerce (2005) 10. Ormrod, J.E.: Human learning, 3rd edn. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River (1999) 11. Petrelli, D., Not, E.: User-centred Design of Flexible Hypermedia for a Mobile Guide: Reflections on the HyperAudio Experience. User modelling and User Adapted Interaction UMUAI special issue on User Modeling in Ubiquitous Computing 15, 303–338 (2005) 12. Stock, O., Zancanaro, M.: PEACH - Intelligent Interfaces for Museum Visits. In: Stock, O., Krüger, A., Kuflik, T., Zancanaro, M. (eds.) Cognitive Technologies, pp. 269–288. Springer, Heidelberg 13. Svensson, M., Hook, K., Coster, R.: Designing and Evaluating Kala: A social Navigation System for Food Recipes. Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 12 (September 2005) 14. Thom-Santelli, J., Toma, C., Boehner, K., Gay, G.: Beyond Just the Facts: Museum Detective Guides. In: Re-Thinking Technology in Museums Workshop (2005)

Accessibility of Registration Mechanisms in Social Networking Sites Gabriele Meiselwitz and Jonathan Lazar Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Towson University, 8000 York Road, Towson, MD, 21252, USA {gmeiselwitz, jlazar}@towson.edu

Abstract. This paper discusses the use of social networking sites in higher education and the accessibility issues which arise for students using assistive technologies when they register for these systems. Many instructors incorporate social networking into their daily teaching by creating learning groups, enabling collaborative work, or just by simply synchronizing course items with students’ personal sites within these networks. This study examines the registration process for several social networking sites. Sites were evaluated according to their compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act; evaluation also included the use of CAPTCHAs and the use of email for user identification. The paper concludes with a summary of the current status of registration processes for social networking sites and recommendations on how to improve the situation considering their application in higher education. Keywords: social networking, accessibility, higher education.

1 Introduction Social networking sites are extremely popular with teens and college students, and many students participate in several social networks. The development of social networking sites connecting individuals across the globe is part of a larger technological movement, often referred to as Web 2.0. Web 2.0 offers new ways of information exchange, involving user participation including collaboration and information sharing; changing computer consumers to “prosumers”, who are not only consuming information, but are also producing and sharing information [1, 7, 18]. E-learning is largely based on the World Wide Web, and Web 2.0 is expected to have a strong impact on e-learning environments. Several researchers refer to elearning using Web 2.0 technologies as “e-learning 2.0” and predict that learning in these environments will become increasingly collaborative, learner-centered, and learner controlled [7, 6, 18]. Instructors already are using facebook groups, wikis, blogs, or podcasting, and current Learning Management Systems like Blackboard offer synchronization with student facebook accounts [1, 3]. New learning theories A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 82–90, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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like connectivism, distributed cognition, and communal constructivism are emerging and all address the shift to networked knowledge and community learning, applicable not only to student learning, but also to faculty department work and staff collaboration, making it crucial for educators to consider integrating social networking into their courses [14, 17, 19]. Students with disabilities can especially benefit from this development. Students have increased access (often 24/7) and have increased flexibility when studying and completing assignments. In addition, students can work collaboratively, join communities from the comfort of their own home, and become active contributors to the learning environment and the community [13]. Using Web 2.0 in the classroom will also better prepare students for the future work force, where many will encounter Web 2.0 applications that are being used in a variety of settings [1, 13, 18]. Because of the importance of web 2.0 to online education for people with disabilities, there have been recent legal efforts to ensure that podcasts downloaded from itunes remain accessible for people with disabilities [5]. Web 2.0 technologies like JavaScript, CSS, or Ajax increase interaction and although they provide a more dynamic and rich web, they also increase complexity and challenge assistive technology [7, 8, 10]. In addition, technologies that are used for site administrative purposes, like CAPTCHAs or account activation through user email, can further complicate access for users employing assistive technologies [23]. CAPTCHAs are used for distinguishing between humans and an automated registration process, usually powered by bots or viruses. In most cases, this is done showing distorted letters that the user then types in manually. CAPTCHAs are used by many sites to address undesirable and/or malicious Internet bot programs and present a significant challenge to users using assistive technology [15, 22]. Email can further complicate the account registration process for users. Many sites require users to use their email account as login names. Often verification is enforced during the login process which requires the user to connect to his/her email and then connect back to the registration process, incorporating yet another element for users to handle during the process. This project evaluates 22 social networking sites with possible application in higher education. Accessibility is checked by evaluating the user registration process of social networks. User registration is the first task that connects a user to the site. If a user experiences an accessibility problem on the initial site with a basic task, this usually prevents the user from accessing other pages of the site or can make it extremely difficult to navigate the site [13].

2 Research Method Two well-known sets of accessibility rules for web content are available, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines developed by the World Wide Web Consortium’s Accessibility Initiative, and U.S. federal rules mandated in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act [20, 16]. Many educational institutions are required to comply with Section 508, since they receive U.S. government funding. Because Section 508 (section 1194.22) rules are the defacto law for web accessibility in the US, these rules will be the focus of this study. Several tools are available to evaluate web content accessibility according to Section 508 rules. For this project, the software tool RampPE

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(www.deque.com) version 6.0 was used. On the settings for RAMP, violations for paragraph l (scripting) report all noscript violations (i.e. both the absence of a noscript tag, and inappropriate noscript code). For specific assistive technologies, a separate functional test could clarify if the noscript tag is needed, as it theoretically is possible that a content-free strictly graphical script would not need an equivalent. However, since this project does not test for compliance with a specific assistive technology (only general accessibility guidelines), all noscript violations are included. For paragraph o (skip navigation links), the minimum number of links to turn on violation is set to 3 links. Manual evaluation of CAPTCHAs and email confirmation will also be performed. CAPTCHA and email are evaluated by exploring how they are being used in the registration process, and if any alternatives are offered to the user during the process. Twenty-two social networking sites are evaluated regarding the accessibility of their user registration process. Accessibility of the user registration process is checked by evaluating all steps necessary to register a user and arrive at the home page within the account. All steps are summarized under the registration process. Sites were selected using the Wikipedia/Alexa Top 500 social network compilation [21]. The following selection criteria have been applied: sites have to focus mainly on the U.S., must have applicability in higher education, and sites with a higher number of registered users were selected over sites with a lower number of registered users. Sites were divided into three categories: a) strictly social (e.g. MySpace or Facebook), b) social with a special focus (e.g. Youtube or Flickr), and c) social with a professional focus (e.g LinkedIn or Xing).

3 Results Results are displayed by a) the number of instances of all violations during the account creation/user registration process, b) the number of rules that have been violated during the account creation/user registration process, c) the use of CAPTCHAs and email during the registration process. Table 1 presents an overview of evaluated sites and category, including the site’s URL and the total violation instances per site. Table 1. Overview of Sites including URLs and total violation instances Site

URL

Total Violation Instances

1 Social MySpace Facebook Xanga Twitter Multiply Classmates MyYearbook Hi5 Graduates Student

www.myspace.com www.facebook.com www.xanga.com www.twitter.com www.multiply.com www.classmates.com www.myyearbook.com www.hi5.com www.graduates.com www.student.com

71 7 36 18 49 106 127 116 74 380

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Table 1. (continued)

2 Social with Special Focus Blogger Livejournal Flickr YouTube Buzznet Secondlife Wikipedia

www.blogger.com www.livejournal.com www.flickr.com www.youtube.com www.buzznet.com www.secondlife.com www.wikipedia.org

31 126 30 137 83 22 17

www.linkedin.com www.bizfriendz.com www.xing.com www.ecademy.com www.bizpreneur.com

16 112 29 97 114

3 Professional LinkedIn Bizfriendz Xing Ecademy Bizpreneur

Violation instances show the total number of violations that occurred. The number of rules violated shows the number of different rules that have been violated during the user registration process, not considering how many times a particular error has occurred. The number of rules violated is also important; generally it is more difficult for a developer to make updates if 10 different rules were violated, rather than if 10 instances of the same rule were violated [12]. In addition, the use of CAPTCHAs, alternatives offered to CAPTCHAs, and forced email logins during the user registration process are also discussed. 3.1 Total Violation Instances by Site Results in Figure 1 and Table 1 show the total number of violation instances by site. The largest number of instances is 380 instances of Section 508 violations, followed by seven sites with violation instances between 100 and 150. Seven sites have 30 violation instances or less, unfortunately no site is completely accessible. That is not surprising, since, as web sites move towards web 2.0, they often add updates which are not accessible, and often wind up decreasing web site accessibility over time [4, 9, 11]. It is especially disappointing that the site with the most violations is a site that specifically targets students (www.student.com) and promotes student social networking and

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student resources like college information, jobs and careers, test preparation, textbooks, and others. 3.2 Violation Instances by Section 508 Paragraph Figure 2 clearly points out the four main problem areas of web accessibility during the user registration process. Paragraph n (forms) undoubtedly is the most problematic area with 709 instances; the main issues reported are labels and grouping. The next largest area of concern is paragraph l (scripting) with 592 violations, with a substantial number of violations due to device dependent scripting and missing noscript declarations. It should be noted that violations in paragraph l also contain noscript violations. Paragraph a (alternate representations) follows with a total of 252 violations, then paragraph o (skip navigation links, minimum number of links set to 3) with 184 violations. All other violations are significantly lower, paragraph i (frames) shows 41 violations, paragraph j (flickering) shows 17 violations, paragraph p (timed responses) shows 3 violations. Violations in paragraph p were all due to the use of autorefresh or autoredirect. All other paragraphs (b,c,d,e,f,g,h,k,m) show no violations. 3.3 Number of Rules Violated by Site Figure 3 displays the number of rules violated for each site’s account user registration process; not considering how many times each rule was violated. Two sites have

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violated only one rule, however, most sites have violated between 4 and 6 rules, and one site shows a violation of 7 rules. 3.4 Accessibility Categories Figure 4 summarizes the accessibility status of the user registration process of all sites. Considering that it is more difficult to correct violations for several rules than correcting several instances of the same rule, a ranking system based represents the site’s accessibility status [12]. Accessibility status is defined by the following four categories: 0 rules violated 1-3 rules violated 4-6 rules violated 7+ rules violated

accessible marginally inaccessible moderately inaccessible substantially inaccessible

Using the above defined accessibility categories, 9 sites are marginally inaccessible, 12 are moderately inaccessible, and 1 site is substantially inaccessible. Unfortunately, no site was completely accessible using the accessibility status evaluation. 3.5 CAPTCHAs and Email Figure 5 describes the percentage of sites adding CAPTCHAs and email confirmation to the user registration process. In this study, over 77% of all sites used character based CAPTCHAs, and unfortunately, only 27% of the sites provided sound based CAPTCHAs. The sound based CAPTCHA was the only alternative provided, no other options were available on any of the evaluated sites. Half of the evaluated sites also use email confirmation, which forces users to open their email program and reply to an email during the user registration process. In addition to problems resulting from violations of Section 508 rules, this further increases the challenge for users depending on assistive technology by adding more elements to the already not fully accessible process.

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4 Conclusion The evaluation points out two problem areas in web accessibility of the user registration process of social networking sites. Violation instances of paragraph l (scripting) and n (forms) together are responsible for over 72% of all violation instances. It is not surprising that violation instances concentrate in these two areas, considering that user registration consists mostly of forms for data input and often uses scripting to assist in data collection from forms as well as to aid users in entering data and filling out forms. These violations are often multiplied as sites go through several screens to collect user data. However, the high number of violation instances is disappointing; users with assistive technology may experience a significant challenge completing the user registration process. Considering that social networking sites are modular and complex sites and that the user registration process is only a very small part of the complete site, it is to be expected that additional problems arise for users using assistive technology once they use other features of the site. For instance, users without disabilities have had a very hard time removing their profiles from Facebook [2]. However, it should also be noted that some sites (e.g. facebook and linkedin) have very few violations during this process and that the few violations occur in only one rule. The accessibility status shows that 40% of all evaluated sites are marginally inaccessible (1-3 rules violated). Unfortunately, 59% of all sites are moderately inaccessible (4-6 rules violated). If any of these sites are planned to be integrated into the educational environment in higher education, it seems essential to reduce the number of Section 508 violations during the user registration process. Some instances of violations suggest that increased developer awareness could avoid some of the problems making content inaccessible. One page, for example, shows 35 instances of label violations, an issue that could easily be resolved by adding the label element. Use of CAPTCHAs and forced email logins further complicate the user registration process by introducing elements not under the control of the developer. Text-based CAPTCHAs especially provide a challenge for users with visual impairments; this situation could be improved by offering several alternative methods for users [15].

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The breakdown by category did not show any main difference, except for two categories, social networks with a professional focus had less violations in paragraphs l (scripting) and o (skip navigation). However, total violation instances, the number of rules violated, and other paragraphs aside from paragraphs l and o did not show a notable difference between the categories. The use of web development tools supporting assistive technology could be a first step to improve the situation. Development tools can assist the developer; they can alert the developer when content is not accessible and can provide guidance on making the content accessible. In addition, educators planning on using social networking sites in the classroom should carefully evaluate which sites provide the best support for assistive technology.

References 1. Alexander, B.: Web 2.0 – A new Wave of Innovation for Teaching and Learning. Educause (March/April 2006) 2. Aspan, M.: Quitting Facebook Gets Easier. New York Times (February 13, 2008), http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/technology/13face.html 3. Blackboard: Where Social Meets Learning (2008), http://www.blackboard.com/clientcollateral/ Bb_Sync_Brochure.pdf 4. Borodin, Y., Bigham, J.P., Raman, R., Ramakrishnan, I.V.: What’s new? Making web page updates accessible. In: Proceedings of the 10th international ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, pp. 145–152 (2008) 5. CBS News: Apple eases itunes access for the blind (2008), http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/26/tech/ main4481951.shtml?source=related_story 6. Downes, S.: E-Learning 2.0. E-Learn Magazine. ACM, http://www.elearnmag.org/ subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=29-1 7. Ferretti, S., Miri, S., Muratori, L., Roccetti, M., Salomoni, P.: E-Learning 2.0 you are WeLCoME? In: Proceedings of Conference on Web Accessibility, Beijing, April 21-22 (2008) 8. Gibson, B.: Enabling an Accessible Web 2.0. In: Proceedings of Conference on Web Accessibility, May 07-08 (2007) 9. Hackett, S., Parmanto, B., Zeng, X.: Accessibility of Internet websites through time. In: Proceedings of the 6th international ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, pp. 32–39 (2004) 10. Kelly, B., Nevile, L., Draffa, E.A., Fanou, S.: One World, One Web ...But Great Diversity. In: W4A 2008, Beijing, April 21-22 (2008) 11. Lazar, J., Greenidge, K.: A year older, but not necessarily wiser: Web accessibility trends over time. Universal Access in the Information Society Journal 4(4), 285–291 (2006) 12. Lazar, J., Beere, P., Grenidge, K., Nagappa, Y.: Web Accessibility in the Mid-Atlantic United States. Universal Access in the Information Society 2(4), 331–341 (2003) 13. Meiselwitz, G., Lazar, J., Clements, J., Jones, A.: Evaluating the Accessibility of Course Management Systems. In: Proceedings of 10th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction (HCII), Crete, Greece, pp. 1000–1004 (2005)

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14. Reinhold, S.: Wiki trails: Augmenting Wiki Structure for Collaborative, Interdisciplinary Learning. In: Proceedings of WikiSym 2006, pp. 47–58. ACM, New York (2006) 15. Sauer, G., Holman, J., Lazar, J., Hochheiser, H., Feng, J.: Accessible Privacy and Security: A Universally Usable Human-Interaction Proof. Paper accepted for special issue of Universal Access in the Information Society (2009) (in press) 16. Section 508, http://www.section508.gov 17. Schaffert, S.: Ike Wiki: A Semantic Wiki for Collaborative Knowledge Management. In: 1st International Workshop on Semantic Technologies in Collaborative Applications (2006), http://ki.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de/twiki/pub/Dev_d3web/ PapersRessourcen/schaffert06_ikewiki.pdf 18. Thompson, J.: Is Education 1.0 ready for Web 2.0 Students? Journal of Online Education 3(4) (2007), http://www.innovateonline.info/ index.php?view=article&id=393&action=article 19. Wang, C., Turner, D.: Extending the Wiki Paradigm for Use in the Classroom. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Information Technology. IEEE Press, New York (2004) 20. W3C: Policy Resources, http://www.w3.org/WAI/policy-res.html 21. Wikipedia: List of Social Networking Sites (2008), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_social_networking_websites 22. Yan, J., Ahmad, S.: Usability of CAPTCHAS or usability issues in CAPTCHA design. In: Proceedings of Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (2008) 23. Yardi, S., Feamster, N., Bruckman, A.: Photo-Based Authentication Using Social Networks. In: ACM Workshop on Online Social Networks, Seattle, August 18 (2008)

A Visualization Approach for Group Behaviors, Beliefs and Intentions to Support Critical Decisions Colleen L. Phillips, Norman D. Geddes, and Justin T. Simms Applied Systems Intelligence, Inc., 3650 Brookside Parkway, Alpharetta, GA 30041 {cphillips, ngeddes, jsimms}@asinc.com

Abstract. During persistent surveillance of a given population in a conflict situation, data management can quickly become unwieldy due to the inundation of low-level information from many, disparate sources. Computational population models can easily fuse and aggregate information input, but there is still the challenge of providing effective data visualization which minimizes information overload and introduces misinterpretation by simplified visualization based on aggregations. Visualizations of the actionable knowledge to the analyst based on the population effects as evidenced by their stratagemical behaviors are needed. Five model classes that study the beliefs of groups and how their beliefs change as a result of events were evaluated for their potential for visualization based on an analyst’s cognitive model of the conflict situation. A visualization approach was developed that can be used for all of the classes of models based on frames of reference for time and physical location within the environment. Keywords: data visualization, group modeling, stratagemical behaviors, beliefs.

1 Introduction Current low-intensity, theater military operations are multi-dimensional. In Iraq and Afghanistan, and before that, in Somalia and Bosnia, the desired geo-political outcome has required significantly more than applying military force to defeat an armed enemy. As a result, the importance of joint efforts in diplomacy, information distribution and economic interventions can be significant to the outcome of achieving military dominance [1]. During wartime, the US presence in a host nation (HN) can trigger conflicts beyond those of battle. Local conflicts can arise within the HN populace since our presence might be viewed as being part of a military conspiracy to disrupt their way of life. Over the past few years, the US military has set the stage for moving away from a reactive, divisive approach, to one of local populace engagement manifested through multiple DIMEFIL (Diplomatic, Informational, Military, national Economic, personal Financial, Intelligence guided, and Law enforced) interventions [2]. Estimating the potential effects of these interventions involves persistent surveillance of populations within the operational area and the social, economic, informational and ideological A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 91–100, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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forces within those populations. Models of the population and its PMESII-PT (Political, Military, Economic, Social, Informational, and Infrastructure with Physical and Time) elements need to be predictive with respect to DIMEFIL interventions and how these actions in the current situation will result in changes to the beliefs, desires and intentions of the members of the groups involved [3]. The visualization of actionable knowledge about the population’s reactions to these interventions is necessary for the analyst to make a choice between the various DIMEFIL intervention options. During persistent surveillance of the population and its PMESII-PT, data management can quickly become unwieldy due to the inundation of low-level information from many, disparate sources [4]. Computational population models can easily handle this data for input by aggregating and fusing, but there is still the challenge of visualizing all of the data and incurring information overload or inducing misinterpretation by simplified visualization based on aggregations [5]. Representing the actionable knowledge to the analyst based on the population effects are needed at the strategic (long-term), operational (near-term), and tactical (current) levels. Modeling population response to interventions is an important research topic with broad application to politics, marketing, advertising and education. As a result, there is a large, multidisciplinary literature of both research and practice in measuring and modeling the beliefs, desires and intentions of populations. 1.1 Analyst’s Decision Cycle An understanding of the PMESII-PT environment, the populations involved, and DIMEFIL interventions to take can be modelled in the Analyst’s Decision Cycle for choosing interventions depicted in Figure 1 below [6]. Starting at the top of the diagram, monitoring the situational environment (the PMESII-PT and populations involved) is followed by assessing the situation, making plans to adjust the environment, directing the actions for these interventions, and continuing the cycle of persistent monitoring of the PMESII-PT and the populations. This workflow is continuously iterated as the analyst continues to monitor a populations response to PMESII-PT effects. There are three event horizons corresponding to how far ahead the planning occurs. The decision cycle iterates at the fastest rate in terms of traversing the stages during

Fig. 1. Every intervention decision made by the analyst uses a similar cycle to assist in understanding the environment and focusing the resources to support their decisions

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the tactical level planning/execution of interventions. The second planning horizon occurs near-term. These interventions may take months and the iteration rate through this horizon is slower than at the tactical level. The last event horizon is for strategic planning for the order of one to two years and the cycle iterates at the slowest rate. 1.2 Five Classes of Population Models A trade study of computable social models was performed and the dozens of models found were organized into five classes by the authors for this paper. The five model classes that study the beliefs of groups and how their beliefs change as a result of events were categorized into the following models with pros and cons: 1. System Dynamics Models [7]: coarse grain data, large time scales O(years), validity of model parameters estimation is difficult, heavy footprint to deploy, explicit causal mechanisms, inherent representation of time, 2. Social Network Models [8]: lack of causality mechanisms, does not aggregate to larger social units, limited predictive ability, rich and detailed representation of population entities, sensitive to differences in populations, 3. State Transition Models [9]: behaviors described statistically, lack of explicit representation and reasoning about population’s reactions, inherent representation of time, potential for prediction of long-term effects, 4. Group Ideology Models [10]: uses every day perceptions in terms of a large amount of unstructured data, has inherent mechanisms for representing causality, representation of differences in populations, needs continuous updating and maintenance, and 5. Group Dynamics Models [11]: richest representation of causal data with same challenges as the group ideology model, best for short term predictions, group intention understanding possible, and future states of a population can be predicted. The set of challenges facing all models will need to be resolved in order to realize their full potential. The first challenge is fuzzy matching of observations to behavioral patterns. To be of value to the analyst, the visualization tool needs to be able to match attributes of a behavioral observation to a behavioral pattern and display that pattern in a meaningful way to enable actionable intelligence. The next challenge is handling uncertainty via a reasoning mechanism. The basis of the models is the perception of truth instead of truth itself. A mechanism is needed for distinguishing strong beliefs from weaker ones. The last challenge for population models is the negotiation of objectives. When dealing with multiple populations, there will be population expectations of differing needs and objectives. A capability to recognize opportunities for collaboration and alliances is needed which incorporates voting mechanisms and simulated outcomes.

2 Information Requirements for Persistent Surveillance In order to understand the visualization design for supporting the analyst’s decisionmaking cycle for various populations and the possible corresponding interventions based on predicting population reactions, an analysis of the human information processing

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Fig. 2. The Human Information Processing Model as described by Wickens

requirements needs to be made. A simple model of how the human processes information and the model for the persistent surveillance of populations are described. 2.1 Human Information Processing Model The human brain performs complex mental operations on information perceived from the environment. The widely accepted model that allows us to conceptualize these complex operations as a sequence of information processing stages is in Figure 2 and adapted from Wicken’s model [12]. Sensory processing and storage is the first stage when information is coming from the environment. Of course, if we don’t attend to it, we will not know it is occurring. Once perceived, we can place it into working memory and with the use of long-term memory we can ultimately make decisions. This is a useful framework for interpreting human performance in complex tasks such as deciding which intervention to take based on expected population reactions. Of course these stages will need to be mapped to the analyst’s tasks described next.

Fig. 3. Population Behavior Assessment Model showing labeled points 1-4 where visualization is needed to display the information required by the analyst

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2.2 Behavior Assessment Model Various sources of information are required in order to select a set of interventions that will have the desired population outcome. Based on current military documentation and many interviews with military analysts, the relevant situational information (seen in Figure 3) is required at the four points described in the assessment loop. Since it is a constant loop for persistent surveillance, there is no starting or stopping point. For visualization, we need 1) an assessment of the changes in beliefs, 2) low level data fused and aggregated into high level data (actionable knowledge), 3) an assessment of the PMESII-PT environment, and 4) a simulation of the expected population reactions based on DIMEFIL interventions which have been proposed. The remainder of the loop involves observation and study (below the line of influence) called the area of surveillance.

3 Visualization Methodology for Population Models The last step to attaining visualization is the mapping of the human and task information requirements to the visualization design features. Then a relationship between the interface design features and the population model chosen can be defined. Based on the analyst’s task requirements, there are four components that need to be visualized as shown (and numbered) in Figure 3. These components should directly support the analyst by adhering to the human processing model. 3.1 Mapping Information Needs to the Visualization Design The visualization is triggered by changing population beliefs or behaviors. In order for the analyst to know this has occurred (because the visualization environment is one that persists), we need to get the analyst’s attention when the state of the world has changed. This corresponds to the sensory register in Figure 2. Alerts and notifications within the interface should be utilized to increase the chance that the changing information is sensed and perceived. In Figure 4, a highlighted alert (that also flashes red) has been generated for the analyst in the lower left screen. The corresponding box at a location on the map also flashes red. The analyst is then visually notified when an event has occurred which requires their attention. Next, the incoming low level data needs to be fused and aggregated. Since the human working memory (see Figure 2) has limited capacity, only high level data should be presented to the analyst on the top screen to prevent information overload and quickly convey the meaning of the alert to the analyst (See Figure 5a). In the top left side are the current PMESII-PT elements and the population beliefs that have reached a set threshold for an alert to be issued to the analyst. However, to understand why the alert was issued, the analyst may need to look at more details (or drill down into the statistics) in order to make knowledgeable assessments. In the human long-term memory (see Figure 2), deep knowledge is stored and portions are placed into working memory to combine, manipulate, and hypothesize about decision variables and outcomes. Memory problems associated with information retrieval and recovery can be avoided by using tabs to display the low level data trends and changes (see Figure 5b).

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Fig. 4. Screenshot of the visualization interface showing the alert notification to the analyst

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Fig. 5. (a) (Left) The visualization interface showing high level details presented to the analyst. (b) (Right) Visualization is shown for low level trends in information bars of green (clear), yellow (caution), and red (alert) types of notification.

Lastly, since the working memory of the analyst can only consider a number of hypotheses at one time, and long-term memory may have trouble retrieving them, a capability to simulate various courses of actions (COAs), plans, and their ultimate population side effects need to be visually presented to the analyst (see Figure 6). The visualization capability should allow storing and retrieval of possible interventions that could be both analyst and/or computer generated. Since the visualization is persistent, the display returns to the top level awaiting the next alert to the analyst and the visualization cycle continuously loops. This visualization approach can be applied to the population model classes previously defined.

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Fig. 6. Further drilling down the tabs gives us actionable knowledge needed for the analyst to make a sound decision for minimizing the 2nd and 3rd order effects seen in lower right corner

3.2 Information Requirements for the Five Classes of Population Models Each of the five classes of population models has different information requirements. For the system dynamics models, the population belief trends are typically modeled over a long period of time. This model would be used in the strategic event horizon to look at long term effects covering months of interventions. This model would assist the analyst in developing plans for courses of actions and could hypothesize potential population side effects before courses of action were taken. The visualization of the model would come in the form of low level trends over a long period of time. This model could be incorporated by being one of the methods for simulating the possible interventions under “what if” circumstances. The social network models have their place in the analyst’s visualization. By looking at how the network of people within a population, represented by nodes in the network, move and communicate, represented by links in the network, the analyst is able to add another layer of intelligent information to incorporate into their decision making. As the network adds and subtracts active members over time, the shape and distribution of the nodes and links change. As the situation changes and the network updates, the analyst can start linking actions to the network members. An example of how this would be visualized to the analyst is shown in Figure 7. For a state transition model, there is a tremendous amount of statistics which would assist in the deeper drill down that may be required by the analyst. However, there would be no way of determining causality of a population’s behavioral reactions to a particular choice of intervention. An example of the visualization of state transition data is given in Figure 8 [13]. In this example, the conflict between the leader of Russia and the Leader of Georgia were modeled (each representing their population beliefs in terms of their military and diplomatic strengths. This diagram shows how the various countries beliefs about these strengths changed over time and differed from each other. Causality cannot be inferred from these data.

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Fig. 7. A social network of the various religious factions within Pakistan

Fig. 8. Graph of the four perspectives of Military and Political Strengths

Group ideology models are best for use as inherent mechanisms for visualizing causality. The targeted populations can be represented at several levels and reflect sufficient differences in populations. These models are driven on every day perceptions as opposed to survey data. This generates a large volume of unstructured data. The groups, being goal-driven, define their actions by their adopted ideology, and may be in conflict with the goals of other groups. Each group has their beliefs which may be inaccurate, incomplete, and inconsistent. The model directly represents the qualities of a belief and uses those qualities to infer relationships to other beliefs, and thus derive corresponding interventions. This makes the model a good candidate for projecting short term population reactions and beliefs. This ideology model of causality could be used in combination with the social network model which does not have an explicit mechanism to show causality. This model would populate the belief statistics used for further drill down by the analyst. Group dynamics models are very similar to the group ideology model in mechanizations; however, the knowledge within this class of model is focused on group

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Fig. 9. The five stages of group development according to Tuckman’s theory. The arrows show the possible transfer from state to state, to a previous state, or transitioning out.

dynamics rather than ideology. Based on Tuckman’s model, there are five stages concerned with group behaviors: 1) Forming – initially, how groups orient and communicate, 2) Storming – how group members try to convey their individual perspectives and concerns, 3) Norming – turning individual perspectives into group goals and missions, 4) Performing – where the group takes action based on consensus, and 5) Adjourning – how groups disband (Figure 9)[14]. The group dynamics model studies information exchanges between the groups involved and identifies optimal strategies for influencing their behaviors [15]. This type of model represents the behaviors and intentions of groups within a population and suggests what actions the groups are likely to take in the future based on their internal and external dynamic relationships. Of all five classes of models discussed, the group dynamics model extends all of the benefits of the other models, and additionally offers the richest representation of causal data and reactions to interventions.

4 Conclusions Five classes of population models were evaluated for their potential for visualization based on an analyst’s cognitive model of the persistent conflict situation. The conflict situation and its persistent surveillance can be viewed as a process model that 1) takes DIMEFIL actions, 2) collects population data on action effects, 3) analyzes data by classifying and aggregating, 4) generates hypotheses on why population reacted in that way, 5) develops strategies for mitigating the effects, 6) simulates intervention effects, 7) makes a decision, and 8) takes actions again to complete the cycle. The various stages were analyzed to exploit the visualization of actionable knowledge needed for persistent surveillance. It was found that each of the five model classes differ in their visualization requirements. A visualization approach was developed that can be used for all of the classes of models using the analyst’s cognitive model of the conflict situation based on frames of reference for time and physical location within the PMESII-PT environment. The actionable knowledge found in common for all models included the PMESII-PT situational factors, population values and beliefs, the analyst’s decision process and use of PMESII-PT elements, adversary motivations, and current capabilities to make decisions about population interventions.

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References 1. US Army Posture Statement, http://www.army.mil/aps/08/information_papers/prepare/ Persistent_Conflict.html 2. Myers, R.B.: National Military Strategic Plan for the War on Terrorism. In: NMSP-WOT. Strategic Studies Institute, Washington (2006) 3. Kem, J.D.: Understanding the Operation Environment: The Expansion of DIME. University of Military Intelligence (2007) 4. Lennox, R.: Modeling and Simulation in an Era of Persistent Conflict. Headquarters, Department of the Army G-3/5 Strategic Plans, Concepts, & Doctrine Division (2007) 5. Phillips, C.L., Geddes, N., Crosscope, J.: Bayesian Modeling using Belief Nets of Perceived Threat Levels Affected by Stratagemical Behavior Patterns. In: 2nd International Conference on Cultural Computational Dynamics. AAAI Press, Menlo Park (2008) 6. Luck, G., Findlay, M.: Joint Operations: Insights and Best Practices. Joint Warfighting Center’s Joint Training Division, US Joint Forces Command (2008) 7. Turchin, F.: Historical Dynamics: Why State Rise and Fall. Princeton University Press, Princeton (2003) 8. Carrington, P., Scott, J., Wasserman, S. (eds.): Models and Methods in Social Network Analysis: Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2005) 9. Sage, A., Rouse, W. (eds.): Handbook of Systems Engineering. John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken (1999) 10. Carbonell, J.: POLITICS: Automated Ideological Reasoning. Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates, Philadelphia (1978) 11. Hogg, M., Tindale, S.: The Blackwell Handbook of Social Psychology: Group Processes. Blackwell Publishing, Malden (1999) 12. Wickens, C., Hollands, J.: Engineering Psychology and Human Performance. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River (2000) 13. Phillips, C., Sokoloff, S., Crosscope, J., Geddes, N.: A Validation Process for Predicting Stratagemical Behavior Patterns of Powerful Leaders in Conflict. In: 2nd International Workshop on Social Computing, Behavioral Modeling and Prediction. Springer, New York (2009) 14. Tuckman, B.: Developmental Sequence in Small Groups. Psy. Bul. 63(6), 384 (1965) 15. Phillips, C.L., Geddes, N., Kanareykin, S.: A Balanced Approach for LLOs Using Group Dynamics for COIN Efficacy. In: 2nd International Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics Conference, HFES, Santa Monica (2008)

Measuring Usability via Biometrics Anjali Phukan UMBC, Baltimore, Maryland 21250, USA [email protected]

Abstract. This paper reviews some exploratory research focused on developing a usability methodology based on objective biometrics computing using physiological data (ECG, respiration, and GSR sensors, as well as an infrared eye tracker) as well as behavior data (mouse and keystroke input). Following a high level literature review, various biometrics are discussed with the goal of motivating further study into the development of a methodology for usability testing, including the assessment of user satisfaction. Lessons learned and suggestions for future work were also discussed. Keywords: biometric, usability, testing, methodologies.

1 Introduction Physiological data may be a new area of research in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) that could supplement more traditional measures, in an attempt to allow researchers the ability to derive possible reasons for a user’s behavior or action, rather than just knowing the action has occurred. Biometrics included a combination of physiological and behavioral characteristics. Behavioral data such as keystroke and voice recognition have been studied extensively in HCI. Physiological signals, such as heart rate (HR) and respiration rate (RSP) have received substantially less attention however. This paper discusses current literature and an exploratory study. The ultimate goal is to learn more about physiological sensors and their possible use in the context of usability studies. The exploratory study uses some of these measures, while participants perform tasks on advertisement-related electronic materials that include simple viewing tasks, web-site navigation tasks with moderate levels of interactivity, and a number of online survey tasks. Exploration looked at ways of identifying relationships among different data types. Finally, initial efforts compared the intent of the designer with the actions of the viewer in the context of marketing oriented materials. Potentially this work could impact fields such as marketing, information systems, and psychology. In marketing, use of physiological sensors to ascertain the exact meaning of a user’s physiological status may allow for the use of more objective data leading to a more accurate understanding of a user’s reaction. Other research areas also can gain by learning how to use technology to integrate different types of data. Lastly, researchers in psychology may be able to leverage information about how data was organized and collected from this exploratory study, for future research ideas in their adjacent areas of research. A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 101–107, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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There are several studies that focus on one or two physiological sensors, but few studies have a significant number of users and a comprehensive set of physiological sensors. Practical lessons learned from this exploration could contribute to the design of experimentations and methods for data collection in future HCI studies. It also could offer ways to improve the design of study questionnaires, including integration and comparison of survey and biometric data types across multiple fields.

2 Relevant Literature This literature review focuses on usability studies that gather data ranging from one to many biometrics. This review is by no means exhaustive, but rather, a representative sample of some related research being done in this advancing area. Some studies attempt to monitor what users see, think, or feel at without eye tracking or other biometric sensors. Eyes on Screen (EOS) testing measures the attention and impact by post task surveys and free recall tasks after participants watch target media. One EOS study found that the more a user watched an ad, the more likely they were to remember it and have a high degree of positive attitudinal response. In cases when a viewer knows a commercial is a commercial, it encourages “not watching.”[1] Another study compared different websites and font-color combinations to find that colors with greater contrast ratio lead to greater readability; but that colors do not affect content retention, and user preferred colors lead to higher quality ratings and intention to purchase [2]. In terms of electronic shopping experiences, a study of different 2-Dimensional (2D) and 3-Dimensional (3D) product representations were compared. Users who interacted were more satisfied with, and more likely to purchase 3D representation types [3]. Another subjective survey measure is the NASA’s TLX survey of human performance and workload using task related factors (overall, task difficulty, time pressure, performance, mental/thinking/sensory effort, physical effort, frustration level, stress level, fatigue, and activity type) that lead to subject-related factors that induce an overt response. The importance of these factors can have weights that vary by tasks and/or study, which are then multiplied by a user’s subjective ratings to compute an overall workload score [4]. Studies that use the NASA TLX combined with biometrics range from those analyzing electroencephalogram (EEG) data [5] to those analyzing electrocardiogram (ECG) and mouse movement data [6]. Many studies predict HR based on age, such as MaxHR = 210 - (age*0.65)1, which predicted accuracy rates of 95%, although there are some limitations such as effects of drugs and/or level of health [7]. ECG data gathers electrical activity about the heart, where the peaks of the signal are used to determine the HR. Sinus arrhythmias, where the time to complete a beat is shorter during breathing in than during breathing out, should lead to a relationship between RSP and ECG due to the fact a person’s ECG signal should have more variation when they have a higher respiration rate, compared to when they have a lower respiration rate [8]. Galvanic Skin tests can be Skin Conductance (SC) when measuring absolute levels, and Skin Response (SR or GSR) when measuring relative changes, where stimuli should generate a response portion of a wave, have a peak, and then recover. There can be new peaks while a 1

For example a 10 year old would have a maximum heart rate of 210-(10*.65) = 103.5.

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response is recovering, or even while the stimulus is generating a response. In addition, there may be unintended stimuli or noise such as breathing affects, and there may be responses that have no known origin [9]. One study used a head-mounted eye tracker tracking at 60 Hz, and wired GSR and ECG sensors to look at changes that might occur when a user views pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant pictures. All pictures had people in them, came from the same database, and were of the same size, layout, and luminescence as much as possible to avoid pupil size changes due to the coloring in the images. Users sat in a chair about 3 feet from the screen. Surveyed pleasure valence and emotional arousal where measured against pupil, GSR, and heart rate responses. Following an initial light reflex, pupils increased significantly when viewing emotionally arousing pictures, regardless of whether these were pleasant or unpleasant. HR was also significantly higher for pleasant and neutral pictures. Unpleasant pictures lead to larger HR decelerations and GSR exhibited significantly larger changes in unpleasant than pleasant images, while neutral pictures had significantly fewer GSR changes. In addition, pupil changes covaried with GSR. Authors suggested this is proof that the changes are sympathetic (emotional), and that a pupil's response during affective picture viewing reflects emotional arousal [10]. Another study found that increased mental workload was significantly correlated to high blood pressure and low blink rate, and that respiration and GSR levels also tended to increase with MWL [11]. Some studies look at the “audio–visual (AV) perception”. In one study, sound exerted a significant effect on pupil velocity but a weak significance on pixel coverage. Smooth-pursuit eye movement was least with no noise, increasing for constant and decreasing pitch, and most pronounced during increasing pitch, indicating that AV perception affects low-level (or involuntary) ocular motor mechanisms where integration of a visual scene with continuous sound creates the perception of continuous visual motion [12]. Audio only, sight only, and AV clips of varying lengths of a musical score were tested in another lab study under tight data collection controls. In this study there was still a loss of data from bad signals. Years of musical training and GSR were correlated. The average amplitude in a baseline was subtracted from a task GSR to create ‘scaled’ GSR amplitudes. Stress opinions varied more than GSR data, but AV clip opinions correlated most to GSR data. The GSR from the visual clip was the least active, and the AV clip produced the most significant responses. Bi-modal tasks lead to higher levels of satisfaction, and GSR is affected by audios, visuals, and stress, but the effect can vary by user [13]. A related study looked at affect of emotional movies, on a 17” screen about 2 feet away. 90second baselines were subtracted from a segment median to calculate the “physiological change score.” There was no significant difference by age, weight, body size, or personality group. Mean respiration expiratory time and GSR were significant with high scores for torture and sports movies and lower for the others [14]. Another study with participants with some musical training and no hearing impairments listened to various 30-second pieces of music. The physiological data’s log-transformed modified “change scores” correlated to the expertly assessed musical features of the tasks, suggesting that the internal structure of a musical piece plays a significant role in affecting physiological signs. Mode affected HR and breathing the most regardless of musical feature, and rhythm and pitch level affected GSR [15]. Our study did not focus on auditory arousal issues and no auditory data was captured as part of the biometrics.

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One group of researchers found that multiple exposures to ads help users better identify with the ads where picture elements are best at getting a user’s attention regardless of size and lead to more accurate memory, text elements grab attention better on an inch-per-inch basis; and brand elements are best at creating carryover effects where attention to one element causes attention to others [16]. Nielsen Norman Group reported finding a top-down F-shaped pattern when users read, regardless of task or website, although the speeds of reading and the exact shape can vary. In addition, although users usually don’t look at web ads there are some exceptions, and fancy scripts and words tend to be ignored because participants think they look like a promotion. Researchers did not suggest that fancy scripts may be hard to read and complicated words difficult to interpret, which would also follow their finding that users like to see numbers than read the spelled out form, perhaps because it takes more energy to process [17]. Another study compared eye gaze of users trying to pay special attention to different types of ads. Viewers tended to spend more time looking at the text than pictures, though fixation durations were longest on the picture part of the ad. Viewers tended to read the large print, then the smaller print, and then look at the picture (although some did an initial scan of the picture) [18]. But, the longer fixations on an element might reflect a person’s difficulty interpreting the element [19].

3 Exploratory Study This exploratory study lasted approximately 30-45 minutes. Participants completed likert scale, multiple choice, and open-ended questions after viewing a variety of media. The wording of questions was assessed using the Flesch-Kincaid scale, using a 4th grade level of readability as the goal. The survey was designed, reviewed by domain experts, pilot tested, and revised multiple times. User gaze data was collected using a Tobii T120 monitor with built-in infrared eye-tracking cameras that captured gaze movement. The eye setting was average, the validity was normal, and the fixation filter was standard. In addition, a BIOPAC system collected GSR data via two leads on the hand not using the mouse, HR from an ECG placed on the user’s chest, and RSP data via a respiratory effort transducer. All settings were suggestions from BIOPAC, and biometrics data was collected via their hardware and software. Tobii Studio captured screen images, keystrokes, and mouse click data. The survey questions were administered using the online tool Survey Monkey (SM). Observation notes were synched to video recordings of users. The tasks concentrated on advertisement-oriented materials. To ensure a homogeneous distribution, users with similar pre-exposure to the study advertisements were chosen. Participants were offered $10 to complete the study. They were over 18, able to use a mouse and keyboard, read and speak in English, and had no uncorrected documented sensory impairments. They were asked not to have alcohol or caffeine one hour prior to the study. The study was conducted in a lab on the university campus. Users sat about two feet away from the eye tracker in a stationary chair. The recording resolution was 1280x1024 open to a 1240x1000 Internet Explorer application. The study had 20 participants, with ages ranging from 18 to 52 and an average age of 30 (±9). Subjects were enrolled in doctoral, masters, undergraduate degree programs, or had some other school affiliation. More than 50% were information

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technology majors. Other degrees being obtained ranged from public policy to math. The average user spent 47 hours using a computer each week, and about 26 hours online per week. All used the web for news and information searches, and some used it for shopping, office applications, games, and social networks. 3.1 Exploratory Findings Data analysis focused on performance, eye gaze data, and physiological sensors data. Eye gaze results are based on the halfway point between what the left and right eye are looking at on the screen. Some sample findings are discussed. Navigation tasks were strongly related to the total study time whenever navigation was required. Thinking and reading may also be indicated, based on typing, clicking, and eye gaze (or lack of), which may allow unobservable distraction time to be derived. Additional research, using biometrics, could allow for new methods to identify when users are distracted from their primary task. This would be extremely valuable in the context of studies involving multi-tasking. Some of the noted eye movement was probably involuntary and physiological, while other eye movements were clearly behavioral. Neither eye dominance nor gender appears to affect viewing activities. Understanding such relationships is important if eye tracking data is to be used to assess usability. As may be expected, users fixated on text more than anything else followed by pictures. The logo used in the study materials tended to be the last thing most users viewed. The hotspots (areas of most viewing) and gaze plots (order of viewing) are shown in Fig. 1, indicating that user eye movement does tend to follow the designer intended, although the designer expected more time on the image and less on the text. Physiological data includes significant noise, which affects the signals and makes data analysis more challenging. Some observations suggest that HR and RSP tended to decrease during the course of a study. This could be an important observation if this decrease is due to the participants relaxing as they become comfortable with the study as this would suggest that either more or less practice should be provided. More practice would allow participants to become comfortable and would presumably allow for more stable results. On the other hand, less practice would ensure that the users’ initial reactions, as well as subsequent changes in comfort, could be explored. Designer's Intent

Participant Hot Spots

Fig. 1. Designer vs. Participant

Participant Gaze Plots

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4 Conclusions We started this exploration project with the goal to learn more about physiological sensors and their relationship to a user’s stress and satisfaction levels when performing a task, as well as examining the feasibility of developing a comprehensive methodology to integrate biometric data with less objective measures of stress, excitement and other emotional states. The findings of this exploratory study suggest that such integration is a possibility if the biometric output is consistent and synchronized with the data collected via the survey. This finding could be applicable to user testing in HCI studies that collect user opinions and/or biometrics. We were seeking to identify relationships among task, survey, and biometric data, and we did find some potentially interesting relationships. It was a great opportunity with many lessons learned that can guide future research. 4.1 Limitations, Future Research Areas The research limitations were tied to technical issues and participant numbers. Lumens and decibel ratings were not monitored to compare against physiological and subjective data. Some problems were encountered while syncing the biometrics data to the eye and keyboard data. Future plans are to do similar studies but with shock isolators as necessary to allow synched biometrics to gaze/keyboard/mouse input signals regardless of the user tasks, so that we can perform more precise calculations, including relative measurements where task rates are first modified against baseline values and then compared to other tasks rates. Our next steps are to look at ways of collecting user satisfaction data in usability studies of HCI hardware and software. This is in the context of comparing nontraditional interaction methods such as eye-gaze interaction tools. This will differ from the marketing focus in this study, although determining user satisfaction is still the ultimate goal. Acknowledgments. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. CNS-0619379. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. Dr. Ant Ozok and Dr. Andrew Sears provided appreciated guidance in this project.

References 1. Wells, W.D.: Measuring Advertising Effectiveness. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah (1997) 2. Hall, H.: Impact Of Web Page Text-Background Color Combinations on Readability, Retention, Aesthetics, And Behavioral Intention (2004) 3. Ozok, A.A., Komlodi, A.: Do Looks Really Matter? The Effect of 3-Dimensional Product Representations on The Customers’ Buying Decision In Electronic Commerce. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors And Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, pp. 1050– 1053 (2007)

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4. Hart, S.G., Staveland, L.E.: Development of A NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): Results Of Empirical and Theoretical Research. In: Hancock, P.A., Meshkati, N. (eds.) Human Mental Workload, pp. 139–183. North-Holland, Amsterdam (1988) 5. Baldwin, C., Coyne, J.: Mental Workload As A Function of Traffic Density: Comparison of Physiological, Behavioral, And Subjective Indices. In: Proceedings of The Second International Driving Symposium on Human Factors In Driver Assessment, Training and Vehicle Design (2003) 6. Rowe, D.W., Sibert, J., Irwin, D.: Heart Rate Variability: Indicator of User State As An Aid To Human-Computer Interaction. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, April 18 - 23, pp. 480–487 (1998) 7. Cooper, C.B., Storer, T.W.: Exercise Testing And Interpretation: A Practical Guide. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2001) 8. Thaler, M.S.: The Only EKG Book You’ll Ever Need. J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia (1998) 9. Boucsein, W.: Electrodermal Activity. Plenum Press, New York (1992) 10. Bradley, M., Miccoli, L., Escrig, M., Lang, P.: The Pupil As A Measure of Emotional Arousal And Autonomic Activation (2008) 11. Kubo, O., Takahashi, M., Yoshikawa, H.: Mutual Adaptive Interface: Laboratory Experiments For Human State Estimation. In: Proceedings of 2nd IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Communication, November 3-5, pp. 460–464 (1993) 12. Xiao, M., Wong, M., Umali, M., Pomplun, M.: Last But Not Least Using Eye-Tracking To Study Audio - Visual Perceptual Integration. Perception 36, 1391–1395 (2007) 13. Chapadosa, C., Levitin, D.J.: Cross-Modal Interactions In The Experience of Musical Performances: Physiological Correlates. Cognition 108(3), 639–651 (2008) 14. Gomez, P., Zimmermann, P., Guttormsen-Schär, S., Danuser, B.: Respiratory Responses Associated With Affective Processing of Film Stimuli. Biological Psychology 68.3, 223– 235 (2005) 15. Gomez, P., And Danuser, B.: Relationships Between Musical Structure and Psychophysiological Measures of Emotion. Emotion 7(2), 377–387 (2007) 16. Pieters, R., Wedel, M.: Attention Capture And Transfer In Advertising: Brand, Pictorial, And Text-Size Effects. Journal of Marketing 68(2), 36–50 (2004) 17. Nielsen, J.: Eyetracking Research (2009), http://Www.Useit.Com/Eyetracking 18. Rayner, K., Rotello, C.M., Stewart, A.J., Keir, J., Duffy, S.A.: Integrating Text And Pictorial Information: Eye Movements When Looking At Print Advertisements. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 7.3, 219–226 (2001) 19. Shen, J., Reingold, E., Pomplun, M., Williams, D.: Saccadic Selectivity During Visual Search: The Influence of Central Processing Difficulty. In: Hyona, J., Radach, R., Deubel, H. (eds.) From The Mind’s Eye: Cognitive And Applied Aspects of Eye Movement Research, vol. 4. North-Holland, Amsterdam (2003)

Structuring the Social Subsystem Components of the Community Based E-Museum Framework Suriyati Razali, Nor Laila Md. Noor, and Wan Adilah Wan Adnan Faculty of Information Technology & Quantitative Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia {suriyati,norlaila,adilah}@tmsk.uitm.edu.my Abstract. The use of social spaces design in social computing has created an economic value in the preservation of cultural heritage. This movement has now motivated the museum community to provide a systematic establishment to support the digital cultural heritage preservation through e-museum. However some of the cultural heritage community knowledge sharing drivers has not been adequately addressed. The significant growth of community based concept shows a great economic importance in producing reliable digital object repositories. We developed a conceptual framework of a community based emuseum (ComE) to facilitate the design of community knowledge sharing in as an attempt to solve the economic issues of sustaining a cultural heritage information system [1]. In this paper we further elaborate the framework by presenting the structural knowledge modeling of the subsystem of the ComE framework within the social technical system frame based on four components of community views. We demonstrate the instantiation by using the traditional Malay textile (TMT) as the cultural artifact as the case study. Keywords: Community based e-museum, social subsystem, community concept, cultural heritage.

1 Introduction The web technology has enabled the creation of online social space for community members to interact and share knowledge. Research on the Wiki technology and its usage continues as a worldwide trend [2], [3] and interest in this area is rapidly gathering momentum [4], [5]. An important aspect of Wikipedia is that users can update entries at any time interactively on the web. The wide use of Wikipedia technology can be an example of community based trends that could be applied in museum application developments. Bowen [6] supports that Wikipedia technology could be used by museum to enhance their own communities, allowing them to contribute to a museum’s website interactively. This is a significant and fast-moving aspect of Web development and we agree with Bowen [6] that museums should consider this technology carefully.

2 Background Digitization of museum artifacts has paved the way for the evolution of e-museum, making museums more accessible from anywhere and at anytime and thus bringing A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 108–116, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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museums closer to the public. However, despite this advantage, capturing and exhibiting digital artifact through e-museum incurs a capital cost due to the economics of content digitization arising from cost of equipments, time and manpower for collecting and producing a high quality digitized image [7]. Therefore, to achieve the digital ambition of museums, a long-term strategy to build the requisite infrastructures of hardware, software, skills and agreements is needed. Besides the significant investment, the process of making digitized museum images available online may also expose some risk to museum as custodians of cultural heritage [8]. To perform digitize work museums would face the issue of digital reproductions rights, which involve the agreements between the museums and owners. It is therefore important that museums are able to come to an understanding of these issues and to exercise control over the use of museum digital collections, to minimize the risks involved. Despite the significant growth of the body of the literature on the application of social computing in cultural heritage and museum execution, there are uncertainties of digital environment availability. Community based e-museum is our effort to address the economic challenge in the preservation of cultural heritage and also to provide control mechanism in the acquisition process to minimize the digital risks [1]. The conceptualization of the framework which we name as ComE is based on the combination of social technical system frame, museology viewpoints and system design theories. In our community based e-museum conceptualization, community members are allowed to contribute their digital contents. These activities combine multiple media, including digital artifact images, community knowledge and experiences in the form of text, video and sound to support a museum’s outreach. However, bringing together the social and technical demands of the system is not simple. We are aware that in the open access initiatives, digital content is available “freely” on the public internet, permitting user to share and use content without financial, legal, or technical barriers [9]. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution is in the form of copyright. On this issue, contributors are given the right to control the integrity of their contents and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited. Community based e-museum emphasizes the control mechanism over digital content values by providing permission barriers associated with restraining use of the contents. Accessibility digital contents by the community members consisting level of expertise who will navigate, contribute, reviews and validate the digital artifacts from a reliable digital repositories. As a result of the digital artifact contributions process, the digital environment is used to create online exhibits. The complexity of these online contributions and online exhibits poses several challenges to the digital preservation. The first challenge lies in the need to link the digital artifact to its physical artifact. Here, the link must inherit sufficient domain knowledge to ensure the digital contents reliability. Besides this, the challenge is further magnified by the difficulty of the task to distinguish between the authentic digital images contents from the counterfeit. In addition, within the effort of the cultural heritage digital preservation, the systematic establishment and supports of trusted digital repository that stressed for content reliability is not well organized. To address the association of digital and physical artifact, knowledge modeling is applied to provide the inferences and functionalities for community based e-museum. In our current work, we use the taxonomy based approach. Our aim is to provide a way to

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assist the museum community for implementing the concept of sharing. Other than that, the taxonomy constitutes the basic structure to facilitate the structured and organized knowledge for acquisition and retrieval in digital artifact repository. The indexes or descriptions of domain are used for users to refer and find the relevant association components that exist in the repositories. Besides an organized and structured data, the quality of digital contents is considered for better control over the trusted digital repository. We use the workflow technique to provide the solution to differentiate between the authentic digital contents and the counterfeit. Here, we treat digital artifact as a special and valuable item, therefore the process for bringing it to the trustworthy location need to be controlled. The acceptance of the digital content relies on the assigned validation committee who are experts in the domain knowledge. This implies digital contents reliability control. While taxonomy offers a mechanism for organized data structure, a workflow system provides a way for reliable process modeling. We combine the knowledge model and workflow method and taking advantage of the combined benefits can provide a precious way of designing Community based Information Systems. In the following sections, we will first describe the framework including the detailed description of the components (includes knowledge model and workflow system component) in the framework. Next, we will present the four components of community views as social spaces before expanding to the important components of community views [10] in the museum context which includes the descriptions of community participants, roles in the community, valid rules for communication and access and community specific language/ domain discourse. This will illustrate how these social sub system representing community members influence the components of our proposed system.

3 Community Based e-Museum Framework A study on the establishment of the National Digital Cultural Heritage Repository (NDCHR) for Malaysia is being conducted [11]. The main objective of the establishment is to enhanced digitized cultural heritage material services through a combined effort that synergized the effort of individual cultural institution. This is to ensure that the preservation of information that has significant value to human and society and is made accessible to as many people using the most appropriate technology. Even though there are efforts in establishing Malaysia’s central repository, we share the same opinion with Wang [12] that it is practical to obtain adaptability of a system by focusing on a specific application for engineering design support in a certain domain. This has been our main motivation for conceptualizing the Community based e-museum system concepts. 3.1 Conception of the Community Based e-Museum We discuss the evolution of e-Museum in the light of IT applications evolutions [13]. This is to facilitate the association of technology and community based concepts in museum application development without eliminating the traditional museum roles and functions [1]. In order to comprehend the sustainability of cultural heritage information system in general, and specifically allowing online community to participate in the

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Fig. 1. This shows a conception elements of the Community based E-museum

contribution of digital content of e-museum we perform literature analysis. We synthesize (1) the main museology elements; (2) the four level criteria for defining and online community; (3) the four interacting component in social technical technology and (4) the design science IT artifact components that will supply as useful conception elements to provide a Community based e-museum (ComE) Framework. The socio technical approach emphasizes that IS comprise behavioral subsystem and technological subsystem. In focusing the relevance system, we understand that the social and technical subsystem is necessary in conducting relevant research. Based on IS research framework suggested by Hevner [14], we integrate the relevance criteria namely people, organization and technology in community based e-museum context. People in the community concepts reside in an unstructured organization. However, in implementing museum operations variety of technology advancement is considered. Furthermore we consider the socio technical viewpoint on design science [15]. We understand design science as a special focus of the process of IT artifact creation for a successful design of Community based emuseum as an information system. Therefore we associate the common understanding of the constructs, model, methods and instantiations which emphasize the IT artifact relation to the socio technical theory and on rigor and relevance of the design. 3.2 Community Based e-Museum Framework Components At the abstract level, we draw an overall representation of Community based e-museum framework as shown in Figure 2. ComE is viewed as a socio-technical information system [1]. In conducting qualitative research, we carefully study the requirements of cultural heritage operations in museum institutions in Malaysia. To operationalize our knowledge acquisition and analysis of research findings, we divide the operations into social subsystem and technical subsystem. Both social and technical subsystem characteristics are equally significant and intricately related. However, in this paper, we highlight on the social subsystem models that have been constructed and explained in next section.

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Fig. 2. Community based E-museum Framework

3.3 The Community View of the Social Subsystem The social aspect is a major factor in the success of the online based applications. We utilize the social subsystem determinants [10] to support our rigorous argumentation of the social to structure the necessary functionality for the community based e-museum design. The Media Reference Model (MRM) was originally designed to structure the functionality and services of e-commerce platform. We adopt the community views layer of the MRM which refers to (1) Possible roles in the community; (2) Valid rules for communication and access; (3) Description of community participants and (4) The community specific language. These elements of community view define the aspects of the ComE organizational structure and enable mapping of its elements on to the ComE platform. Table 1 represents the mapping of MRM community views component and ComE community views of Social Subsystem that has been used to construct social subsystem models. Table 1. Mapping of MRM community views component and ComE community views of Social Subsystem MRM-Community Views Components Description of Community Participants Roles in the community Valid Rules for communication and access Community Specific Language / Domain Discourse

ComE-Community views of Social Subsystem Museum Community Participants Museum Community Roles ComE Valid Communication Structure Traditional Malay Textile (TMT) Taxonomy Model

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The collection of social subsystem data consist of two phases: semi-structured interview and evidence collections. We conducted a semi-structured interview with the museums and Traditional Malay Textile (TMT) experts using the pre-prepared questions. The questions are based on the 4 socio subsystem determinants. To provide interview structure and focus, we enter codes for the interview questions based on social aspects. We interviewed 4 museum curators, 1 museum directors, 2 TMT Experts academician and 2 owners of the TMT artefacts. We transcribed the semi-structured interview and analyse the resulting procedure for the knowledge type presentation using content analysis methods. Findings on the descriptions of community participants is analysed based on the personal characteristics and findings on community roles and valid communication structure are analysed based on functional roles related to Task [16]. This analysis revealed the concepts, sub-concepts, attributes, values, relationships, tasks and roles of social aspects and thus answers our research questions on museum community stakeholders and some of domain discourse descriptions. Hereby, a partial design of social subsystem components of ComE association is depicted in Figure 5. Museum Community Participants. Personal Characteristics required for artifact collection purposes represents for the expertise and personal profiles required for each community member. Descriptions for expertise components were refined. This is to produce a community category. Based on the qualification background, expertise, skills, historical background, we distinguished three kinds of community category; experts, semi-experts and novices as shown in Figure 3. The aim of this community category is to provide guidelines for the ComE Valid Communication Structure. Museum Community Roles. The model of roles emerges enable the community to perform each functionality or task allocated. We use the classification on group roles developed by [17] for looking at specific roles that occur within a museum community group. Each role is an abstraction of the different types of community participants. Based on the requirements captured, we established the museum community roles descriptions for community participating design in the community based e-museum.

Fig. 3. Community Category captured from part of personal characteristics

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S. Razali, N.L.Md. Noor, and W.A.W. Adnan Table 2. Museum Community Role Descriptions Museum Community Role Digital Artifact Contributor Cultural Heritage Artifact Information Seeker Cultural Heritage Artifact Information Giver Digital Artifact Evaluator Coordinator Elaborator

Roles Descriptions Upload digital artifact from artifact category list Seek for related information to view Community User that post comments Checking for the originality of the digital artifact Shows the relevance of related content; Offer a decision Give additional descriptions and support

ComE Valid Communication Structure. Distinguish rules defined by museum experts’ community provoked the need for valid communication structure and protocols model. In particular, the proposed community based e-museum members act according to roles and rules. Therefore, specified imperative rules helps in coordinating the digital artifact evaluation committee. The consequence of community user and validation committee communication structure formation in figure 4 can significantly contribute to the sequence of museum validation workflow processing steps for digital artifact acceptance. Traditional Malay Textile (TMT) Taxonomy: Tra-Ma-Taxo Model. We present facet taxonomy of TMT that provides an informative classification. The taxonomy is grounded on the components of social subsystem. The taxonomy of the domain discourse was developed derived from 6 steps. We locates and identifies, integrates and organize concepts describing 6 facet types (People-Things-Activity-Location-TimeSubjectMatter) suggested by Ranganathan as quoted by Lambe [16] and text described by researchers in TMT domain. We identify 20 contributors which refer to books, technical report, VCD, other documents related to TMT. Separating and integrating dimension were used in our content analysis approach. This process is commonly accepted procedure for the classification and thesaurus development in information science. The faceted taxonomy constructed serves as the foundation for artifacts common language and meaning that need to be accessed in digital form [2].

Fig. 4. ComE Valid Communication Structure

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We developed this taxonomy to assist in the development of a framework to derive verification and validation strategies in accepting digital artifact in ComE system. The need for Tra-Ma-Tax arises from 2 facts: (1) no existing of TMT taxonomy available (2) no existing taxonomy supports the derivation of digital artifact assessment strategies relative to Traditional Malay Textile Artifact. The taxonomy presented in this paper is an important part for the ComE framework because it structures the TMT into categories, thereby enabling the development of systematic approach for assessing and publishing digital artifact. Furthermore the taxonomy simplifies the uploading process of digital artifact. The research was carried out with the purpose of developing knowledge model for heritage resources to allow sharing of digital artifacts through ComE platform.

4 Conclusion Although to achieve the digital ambition of museums, a long-term strategy to build the requisite infrastructures of hardware, software, skills and agreements is needed, an effort to fit for the creation of online social space for museum community members to interact and share knowledge has to be obtained. So the framework that we put forward in the Community based e-museum framework is our effort to address the economic challenge in the preservation of cultural heritage and also to provide control mechanism in the acquisition process to minimize the digital risks. The basic viewpoint of the approach is a combination of the knowledge model and workflow method while taking advantage of the combined benefits can provide a valuable means of designing Community based Information Systems. In the ComE

Fig. 5. Partial Design of Social Subsystem components of ComE

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framework the structural knowledge modeling of subsystem is presented in the social technical technology frame. The social aspect is a major factor in the success of the online based applications; therefore, we utilize the social subsystem components to support our rigorous argumentation of the social subsystem. Based on the above framework we construct the association of social subsystem components. Figure 5 represent partial design of social subsystem for ComE.

References 1. Razali, S., Md Noor, N.L., Wan Adnan, W.A.: Towards Sustainable Heritage Information Systems: Conceptualization of Community-based e-Museum. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on e-Commerce, e-Administration, e- Society and e-Education: eCase(2009) 2. Research- Wikimedia Meta-Wiki (2006), http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research 3. Voss, J.: Measuring Wikipedia. Humboldt-University of Berlin, Institute for Library Science, Germany (2005) (preprint 2005-04-12) 4. Wikimania: Proceedings of Wikimania 2005. In: Proceeding of First International Wikimedia Conference (2005), http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikimania05 5. Wikisym: Proceedings of the 2005 International Symposium on Wikis. ACM Press, New York (2005), http://www.wikisym.org/ws2005/proceedings 6. Bowen, J., Angus, J.: Museums and Wikipedia, Museums and the Web 2006: Proceedings, Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics (2006) 7. Hemminger, B., et al.: Capturing Content for Virtual Museums: from Pieces to Exhibits. Journal of Digital Information 1(4), Article No. 313 (2005) 8. Bearman, D.: Addressing Selection and Digital Preservation as Systemic Problem. In: UNESCO Conference on Preserving the Digital Heritage: Principles and Policies (2005) 9. Pantalony, R.E.: WIPO Guide on Managing Intellectual Property For Museums, Technical Report, World Intelectual Property Organization (2007) 10. Slabeva, K.S.: Towards a Community-Oriented Design of Internet Platforms. International Journal of Electronic Commerce 6(3), 71–95 (2002) 11. Manaf, Z.A.: Establishing the National Digital Cultural Heritage Repository in Malaysia. Library Review 57(7), 537–548 (2008) 12. Wang, Y., Wang, J., Zhang, S.: Collaborative Knowledge Management by Integrating Knowledge Modeling and Workflow Modeling. In: IEEE international conference on systems, man & cybernetics, August 15-17 (2005) 13. Messerschmitt, D.G., Szyperski, C.: Software Ecosystem: Understanding and Indispensable Technology and Industry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (2003) 14. Hevner, A.R., March, S.T., Park, J., Ram, S.: Design Science in Information Systems Research. MIS Quarterly 28(1), 75–105 (2004) 15. Becker, J., Niehaves, B., Janiesch, C.: Technical Perspectives on Design Science in IS Research. In: Advances in Information Systems Development. Springer, US (2007) 16. Lambe, P.: Organising Knowledge: Taxonomies, Knowledge and Organizational Effectiveness. Chandos Publishing (2007) 17. Mudrack, E., Genevieve, M.F.: An Examination of Functional Role Behavior and Its Consequences for Individuals in Group Settings Small Group Research (November 1995)

Notice Board as Metaphor for Social Media Service in Chemical Factory Sampo Teräs and Petri Mannonen Helsinki University of Technology, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Finland {sampo.teras, petri.mannonen}@tkk.fi

Abstract. Work in paper and chemical factories include controlling several processes and cooperating with several workers. This needs lots of awareness and information sharing. Breakdowns in information sharing can lead to low quality production and unsafe work situations. During last couple of years different social media and web 2.0 applications and services have become popular ways of sharing information in leisure environment. We created a prototype from social media perspective to respond the needs in information sharing in factories. Our electronic notice board prototype (El Nobo) uses a metaphor from process operators’ current work environment and is designed to face the specific needs that occur in the chemical factory process operators’ work. The prototype aims to introduce social media type of working practices to process control work and to test the possibilities of informal cross-organizational information sharing in industrial settings. Keywords: Awareness, Control room, Factory work, Prototype, Process controlling, Social media, User interface, Web 2.0.

1 Introduction Controlling complex processes for example in paper and chemical industries is a challenging task. Even a seemingly small factory contains several states, items and personnel working with it, and operating larger factories definitely isn't a simple and straightforward assignment. For example chemical plants usually include multiple interlinked production units and processes. Thus process control work requires lots of collaboration between workers both inside the unit and between various units in a factory complex. Information sharing is an important part of this collaboration and also the process itself requires a lot of attention to ensure production quality and staff safety. [1] For example our studies revealed a situation, where factory 1 didn't inform to factory 2 that they cannot receive all the raw material factory 2 produces. This lead to a pile of mixed type raw materials outside the factory and they couldn't optimize the production of such deteriorated materials. It is quite unlikely that lack of information would lead into tragic accidents, but minor mishaps might happen if correct information is not reported to the right person. A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 117–125, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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User research conducted at a chemical plant in Finland showed that the process operators need practical ways and tools to share information about their current tasks and process situation between the different production units of the chemical plant. Based on the user research findings an awareness-sharing tool was designed and a prototype of it implemented. The designed tool utilizes notice board metaphor and aims to increase informal communication between the control rooms of the chemical plant. The prototype is implemented with Flash and Java.

2 Background Traditionally work related collaboration and information sharing has been studied in the field of Computer Supported Cooperation Work (CSCW). CSCW describes how people use technology in shared time and/or space [2]. There are several different combinations with time-space relations and the relation needed should be considered precisely in the system design [3]. For example, in work shifts the users work at the same place, but at different times. This would set a different kind of approach to the system design compared to a system for cooperation between different control rooms, where the users work at the same time, but at different places. Cooperation might vary from close user related cooperation to distant system related cooperation and this creates different kind of approach to design compared to traditional multi-user systems [4]. There is a practical need to design computer and communication tools to support cooperation and to harness the collective human resources [5]. During last couple of years different social media and web 2.0 applications and services have become hugely popular ways of sharing information in leisure time settings. The promises of these technologies, i.e. facilitating flexible design, creative reuse, and user centered content, providing a rich user interface, facilitating collaborative content creation, establishing social networks of people with common interests, and helping to gather collective intelligence [6][7], are very interesting also from work and industrial perspective. Utilizing social media services in work context can be problematic. The services seem to promote practices and ways of working that require companies to change their work cultures. For example social media services promote freedom of organizing and interest based connections and collaboration whereas in work context there usually is a predefined organizational structure and also defined tasks and duties. In addition the social media services promote such openness in reporting ones activities that it can awake resistance in companies and business settings. [8] Central theme in both CSCW and current popular social media services, such as Facebook and Twitter, is awareness. Awareness is providing and receiving information to and from others regarding one’s current activities. In a strict environment, like in a control room, the awareness is more depending on the situation. Endsley describes situation awareness as "the perception of the elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning and the projection of their status in the near future" [9]. Endsley divides situation awareness into three levels [10]. At level 1 worker picks up elements from the environment. At level 2 he or she creates an understanding of the current situation. At level 3 he or she forms a projection of future state and decides possible actions to achieve or avoid the upcoming state.

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The provider of the information must consider what is important information and how to present it. The provider can choose the amount and format of the provided information and thus has more power in the information sharing process, but the provider might be unmotivated and elude the exchange if he or she doesn't gain anything from it. [11] The receiver must access the information and understand what it means. With the information, the receiver is up to date with related activities and can thus direct his/her own work to preferable ways or get well prepared to possible problems [12]. It is rather important to understand what information avails the receiver [11]. The shared information might have different meaning to different user groups depending for example on their experience and role [13]. A person who has been working for a long time might have encountered similar situation before and can make an assumption from certain signs that something needs to be done. On the other hand a person working on a specific part of the process might understand that a certain problem at another part of the process might affect on his or her part of the process, while others wouldn't understand this. Flexibility is needed to support different kind of work and users [4]. It is important to have right amount of information. Clearly scarce amount information might leave out something important that is actually needed, but having too much information might confuse the receiver [14]. Besides, receiver can also make some assumptions if the awareness information is not received [14]. For example it can mean that the provider is busy and unable to provide information. 2.1 Work Environment and Users in Chemical Factory The user research revealed that currently the operators are sharing information with other operators, maintenance personnel, process experts, field workers, automation specialists and transportation personnel. Information is shared in several ways. Important information to other places is provided with telephone or radiophone and longterm information, like announcements and task history, is provided with notice boards and electronic operation diaries. The face-to-face conversations are of course used when possible. There are also work practices related to the information sharing. For example information about the recent events at the production unit and special notions about the state of the process are shared regularly at the shift changes. State of the machinery and for example wearing is monitored actively and maintenance is contacted preferably before anything gets broken. There are also other situations where operators wish to predict the problems to avoid critical situations. These occasions might need information sharing that deviates from the usual pattern. Most of the information is related to monitoring, controlling and developing the manufacturing process. There is also information exchange regarding general events, like visitors, power consumption and maintenance. Maintenance includes needs for repair persons, executions of repairing and cleaning the machinery or their surroundings. The biggest information sharing needs are related to cross-organizational communication, i.e. information sharing between the different production units. Since the production units are interlinked the operators need to know about those events in other production units that result to disturbance in e.g. material flows between the production units.

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Operators’ tasks include monitoring and controlling the process with automation systems [1]. The control room is isolated from the actual production centre and it is filled with monitors, charts, manuals and communication devices. The monitors show several statistics, process state diagrams and machine details which need to be observed constantly and in certain occasions readjusted. The operators vary from young and inexperienced to older and more experienced ones. They have solid, at least average computer skills, and they are capable of handling regular computer software, like web browsers and email-programs. Their education background varies, but all of them are trained to operate automation systems.

3 Electronic Notice Board Prototype As mentioned previously there is a clear need for operators of chemical factory to do information exchange in various kinds of combinations of time and space. The daily information exchange varies from face-to-face meetings during the shift change to sending messages for supply orders. Our aim was to support sharing of awareness information and to try out how social media tools could be fitted in chemical factory context. Our previous prototyping efforts indicated that social media tools can require changes in users work practices and also in organization level of utilizing companies [15]. Hence the designed tool and prototype did not utilize all possible social media functionalities but focused on quite straightforward information sharing. With high fidelity interactive prototype the users can gain a hands-on experience of the system in real environment doing their actual tasks. This is pretty much the closest possible way to attain realistic user experience without actually implementing the final system. We built a simple prototype that utilizes a metaphor of notice board and gives factory operators a possibility to share notices of their current situation between multiple process control rooms. One aspect of the prototype is to allow and encourage the users to learn the use of community related interaction methods and social media. The system will not replace current communication methods but gives the users some new features to work with together with the old methods. Our prototype gives solution to the problems users are currently having with information sharing in chemical factory environment. The aim is to let users share any information they might assume to be interested by other users. It is more up to the receivers to choose if the information has any value to them. Users can also present open questions to everyone and those who happen to know the solution can answer to the questions. Without knowing exactly whom to ask it is impossible to present such questions e.g. via telephone. This should encourage the users to share more information related to their work and thus improve the quality of the process and reduce problems related to it. 3.1 Prototype Description Electronic notice board (El Nobo) is a notice board shared by three work shifts in four different control rooms. Visually El Nobo reminds a real cork surface notice board with notes attached to it with pins (Fig. 1). Users can write new notes to the board, which are then shared to other locations through a server (Fig. 2). Each user can move and order the notes in his or her preferred way. Important notes can be placed in the

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Fig. 1. Overview of the prototype with five notes on the board. The highlighted note is a new one. On the right side is symbols for new note (top), trash can, settings and quit.

center and uninteresting ones can be removed from the view. Each note displays the time it was written and the location it was received from. The interface is implemented in Finnish to match the users’ language. In traditional tools, like in e-mail, messages are presented as a list or a tree. However, the El Nobo user interface allows the users to handle messages in two dimensions, which provides new possibilities to arrange the information. The users don't have individual user accounts to El Nobo, but they have accounts to the factory complex's intranet, which they use to log in at shift change. The intranet cannot be accessed by outsiders, so there is no need to strain the users with additional identification. The client machines at the control rooms have fixed IP-addresses. The server identifies these addresses and translates them into corresponding control room names. So, unlike in traditional social media tools, El Nobo doesn't use personal accounts, but control room specific accounts. This design is based on the operators work habit of sharing the user accounts. When a shift starts, only one of the operators in duty logs into the computer and all of them use the same account during the shift. Since there is only on team (shift) in duty in one operator room at a time we simplified the system even more and created only control room level accounts. Simplified account management also simplifies the using of the system since the operators do not need to remember yet another usernamepassword combination. Users usually find multiple overlapping accounts and passwords laborious [16]. Graphical side of El Nobo is build up with Action Script 3 in Flash development environment. The Flash allows an easy way to create different kind of user interfaces with vast amount of visuality and interactions. Flash applications also can be run on normal web browsers and users are quite likely to be familiar with some Flashapplications e.g. games.

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Fig. 2. The structure of the information sharing in chemical factory with the prototype. Information is shared face-to-face from work shift to another and from one factory to others by the prototype’s server.

The server is build up with Java environment and consists of socket listener and note log. Also a policy server is needed for Flash communications because of the security policy. The main server listens for incoming notes and requests of notes. Note's message and related information is saved to the log held on server machine. Clients keep polling the server for new notes and if there are any, server sends them from the note log. The prototype was built up rapidly using some code from previous projects and freely available code snippets from Web tutorials. The prototype is not supposed to be a complete product, but to present the idea of sharing digital information with notice board metaphor. Thus the prototype will not be used as a base for the final product, if any is to be created. The final product would most likely have more functions, some possibilities of personalization and some level of integration to the automation systems, which are not presented in the prototype in the name of simplicity. Nevertheless the prototype is a “working one” and can be given to the users for freeform use. 3.2 Design Reasoning Our aim was to cover the information exchange between different control rooms and shifts in real-time and with postponed messages. This means that the workers are

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located at the same area but not exactly at the same location. If needed, they can go over to the other control room, but then their own room is not operated. Thus there is a need for ability to access same information from different locations. There's always an operator on shift in all of the control rooms, but he or she might be busy controlling the process, so the information exchange timing can be immediate or delayed. El Nobo can be used as a kind of instant messenger or as a bulletin board depending on the situation. Thus both time derived styles of communication are supported. Currently the users share awareness information mainly by telephone or radiophone and almost exclusively in problem situations. Problems with telephone are that the user must know who to contact and what's his or her phone number. If the information receiver isn't present at the moment the information can’t be delivered and although the receiver might realize the need for information sharing, she or he has no clue for the reason for it. The main problem with radiophone is that the user needs to change the frequency to enter channel of other factory and while doing this he or she cannot receive information from the channel of his or her own factory. In addition the telephone and radiophone communication are 1-to-1 communication and in chemical plant there is almost always need to share the information with multiple partners. El Nobo is shared among all control rooms and notes are stored automatically for every shift until they decide to remove it, so each note gets to all operators working in the factory. The purpose of the El Nobo is to give users a new and simple channel for sharing information over time and space. Through network the notes are sent to different locations and by saving the notes to the server they are delivered on different work shifts. Compared to natural note board this gives the users a chance to use the board on their own work environment instead of some shared location among the other users. Currently the users have similar notice boards to share information among different work shifts, but they are lacking information sharing between different working locations. Since note boards are already used in the work, the metaphor should be familiar to the operators. El Nobo just has a little different environment (computer screen) and interaction methods (mouse and keyboard) compared to physical note board. Users usually wish to execute information sharing in their own preferred ways [11]. We are giving the operators a new tool that can be used to share any additional information they wish to provide. There are no limitations of what kind of information can be provided and the users have total control of the received information. The prototype does not support private one-to-one communication but the need for private communication between two control rooms seems to be rare. System derived changes to existing work practices should be avoided if possible [17]. Thus El Nobo is designed to fit into the users' current work habits, the operators already have a distinct computer for other than process operating usage, so the system can be placed there without interfering the process monitoring. During monitoring there is not much need to actually adjust the process, so there's plenty of time to observe also the new communication system. El Nobo should increase the amount of situation awareness and help the operators to predict exceptions and develop the collaboration practices.

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4 Conclusion Situation awareness is an important part of controlling processes in modern factories. In addition to the information about the controlled process the process operators need a lot of information also from other sources such as interlinked factories, suppliers, and maintenance. Current information gathering and sharing practices are focused on problems and special events. Thus the operators are not aware of the current situation even in interlinked other factories. As a result the collaboration between production units is not as efficient as it could be. For example the operators do not know the capabilities of operators of another factory they cooperate with. These problems seem pretty simple, but sharing and organizing such information in needed time window is not a simple task and poor information might lead to for example lower production quality. Use of Social media tools is rising and we are interested to see how they work at chemical factories. The El Nobo electronic notice board was designed to support the situation awareness across control rooms in a chemical plant. During March-April 2009 El Nobo will be evaluated in real chemical factory complex with real users. The evaluation results will be analyzed regarding usability of the system in awareness information sharing and whether the users learned new Social Media and Web 2.0 promoted ways of working while using the prototype. We had to make some choices in the design stage without the necessary user knowledge. Our assumptions included such things as having a personal view of the notice board would be better than a shared view and there's no need for versatile note handling. We are interested to see if the users actually have a need to store and organize notes and do not just throw them away. Also there are some limitations with the note board metaphor and our prototype has quite limited functionality. For example the prototype does not support pictures, videos or audio messages. The installation of the prototype will however include blogs for the operators to share longer messages and pictures.

References 1. Paunonen, H., Oksanen, J., Nieminen, M., Koskinen, T., Kovalainen, M.: Collaborative Interaction in Process Control. In: Karwowski, Waldemar (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Ergonomics and Human Factors, 2nd edn., pp. 1047–1052. Taylor & Francis, USA (2006) 2. Rama, J., Bishop, J.: A Survey and Comparison of CSCW Groupware Applications. In: Proceedings of SAICSIT 2006, pp. 198–205. Somerset West, South Africa (2006) 3. Shneidermann, B.: Designing the User Interface. Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., Redwood City (1998) 4. Bentley, R.: Flexible Architectures for CSCW System Support. Special issue: workshop write-ups and positions papers from CSCW 1994, SIGOIS Bulletin 15(3), 5–7 (1995) 5. Malone, T.W., Crowston, K.: The interdisciplinary Study of Coordination. ACM Computing Surveys 26(1) (March 1994) 6. O’Reilly, T.: What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software (2005), http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/ what-is-web-20.html (retrieved February 16, 2009)

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7. Murugesan, S.: Understanding Web 2.0. IT Pro (July /August 2007) 8. Mannonen, P., Runonen, M.: SMEs In Social Media. In: Proceedings of Workshop of Social Media and HCI at NordiCHI 2008, Lund, Sweden (2008) (in Press) 9. Endsley, M.R.: Design and evaluation for situation awareness enhancement. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 32nd Annual Meeting, pp. 97–101. Human Factors Society, Santa Monica (1988) 10. Endsley, M.R.: Situation Awareness In Aviation Systems. In: Handbook of Aviation Human Factors. Lawrence Eribaum Associates, Mahwah (1999) 11. Dourish, P., Bellotti, V.: Awareness and Coordination is Shared Workspaces. In: Proceedings of CSCW 1992, Toronto, Canada, pp. 107–114. ACM Press, New York (1992) 12. Zha, X., Ding, N.: Study on Information Sharing in Supply Chain. In: Proceedings of ICEC 1992, Xi’an, China, August 15-17, pp. 787–789. ACM Press, New York (2005) 13. Hourizi, R., Johnson, P.: Designing To Support Awareness: A Predictive, Composite Model. In: Proceedings of the ACM CHI 2004 conference on Human factors in computing systems, Vienna, Austria, pp. 159–166. ACM Press, New York (2004) 14. Endsley, M.R.: Designing for Situation Awareness in Complex System. In: Proceedings of the Second international workshop on symbiosis of humans, artifacts and environment, Kyoto, Japan (2001) 15. Mannonen, P., Runonen, M.: Sometimes Users’ Tasks and Context Are Not Enough. Interact, Uppsala, Sweden (2009) (submitted) 16. Teräs, S.: Teknillisen korkeakoulun matkahallintajärjestelmän käytettävyysselvitys, Master Thesis, Helsinki University of Technology (2008) 17. Grudin, J.: Why CSCW Applications Fail: Problems In The Design And Evaluation of Organizational Interfaces. In: Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Supported CooperativeWork, Portland, Oregon, September 26-28, pp. 85–93 (1988)

A Study on the Interface for Viewing the Information Menu of a Town from Intersections Using a Digital Compass Misa Tsuchihashi1 and Katsuhiko Ogawa2 1

2

Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University

Abstract. Recently, services providing information content that meet the needs of a user’s current location, based on location information obtained by mobile terminals such as cell phones, have been increasing. In line with the widespread use of these Location-Based Services (LBS), digital compasses that obtain bearing information together with location information are also emerging. By using the digital compass with the location information, a higher level of information can be produced. In this paper, a “XingMenu Viewer” for viewing the information menu of a town from intersections using a digital compass is proposed. In the town exploration experiment using this viewer, it was observed that the exminee’s perception of the town had expanded. Keywords: Location-Based Services (LBS), Mobile Computing, Digital Compass, Augmented Reality, Photo Sharing, Live Blog, Cognitive Map.

1 Introduction Information communication technology has created a new living environment, which we refer to as “virtual.” The physical living environment and the virtual living environment are separated by humans. In the virtual living environment, it is possible to contact friends and acquaintances without worrying about time by using mail or SNS, and by going to photo sharing sites, one can look at pictures of far-off places without going on an overseas trip. However, the perception of time and place that dominate the physical living environment are extremely subtle in the virtual living environment. On the other hand, virtual information increases human perception of the real world, extends memory, and allows people to share their experience with others. The location information services connecting the physical and virtual are a new media, called “Place Media” [1] (Fig. 1), that uses location as its base. As one of the Place Media, this paper is proposing the “XingMenu Viewer” (hereafter, XV) for viewing the town's information menu from intersections, which is a town node [2] using a digital compass. A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 126–133, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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Fig. 1. The virtual and physical worlds

2 XingMenu Viewer 2.1 System Overview The XV system configuration diagram is shown in Figure 2. The XV operation is as follows. 1. Obtain the location and bearing information using mobile terminals installed with GPS and digital compasses and grasp the direction facing the intersection in which the user is located. 2. Together with the information obtained in 1, decide on the displayed scenery data and contents, and send the queries to the server. 3. The server will query the contents database and scenery database and call forth the corresponding contents and scenery data. 4. The contents and scenery data will be composed and displayed at the terminals. 2.2 Concept The XingMenu Viewer concept is shown in this section. XV is an interface superimposing the virtual information to the physical town scenery that a user is looking at, at an intersection. This is a function that supports the interaction between people and town, a function that especially expands people’s perception of a physical town [1]. In the virtual world, keyword searches are very typical, but the volume of virtual information has become so large that it is sometimes difficult to get the required information. It has become easier to find preferred information when refining is done using a menu search, In physical reality, when sightseeing, people will go to a high spot that overlooks the whole place, especially when visiting for the first time. At the same time, they will superimpose the knowledge gained from guidebooks and maps

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Servers

Contents DB

Queries

Contents (A) Written information, photos, etc. Querie Queries

A + B

Scenery data (B)

Compose and display

Acquire coordinates and bearing

Scenery etc.

photos,

Scenery DB

Terminals

Fig. 2. The XV System

onto the physical scenery. This is the spontaneous drawing of the town's information menu in the brain. XV is an item that visualizes the town's information menu, which existed only in the minds of people until now, and enables a menu search when sightseeing (Figure 3). 2.3 AR and SR A method that superimposes virtual space onto physical space and displays additional information there, as in XV, is known as Augmented Reality (hereafter, AR), and has been getting attention recently[3].

Xing (Crossing/Intersection)

Physical World

Scenery Virtual World

N NW

NE

E

SE

Menu

Fig. 3. The menu-search sightseeing by XV

S

SW

W

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Fig. 4. The sample screen of XV

Even now, information for users that refers to the physical town is overflowing. Information on train trips and coupons that can be used for shopping that matches the real world actual state and individual users' preferences, transmitted by NTT DoCoMo service “iConcierge” [4], is also a part of it. XV is an interface to access information by looking at the town from intersections with the introduction of the AR concept. An example is shown in Figure 4. Because iConcierge provides information deeply rooted in the living community and personal preferences, it is very convenient when there is a specific objective. On the other hand, XV may be more suitable for users who “walk without any destination in mind,” looking for favorite shops while enjoying their sightseeing than it is for those with a clear objective in mind. On the other hand, recently, a phenomenon of public users taking large numbers of photos and publishing them on the Internet is occurring, due to the effect of prevalence of digital cameras and camera cell phones in the society. Countless scenic photos of towns taken by users walking or visiting are being uploaded to photo-sharing sites such as Flickr [5] and Picasa [6]. The physical scenery of every town in the world is being provided by the many users of the Internet. Furthermore, together with the prevailing blogs and SNS, the number of people creating so-called live blogs, the recording of daily lives and happenings with photos and messages attached to them, is also increasing. Town scenery photos with live blogs are combined and uploaded together by users and then shared in the real world, and a method that expands the perception of the real world in the user is proposed. This is an approach, as opposed to the AR, we call “Shared Reality” (hereafter, SR).

Fig. 5. The sample screen of XV by SR

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An example of XV using the SR approach is shown in Figure 5. In this figure, on the left, the same are recorded at different times, in other words, a pseudo-synchronized live blog is presented. From the pseudo-synchronized live blog, one can get a glimpse of the movement of someone who had been in the same place, but at different times, and can identify with each other.

3 Town Exploration Experiment The town exploration experiment in Ginza, Tokyo, using XV is reported in this section. It analyzes how the movements of someone who is exploring the town are changed by XV. 3.1 Prototype The prototype scenery photos were taken by the author at a Ginza intersection. Further, because the information content is about shops like the ones provided by DoCoMo iConcierge, taken from the magazine “Ginza Walker” [7] and not the users' live blogs, the prototype approach is categorized as AR, not SR. The location coordinate was fixed on either one of the intersections at Ginza 2, 4th or 6th Street, and when the examinee operates the XV, the intersection where one stands was specified, and the bearing information was obtained in real time. Further, because there is no suitable terminal with a highly accurate digital compass installed in reality, a notebook connected to a GPS receiver (geko 301, Garmin product) was used. 3.2 Experiment Summary Five examinees who never visited Ginza were selected. First, the examinees, in pairs or alone, performed a task called “selecting a restaurant for lunch while walking aimlessly around the town” without using any sightseeing assisting tools such as guidebooks or cell-phone navigation functions. At the point when the examinees decided on the restaurant, the sightseeing was halted and the task of creating the Ginza cognitive map, depending only on the memory during the walk, was carried out. After lunch, the sightseeing was reconvened using XV. Now, the “Choose a cafe, or tea shop, or cake shop for a short rest” task was performed. After the examinees decided on a shop, the task of redrawing the cognitive map in a form of writing on top of the cognitive map drawn before using the XV was carried out. Relating to the sightseeing in particular, there was no time limitation in place, but the time required was 1 hour on average for each map, so there was a total of 2 hours sightseeing.

4 Experiment Results and Discussion The cognitive maps drawn by the examinees are shown in Figure 6. Furthermore, from the composition elements of the cognitive map shown by Lynch [2], each part of the cognitive maps drawn were categorized and organized into four types: paths, nodes, landmarks, and districts (Table 1).

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using

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using

Fig. 6. The cognitive maps drawn by the examinees

In Figure 6, when visually comparing the cognitive maps drawn before and after using XV, almost all the descriptions, such as “X Street” and “X Avenue,” can be

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seen in the cognitive maps only after using XV. One of the examinees commented on this, saying, “When using XV, it's getting to feel natural saying X (shop, e.g.) is on Y Street, X is on Y Avenue.” This is thought to have been caused by the fact that all Ginza's main intersections, including the intersection where the XV operation is conducted, are named “Ginza X Street Intersection Point,” and all the roads copied onto the XV scenery photos are described with names such as “XX Avenue.” As a result, many of the examinees have given impressions such as, “With XV, we know where we were and our geographical perception has become better.” Among them, there was even a examinee who added, “By knowing my current location, I feel safe.” On the other hand, a point that should looked at more closely in Table 1 is that all the examinees are cognizant, one way or the other, of all the items, “paths,” “nodes,” “landmarks,” and “districts,” even after using XV. When restarting the sightseeing again after an hour, it will usually be boring, and new discoveries will be harder to find. Nevertheless, the number of discoveries made was equal to that when sightseeing before using XV. This is believed to be caused by the fact that XV has created a trigger for things to do next, and has widened the movement range. Table 1. The parts of the cognitive maps categorized into four types Cognitive m ap

Cognitive m ap

Cognitive m ap

Cognitive m ap

Cognitive m ap

XV

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Paths

7

8

9

7

7

7

17

2

13

2

Nodes

4

7

4

5

2

4

16

3

17

3

Landmarks

21

22

24

22

17

11

26

22

39

28

Districts

5

0

3

0

4

3

4

5

6

3

5 Conclusion and Future Topics In this paper, a “XingMenu Viewer” for viewing the town's information menu from an intersection that is a town's node using a digital compass was proposed, and the result of a town exploration experiment at Ginza using it was reported. From the experiment, based on a prototype using the AR method, by using XV at intersections a “reassurance”, and “discovery” occurred, and as a result, it was understood that the perceptions of the town were expanding. In the future, every town’s scenery, photos, and live blogs will be collected on the Internet, and by constructing a platform to compose both of them, an XV prototype using the SR method will be implemented, further analyzing the information gained by this paper.

References 1. Ogawa, K.: Future of Place: Information Technologies and Place Media Grow New Relationship between Human and Place. IEICE Communication Society Magazine, 21–31 (2008) 2. Lynch, K.: The Image of the City. MIT Press, Cambridge (1960)

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3. Matsushita, N., Hihara, D., Ushiro, T., Yoshimura, S., Rekimoto, J., Yamamoto, Y.: ID CAM: A Smart Camera for Scene Capturing and ID Recognition. In: Proc. ISMAR, pp. 227–236 (2003) 4. iConcierge, http://answer.nttdocomo.co.jp/concier/ 5. flickr, http://www.flickr.com 6. Picasa, http://picasa.google.com 7. Walker, G.: Kadokawa X Media (2007)

Email Accessibility and Social Networking Brian Wentz and Jonathan Lazar Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Center for Applied Information Technology, and Universal Usability Laboratory, Towson University 8000 York Road, Towson, MD 21252 [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. Previous studies concerning the accessibility of social networking web sites have revealed that there are components of such web sites which present accessibility problems for users with disabilities, including blind users. This paper discusses the intersection of e-mail accessible and social networking, for blind users. Not only is e-mail an important component of social networking sites, but often, an e-mail address is required for registration. The topic of e-mail and social networking is being studied in the broader context of a multi-stage research study of blind users and their e-mail usage. This multi-stage study is being conducted to understand the usage patterns and accessibility problems encountered by blind users in using both web-based and application-based e-mail. Our hope is that the research study will result in the proposal of new strategies and guidelines for accessible design. This conference presentation will report on the status of the data collection. Keywords: social networking, blind users, email, web accessibility, CSCW.

1 Introduction If a student at a college or university were asked today about the importance of social networking web sites such as MySpace or Facebook it would garner a response similar to questioning the importance of instant messaging or email only a few years ago. With 35% of adults and 65% of teens currently registered with social networking web sites [19], these online communities are undoubtedly having a significant impact on higher education. This impact could be positive, such as the ability to provide a sense of community to individuals who would either minimally or never form a social connection otherwise. The impact could also be negative, such as the immediate and global exposure of negative or illegal activities, or even the introduction of a new security threat as social networking web sites have become a target of viruses [20]. The registration for and use of social networking web sites has also been identified as a possible source for increased spam email [3]. The level of accessibility of social networking web sites for users with disabilities has been analyzed by several parties including the AbilityNet Web Accessibility Team [1]. The use of visual CAPTCHAs (random blurred characters that need to be entered for validation), poor support for keyboard-based navigation and the lack of A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 134–140, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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alternate text for navigational elements were some of the problems discovered in social networking web sites [2]. Since email is highly integrated into social networking and also comprises a form of social networking [24], this paper will focus on the intersection between email accessibility for blind users and social networking. 1.1 The Legal Importance of Web Accessibility Recent court cases regarding web accessibility in the United States may begin to motivate companies and web services to begin to adopt a more proactive approach to the challenge of electronic accessibility. While Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act specifies accessibility standards for government web sites and technology, there are several other applicable mandates as well, including Section 504 and the E-government Act [8]. It is still unclear whether the law requires that private corporate web sites must be accessible. Recent legal rulings, although not final, point towards web accessibility being potentially covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which does cover private companies. Companies are encouraged to take a proactive approach to ensuring that their web sites can be used by the largest number of users [9]. A recent example of this is the court case involving Target.com and the National Federation of the Blind. In 2005, the National Federation of the Blind asked Target to correct its web site so that screen readers could use it more easily. In September 2008, Target settled the charges with the National Federation of the Blind, and the preliminary court rulings noted that the lack of accessibility on the web site could prevent blind users from sharing the same public accommodation of the physical store that others enjoy [27]. There are nearly 2 million individuals in the United States who are blind with no residual vision, and 37 million individuals worldwide who are blind with no residual vision [12][26]. This is a very large population of users, and technology should be accessible to anyone, regardless of background or physical abilities. This concept should follow through to include the accessibility and usability of technology for blind users [12], whether that technology is email or a social networking web site. It is the responsibility of the technology community to ensure that accessibility problems are not inherently occurring, and when accessibility problems are discovered, the effort must be extended to correct them. 1.2 Social Networking Accessibility for Blind Users It is important for blind users to take part in social networking sites for multiple reasons. Social networking sites can be used to meet friends, catch up with long-lost acquaintances, and keep tabs on what friends are doing. Social networking sites can also be used to make business contacts. Web sites such as LinkedIn or ZoomInfo further facilitate social networking for professionals who need to develop business contacts for purposes such as job hunting [16]. Some individuals even use standard social networking sites for meeting potential dates [15]. The accessibility of social networking web sites (such as Facebook and MySpace) has been analyzed by AbilityNet in the U.K. One of the most critical accessibility flaws noted impacted blind users who access social networking web sites by using screen reader software (such as JAWS) [1]. This flaw is the use of CAPTCHAs to register for social networking web sites. Visual CAPTCHAs pose many problems for

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blind users. Both Facebook and MySpace require the use of a CAPTCHA during the registration process. MySpace offers only a visual CAPTCHA while Facebook also provides an audio CAPTCHA option [6][17]. AbilityNet found that other problems with social networking web sites could also impact users with disabilities, including the lack of skip links on pages, navigational graphics lacking alternate text (which is what the screen reader software uses in place of graphics), poor or misleading link text and no alternatives for features that use JavaScript [2]. The lack of alternate text for graphics or the use of graphics for navigational purposes has been a highlighted problem with web site accessibility in general. AbilityNet noted that social networking web sites have the opportunity to enable someone who has a disability to bridge the networking and socializing gap by removing some of the traditional physical barriers [1]. The World Wide Web Consortium also noted in its recent report on the future of social networking that many social networking websites have not yet even started to address accessibility requirements [25]. Technology, however, should be a tool to level the field of opportunity for all users, and as such it must be designed with the goal of accessibility for all in mind. 1.3 The Interface between Email and Social Networking Email is one of the dominant components that form the core of many web-based applications and services. While it may not always be a public form of social networking, it is certainly a private aspect of social networking [8]. Companies such as Google and Yahoo have even discussed ways to turn their web-based email systems into a more enhanced social network. Google did not release specific details, but Yahoo described the changes as being email display based on relationships [24] since email is already a very personal form of social networking that provides contact with those who are socially the closest to an individual. One concrete example of the intersection of e-mail and social networking is party invitation web sites such as Evite [5]. Individuals receive an e-mail in their inbox, pointing them to a web site that lists information about an upcoming party that they are invited to. Usually, a web site like this includes information about the time and location of the party, a list of who has been invited, who has indicated that they are coming, and who has indicated that they will not be coming. After the party, information about what happened at the party and pictures and stories from the party are all posted on the web site. So to take part in this social network, not only must the web page with party information be accessible, but users must be able to receive and read the emails that point them to the web site. Since many emails are now sent with embedded HTML, emails that theoretically should be plain text and accessible may in fact not be accessible. In addition to the private social networking aspect of email is the fact that email usage is actually required to even register (and use certain features of) social networking web sites such as Facebook or MySpace. The registration pages for both of these popular social networking web sites require a valid email address from which the email address book can later be used as a method of adding social networking contacts [6]. Email is therefore an inescapable facet of social networking. 1.4 Email Accessibility for Blind Users Email is a primary means of communications and productivity in society today both in the workforce and on college and university campuses. It is often a simple way to

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share documents and quickly disseminate information. College and university students depend on email for private and public communication. It is therefore critical to know whether accessibility problems with email software are creating difficulties or even barriers for blind users. Spam is a problem that can consume the time of both blind and sighted users, with almost two-thirds of email users citing spam as a major problem [12]. When the general annoyance and frustrations of spam is compounded with having the titles or portions of email messages being read to a user audibly through a screen reader, the level of embarrassment is likely to escalate given the fact that many spam emails contain inappropriate content. With spam filtering software representing the primary solution for preventing this unsolicited email, the ensuing problem is that a spam filter can still allow spam to reach a user and can also prevent legitimate email from reaching a user [4]. Spam is also a security issue since it is one of the most common venues for the distribution of viruses and worms [21]. The possibility that registration with a social networking web site may increase this growing problem could be a genuine point of concern for blind users. Web-based email is also a problematic area for blind users. During a focus group for this study that was conducted in May 2008 (see details later in this paper), blind users noted that web-based email such as Yahoo Mail, Gmail and Hotmail all share the problems of cluttered audio interfaces, the use of visual CAPTCHAs (Gmail and Hotmail also provide audio CAPTCHAs [7][10]) and the lack of alternative text or use of poor alternate text for graphical navigational elements. These types of difficulties appear to be analogous to those that are faced by blind users who use social networking web sites. The lack of accessibility for most web-based email may discourage blind users from even attempting to use web-based email.

2 Research on Email Accessibility for Blind Users A large, multi-stage research study is taking place to understand how blind users utilize e-mail, what challenges they face, and what improvements could be made. The study is being conducted in collaboration with the National Federation of the Blind (hereafter referred to as NFB). The three stages of data collection are a focus group, a web-based survey, and the in-depth usability testing of e-mail software by blind users. The focus of the study is on blind users with no residual vision, who utilize screen readers, which are currently the primary tool of choice by blind users [18]. The topic of social networking and e-mail is one small facet of the study. This paper reports on the current status of the research study. 2.1 Focus Group On May 1, 2008, a focus group of four employees of the NFB convened to evaluate the problem of email accessibility and to assist in the further definition of the information to be obtained in the second and third stages of the study. The group consisted of three males and one female, ranging in age from their mid-twenties to mid-fifties and the vocational background of the participants ranged from non-technical to technical in nature. While many of the focus group questions pertained to software-based email, the problems associated with web-based email were also discussed.

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The consensus of the focus group was that web-based email such as Yahoo Mail, Gmail and Hotmail were extremely cluttered when used with a screen reader. Additionally, simply signing up for a web-based email account proved to be difficult, since some providers require the use of a visual CAPTCHA during the registration process, which has been highlighted as a barrier to access [12]. The web-based navigational interfaces were also noted to be problematic. In particular, navigational elements that used graphics contained either poorly structured alternate text or no alternate text. Spam email messages were also noted to be a frustrating aspect of email, although NFB had recently implemented a very effective spam filtering system within its corporate email system, and the focus group participants reported it to be very effective. The users who used personal and web-based email reported that spam can be very frustrating and embarrassing, and their hope was that any spam filtering software used would work effectively without blocking any legitimate email. 2.2 Web-Based Survey A web-based survey was developed as the second stage of the research project. The primary content of the survey was specifically based on the results and suggestions of the focus group. The survey content was also reviewed for suggestions by three additional researchers at Towson University. Before any electronic versions of the survey were created, the wording of the survey questions were checked for clarity, as is standard for electronic surveys [14]. Originally, a web-based survey tool called SurveyMonkey was used to develop the electronic version of the survey, due to its advertisement as a Section 508 compliant survey tool [23]. However, after testing, it was determined that the SurveyMonkey tool was in fact not entirely accessible using the JAWS screen reader software. The researchers attempted to work with SurveyMonkey technical support to correct the problem, but were unsuccessful. At this point, a different tool, SurveyGizmo, was used to develop the web-based version of the survey. Initial testing showed that SurveyGizmo did not have the same accessibility problems as SurveyMonkey. So the final online version of the web-based survey was created using SurveyGizmo [22]. The survey was then thoroughly tested for accessibility in JAWS versions 8 and 10 by the researchers, and it was also examined for usability and understandability by an independent blind user who is employed as an assistive technology specialist at the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network. Multiple additional steps typically are needed when pre-testing an electronic survey tool for blind users [13]. Included in the survey are demographic questions such as age, gender, employment status and academic status. Questions regarding email usage frequency and estimated hours per day are also included. Since spam has been highlighted as a particular area of concern, questions regarding spam, and how it is dealt with, are asked as well. Special features of email such as contacts, calendaring and organization are also addressed, and there are separate sections on software-based and web-based email. Besides the focus on email usage and accessibility, this survey attempts to determine whether each participant is a student at a college or university and a social networking web site user. Because of this, questions were also included concerning the use of social networking web sites and any difficulties encountered when using social networking web sites. The survey is structured using skip logic so that if questions do not apply to a particular individual, those questions will not be asked. Example: if a

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survey respondent indicates that they do not use web-based e-mail, then they will not receive any follow-up questions about web-based e-mail. 2.3 Current Status of Research The survey was officially released for responses in January 2009 through list servers sponsored by the Maryland and Pennsylvania chapters of the NFB and is still underway at the time of this writing. It is expected that by the time of the conference, complete results of the survey will be available for presentation. It is expected that the third stage of data collection, usability testing of different e-mail applications, will take place during the middle of 2009. Some preliminary results from the usability testing may possibly be available by the time of the conference. The testing will be conducted in the natural work environment of the users, and user behavior will be observed during the use of software and web-based email applications using a screen reader. This stage will be more in depth and will involve each participant performing tasks such as using software and web-based email, organizing and retrieving email, and also using features such as the contacts and calendar. The purpose of this stage is to more fully understand the usage patterns, as well as any problems that are encountered.

3 Summary There needs to be an increased amount of research into both the accessibility of social networking web sites, and understanding how blind users use e-mail for both workrelated and social-related communication. There are many potential benefits of accessible social networking web sites, both for social connections, and also for work-related networking. Acknowledgments. The National Federation of the Blind has greatly assisted this research.

References 1. AbilityNet, http://www.abilitynet.co.uk/enation85 2. Accessites.org, http://accessites.org/site/2008/01/ social-networking-not-for-everyone 3. Brown, G., How, T., Ihbe, M., Prakash, A., Borders, K.: Social Networks and ContextAware Spam. In: CSCW 2008, pp. 403–412. ACM, New York (2008) 4. Cormack, G., Lynam, T.: Online Supervised Spam Filter Evaluation. ACM Trans. Inf. Syst. 25(3), 1–31 (2007) 5. Evite, http://www.evite.com 6. Facebook, http://www.facebook.com 7. Gmail, http://www.google.com 8. Guy, I., Jacovi, M., Meshulam, N., Ronen, I., Shahar, E.: Public vs. Private – Comparing Public Social Network Information with Email. In: CSCW 2008, pp. 393–402. ACM, New York (2008)

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9. Hocheiser, H., Lazar, J.: HCI and Societal Issues: A Framework for Engagement. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction 23(3), 339–374 (2007) 10. Hotmail, http://mail.live.com/mail 11. Jaeger, P.: Beyond Section 508: The Spectrum of Legal Requirements for Accessible EGovernment Web Sites in the United States. Journal of Government Information 30(4), 518–533 (2004) 12. Lazar, J. (ed.): Universal Usability: Designing Computer Interfaces for Diverse Users. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (2007) 13. Lazar, J., Allen, A., Kleinman, J., Lawrence, J.: Methodological Issues in Using Time Diaries to Collect Frustration Data from Blind Computer Users. In: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Proceedings on CD-ROM (2005) 14. Lazar, J., Preece, J.: Using Electronic Surveys to Evaluate Networked Resources: From Idea to Implementation. In: Evaluating Networked Information: Techniques, Policy, and Issues, pp. 137–154. Information Today, Medford (2001) 15. Lee, A., Bruckman, A.: Judging You by the Company You Keep: Dating on Social Networking Sites. In: Proceedings of the 2007 international ACM Conference on Supporting Group Work, pp. 371–378. ACM, New York (2007) 16. LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com 17. MySpace, http://www.myspace.com 18. NFB, http://www.nfb.org/nfb/Louis_Braille_coin_facts.asp?SnID=2 19. Pew Internet & American Life Project, http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/272/report_display.asp 20. Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4B37LV20081204 21. Stolfo, S., Hershkop, S., Hu, C., Li, W., Nimeskern, O., Wang, K.: Behavior-Based Modeling and its Application to Email Analysis. ACM Trans. Inf. Tech. 6(2), 187–221 (2006) 22. SurveyGizmo, http://www.surveygizmo.com 23. SurveyMonkey, http://www.surveymonkey.com/HelpCenter/ Answer.aspx?HelpID=247 24. The New York Times, http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/ inbox-20-yahoo-and-google-to-turn-e-mail-into-a-social-network 25. W3C, http://www.w3.org/2008/09/msnws/report 26. World Health Organization, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en 27. Whitfield, N.: Target Settles Case over Web Site Access for the Blind. Business Insurance 42(36), 4, 40 (2008)

Why People Use Social Networking Sites Petter Bae Brandtzæg and Jan Heim SINTEF, Forskningsveien. 1, 0314 OSLO, Norway [email protected]

Abstract. One of the recent popular social media platforms is the social networking site (SNS). Thus far, few previous studies have empirically investigated people’s motivations for SNS usage, especially not outside the U.S. This study combines a large-scale quantitative and qualitative research design, by asking 1,200 SNS users an open question regarding their reasons for using SNSs. An important conclusion drawn from a preliminary content analysis is that people often report many motivational reasons for using SNSs. The most important reason is to get in contact with new people (31%). The second most valued was to keep in touch with their friends (21%), whereas the third was general socializing (14%). A total of 11 different reasons and several subreasons were identified; that all give insight into the personal incentives that drive people to use SNSs and thus contribute to our understanding of how to develop successful social networking online. Keywords: Social networking sites, user participation, friends, user motivation.

1 Introduction Every day, thousands of new accounts are created on social networking sites (SNSs), though many have a very short lifespan [1]. SNS are also one type of online community that relies on user contributions. This raises the question of how user motivation and participation can be inspired for continued use. What makes an SNS successful in terms of both end-user loyalty and highly motivated users is still unknown [2]; yet, this is critical knowledge for designers and human factor engineers who build SNSs. Therefore, on a general level, it is necessary to understand the people who will use the service, as well as the goals and personal incentives they have for doing so. Similarly, Preece [3] points out that the developing online communities require a deep understanding of social interaction and the mediating affects of technology. Some few attempts have been made to understand why people participate [4] or do not participate in SNSs or online communities [2, 5]. These attempts have mainly developed theoretical frameworks or featured an empirical focus towards a certain type of user (e.g., lurkers). Results from other studies on similar social media platforms such as blogs show that bloggers ranked pouring out feelings and connecting with people as the two most valued rewards for blogging [6]. Research done in previous online communities has stressed the following motivational factors: 1) people with shared interests, 2) experiences and needs, 3) supportive and sociable relationships, 4) strong social feelings of belonging, and 5) a sense of shared identity [7] [8] [9]. Other A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 143–152, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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suggestions include 1) user visibility, 2) feedback channels, 3) a large user population, 4) low barriers for entering the community, and 5) accessibility and usability for end-products [10] [11]. New forms of online communities, understood in this paper as SNSs, that target the majority of the user population (e.g., Facebook and MySpace) provoke a revision of understanding the social interaction and the kinds of activities people want to engage in on such sites [2]. SNSs is defined according to Boyd and Ellison as a “web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system” [12]. A recent special issue section of the Journal of ComputerMediated Communication [12], collected studies of a variety of topics ranging from the history to the development of SNSs. However, none of the studies explained user motivations in social networking or how users themselves determine their motivations. Thus, in a section discussing future research, the editors, Boyd and Ellison, pinpointed the limited understanding of who uses SNSs and their purposes for doing so, especially outside the U.S. With this in mind, we investigated people’s subjective motivational reasons for using SNSs by performing a quantitative content analysis of 1,200 qualitative responses from social networking site users. The location of this study, Norway, is particularly interesting for an investigation of these issues from a European point of view. In addition, it is interesting an interesting context investigating SNS usage because Norway is characterized with high use of information and communication technologies in general and SNS services in particular [13]. 1.1 Theory Several attempts have been made to understand the choice, use, diffusion, adoption, and acceptance of media technology in the user population. Among the most central of these attempts are the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) [14], the Unified Theory of Use and Acceptance of Technology (UTAUT) [15] and the Uses and Gratifications (U&G) theory. When it comes to user motivations, the U&G theory has been the most common approach, explaining “why” certain media behaviour occurs. Users are seen as goal-oriented, with rationales for their use (and non-use) of various media. According to McQuail [16], there are four main motivational needs: 1) information, 2) entertainment, 3) social interaction, and 4) personal identity. How and in what way these motivational needs also can explain SNS behaviour as well is not for certain. One reason might be that previous studies of online communities have tended to describe the workings of the community for an external audience without addressing the needs of the communities or their participants themselves [17]. 1.2 Objective and Research Question The objective of this study is to investigate end-user motivations to SNSs, in regard to why people use online SNSs, analysing how users themselves determine their motivations for using an SNS. This knowledge will help us identify the personal incentives behind the usage of SNS. We will further discuss if these are consistent with the four motivational needs proposed by McQuail [16]. Our research question (RQ) is the following: What motivates people to use online SNSs?

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2 Method An online questionnaire study took place over a three-week period in March 2007 among the users of four different SNSs in Norway. A total of 5,233 people responded to the questionnaire, and the mean ages for the respondents in the four different SNSs 1) Underskog.no (mean age, 29 years), 2) Nettby.no (mean age, 22 years), 3) HamarUngdom.no (mean age, 17 years), and 4) Biip.no (mean age, 16 years). The above SNSs were chosen because, at the time of the investigation, they were the most popular SNSs in Norway; consequently, they should provide a good picture of what typical SNS members sought regarding their user motivation in popular sites. The frequent usage and popularity of these sites are documented in a recent report for The Ministry of Government Administration and Reform in Norway [13] which provides a detailed overview of the most popular SNSs in Norway. Nettby.no is the biggest SNS service in Norway with 800,000 users, and Biip.no is the most popular among teenagers (350,000 users). HamarUngdom.no was one of the five leading SNSs in Norway until 2007 (when we did this study), but has since been discontinued. Underskog.no is the most popular SNS for users older than 25 years. The four SNSs chosen represent typical SNSs similar to better-known services such as MySpace and Facebook and fit well into the definition of SNSs provided by Boyd and Ellison, as described in the introduction [12]. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site. MySpace and Facebook were not included in this study because they were in little use among Norwegians at the time of the investigation when the market was still dominated by national or more locally bounded SNSs. To collect user data, we used online user surveys distributed by banner ads on all four SNS portals. This afforded the opportunity to access a large number of users while they were actually using the sites. In order to motivate as many users as possible to take part in the survey, participants were entered in a raffle with the possibility of winning a travel gift coupon worth US$1,750. 2.1 Content Analysis The SNS users were requested to respond to the open-ended question, “What is your most important reason for using social networking sites?” This question was designed to encourage a full, meaningful answer using the subject's own personal descriptions of why they participate in an SNS. The main goal was to reveal the motivations and meanings of social relations and practices in a diverse SNS population. We decided to approach the data using content analysis to be able to identify the reasons people use such sites, using the same approach documented in another study by Brandtzæg and Heim [2]. Content analysis is proven to be useful in describing and making inferences about the characteristics of communications and patterns of usage, as well as making inferences about the consequences of communications [18]. With more than 4,700 responses, it was necessary to reduce the comprehensive content of qualitative information into a manageable portion of user statements. To avoid user statements that lacked meaning or had low information value, we decided to select the 1,200 longest user statements in terms of number of characters. This was based on the assumption that longer statements were given by users who had taken

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time to reflect on the questions. The qualitative material (N 1200) was manually coded and quantified by one researcher using an Excel sheet. The coding categories was based on an in-depth analyze of the 150 first user statements, which ended up with all the 12 categories reflected different reasons (see results). Some users reported more than one reason; we counted only the two first reported reasons for each user. Thus reported reasons are therefore more than the number for respondents. To ensure reliability of this analysis, another researcher repeated analysis of a sub-sample of 100 randomized user statements. To test the inter-rater reliability between the two analysts, the differences and similarities in their ratings and interpretations of the different content categories in the quantitative content analysis were measured and compared to be an inter-rater reliability of 89%. From the responses to the open-ended question, several typical statements related to user motivation were selected for a further in-depth qualitative analysis. This was done to assess the respondents’ incentives for use, beyond analyzing the mere frequency of responses. Thus the quantitative information is not used fully and the analysis most therefore be regarded as preliminary.

3 Results The following section gives a description of the different categories and some examples and quotations from the survey participants typical of the most important purposes they have for using SNSs, derived from the content analysis. These purposes are shown in ranked order, with the most frequent reasons listed first. As shown in Figure 1 below, a total of 12 categories were identified, reflecting the most important reasons for using an SNS. In total 1200 participants, reported 1518 reasons1, indicating that several participants had more than one single reason. However, a notable finding is that people often have multiple reasons or personal incentives to use SNSs. Therefore, identifying a single reason as the most important gives the wrong picture; New relations Friends Socializing Information Debating Free SMS Time-killing Sharing/consuming content Unspecified fun Profile surfing Family Other 0

5

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Fig. 1. Overview over the user motivations in SNSs in % , NC = 1518 (N 1200) 1

Number of reasons is from know referred to a number of counts (NC).

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the different reasons should be seen in connection with each other. Thus, the most reported reasons provide a good picture of what the users find most attractive when using an SNS. In the following, frequency is reported both in percentage and in number of counts (NC). 1.

New relations (31%/NC = 668): These users reporting the motivation of seeking new relations and the opportunity to meet new people. Easy and cheap opportunities for contact with new people are seen as the main incentive. Several of the users are aware of the danger of “risky contacts,” but find it both more convenient and more exciting to meet new friends in an online situation like this than to be concerned about potential risk. Further, an SNS makes it possible to verify the person and his or her profile (e.g., interests, look, friends) and to see if he or she is interesting or “safe,” as opposed to ordinary open chat rooms without any public profiles. In addition, through SNSs, people meet each other in ways that might be more truthful and open than offline meetings; in that sense, SNSs have the potential to facilitate communication between people who might be prejudiced against one another in the “real world.” Further, these findings imply that several relationships that begin online migrate to other settings. According to one user, “It is easy to get in touch with new people, but also to limit or to cut off contact if the person is getting too eager or aggressive or because of other reasons. There is also other fun aspect with those sites, such as free SMS on www.biip.no”. Subcategories include: a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h.

2.

People with new girlfriends or boyfriends; People who like the opportunity to make friends in new areas after moving to another town/city; People at school or university who have not dared to approach others in real life and find it easier to do online; People searching for new friends with common interests; People living in rural areas seeking new friendships with likeminded people: “I meet funnier people online than in my home district” ; People that are lonely and searching for new friendships online; People seeking new relations with users from a different cultural background; People tracing and getting in touch with people they have only “met out in the city.”

Friends (21%/NC = 460): Users reporting contact with both close friends and acquaintances. Often, people refer to their friends and classmates. They also often report that they are part of a community just because their friends are, too. Those who stress contact with friends describe the use of SNSs as an efficient tool to keep in contact with several friends at the same time. They also regard SNSs as a cheap and efficient way to keep in contact with friends and to follow what their friends are doing and who their friends are in contact with. This category might also comprise several subcategories, which help deepen our understanding of what the different users actually mean by “friends”:

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a. b.

c.

d. e. 3.

4.

5.

Meet “old” friends: people they have not been in touch with for a while, often friends they had at school. Keep in touch with other students/friends around the world after moving away abroad to go to school or after graduating, or with other students they know who have chosen to study in a college or university in another part of the world. Easy way to have contact with friends when living in a rural area and to keep in touch with long-distance friends; “It is difficult to keep in touch when you live in a small rural area and are ‘shielded from the world.” (female 16, Nettby). Keep in touch with friends on a new level, e.g., by sharing stories, news, pictures, guest books, etc. Keep in touch with acquaintances or friends not seen very often.

Socializing (14%/NC = 298): Users reporting the sharing of experiences in general, reporting activities such as making small-talk and commenting in each others’ guest books, but also social support on different issues. A girl 14 years old from Biip is saying it like this: I have something to do in my spare time (…). I have contact with friends, write in friends’. guest books, comment on peoples’ pictures, send SMS, and submit pictures of myself and things.” While a social activity, the prime motivation here is the social aspect in itself, not necessarily the making of new contacts. In terms of social support, one participant mentions the SNS was a place to get a kind of support when she is depressed and wants to commit suicide. Others pinpoint a kind of verbal ping-pong, which they find interesting. Others mention self-confirmation as a reason for chit-chat, which also gives them a feeling of being a part of something, of a community. People also mention humor and the opportunity to be unserious as reasons to participate. Information (10%/NC = 220): Users reporting access to information, including about fashion, music, literature, cultural events, current happenings in their neighborhood and access to new and shared knowledge regarding people’s opinions related to everything from politics and to more tedious matters. Information updates are related to: a) Friends; b)Neighborhood; c) City events; d) Fashion; e) Music; f) Happenings; g) Help with homework at school f) interests/hobbies; g) Other and more customized forms of information than on TV and radio. A typical user statement that highlights both this and the debating motivations is: “I get informed about events, publications, and net experiences; at the same time I am making bonds and having discussions with other people. (Male 42 years, Underskog). Debating (6.5%/N = 143): Users highlighting debate and discussions inside the SNS. This category might be difficult to separate from “information” (see table 1) because debating often takes place in order to gain access to new information through a collaborative discussion process. The ability to discuss different things with people that you do not know or do not discuss things with regularly was also stressed, as a means of making the discussion more open and thus more interesting, as identified by the participants. Others point out the opportunity to discuss with people their contradictory viewpoints on matters, as described in the following quote: “It’s the differences between the people that make the discussions, and that’s what I like” (Male, 23, Underskog).

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6.

Free SMS (3.5%/NC 78): Users reporting access to free SMS (short messaging service) while a member of the SNS. 7. Time-killing (3.5%/NC = 78): Users reporting passing time as a main reason. 8. Sharing/consuming content (3%/N = 66): Users reporting the sharing and viewing pictures and videos as an incentive. They report in particular the excitement of checking their profile to see if anyone has commented on their posted content. 9. Unspecified fun (2%/NC = 43): Users reporting fun, without describing any particular reason. Includes only those reporting SNS usage “for fun.” 10. Profile surfing (1.5%/NC = 34): Users reporting the opportunity to surf other users’ profiles as a main reason. This reason is related to the information category, as people often search other profiles for information updates related to different people. Several people who do this are motivated by pure curiosity. 11. Family (1%/NC = 26): Users reporting family contacts is almost absent as an important reason for visiting an SNS. Only a limited number of respondents, mostly girls reported this as an important reason. As the following quotation show, the few respondents who actually mention contact with family members all bring up “contact with friends” as their most important reason for visiting the SNS. A young female typically mentions friends first, followed by family. “I keep in touch with friends and family. I think it is fun to participate in discussions (…). Beyond that, it is maybe to find some people that I have met once in order to know them better.” (Female 16, Nettby.no) 12. Other (3%/NC = 72): Related to other motivations users reported for using an SNS. Includes everything from using SNSs because they are curious about other cultures and users to more goal-oriented activities such as promoting their own work. For example, musicians, artists, and photographers are able to show and promote their work.

4 Discussion One of the main challenges for user research in this domain is the rapid change that is taking place in both technological developments and user preferences. Thus, some of the major motivations or preferences may be stable over time because they connect to some basic needs among people, for instance, the need for social interaction. Nonetheless, how these “stable” needs are satisfied, and through what types of channels or communication modus, may change over time and between generations. In this study, meeting new people was found to be the most important reason for using SNSs, whereas maintaining contact with friends was the second most important reason. The results presented herein is surprisingly in accordance with research on older virtual communities; suggesting a promiscuity in “friending‘ behavior online. Typically we should expect that people use networking sites to connect to others with whom they share an off line connections, but our finding does not agree with the notion that online social networks principally are coupled with geographically bounded relations such as family, friends or students. However, the excitement of meeting new people and making new friends is still a key incentive in the use of modern SNSs. Therefore, SNSs seem to be an environment where the users easily foster the formation of weak ties because of the availability of cheap and easy many-to-many communication [19]. It is no wonder that it is younger people in particular who use SNSs to become

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acquainted with new people and to maintain relationships with their peers, despite an awareness of the possibilities for unwanted contact with “risky” strangers. A study on Facebook also found that usage of this SNS supported both bridging and bonding social capital among students [20]. This indicates that SNSs are complex systems that facilitate numerous forms of motivations related to different forms of social interactions, which our study also suggests. Several of the users statements describe the difficulties separating different motivations from each other, and many users also document several different purposes for their participation. Thus, these motivational needs may be classified to a higher level of understanding in order to gain a better overview. As mentioned in the introduction, there are four main motivational needs, according to U&G theory: 1) information, 2) entertainment, 3) social interaction, and 4) personal identity. Our finding of why people get involved in SNS usage and how; fit this U&G framework quite well, as suggested by Table 1 below. Categories shown in parentheses are done because it is unclear how precisely the category fits to the U&G theory. Table 1. U&G theory related to this study’s results U&G theory Information Entertainment Social interaction Personal identity

Our findings Information, sharing and consuming content, debating Unspecified fun, time-killing, (profile surfing) Socializing, friends, family, New relations, free SMS (profile surfing)

However, it is interesting to note that self-presentations or identity not are mentioned as a key personal driver for participating in SNSs, despite the fact that researchers name SNSs as a technology for personal branding and narcissism [21]. Thus, contact with friends may be linked to a strong social feeling of belonging and a sense of shared or social identity. Further, the interests of looking at other user profiles (profile surfing) and the sharing of pictures clearly indicate an interest in how other people choose to present themselves on these sites. Thus, personal selfrepresentation might be too abstract a notion for most users, who might not be aware of its presence as a motivational incentive if not directly asked about its role. The method used in this study may therefore have its limitations in grasping the personal identity issues. It should further be noted that this study only involves preliminary analysis of the data set presented. The researcher plans to expand the results of this study with additional analysis using statistical methods to identify how different motivational patterns are linked to age, gender, education, and different user types. To achieve a more holistic picture of user motivations, this study’s analysis should be extended with analysis about other aspects related to motivations and end-user loyalty, such as why people decrease or stop their use of SNSs. Another limitation is that the SNS members that participated in this study were self-selected directly for the study and are therefore not representative. However, the strength of the present study is that the sample was large and included users from four different SNSs. A quantitative content

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analysis does include a combination of both qualitative and quantitative data which contributes to the reliability of this study in terms of richer data. Thus, future studies should include a larger sample and cross-national samples of representative online users. Despite several limitations, the present study documents to large degree users’ motivations for frequenting SNSs. From these finding it is clear that there are many ways to improve SNS usage experiences by increasing the sociability. Better tools for supporting different levels of social interactions and different forms of information exchange and sharing is a key conclusion. Consequently, encouragements to support close social ties as well as weak ties and easy facilities for discussion and sharing of information opportunities will produce improvements and. As pin pointed by Preece, the people and the interaction among them is the pulse of any community [9].

5 Conclusions The main motivation behind engaging in SNSs is to make, maintain and foster social relationships. The most important reason was to get in contact with new people (31%). The second most valued reason was to keep in touch with friends (21%), and the third was general socializing (14%). Thus, a key conclusion drawn from the analysis is that people often have multiple reasons for using SNSs. In total, 12 different reasons (defined as important purposes for using an SNS) were identified; however, several of these reasons contain important subcategories of motivations that give insight into the personal incentives that drive people to use SNSs and thus contribute to our understanding of how to develop successful SNSs. Acknowledgments. This research received funding from the CITIZEN MEDIA project (038312) in the European Community's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6-2005IST), and the RECORD-project, supported by the Research Council of Norway and the VERDIKT-program.

References 1. Obrist, M., Geerts, D., Brandtzæg, P.B., Tscheligi, M.: Design for creating, uploading and sharing user generated content. In: CHI 2008, Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 2391–2394. ACM, Florence (2008) 2. Brandtzæg, P.B., Heim, J.: User Loyalty and Online Communities: Why Members of Online Communities are not faithful: INTETAIN. In: Brandtzæg, P.B., Heim, J. (eds.) 2008 ICST Second International Conference on Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment. ACM Press, Playa del Carmen (2008) 3. Preece, J., Maloney-Krichmar, D.: Online Communities. In: Jacko, J., Sears, A. (eds.) Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, pp. 596–620. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. Publishers, New York (2003) 4. Bishop, J.: Increasing participation in online communities: A framework for human– computer interaction. Computers in human behavior 23, 1881–1893 (2007) 5. Preece, J., Nonnecke, B., Andrews, D.: The top 5 reasons for lurking: Improving community experiences for everyone. Computers in Human Behavior 2, 201–223 (2004)

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6. Liu, S.H., Liao, H.L., Zeng, Y.T.: Why people blog: an Expectancy Theory analysis. Issues in Information Systems Issues in Information Systems 8, 232–237 (2007) 7. Waterson, P.: Motivation in Online Communities. In: Dasgupta (ed.) Encyclopedia of Virtual Communties (2006) 8. Rheingold, H.: The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1993) 9. Preece, J.: Online communities: designing usability, supporting sociability. Wiley, Chichester (2000) 10. Kim, A.J.: Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities. Peachpit Press, Berkely (2000) 11. Diker, V.: A Dynamic Feedback Framework for Studying Growth Policies in Open Online Collaboration Communities. In: 10th Americas Conference on Information Systems, New York (2004) 12. boyd, d., Ellison, N.E.: Social Network Sites: Definition, History and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13 (2007) 13. Brandtzæg, P.B., Lüders, M.: eCitizen 2.0 - the general citizen as an supplier for eGov information? SINTEF Oslo (2008) 14. Davis, F.D.: Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptane of information technologies. MIS Quarterly 13, 319–340 (1989) 15. Venkatesh, V., Morris, M.G., David, G.B., Davis, F.D.: User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward a Unified View. MIS Quarterly 27(3), 425–478 (2003) 16. McQuail, D.: Mass communication theory: an introduction. Sage, London (1994) 17. Feenberg, A., Bakardjieva, M.: Virtual community: no ‘killer implication’. New Media & Society 6, 37–43 (2004) 18. Holstie, O.R.: Content Analysis for the Social Sciences and Humanities. Addison-Wesley, Reading (Current Publisher: Perseus Publishing) (1969) 19. Donath, J., boyd, d.: Public displays of connection. BT Technology Journal 22, 71–82 (2004) 20. Ellison, N., Steinfield, C., Lampe, C.: The Benefits of Facebook "Friends:" Social Capital amd College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12 (2007) 21. Strano, M.M.: User Descriptions and Interpretations of Self-Presentation through Facebook Profile Images. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace 2, Article 5 (2008)

Automatic Generation of Non-verbal Behavior for Agents in Virtual Worlds: A System for Supporting Multimodal Conversations of Bots and Avatars Werner Breitfuss1, Helmut Prendinger2, and Mitsuru Ishizuka3 1

University of Tokyo , 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan [email protected] 2 National Institute of Informatics, 2-1-2 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101-8430, Japan [email protected] 3 University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan [email protected]

Abstract. This paper presents a system capable of automatically adding gestures to an embodied virtual character processing information from a simple text input. Gestures are generated based on the analysis of linguistic and contextual information of the input text. The system is embedded in the virtual world called second life and consists of an in world object and an off world server component that handles the analysis. Either a user controlled avatar or a non user controlled character can be used to display the gestures, that are timed with speech output from an Text-to-Speech system, and so show non verbal behavior without pushing the user to manually select it. Keywords: Embodied Virtual Characters, Animated Agent Systems, Multimodal Output Generation, Multimodal Presentations, Virtual Worlds.

1 Introduction Virtual agents represent a powerful human-computer interface, as they can embody behavior that a human may identify with [10], this ability may encourage users to engage in a more natural and immersive interaction and establish bonds with them [4].This paper describes an automatic non-verbal behavior generation system for virtual agents using linguistic and contextual information retrieved from text. It allows us to transform text into an agent behavior script enriched by eye gaze and conversational gesture behavior. The agents’ gaze behavior is informed by theories of human face-to-face gaze behavior. Gestures are generated based on the analysis of linguistic and contextual information of the input text. The aim of our work is to generate non-verbal behavior automatically for conversations utilizing virtual agents, so that the user can focus on typing the text, which is then just feed into the system. A salient feature of our system is that we support behavior generation not only for the A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 153–161, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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role of the speaking agent, but also for listening agents, who might use backchannel behavior in response to the speaker agent. The increasing popularity of virtual worlds pushes the need for virtual characters either controlled directly by the user, called avatars, or controlled by a script, called bots. This system can be used to provide natural gestures for both types and since all behaviors are generated automatically, there is no extra effort the user would have to contribute to increase the naturalness of the characters behavior and so provides a convenient method to have multimodal conversations in virtual environments. The speech is generated automatically by a plug-in [3] that uses Microsoft’s SAPI to transform text messages in Second Life into speech output at the clients machine, Second Life own Voice over IP client can be used to relay that speech output back in world. So we are able to provide a multimodal conversations and dialogues in a 3d interactive environment that doesn’t encumber the user with extra workload. In the next part, the paper discusses related research, while section 3 describes the behavior generation and section 4 focuses on the application using it. Section 5 gives a brief future outlook and concludes the paper.

2 Related Research The existing character agent systems already support the automated generation of some behaviors, such as automatic lip-synchronization most of this systems that focus on single agents , one of the first ones to do so was the BEAT system [2] it generates synthesized speech and synchronized non-verbal behavior for a single animated agent. It uses plain text as input, which is then transformed into animated behavior. First, text is annotated with contextual and linguistic information, based on which different (possibly conflicting) gestures are suggested. Next, the suggested behaviors are processed in a ‘filtering’ module that eliminates gestures that are incompatible. In the final step, a set of animations is produced that can be executed, after necessary adoptions, by an animation system. The system described in [8] generates both the language and deictic gestures of a robot-like virtual character for giving directions to a user. A different approach, based on machine learning, is suggested in [7]. It was used in the COHIBIT system, where the author first has to provide a script containing the actions for two virtual characters. In the next step the author writes simple gesture rules using his or her expert knowledge. Using this corpus of annotated actions the system can learn new rules. In the third step the system suggests the most appropriate gestures to the author, which are, after resolving conflicts and filtering, added to the already existing ones. Finally it produces a script with the gesture behavior of both virtual characters. This work differs from ours in the sense that it uses input from the user making supporting taking some workload of him, but the generation is not entirely automatically as in our approach. Many of the rules used in our system are derived from works of psychologists and linguists. Heylen [5] investigated the many different functions of gaze in conversation and its importance for the design of believable virtual characters. The gaze behavior of our agents is also informed by the empirically founded gaze models in [6, 9, 12]. Kendon [6] analyzed gaze behavior based on two-person dialogues and found that gaze is used to regulate the exchange between the speaker and listener. In [12] evaluates gaze behavior in multiparty environments, where four-person groups discussed current-affair topics in face-to-face meetings.

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3 Behavior Generation The Behavior generation in our system operates on the utterance level, for which certain rules are defined. The input we use thus consists of a simple text line. Based on contextual and linguistic information of the text, the behavior for the speaking and the listening agents is suggested. We do not only apply one layer of rules but also a second layer based on keyword and phrase spotting and a third layer, which is using iteration to align suggested gestures to each other. Also many of the gestures have a certain possibility of occurrence, which adds a random factor, so that the behavior of the gesturing character doesn’t become redundant which would make the conversation less natural. As eye gaze is one of our main features, we use a set of rules and algorithms to generate the appropriate patterns for both speaking and listening agent. The relationship between eye gaze, theme/rheme, and turn-taking was the focus in many psycholinguistic studies, we used those results to define an algorithm for controlling the gaze behavior of our two different roles. Gesture generation is designed similar to gaze generation. Former studies say that 50% of the gestures humans use in a conversation are simple beat gestures. In accord with that finding, the standard gesture we use is a single beat, which is suggested whenever there appears a new word in the utterance. In the next step we identify words that can be played out by gestures that are more specific than the beat gesture. E.g., when the sentence contains the adjective “big”, an iconic gesture (“show size”) will be suggested, a gesture where our agents holds both hands with a certain distance between each other in front of his body. The information which gesture can be associated with what word is stored in a XSL based database, a typical entry is depicted by figure 1, all entries have the attributes priority and type of the gesture. <xsl:templatematch= "//W[ .//@LEM='cu' or .//@LEM='bye' or .//@LEM='goodbye' or .//@LEM='bye bye']"> <xsl:copy> <xsl:apply-templates /> Fig. 1. Entry for the goodbye gesture

To show a small example we take the sentence “This is a small example how to draw” and present the output of our system for the speaking agent (figure 2) and the listening agent(figure 3). The root node of the tree is always an utterance followed by a speech pause between the theme and rheme of the sentence. The nodes “Look away” at the beginning of the sentence and “Look at listener” define the gaze behaviour which is suggested by our algorithm (for further details on the gaze generation see [1]).

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Fig. 2. A typical behavior tree for a speaking character

The gesture behaviour is generated according to dedicated gesture generation rules of the Behaviour Generation module. In this example, a beat gesture is selected to accompany the word “This”, an iconic gesture (for describing something small) is suggested to co-occur with the phrase “small example” and a open-arms gesture along with the words “how to”. The behavior tree of the listener agent is generated similarly to that of the speaker agent. It is based also on the output from the Language Tagging module of the speaker agent, but applies listener behavior generation rules instead of speaker rules. Again, we start with root node “UTTERANCE”. During the speaker’s speech pause, no behavior for the listener agent is defined. The listener’s gaze behavior is added similar to the speakers i.e. the listener is looking at the speaker when the utterance begins. Since the listener agent is paying attention to the speaker, it continues to look at the speaker also in the “rheme part” of the utterance. Thereafter, appropriate gestures are suggested for the listener agent. In our system, a head nod is a basic gesture type for the listener and appears often to signalize attention, so it is added whenever a basic speaker gesture like a simple beat occurs, for more complex gestures like a deictic gestures instead of adding a head node we adopt the gaze. This makes the listener behavior more natural and increases the overall communication quality between the two roles. The last module combines the speaker and listener tree by adding the actions of both agents for every utterance into one MPML3D structure called “task”. The MPML Script contains parallel and synchronized actions which can be started and ended at the beginning, middle, or end of a certain word. First we add all the actions

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Fig. 3. A typical behavior tree for a speaking character

that should occur before the speaker starts to talk, mostly gaze behavior, like looking away from the speaker and idle gestures for the listener. The next action that is added is speaking itself. In the following step, we add the gaze behavior, which has to be aligned with the appropriate words. Gaze is implemented by having the head turn to a certain direction. As the last level we add the gesture for the speaking agent and the listening agent.

4 Applications The System itself consists of two parts one is the server part, where all of the text analysis is done and the client part that actually controls the agent and displays its behavior. The architecture of our system on the server side, as already mentioned, operates on three modules, a language module, the actual behavior generation module, and a module that generates a displayable script (MPML3D) and/or the messages that is sent back to the Second Life client . For this we choose a modular pipelined architecture to support future extensions. The code of the system is written in Java, and the XML format is used to represent and exchange data between modules. The client side, consists of an object in Second Life containing the needed gestures in form of predefined animations and scripts that handle the communication as well as the activation of the animations. The scripts are written in the official Second Life scripting language, LindenScript.

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1234-678 BEAT_TWO:5 POINT_LEFT:12 16 Fig. 4. A typical message from the server sent to the client

4.1 Server Side The input for our analysis can either be a single text line forming a single string, which is taken from the chat message in Second Life, that the user enters, or a predefined dialogue script , depending whether the system is used for the instant messaging and so controlling an avatar or to generate a MPML-SL script to control bots. In the first case the interface between the Second Life Client and our Server is a simple Java Servlet that passes messages between both Systems. First when the message arrives it is analyzed like we described in the previous chapter, after that, since we only display a pair of gestures, the most fitting gestures are selected. For selection we use a priority system, where beat gestures are counted as the once with the least priority and metaphoric gestures with the highest , since they transport more meaning, the system also takes into account how often a gesture occurs in the utterance and adopts its priority accordingly. After the selection, the message to the client side is composed, it consists of the overall word count of the utterance, the gesture pair together with the index of the word at which they should be displayed (figure 4). The information of the timing is derived from the treelike structure we use for generation, and resembles the speaker behavior, since we have no control over other avatars in this scenario, the listener behavior is disregarded. 4.2 Client Side – AuGe System In the first case the used avatar has to wear our AuGe Bands, an band like object generated in Second Life, once a chat message is typed in and the user hits the enter button , our object detects the new message and sends it to the Java Servlet which passes it on to the server. After that the system output is sent back to the users client and the new message is processed by the script inside the gesture bands. As shown in figure 4 the message contains 3 main parts. At first we have the avatar ID to prevent other gesture bands in the proximity to accidently start the same gestures on their avatar. The second part consists of two gestures, the name of the gesture and timing information after the ”:” which is the index of the word on which the animation should start. We decided to use only two gestures, one for the THEME and one for the RHEME part, or if a longer text is typed containing multiple sentences the two gestures with the highest priority since more gestures are troublesome as the animations often get delayed over overlay due to unpredictable lag or graphical issues on the user’s side. The last part is the word count of the whole text, and is used to time the lip movement, our system doesn’t provide perfect lip synchronization, however since no lip movement looks very unnatural, we use a facial animation which opens and closes the mouth in a loop. 4.3 Client Side – MPML3D-SL System Different to the AuGe Bands, we have a full script beforehand and no real time processing is necessary. Another big difference in this case is that we use non player

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Fig. 5. Two virtual characters using AuGe Bands

Fig. 6. Two virtual characters controlled by MPML3D-SL

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controlled characters also called bots , so there is no interference with a user, also multiple character can be controlled at once , in case of our automatic behavior generation system we have a speaking agent and a listening agent. These bots have to be legal Second Life accounts, which have to be generated before hand, also a certain object has to be attached to them, it is called speech cube and is used for storing and playing the sound files according to the speech acts of the script. Once the character is all set up, the automatically generated script can be loaded using our MPML3D-SL player. The player consists of a backend, handling the script and a frontend that is actually controlling the bot. The frontend interacts directly with the Second Life servers at Linden Labs using a public API. (for more information on MPML3D-SL please refer to 11) This offers a better control of the characters which is more precise in terms of timing of gestures and speech output and also enables us to more actions like walking or sending text via the chat function. Figure 6 shows two virtual characters presenting information about the correct use of a drug.

5 Conclusion In this paper we described a method to enrich communication in a virtual environment like the metaverse second life by adding gestures. We designed a system that is capable of processing the information in a text message associating non verbal behavior in form of gestures and animating an user controlled avatar in real-time. Our system addresses the problem of populating virtual worlds with “life”, such as agents acting in the roles of guides, clerks or sales staff. It can be used to easily add naturally acting life-like virtual characters to virtual spaces. The added believable nonverbal behaviors can improve the effectiveness of communication in those virtual worlds and provide a more immersive experience for users. And so help to make the emptiness of many virtual worlds a bit more lively and make conversations more enjoyable. Future work will focus on improving the timing between gestures, lip movement and speech output, a crucial part of further enhancing the naturalness of our virtual characters. As well as adding more precise deictic gestures to our gesture repertoire, to refer to objects in a 3 dimensional world.

References 1. Breitfuss, W., Prendinger, H., Ishizuka, M.: Automatic generation of gaze and gestures for dialogues between embodied conversational agents. Int’l J. of Semantic Computing 2(1), 71–90 (2008) 2. Cassell, J., Vilhjálmsson, H., Bickmore, T.: BEAT: the Behavior Expression Animation Toolkit. In: Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2001, pp. 477–486 (2001) 3. E.V.A. - Essential Voicechat Advancement by Jarek Dejavu (24.02.2009), http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ict/sltools/ 4. Gratch, J., Wang, N., Gerten, J., Fast, E., Duffy, R.: Creating Rapport with Virtual Agents. In: Pelachaud, C., Martin, J.-C., André, E., Chollet, G., Karpouzis, K., Pelé, D. (eds.) IVA 2007. LNCS, vol. 4722, pp. 125–138. Springer, Heidelberg (2007) 5. Heylen, D.: Head gestures, gaze and the principles of conversational structure. International Journal of Humanoid Robotics 3(3), 241–226 (2006)

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6. Kendon, A.: Some functions of gaze-direction in social interaction. Acta Psychologica 26, 22–63 (1967) 7. Kipp, M.: Creativity meets automation: Combining nonverbal action authoring with rules and machine learning. In: Gratch, J., Young, M., Aylett, R.S., Ballin, D., Olivier, P. (eds.) IVA 2006. LNCS, vol. 4133, pp. 230–242. Springer, Heidelberg (2006) 8. Kopp, S., Tepper, P., Cassell, J.: Towards integrated microplanning of language and iconic gesture for multimodal output. In: Proceedings of the Int. Conf. on Multimodal Interfaces 2004, pp. 97–104. ACM Press, New York (2004) 9. Peters, C., Pelachaud, C., Bevacqua, E., Mancini, M.: A model of attention and interest using gaze behavior. In: Proceedings of 5th International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents 2005, pp. 229–240 (2005) 10. Reeves, B., Nass, C.: The media equation: How people treat computers, television and new media like real people and places. CLSI Publications, Stanford (1996) 11. Ullrich, S., Bruegmann, K., Prendinger, H., Ishizuka, M.: Extending MPML3D to Second Life. In: Prendinger, H., Lester, J.C., Ishizuka, M. (eds.) IVA 2008. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 5208, pp. 281–288. Springer, Heidelberg (2008) 12. Vertegaal, R., Weevers, I., Sohn, C., Cheung, C.: Gaze-2: conveying eye contact in Group video conferencing using eye-controlled camera direction. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2003), pp. 521–528. ACM Press, New York (2003)

Preliminary Findings from a Cross Cultural Usability Study on the Internationalization of User Interfaces Joyram Chakraborty1, Linda Hansen1, Darren A. Denenberg2, and Anthony F. Norcio1 1 Department of Information Systems University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) Baltimore, MD 21250 USA 2 Department of MIS University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas NV 89154 USA {chakraborty, lhanse2, norcio}@umbc.edu, [email protected]

Abstract. This paper reports the findings from a second preliminary study concerning the Internationalization of User Interfaces. It is a follow up to an initial study conducted on American users [4]. Undergraduate Zambian subjects from the University of Zambia (UNZA) completed a web-based application to gauge their understanding of cultural variables commonly used in user interface development. In general, the findings indicate a distinct affinity towards culturally familiar attributes. The authors conclude that the use of culturally sensitive variables in development of user interfaces can have an affect on the acceptance of technologies.

1 Introduction The user interface (UI) is the first line of interaction between users of a product and its’ developers. A lack of knowledge and understanding of the cultural backgrounds of the users can impact the development of the product. This in turn might impact the acceptance of the technology. Extensive research has shown the usefulness of cross cultural models in UI development. However, very little research has focused on the use of hybrid models. It is the purpose of this study to demonstrate the effectiveness of hybrid cultural models in UI development.

2 Background The majority of researchers in the Internationalization of UI domain acknowledge the cultural model of Geert Hofstede [9] and use it to explain their findings. Hofstede’s A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 162–171, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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model of cultural dimensions is derived from a factorial analysis of over 116,000 international personnel at IBM from 1967 - 1970. His questionnaire on work-related values related to universal aspects of social relationships collected data from subjects from 72 nationalities and in over 20 languages. As a result of this research he derived five different macro-cultural level cultural dimensions. They are Power distance, Uncertainty avoidance, Masculinity vs. Femininity, Individualism vs. Collectivism, and Time Orientation. Based on the results of the compiled data, Hofstede came up with a score for each nationality or culture. In each case, a high score refers to a higher value of that cultural dimension. Using Hofstede’s work as a template, UI researchers have analyzed cultural variables to help developers design culturally attuned products. Nielsen proposed a set of culturally relevant heuristics that are applicable in some product designs [16]. Marcus and Gould used Hofstede’s cultural dimension model to propose a set of examples of website designs [15]. Other prominent works include those of Kaplan and Triandis. Kaplan researched the correlation between language and thought pattern and proposed several types of patterns, namely Linear, Semitic and Oriental [11]. Triandis carried out extensive research on Individualism and Collectivism and proposed a methodology to measure these cultural attributes [21]. There literature revealed extensive sets of cross-cultural studies where the researchers studied one or more cultural attributes using one or more different cultures. However, little research has been conducted on the use of hybrid cross-cultural models. Khaslavsky carried out one of the few hybrid studies. She selected cultural dimensions from the works of Halls, Hofstede and Trompenaars to come up with a model to study similarities and differences in the usability of interfaces between American and French users [8, 9, 12, 22]. This study extends the efforts of Khaslavsky by combining the most common variables studied by researchers into a hybrid model. The following variables have been found to be the most widely researched in the UI domain: Color, Symbolism, Individuality, Knowledge Processing and Local Variables. Research into color and symbolism is quite extensive [10, 13, 17, 19]. Using this research, the color and symbolism choices were made. Marcus provides examples of images that are representative of individualism and collectivism [15]. Kaplan’s research into Language and Thought patterns provides the framework for the selection of this factor [11]. The literature is abounding with examples of research into the necessity of understanding countless other local variables. Such is the diverse nature of local variables that the collection of an exhaustive list would prove very difficult given the number of global cultures [1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14, 17, 18, 23]. However, the several local variables are repeated quite often. As a result, these variables were chosen as part of the preliminary study. These include: date and time format as well as local language. The goal of this study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of this hybrid crosscultural model in UI development using one culture. The results of this second

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preliminary study will dictate if this model warrants and further evaluation using different cultures.

3 Methodology A browser-based application was developed to automate the process and eliminate the concerns. The application collected the respondents’ demographic data and responses to the visual stimuli. The pictures were displayed in a proprietary browser-based application, and the responses to the associated Likert scale questions were collected using that application. No information was collected that would identify respondents. The application was developed using Active Server Pages (ASP) running on Windows Server 2000 platform and Internet Information Services 5.0. The data was stored in Microsoft Access 2003. The choice of using ASP and MS Access was based on the simplicity of the application and database as well as the server’s operating system. However, this limited access to the Internet Explorer web browser. 3.1 Database The database comprised of eight tables. These tables are as follows: 1. Table tbl_Major contains the list of majors. This was used to display a select list on the Demographic screen; 2. Table tbl_LikertScale contains the Liker scale weight and text. This was used to display answers to the Cross Culture questions; 3. Table tbl_QuestionDemographic contains the list of demographic questions: eleven total; 4. Table tbl_Question contains the list of Cross Culture questions: fifty-eight total; 5. Table tbl_Participant contains participant results of the Color Blind test, Consent acceptance, and the last page the participants was on when ending the study before completion. 6. Table tbl_ParticipantDemograpic contains the participants' answers to the Demographic questions. 7. Table tbl_ParticipantQuestion contains the participants’ answers to the Cross Culture questions. 8. Table tbl_RndNum contains a list of random numbers and whether or not the random number was presented to the participant upon exiting the study. This was used as a method of providing non-identifying participation credit. Queries were created to display data on completed records. These queries combined the participant demographic answers with the Cross Culture answers. 3.2 Cultural Factors Through the literature review, examples of common cultural factors that affect understanding and acceptance of UI were collected. These examples are as follows:

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Familiar Colors

Unfamiliar Colors

Familiar Symbols

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Unfamiliar Symbols

Individualistic Images

Collectivistic Images

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Non-Linear Language Pattern Newspaper Article ‘Timber production has potential’ INDIGENOUS timber production in Zambia alone, if well managed will give Government an annual revenue of about K80 billion, which would therefore not prompt the state to impose more tax on the industry. Timber Producers Association of Zambia (TPAZ), says the sector working at full production capacity, indigenous timber production from a single district in a month would generate maximum revenue of K185,764,000. Speaking in an interview, TPAZ secretary general, Charles Masange attributed low revenue collected by Government from the forestry sector to mushrooming of foreign owned urban sawmills causing a lot of illegal cutting of timber. "Heaps of reports on this matter are gathering dust in Government offices without action, and the scourge is increasing at an alarming rate,'' he said. Mr Masange said, the absence of political will, suppression of professional advice on forestry and general environmental issues has affected revenue collection from the industry by Government. He noted that fees from forest includes production royalties at K135,000 per square meter, conveyance fees at K10,800 per square meter and the council levy that varies from one council to the other but averaging K3,000 per square meter.

Linear Language Pattern Newspaper Article Subprime woes bite General Motors General Motors Thursday reported improved results from its auto operations in the first quarter, but problems in subprime mortgages contributed to earnings that missed Wall Street forecasts by a mile. The nation's No. 1 automaker said it earned $94 million, or 17 cents a share, excluding items in the quarter, compared with adjusted earnings of $350 million, or 62 cents, a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call had forecast earnings per share of 87 cents. The range of estimates was from 34 cents to $1.40 a share. Net income for the quarter tumbled 90 percent to $62 million, or 11 cents a share, including special items, from $602 million, or $1.06 on that basis a year earlier. GM (Charts, Fortune 500) stock sank about 2 percent to $31.75 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange. GM reported an adjusted $304 million in income from its auto operations worldwide, up from $40 million a year earlier. Its core North American auto operations, though, lost $85 million in the quarter, but that was an improvement from the loss of $251 million a year earlier.

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Non-American Text Variables Háum fasteignagjöldum í Ísafjarðarbæ mótmælt 26.02.07 | 16:25 Vinnufélagar úr rækjuverksmiðjunni Miðfelli á Ísafirði afhentu í dag Halldóri Halldórssyni, bæjarstjóra Ísafjarðarbæjar, undirskriftalista með ríflega 400 nöfnum, þar sem háum fasteignagjöldum í Ísafjarðarbæ er mótmælt. Að sögn Guðbjarts Ástþórssonar, eins þeirra sem stóð fyrir undirskriftasöfnuninni, lágu listar fyrir á þremur stöðum á Ísafirði í um vikutíma. Hann segir þá félaga mjög ánægða með viðbrögðin og viðtökurnar sem listarnir hafa fengið og er hann sannfærður um að mun fleiri undirskriftir hefðu safnast, ef listarnir hefðu til að mynda verið látnir liggja fyrir á fleiri fjölförnum stöðum. Guðbjartur segir listana hafa verið setta út til þess að kanna hug íbúa til málsins og segir hann þá glögglega sýna hver hugurinn er. Halldór Halldórsson bæjarstjóri segist ánægður með framtak mannanna. „Ég er ánægður með það að íbúar hafi skoðanir á því sem hér er verið að gera og komi þeim á framfæri.“ Halldór segir að hann hafi lauslega farið yfir þessi mál og ástæður fasteignagjalda með þeim sem afhentu honum listann. American Text Variables Fed chief says that Tuesday’s sell off did not sway central bank’s view on U.S. economic growth. 02.28.07| 2:15 PM Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told members of Congress Wednesday that U.S. financial markets appear to be “working well” and are functioning normally, one day after the Dow posted its biggest one-day point loss since the market reopened after the Sept. 11 attacks. Responding to a question from a member of the House Budget Committee, Bernanke said that the central bank was closely monitoring the stock market after the Dow slumped 416 points Tuesday amid a sell off in stocks worldwide. Bernanke said the sell off did not change the Fed’s view on U.S. economic growth. “There is really no material change in our expectations for the U.S. economy since I last reported to Congress a couple weeks ago,” he said.

4 Procedure Permission was sought from the Institution Review Board at the UMBC, UNLV and UNZA prior to the start of this study. Subjects were recruited from an undergraduate engineering program at UNZA. Recompense for their participation was provided in the form of five thousand Zambia Kwachas per person. Because of the web-based nature of the application, subjects were able to access the study from any computer which allowed internet access. Subjects were informed of their rights and their ability to cease participation at any time. Once they accepted that agreement, they were presented with the Ishihara color blind test to test for normal color vision. If they passed the test, they would be presented with the images that would comprise the study itself. In addition to the demographic questionnaire, the study sought responses from the

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subjects regarding their familiarity with the visual representations. (For the complete set of questions, please email the author.)

5 Results Data was collected from a total of 25 subjects of Zambian nationality. There were 2 females and 23 male students of various engineering disciplines who spoke English as their primary language. On average, these participants indicated that they had been browsing the Internet for approximately 5 years. They further indicated that they spent an average of 5 hours a day working on their computers of which an average of 2 hours was spent on the Internet. The participants were asked to complete a 5-point Likert style questionnaire to gauge their level of understanding of the various cultural factors. The options for the subjects were: Strongly Agree (1), Agree (2), Neutral (3), Disagree (4), and Strongly Disagree (5). The first four sets of statements in the questionnaire were positive and grouped per variable i.e. Color, Symbolism etc. For example, participants were asked to respond to the statement “I am familiar with the color combinations” using the Likert scale. For the last set (Non-American Text Variables and American Text Variables), the statements were posed in the negative. For example, “I am not familiar with this date format.” The table below shows the average responses from the 25 participants. Average Responses of Understanding of Cultural Factors

Familiar Color

2.04

Unfamiliar Color

3.27

Familiar Symbol

2.23

Unfamiliar Symbol

2.92

Individualistic Images

2.96

Collectivistic Images

2.65

Non-Linear Language Pattern Newspaper Article Language Pattern Newspaper Article

2.35

Non-American Text Variables

3.37

American Text Variables

3.80

2.91

The table shows that on average, Zambian subjects displayed a greater understanding and acceptance of variables that are familiar to the Zambian culture.

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6 Conclusions This is the second preliminary study and analysis of the effectiveness of hybrid cultural models in UI development [4]. The results suggest that a culture (Zambian culture in this study) is more accepting and likely to display a greater understanding of UI features that are familiar to them. These findings were similar to the preliminary study carried out using American subjects. It can be observed that the results of these studies are not as clear cut as one might have expected. For example, participants in both the studies were familiar with non - U.S. date and time formats. The literature attributes this to the eroding of distinct cultural boundaries [2, 6, 20]. The results from both the studies are not surprising given the generally high level of interaction with the Internet that the American and Zambian participants indicated. The global nature of the Internet is likely to expose these participants to different standards which would have contributed to their understanding of non-familiar standards. The literature confirms these findings. This study is far from complete. This report is the first of a series of on-going studies that are examining the effectiveness of a hybrid cultural model in UI development. The next step would be to reevaluate the questionnaires for to correct any deficiencies. It would be interesting to observe whether the results can be replicated on these two subject groups again to generalize the validity of the proposed hybrid cross cultural model. In addition, further studies should be carried out on non-Western cultures to test the effectiveness of this cultural model in different settings.

References 1. Apple Computer. Human Computer Interfaces Guidelines. Addison Wesley, Reading (1992) 2. Aykin, N.: Usability and internationalization of information technology. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah (2005) 3. Belge, M.: The next step in software internationalization. Interactions 2(1), 21–25 (1995) 4. Chakraborty, J., Norcio, A.F.: Preliminary Investigation into the Internationalization of User Interfaces. In: Proceedings of AEI 2008 – The Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics 2nd International Conference (2008) 5. Day, D., Evers, V.: Website Localisation, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Paper presented at the International Workshop on Internationalisation of Products and Systems (IWIPS), Milton Keynes, U.K. (2001) 6. Del Galdo, E.M., Nielsen, J.: International user interfaces. Wiley Computer Publishing/John Wiley & Sons, New York (1996) 7. Evers, V.: Human Computer Interfaces: Designing for Culture. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam (1997) (unpublished Masters thesis) 8. Hall, E., Hall, M.R.: Understanding Cultural Differences. Intercultural Press, Yarmouth (1990) 9. Hofstede, G.: Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. McGraw-Hill, New York (1991) 10. Kano, N.: Developing International Software for Windows 95 and Windows NT. Microsoft Press, Redmond (1995)

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11. Kaplan, R.B.: Cultural thought patterns in inter-cultural education. Language Learning 16(1) (1966) 12. Khaslavsky, J.: Integrating culture into interface design. Paper presented at the Conference summary on Human factors in computing systems (CHI), Los Angeles, California (1998) 13. Marcus, A.: Icon and Symbol Design Issues for Graphical User Interfaces. In: Del Galdo, E.M., Nielsen, J. (eds.) International User Interfaces, pp. 257–270. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York (1996) 14. Marcus, A.: Cross-cultural web user-interface design. In: Human Computer Interface International (HCII), pp. 502–505. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Orleans (2001) 15. Marcus, A., Gould, E.W.: Crosscurrents: cultural dimensions and global Web userinterface design. Interactions 7(4), 32–46 (2000) 16. Nielsen, J.: Designing for international use. Elsevier, Amsterdam (1990) 17. Russo, P., Boor, S.: How fluent is your interface?: designing for international users. Paper presented at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), Amsterdam, Netherlands (1993) 18. Sun Microsystems, Software Internationalization Guide. Internal Document. Sun Microsystems, Mountain View (1991) 19. Thorell, L.G., Smith, W.J.: Using Computer Color Effectively: An Illustrated Reference. Prentice-Hall, Inc., New Jersey (1990) 20. Ting-Toomey, S.: Communicating across cultures. Guilford Press, New York (1999) 21. Triandis, H.C., Bontempo, R., Villareal, M.J.: Individualism and collectivism: Crosscultural perspectives on self-Ingroup relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54(2), 323–338 (1988) 22. Trompenaars, F.: Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding the Cultural Diversity in Business. Nicholas Brealey, London (1993) 23. Zahedi, F., Pelt, W.V., van Song, J.: A Conceptual Framework for International Web Design. IEEE Transactions on professional communications 44(2), 83–103 (2001)

Credibility On-Line: Quality Metrics for Evaluation Francisco V. Cipolla Ficarra1,2, Ernesto Vivas2, and Joaquim Romo2 HCI Lab. – F&F Multimedia Communic@tions Corp. ALAIPO: Asociación Latina de Interacción Persona-Ordenador 2 AINCI: Asociación Internacional de la Comunicación Interactiva Via Pascoli, S. 15 – CP 7, 24121 Bergamo, Italy [email protected], [email protected] 1

Abstract. We present the results of the assessment of credibility of Information Technology and Communications professionals through the application of a set of heuristic techniques which make it possible to analyze different on-line websites where their curricular data reside. The aim of the current research work is to determine the quality of the public and private institutions through the veracity of the on-line content. We also present a set of binary metrics of quality, credibility and veracity of on-line information, called DECROL (Destroy CRedibility On-Line). These metrics are the result of the comparison of professionals or pseudo professionals in 50 public and private institutions in Spain and Italy. Keywords: Veracity, Information, Assessment, Content, Multimedia, Education, Semiotics, Linguistics.

1 Introduction In the new millennium, and with the international diffusion of interactive multimedia systems, we are voyaging through an era of communicability [1]. Communicability entails quality. Quality in interactive software, the same as the notion of beauty in art or design, is very easy to detect when it is absent. Quality requires a set of methods, techniques, metrics and specialized staff to exist in the software of multimedia systems [2], [3], [4], [5]. The study of communicability in the design of multimedia systems will enhance the ability to communicate with other people and with new technologies. The foremost goal is to improve the interaction with new technologies, in order to obtain a better diffusion of qualitative information, aimed primarily at widening scientific knowledge, education, training, professional activities (services and/or production) [6], the well being of human beings, and of the environment, regardless of the place where they happen to be on our planet. Inter-disciplinary studies that involve comparison, exchange of methods and exchange of opinions can be positive when they go beyond the sum or juxtaposition of discoveries, for example. The A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 172–181, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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prime degree of cooperation lies in trans-disciplinary studies. For example, transdisciplinary studies would propose concepts and theories common to different social sciences. Nevertheless, it is in dual-disciplinary studies that we can reach the best results in the field of communication. That is, it would consist of sharing methods, and interpreting aspects and historical experiences of two different disciplines. Consequently, the intersection between computer science and communicability can be very positive to increase the quality of communication between a user and a multimedia systems [7], [8]. Without any doubt, the veracity of the on-line content in multimedia systems is a subject of great importance because many businesses and private citizens resort to specialized enterprises for the services known as ’keyposition’ — the position of the portal in Google, Yahoo, Lycos, etc. That is to say, to try to be in the first pages of the research engines. Usually, these are users who do not have training in computers or do not have the time, and hire external services. Therefore, money can be saved through these statistics, since it makes it possible to find out easily and quickly when we are dealing with real professionals or not, and also those public and/or private institutions on whose services can be trusted. The notion of content veracity in multimedia systems in our work is directly related to the public image of the institutions. There is a tendency to polish the public image through Web 2.0 instruments, for example by inserting the number of employees in the current or preceding institution. This tendency to quantify the quality of information in many works of social communication has demonstrated during years that it has a boomerang effect [9]. That is to say, straight away there is a manipulation towards the user, however, with the navigation into the contents of the interactive system through time, the user discovers that much of the data is incorrect. Sometimes, depending on the kind of users, such as inexperienced ones, detecting deliberately created misinformation triggers a rejection of the whole website, and even to other websites belonging to the same category as the visited one. In the current work we will start with the metrics concept of software engineering and placing the environment of the current research work exactly in the context of the entities and quality attributes. Then the first cases of lack of credibility will be presented which have been detected through the convergence of linguistics and semiotics [10], in the industrial and educative context. The composition of each one of the attributes will be defined and the first heuristic assessment table in the communicability context to eradicate the lack of credibility in the on-line contents.

2 Metrics and Measure: Social Sciences and Software Engineering The metrics have been elaborated through concepts stemming from semiotics, communicability, the quality of software, usability engineering and human-computer interaction. Through the intersection of these areas of scientific knowledge it is easy to detect those cases in which pseudo professionals resort to 2.0 websites to falsely expand their knowledge and/or professional experience. A table has been made of

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these instruments of free access which are used to damage the credibility of the on-line information. The universe of study has been made up of 500 subjects, and 10% of them have been randomly chosen, that is to say, we have worked with a sample of 50 websites. Later on, a table has been created wherein all the resources stemming from the Web 2.0 generation are inserted, which enable these people to occupy the initial posts inside research engines: Google, Yahoo, Lycos, etc. A way to distinguish the notions of metrics and measures in the software is the one presented by Fenton, N. [11]. The metrics characterize numerically the "simple" attributes such as length, number of options, number of operators (for the programs), or the number of located problems, cost and time (for the processes). The measures are "functions" of metrics that be used, assess or predict the more "complex" attributes such as cost or quality. 2.1 The Measurement Process: Entities and Attributes With regard to the process of measurement in the engineering of the software, Fenton [11] states the following formal definition: measurement is a process in which numbers or symbols are assigned to the attributes of the entities of the real world, to describe them accurately, in accordance with rules that have been clearly defined. Measurement assigns numbers or symbols of those attributes of the entities with the purpose of describing them. Starting from such entities, a first classification for measurement can be made –also called generically metrics in software engineering [11]. These measurements of the physical world make up two types of categories of the measures to be used: • Direct measures. These are those measures that in order to determine the dimension of a program it can be seen the space that occupies the feasible program in megabytes. • Indirect measurements. Through these measures the quality of a programmer's work can be assessed by the percentage of failures detected in the summing-up. The direct measure of an attribute is that measure that does not depend on the measurement of any other attribute. Whereas the indirect measurement of an attribute is that measure which includes the of one or more other attributes. In general terms there are different types to measure in regard to the goals to be achieved, that is to say, focused on the object or in the effects on the object [11], [12], [13]. For instance, the purpose of a measurement in software engineering can be: the process, the product, the language, the methods and the tools. It can also be considered the intention of whoever carries out the measurement which can be: passive (one simply seeks the understanding of the object) or active (when one wants to predict, control and improve the object). Making a summary of the different kinds of measurements with regard to the goals to be achieved the following classification is obtained: • Direct and indirect; • Process and product; • Objective and subjective.

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The objective measurements are those in which two people can reach the same result considering the object in an independent way, for instance to count the lines of the code of a program. Subjective measurements are recorded on the basis of subjective assessments. For instance, the experience of a person for the management of projects. The objective measurements turn out to be easier to automate then the subjective ones [14]. As with other products, the software also has implicitly an elaboration process. The method developed for heuristic assessment can be applied in different stages; the production, with the purpose of maintaining and raising the quality of the interactive multimedia.

Fig. 1. The quality in the production stage

Among the internal and external attributes there is a bi-directional relationship that affects the quality of the software [15], [16], [17], [18]. However, it is necessary to eradicate certain axioms that relate to the internal and external attributes but are false in the multimedia environment, such as: the external qualities are those that have a greater importance in relation to the internal concerning the final product; a good internal structure yields as a result a good external quality [11]; the bigger the financial resources, the better the final quality and vice versa [19].

3 Veracity versus Parochialism Every time that we talk about semiotics, directly or indirectly, we mean linguistics [20]. The founder of that discipline, Ferdinand de Saussure, in his work “Course in General Linguistics” maintains an interesting point of view regarding the assessment of the language that he refers to as “parochialism” [21]. Here it is necessary to bear in mind the orography of the territory where this discipline originated, i.e. the Alps, in whose mountains the towns as well as their dialects develop around the churches, according to Saussure's linguistic treatise. Remarkably, in the analysis universe online of multimedia systems in the same geographical area, that is to say, the geographical centre of the Alps, we find that the credibility of information lessens with increasing parochialism. The origin of this problem lies on what is known in software engineering as human factors, and also in the social sciences, the capital factor for that who becomes an information source (emitter) and focuses the attention of the receptor (a kind of showman or showwoman). It is a classical phenomenon in the

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anchormen of news reports, for instance [22]. If we make an intersection between both factors we have on the Internet false information about the people (training and professional experience) with a clear propaganda or publicity purpose. In the zone from which Saussure spoke there was a union, that is to say, the sale of politicians as if they were business products. A way to detect them is the momentum of the community websites of Web 2.0: Facebook or Linkdin. There is a trend by the star user to be considered as a professional and quickly establish links with his friends or acquaintances. The purpose is also to reach the highest visibility level within the search engines. However, there is the boomerang effect because of the falsity of the information stored by the actual user of the Internet and social computing [23]. The boomerang effect for the star user is achieved through the current quality metrics of the truthful and transparent on-line information: DECROL (Destroy CRedibility On-Line). Through these it is easy to detect how the president of a textile business located in the Alps (Bergamo, Italy) introduces himself in some interviews on-line as an engineer. In Google-map or in the industrial association of the province where the industrial seat of that industry is located he promotes himself as a PhD, that is to say, a higher level than a graduate or an engineer, when he is actually a geologist. If the star character lies in the academic data that he has compiled on-line, the rest of the information on other similar websites such as Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube or other similar is also false. These are the false results that are obtained with DECROL, which analysis starts with academic information. 3.1 Information On-Line: Opacity and Falsity It is also necessary to carry out an anchoring operation with the notion of masters degrees, especially in the context of the European Union [24]. A masters degree can be carried out inside a university, which entails having already completed an undergraduate degree or technical engineering trainingin the case of informatics, for example, to attend for two years courses with a mandatory attendance of 70% of the lessons, and to succeed in the final exams to obtain the title of master. However, in many public and private Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese universities, etc., there is no final exam. The transference of technology between the universities and the private sector is very important [6], [24]. However, serious education university incoherences have been detected. In the south of Europe, some industrial executives together with university professors, set in motion college masters courses for employeesto attend. However, these are students who possess only a level of secondary education or even incomplete studies. All of this happens under the label of masters inside the transfer of technology and/or knowledge between university and industry or vice versa. Remarkably, at the end of their attendance of such courses, they will have achieved a European college masters degree. In contrast, in the public universities of Latin America, not only the masters students, but also the PhD students. have the obligation of sitting final examinations of the subjects they have taken, as well as the thesis. Therefore, the value of titling differs from one country to another, although there is the tendency to regard them as the same within the borders of the European

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Union. Consequently, those who in Italy possess BA, BS and/or masters are actually graduates with a yearly specialization course, without passing any exam whatsoever. Others, in contrast, who do not have a university training, but who carry out the function of head of the staff in the same textile business and/or industrial union, are more concerned about the number of employees they have had along their working career and the connections this individual has with others. Of course there is no authentic information about the continuous changes in the firms where this alleged head of staff works, which may well be for economic reasons e.g. a better salary or because he/she performs organising or managing from his office towards the rest of his colleagues (these two situations of human or inhuman factors are currently not considered by our metrics). In both cases, we see how the star user always seeks to quickly impress the potential readers of the information; one through the text and the other through the numbers. Now, a third example may come from another European mountain area such as the Pyrenees. A person who gets two degrees, because the subjects are akin in both, for instance history and anthropology or journalism and law. Later on, he quits the PhD course in audiovisual taking the credits system by subjects to a master and they finally get a PhD in telecommunications, with the credits obtained in the masters course and making his final thesis in a private university. Simultaneously, he/she presents on-line substantial work experience in private firms. Here there is a third option of false information on-line: textual and numeric. In the three cases, the textual information is present. However, numeric information can sum up quickly the information for one user, especially if we are talking about percentages or the total number of employees. An important way to boost numeric information and make it more appealing in hypermedia systems is by resorting to graphics [25]. Now, in all these cases we see how the educative orientation of the virtual community in Facebook, Linkedin, etc., has been destroyed, when the private or business interests have access. If we make a diachronic analysis from the origin of the name, there is a reference to the bulletin that the administration of many universities and high schools delivers to first year students, with the purpose of helping them to get to know each other better. Today, due to the parochialism, this has become an indicator of the reliability as to the truthfulness of the content. in the information. This is not 100% because of the negative influence of the industrial and business sector compared with the transparent and objective information of the academic environment in its origins.

4 Textual Contents: Analisys When we talk about the veracity and credibility of the information in the on-line and off-line multimedia/hypermedia systems, there are intrinsic aspects of design stemming from the environment of the audiovisual media that are transferred automatically to the hypermedia contents, for example, typography, textual and visual information, etc. [26], [27]. One of them is the lack of credibility of the images in the face of the momentum of the graphic computer programs aimed at the self-editing of photographs and other illustrations [28]. Consequently, the value of the veracity of a

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photography is lower than it was at the time of the origin of personal computers, for instance. The reason lies in the possibility of modifying each one of the pixels that comprise it. There is also the possibility of virtually recreating all the bidimensional and tridimensional environments with computers, thereby obtaining identical or superior results to the photography of those real environments. Therefore, in the context of audiovisual media applied to the multimedia systems, the written word usually has a greater veracity than a vectorial or bimap image. In a certain sense, there is a return to the origins of the person-computer interaction, that is, the hypertexts. For instance, with regard to the same user, in Naymez –Next Level Networking (www.naymz.com), we find the following sentences: (in brackets the people who allegedly send these messages): "Incredible, even a professor can have sense of humour, aside from being a competent professional" (student"); "Professor XYZ is an excellent instructor and has allowed me to (something missing) wonders of informatics and ponder the positive aspects of the technology" (baby sister) and "Professor XYZ is a good teacher and excellent team director· (business man). Following the semiotic notions and carrying out an inverse discursive semiotics analysis, as Eliseo Veron maintains [29], we can detect that in reality this is a person who does not have a long teaching experience, does not enjoy popularity and has serious problems in the place where he works, since he is not regarded as a leader. He/She may be the latter de facto, apparently, but he has been imposed by the authorities of that teaching centre and does not correspond to the democratic process of staff selection. These same conclusions can be reached by following the referential links to other Web 2.0 websites: www.youtube.com, www.geocities.com and www.linkedin.com. By analyzing other members of the group we find an analogous situation in the website "vote the teacher" (www.votailprof.it) where anonymous students amazingly devote themselves to give the highest marks to the professor, writing in sentences which are similar to those above. Here we see how Saussure's notions about the parochialism related to linguistics and semiotics [21] in order to detect the null credibility on-line in the university context. The automatic elimination of those members who have falsified information on-line, for instance, degrees, professional training, etc. or the inclusion of some digital stamp that indicates that there is untrue information. Annex #1: Information and Manipulation (Veracity = 0)

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These may be some of the alternativesavailable to get back on-line credibility in these kind of websites. It shouldn't be possible by the author to remove this stamp, that is to say, the author or star (showman/showwoman) of the on-line information. These metrics have made it clear that the pressure groups of the information and news sectors have settled down in the Internet. The digital newspapers are also evidence of this. Sometimes, the news which is closest to the interests of these power groups surpasses in reader numbers the news from the front page of the papers. For instance, information technological news in the digital version of "El País" (two lines) as compared to the news on the coverpage of the paper version (see Annex #1). This alleged reading record was reached in only 4 hours (233 punctuation –very interesting). These are illegal actions, manipulative of the real interest of the virtual readers, and they enjoy the unanimity that the Internet gives, when it comes to international law of digital information on-line [30].

5 Educative-Entrepreneurial Credibility: A Heuristic Assessment Next we present the first metrics of binary presence [1] for the heuristic assessment of the quality desing, credibility and veracity at the on-line educative-entrepreneurial credibility (in Annex #2 the results): Table 1. Metrics of binary presence –DECROL (Destroy CRedibility On-Line) − − − − − − − − − − − − − − − − − − − − − − −

In how many search engines does the subject or entity of study appear? Are there real pictures or drawings of the individual? It inserts photographs when he/she laughs sarcastically? Is he/she registered in one or more virtual communities? Is there contradictory information on-line regarding titling, for instance engineer instead of degree holder, or PhD instead of degree holder? Is the inclusion of comments anonymous or not? Is there a CV with the official European format on-line of the analyzed person? Are there friendship or family ties among the different links? Does he/she use more than one language for on-line promotion? Are the areas of interrogative interest more than 12? Does he/she use in the first place the number of employees under his command or professional training? Does he/she use the possessive adjective to refer to his/her collaborators as if they were objects? Has he/she completed any fast track master or PhD? Does he/she constantly change his/her Website? Does he/she attack other colleagues by copying the research issues or the obtained results? Does he/she carry out simultaneously works in the public and private sector? Does he/she send authoritarian messages in the personal websites on-line? Does he/she use the red color to send threatening messages to the students? Does he/she try to sell himself/herself through puff and self-flattering? Does he/she depict himself/herself as a work victim, with an exaggerated number of exams made without recognizing the work of your co-workers? In the publications the acknowledgments because of the made projects or written books surpass a total of 30 people? Does he/she you report about other issues, excluding hobbies, for instance, tastes in fashion, music, foods, travels, etc? Does he/she have inserted a statistics system of all those who enter your web?

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Annex #2: Results of the Heuristic Evaluation –Quality Design, Veracity and Credibility On-Line

6 Conclusions The metrics developed in the current work make it clear that the virtual communities generated from the free access college programs in the Web 2.0 have noncredible contents, which are scarcely transparent and seriously endanger the future development of the Internet. The textual information in the analyzed examples is false in 89% of the studied cases. It strikes one's attention that this information, with almost null transparency, stems from the industrial and college environment. In the case of the university there are references to the steady teaching staff in the colleges, and in the industrial case to the managers of the holdings of great international companies. A way to regain the veracity of the textual information is to accompany it with images information such as can be academic certificates. Another way consists in the semiotic analysis when applied to specific speech fields, in order to detect all the fallacies of the emitter of the on-line message, in this case of the web sites.

Acknowledgments The authors would like to thanks Alejandra Esglesia, Albert Malparithus, Cristiana Alfonso, Daniela Bostan, July Queenblue, Andrea Jeton, Silvano Finocchiaro, Stefano Sorette, Pierantonio Bonpajero, Giuliano Pucho, Mauro Granhampa, Federica Cachavacha, Clara Cremoni, Mark Noirchemisse for their helps.

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References 1. Cipolla-Ficarra, F.: Communication evaluation in multimedia: metrics and methodology. In: Proc. Human-Computer International, LEA, Mahwah, vol. 3, pp. 567–571 (2001) 2. Nielsen, J.: The Importance of Being Beautiful. IEEE Software 13, 92–94 (1996) 3. Dromey, G.: Cornering the Chimera. IEEE Software 13, 33–43 (1996) 4. Jeyaraj, A., Sauter, V.: An Empirical Investigation of the Effectiveness of Systems Modeling and Verification Tools. Communications of the ACM 50(6), 63–68 (2007) 5. Pfleeger, S.: Software Metrics: Progress after 25 Years? IEEE Software 25(6), 32–34 (2008) 6. Zittrain, J.: The End of the Generative Internet. Communications of the ACM 52, 18–20 (2009) 7. Cipolla-Ficarra, F.: An Evaluation of Meaning and Content Quality in Hypermedia. In: CD-ROM Proc. HCI International, Las Vegas (2005) 8. Cipolla-Ficarra, F.: Homepage and Communications: Quality Metrics. In: Proc. Eight International Conference on Distributed Multimedia Systems, KSI, San Francisco, pp. 202– 209 (2002) 9. Ander-egg, E.: Techniques of Social Investigation, 21th edn. Hvmanitas, Buenos Aires (1986) 10. Cobley, P.: Introducing Semiotics. Totem Books, Cambridge (2001) 11. Fenton, N.: Software Metrics: A Rigorous Approach. Chapman & Hall, Cambridge (1997) 12. Potts, C.: Software-Engineering Research Revisited. IEEE Software 10, 19–28 (1993) 13. Davis, A.: Fifteen Principles of Software Engineering. IEEE Software 11, 94–101 (1994) 14. Carey, D.: Is Software Quality Intrinsic, Subjective, or Relational? Software Engineering Notes 21, 74–75 (1996) 15. Ghezzi, C., Mandrioli, D., Jazayeri, M.: Fundamentals of Software Engineering. Prentice Hall, New Jersey (2003) 16. Pressman, R.: Software Engineering –A Practitioner’s Approach. McGraw-Hill, New York (2005) 17. Kit, E.: Software Testing in the Real World –Improving the Process. Addision Wesley, New York (1995) 18. Nielsen, J.: Usability Engineering. Academic Press, London (1993) 19. Cipolla-Ficarra, F.: Evaluation of Multimedia Components. In: Proc. IEEE Multimedia Conference on Multimedia Computing Systems, Ottawa, pp. 557–564 (1997) 20. Holdcroft, D.: Saussure –Signs, System & Arbitrariness. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1991) 21. Saussure, F.: Curso de LingüísticaGeneral. Losada, Buenos Aires (1982) 22. Aranguren, J.: La comunicación humana. Tecnos, Madrid (1986) 23. Zeng, D., Wang, F., Carley, K.: Social Computing. IEEE Intelligent Systems 22, 20–21 (2007) 24. Lamborghini, et al.: European Information Technology Observatory. EITO, Frankfurt (2001) 25. Tufte, E.: The Visual Display of Quantitavie Information. Graphics Press, Connecticut (2004) 26. Kahn, P., Lenk, K.: Principles of Typography for User Interface Design. Interactions 6, 15–29 (1998) 27. Wroblewski, L.: Web-Consicious Content Experiences. Interactions 15, 64–67 (2008) 28. Debray, R.: Vie et mort de l’image. Gallimard, Paris (1995) 29. Veron, E.: La semiosis social. Gedisa, Buenos Aires (1987) 30. Boyle, J.: Shamans, Software, and Spleens –Law and the Construction of the Information Society. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1997)

A Life-Like Agent Interface System with Second Life Avatars on the OpenSimulator Server Hiroshi Dohi1 and Mitsuru Ishizuka2 1

Dept. Information and Communication Engineering, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, University of Tokyo 2 Dept. Creative Informatics, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, University of Tokyo 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan [email protected]

Abstract. This paper describes a design of a life-like agent interface system with Second Life avatars on a 3D virtual world. We have implemented our prototype system on the OpenSimulator server, instead of the Linden Lab’s Second Life server. It is open source and a Second Life official viewer can connect it. Although it is still an alpha version and has various problems at present, it has many advantages. Our avatar can be controlled by event-driven. And the script is environment-independent since the other avatars might be changing the world. We have built up our portable experimental environment (our avatar controller, the OpenSimulator server, and the Second Life viewer) on an ordinary laptop PC (Windows Vista). It can run even if it is standalone, without an Internet connection.

1 Introduction An online 3D virtual world has grown explosively. For example, the Linden Lab’s “Second Life” has more than 15 million residents (registered users). [10] And many companies from different industries have entered the Second Life world aiming at major business opportunities. In spite of these situations, their evaluation to the Second Life is modest. We can easily find many “desolate” towns in the Second Life world. There are glittering shops; however no people often exist there. Internet services have allowed removing barriers of time and location. Unmanned Web servers can offer much information for 24 hours / 7 days. On the other hand, a 3D virtual world simulates our real life, and a user operates each avatar. That is, it may cause the simple problem again; each area has own “activity” time and hot spots. It may be helpful to create an autonomous avatar working every time in the 3D World. Until now many life-like agent interface systems have been developed in various research labs. We developed a life-like agent interface system with a realistic face and speech dialog function, called Visual Software Agent – II (VSA-II) [2], and learned much about agent (avatar) control techniques through this research. It worked well in our Lab, but it was difficult to become popular. It used a special agent model and required some complicated setup. And it didn’t have any easy tools to create various contents and environments. In other words, it was missing a common platform. A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 182–190, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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Fig. 1. Visual Software Agent-II Interface System (VSA-II). The girl is a 3D CG virtual agent (avatar) with the realistic face generated from one photograph. The picture is texture-mapped onto a 3D deformable wire-frame model. And then the agent is composed with a live background image (right). A user can talk with her like a videophone.

Our research goal is to realize autonomous agents on 3D virtual world. We think that the Second Life platform and our life-like agent techniques can complement each other to build a useful new system. In the Second Life world, we can create and customize anything with available easy-to-use building tools. And the residents in Second Life can install and use the client viewer on Windows and Linux environment. Ullrich et al. have developed new client software for Second Life that controls virtual agents. They make use of the Multimodal Presentation Markup Language 3D (MPML3D) to define the behavior of the agents [11]. Daden Ltd. has developed Second Life based avatar chatbots, “Abi Carver” – a virtual receptionist and “Halo Rossini” – an autonomous research bot. These are commercial products. Daden Ltd. has long experience of chatbots and applies it within the Second Life [1]. We have developed a prototype of a life-like agent interface system with Second Life avatars. The Second Life official server is a commercial product. It is hosted at the Linden lab, and many users (Second Life residents) access it simultaneously through an Internet connection. We adopt the OpenSimulator server [8] instead of the Linden Lab’s server. We can connect it as well using the Second Life official viewer. Although the server is still an alpha version and has various problems at present, we think it has many advantages for our research purpose. Ullrich has also attempted to integrate MPML3D with the OpenSimulator [12]. Our prototype system is clearly another implementation.

2 OpenSimulator Server and OpenMetaverse Library The OpenSimulator [8] is an open source 3D application server. It can be used to create a 3D virtual world, and we can access it with the Linden Lab’s official client viewer. The OpenSimulator is not just another implementation of the Second Life server. It includes much experimental extension.

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Linden Lab’s World (grid)

Other worlds

Linden Lab’s Official Second Life Server

OpenSimulator Server (OpenSim)

Good

Fair

Linden Lab’s Official Client Viewer

?? OpenMetaverse library Client Software

Fig. 2. OpenSimulator server and OpenMetaverse library

The OpenMetaverse library [7] (its former name is libsecondlife [5]) is another open source project in order to study how Second Life works. It is also used to develop original client software for the Second Life official server. Since both the OpenSimulator and the OpenMetaverse library are still on alpha version at this time and include many problems, it is not necessarily recommended to combine these softwares. We think, however, this combination may be very attractive for us. They have many advantages, especially for research purposes, such as shown below. • Open sources. Hence we can access and investigate internal codes. • It can run in standalone mode on a local PC. It does not necessarily require high-speed network connection. We can easily build private environment. • Free of charge. We can use a free land about 16 acres for any activities on the OpenSimulator server. It also requires no service charges to upload some materials. On the other hand, we sometimes encounter various problems when using the OpenSimulator. Therefore we have sometimes to apply our own patches in order to avoid the problems / bugs.

3 Life-Like Agent Interface System on 3D Virtual World 3.1 System Configuration Fig. 3 shows our prototype system configuration. It consists of an avatar controller module, the OpenSimulator server, and at least one Second Life viewer.

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“guest-1” avatar OpenSimulator “guest-n” avatar Server “cast” avatar “guest-0(privilege)” avatar (optional) Avatar manager Chat engine

Script engine

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Linden Lab’s Official Client Viewer (Watch the scene, and direct control)

Avatar controller

On Windows XP/Vista (Standalone) Fig. 3. System configuration

In this paper, we call the computer-controlled avatar the “cast avatar”, and other avatars that controlled directly by humans the “guest avatar”. Avatar Controller. The avatar controller controls the cast avatar automatically instead of a human. It is one of Second Life client software, and can log in to the server like the Second Life viewer. The server cannot distinguish the avatar controller with a human. The avatar controller consists of following functional blocks. 1. OpenMetaverse library The avatar controller can access the OpenSimulator server through the OpenMetaverse library. 2. Avatar manager The avatar manager controls the avatar in cooperation with both the chat engine and the script engine. 3. Environment manager The environment manager accesses the server periodically and gets avatars information in the world. It also gets the inventory list and resolves the object name and UUID. 4. Chat engine The chat engine receives a text from other avatars through a chat channel, and replies to it. It also invokes scripts for a presentation.

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5. Script engine The script engine manages various predefined scripts. Second Life Viewer(s). Our avatar controller module doesn’t have an own viewer. In order to watch the cast avatar in the scene, we use a Second Life official viewer. The viewer joins the Second Life world as a guest avatar with another login name. That is, we need at least two login accounts. Then we can watch the cast avatar and the scene from the back of the guest avatar. The viewer is optional. The cast avatar appears on other client viewers when the avatar controller joins (logged-in) the Second Life world even if it doesn’t have own viewer. Thus, the avatar controller can work on an old PC with modest graphics performance. Privilege Avatar. A privilege avatar is one of guest avatars, and uses a special login name. This avatar can also control the chat avatar and objects directly through a chat channel. It is mainly used for debugging purpose. Other guest avatars ask some actions to the cast avatar through the chat channel, but their requests are not necessarily accepted. 3.2 Implementation The OpenSimulator server supports multiple platforms, i.e. Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. We have implemented and tested our prototype system on Windows XP/Vista. Second Life has excellent 3D graphics. Although it is said that the Linden lab’s official viewer requires both high-performance graphics card and high-speed networks, a recent mid-performance PC may be able to run it since Windows Vista has advanced graphics interface. We have built up one of our experimental environments (the avatar controller, the OpenSimulator server, and the official viewer) on an ordinary laptop PC. Its specification is, Windows Vista, Core2 Duo CPU 1.6GHz, GM965 express chipset, and 2GB memory. It uses an integrated graphics controller on the GM965 chipset and has no high-performance GPU. It can work even if it doesn’t have Internet connection. Fig. 4 shows a screen snapshot of our experimental environment on Windows XP/Vista. 3.3 Environment-Independent Script It is important that scripts for the avatar control are environment-independent and reusable. These are simple examples of our “greeter” scripts. (Low-level scripts.) Turnto Moveto Anim Say

$guest $guest HELLO “Hi, $guest”

Display

img1,screen1

; turn to the guest avatar. ; step forward to the guest avatar. ; HELLO action. ; say “Hi, (guest name)” ; through the chat channel. ; display “img1” on “screen1”.

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Second Life viewer

cast avatar guest avatar Avatar controller

Fig. 4. A screen snapshot of our experimental environment on Windows XP/Vista. There are three windows, the avatar controller (bottom-left), OpenSimulator (top-left), and the Second Life viewer (right). In the Second Life viewer, there are two large displays behind the cast avatar, and their images are changed along the presentation.

The argument “$guest” is a variable. The environment manager binds guest avatar information to “$guest” at the execution time. The cast avatar cannot know who comes in advance. The environment changes as time goes on. This binding may change dynamically. The “$guest” has information of one avatar at most, however it has multiple meanings. In case of “Turnto / Moveto” instructions, “$guest” means the location of the guest avatar. It is replaced with the guest avatar name in “Say” instruction. The “Display” instruction displays an image [img1] on an object [screen1]. It is actually a texture mapping to the object. The words “img1” and “screen1” are just names of a texture image and a primitive object, respectively. Because of the restriction of the Second Life server, the image should be uploaded beforehand. The “screen1” is mapped to the object on the 3D world at the execution time of the script. The script doesn’t know the shape of the “screen1”. When the object is boxtype, it looks like a projector screen or a large display. If it is cylinder-type, it may look like an advertisement pillar.

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4 Discussion 4.1 Life-Like Agent Interface System on the Second Life World Lasting World. The life-like agent interface system on the Second Life world is different from conventional one in several respects. One of the remarkable differences is that the Second Life world is lasting beyond the server down. A conventional life-like agent interface system, in general, starts with the new (empty) state every time. The first task is to set up the environment using an initialize script, e.g. avatar’s start position, avatar’s appearance, background, lighting, small objects around avatars, etc. It can replicate avatar interaction since it “resets” the environment at every startup time. In the Second Life world, once an object is created and put on the world, it remains there until someone deletes it explicitly. The OpenSimulator server has a link with a database engine, and restores the previous environment data from the database at the startup time. It can take over the environment even if the server restarts. In addition, someone (avatars) might be changing the world, e.g. put on a new object or take away an old one, while your avatar is logged off. It may cause some problems for avatar interaction that the avatar cannot assume the environment exactly. Therefore, the script should be environment-independent. All objects, e.g. prim (primitive object), avatar, texture, etc, have own Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) in the Second Life world. Many of the OpenMetaverse libraries APIs use UUID directly in order to identify objects. This is, however, inconvenient and frustrating to write a script because UUID consists of a 16-byte number (32 hexadecimal digits). In our script, we use a name instead of UUID. Both the OpenSimulator server and the OpenMetaverse library use UUID. If the script includes UUID, it cannot be reusable. The copied object has another UUID different from original one. The environment manager has an inventory list on the world, and resolves the name and UUID. The name is not necessarily unique in the 3D world since the owner of the object can give arbitrarily one. If some objects have the same name on the inventory list, the system chooses one object randomly. If it cannot find the named object, the script will be ignored. Avatar Information. In the Second Life world, we can get various types of avatar information from the server, e.g. avatar’s location and direction, etc. It seems slightly tricky; however it is useful information to establish natural communication. While it is easy for a human to watch the avatar’s behavior, the avatar cannot get any information from the scene image. In a conventional interface system, it assumes that a user takes a seat in front of a computer display. The avatar waits a start cue from the user for the interaction, e.g. clicking a mouse, or typing a keyboard. It usually has no way to know that the user gets up and walks away. Once the avatar starts a presentation, it will carry out until the end even if nobody watches it. In our system, the cast avatar is controlled by event-driven. All avatars can walk around freely in the world. Its communication starts in three ways as follows.

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1. The guest avatar talks to the cast avatar. 2. The cast avatar searches the guest avatar explicitly. 3. The guest avatar is approaching to the cast avatar. In case 1, the guest avatar initiates the communication. This is an ordinary way. When the guest avatar talks to the cast avatar through a chat channel, it raises a “chat” event. And it invokes the chat-event-handler with both the guest name and text strings. The cast avatar turns to the guest avatar, and then replies. In case 2, in contrast, the cast avatar initiates the communication. First, the cast avatar searches the guest avatar explicitly. If it finds the guest avatar, the cast avatar talks to the guest avatar. If the guest avatar is far away, the cast avatar may step forward to before talking to. If both avatars don’t initiate the communication and the guest avatar is approaching to the cast avatar within a predefined distance, the event manager raises an “avatar location” event once. This is case 3, in which the event invokes the avatarlocation-event-handler with the location, the distance, and the direction of the guest avatar. It is important to know the direction of the guest avatar. When the guest avatar steps forward and within the distance, the cast avatar says “hi”. But the cast avatar says “excuse me,” if the guest avatar steps back. The direction also shows avatar’s interest. If the cast avatar talks to but the guest avatar looks another direction, the guest avatar has another interest. The “avatar location” event is also raised when the guest avatar walks away. Then the cast avatar will abort the presentation and say “good-bye”. 4.2 OpenSimulator vs. Second Life Official Server The OpenSimulator is suitable especially for research purpose because it is open source and we can get free land. Since it is the private server, we can have any experiences without bad influence to others. In the Second Life world, having own land is essential for any activities in practice. In the official server, it costs to get and maintain own land, although a free membership account is available. We cannot build any building on a public space. In addition, the official server restricts the number of objects and the size of scripts. They depend on the area size of the owned land. If we built a complex building, it may require a broad land. On the other hand, we have to manage the OpenSimulator server. The number of the OpenSimulator source codes files written in C# is more than 1,000, and the number of the OpenMetaverse library is about 500. Some functions are not implemented yet and some bugs remain. The development version is updated every day. Some problems are fixed and new experimental functions are added daily, and sometimes they bring new bugs. It requires a certain level of skills to fix bugs.

5 Conclusion In this paper, we have described our life-like agent interface system with Second Life avatars on the OpenSimulator server. Although now the OpenSimulator currently has

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some problems, it has many advantages compared with the Second Life official server, especially for research purpose. A prototype system is working on a laptop PC with Windows Vista. We hope it will be contribute as a test bed for developing an autonomous agent on the virtual 3D space.

References 1. Daden limited, http://www.daden.co.uk 2. Dohi, H., Ishizuka, M.: Life-like Agent Interface on a User-tracking Active Display. In: Smith, M.J., Salvendy, G., Harris, D., Koubek, R.J. (eds.) Usability Evaluation and Interface Design: Cognitive Engineering, Intelligent Agents and Virtual Reality, vol. 1, pp. 534–538 (2001) 3. Friedman, D., Steed, A., Slater, M.: Spatial Social Behavior in Second Life. In: Pelachaud, C., Martin, J.-C., André, E., Chollet, G., Karpouzis, K., Pelé, D. (eds.) IVA 2007. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 4722, pp. 252–263. Springer, Heidelberg (2007) 4. Kamel Boulos, M.N., Hetherington, L.: Wheeler. S.: Second Life: an overview of the potential of 3-D virtual worlds in medical and health education. Health Information and Libraries Journal 24(4), 233–245 (2007) 5. libsecondlife www page, http://www.libsecondlife.org 6. Nagaoka, T., Watanabe, S., Sakurai, K., Kunieda, E., Watanabe, S., Taki, M., Yamanaka, Y.: Development of Realistic High-Resolution Whole-Body Voxel Models of Japanese Adult Male and Female of Average Height and Weight, and Application of Models to Radio-Frequency Electromagnetic-Field Dosimetry. Physics in Medicine and Biology 49, 1– 15 (2004) 7. OpenMetaverse Foundation, http://www.openmetaverse.org 8. OpenSimulator www page, http://opensimulator.org 9. Quax, P., Monsieurs, P., Jehaes, T., Lamotte, W.: Using Autonomous Avatars to Simulate a Large-Scale Multi-User Networked Virtual Environment. In: International Conference on Virtual-Reality Continuum and its Application in Industry (VRCAI 2004), pp. 88–94 (2004) 10. Second Life official site, http://secondlife.com 11. Ullrich, S., Bruegmann, K., Prendinger, H., Ishizuka, M.: Extending MPML3D to Second Life. In: Prendinger, H., Lester, J.C., Ishizuka, M. (eds.) IVA 2008. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 5208, pp. 281–288. Springer, Heidelberg (2008) 12. Ullrich, S., Prendinger, H., Ishizuka, M.: MPML3D: Agent Authoring Language for Virtual Worlds. In: International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology (ACE 2008), pp. 134–137. ACM Press, New York (2008)

Multi-dimensional Moderation in Online Communities: Experiences with Three Norwegian Sites Gheorghita Ghinea1, Bendik Bygstad2, and Christoph Schmitz1 1

School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics, Brunel University, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, London, United Kingdom 2 The Norwegian School of Information Technology, Schweigaardsgt. 14, 0185 Oslo, Norway [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. Online-communities and user contribution of content have become widespread over the last years. This has triggered new and innovative web concepts, and perhaps also changed the power balance in the society. Many large corporations have embraced this way of creating content to their sites, which has raised concerns regarding abusive content. Previous research has identified two main different types of moderation; one where the users have most of the control as in Wikipedia, and the other where the owners control everything. The media industry, in particular, are reluctant to loose the control of their content by using the member-maintained approach even if it has proven to cost less and be more efficient. This research proposes to merge these two moderation types through a concept called multidimensional moderation. To test this concept, two prototype solutions have been implemented and tested in large-scale discussion groups. The results from this study show that a combination of owner and user moderation may enhance the moderation process. Keywords: moderation, online communities, social media, prototype.

1 Introduction Utilizing users to create both content and increase activity has become an important factor for many web sites. The concept has been implemented and used in ecommerce solutions, online newspaper editions and pure community concepts. While online communities have several merits, they also present challenges for the owners of these websites and the users themselves. These issues span from vandalism, harassment, false and potentially harmful advice to copyrighted material. The research shows evidence that these problems have already been present in the early days of online communication (Foley, 1989). A number of solutions have been proposed and deployed to deal with these issues. To this end, Preece (2004) argues that establishing a good etiquette and a positive environment is the ultimate solution for reducing these types of anti-social contributions from the users. In particular she recommends the use of moderators to achieve this. She also expresses a need to develop better processes that combine human-oriented approaches with good technical solutions. A.A. Ozok and P. Zaphiris (Eds.): Online Communities, LNCS 5621, pp. 191–196, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

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Most of the research done so far, on how to create an efficient moderation mechanism, is based on sites that are of a member-maintained character. The aim of the study reported here is to investigate the balance when combining owner-maintained and member-maintained moderation. This will hopefully answer a need in the industry to continue ensuring the quality of content, yet still utilize the possibility of letting users do part of the moderation.

2 Related Work Within online communities, issues with users misbehaving have also been reported several times in existing literature. Preece (2004), for instance, describes community users being tired of horrid comments, observing that it only takes one aggressive, insulting person to ruin a community for everyone else. Moreover, differences in the cultural origins of users strengthen the risk for one person’s joke to be interpreted as an insult by another. Cosley et al. (2005) also state that not all contributions to a community are valuable. They identify the motivational component behind users contributing with low quality content, as being the response a user receives from a post. Predictions are made that reducing responses would take away some of this motivation. Analogies are made with the New York anti-graffiti campaign, which was based on quick removal of vandalism, and with Wikipedia, which takes an average of 3 minutes to correct a page deletion. This implies that taking quick action is somewhat logical and has a great effect on reducing the motivation behind these anti-social actions. From a different perspective, users being treated poorly online and the fear of aggressive responses is also one of the reasons identified by Preece et al. (2003) for users not contributing to online forums. Moreover, another concern identified in online communities is that of false information; however studies, in health groups for instance, have shown that the groups themselves correct the false information within a period of time (Jadad et al., 2006). Inevitably, all of these issues point towards importance of sound moderation to a community as a whole, and this position is confirmed by Preece (2004), who argues that the ultimate solution for reducing such unwanted artefacts of user online behaviour is to establish a good online (n)etiquette and a positive environment. Good moderation is one of the elements mentioned as a mean to achieve this. She calls for a focus on etiquette, and online role models, and one type of role model mentioned is the moderator. However, her work also confirms that moderating can be demanding and timeconsuming, as the busier community gets, the more effort from moderators is needed. However it is uncertain if this argument presumes owner-maintained moderation. Efficient moderation can only be undertaken if there is adequate tool-set support. Among several sets of common technically oriented tools used by the communities to aid this process are ones which enable moderators to identify, approve, reject, delete, edit or to request the sender to edit his or her messages. Search and visualisation tools are other tools that are presented. They include rating of users that contribute in message boards and ratings of the most valuable contributors. A fourth tool/mechanism is given by rating and reward schemes where the users themselves rate other users. In calling for better processes and tools for ensuring good online etiquette, Preece (2004) argues that the way forward is to develop processes that bring together the best human-oriented approaches supported by good, labour-saving, technical solutions.

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3 Study Description The study being described in this paper took place in Norway and three sites agreed to participate in it: Ungdomsportalene.no is an online youth community based on the same social networking principles as Facebook and MySpace.com, with a general message board as a public add-on feature. The focus here is communication; users get their own profile, can send messages, and write in each other guestbooks, in addition to participating on message boards and commenting on news articles. Kvinneguiden.no originally started as an online bridal magazine with a message board to discuss wedding topics. Over time it has transformed into a general online lifestyle magazine for (generally) female audiences. It has a news desk publishing articles for this segment and a message board. Diskusjon.no is the second largest message board in Norway (Big-Boards.com, 2007). It started out as a website with tests and articles regarding hi-tech computer hardware, as well as a message board where the users could discuss different issues, tests and products. They have now grown larger in terms of target audience and types of categories covered, which now include digital cameras, computer games and mobile phones. The consensus at all three sites participating in our study was that candidates for user-moderators should be found among their loyal members with a consistent level of posts, and that, moreover, such users should not have had any records in the abuse register over a certain period of time. This, as it was felt that this category of netizens is the most likely ambassador of online etiquette. Lastly, we used Speed of Moderation as the metric for our study. Two prototypes incorporating user-moderation were implemented and ported to the three case sites of our study during March – June 2007. Both prototypes were based on the concept of multidimensional moderation, derived from the Slashdot and MovieLens experiences (Lampe and Johnston, 2005). The idea is that the first dimension is represented by the users in their separate roles, of owners and members. An extra dimension is then given by experienced users, who give feedback to other users in terms of a common understanding of what constitutes good or bad posts. Whilst the underlying moderation principle was the same in both prototypes (experienced users reporting potential violating posts), what was different between the two versions was the number of negative reports before a post was suspended pending a final decision from the owner-moderators. Thus, whilst in the first prototype a post had to have had three such reports (consultation with the owners of the three sites involved in our study revealed worries that waiting for a higher number of reports would have in unacceptable negative impact on the moderation speed), in the second prototype this threshold was lowered to two.

4 Results All results obtained using the two developed prototypes are compared to two baseline measurements obtained during the 28 days of February 2007. These consist of the average time, expressed in minutes, from an offending post being written to it being deleted, as well as the total number of such deleted posts on the three sites participating in our study.

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4.1 First Prototype: Results When investigating the results from the first implementation at Kvinneguiden.no (Figure1) one may see that the average time taken to delete an offending post decreased by 752 minutes compared to the baseline measurements. The same trend is also seen at Diskusjon.no, where there is a decrease in the average time such a post is online before it is deleted. However, the number of posts deleted at Diskusjon.no as a direct consequence of the prototype was only four. This hinted at the possibility that the number of negative flags before a post was deleted was possibly set too high for this particular site. On Ungdomsportalene.no, though, the results are mixed when compared to the baseline. Thus, the average time taken to delete such a post actually increased (from 2220 minutes to 3016 minutes). Nonetheless, those posts that were removed as a direct result of the implemented prototype, had been done so in the fastest time of all sites in our study (only 267 minutes compared to 1889 minutes on Kvinneguiden.no and 4821 minutes on Diskusjon.no). 4.2 Second Prototype: Results When evaluating the results from the first prototype, it became clear that the number of notices from the users was too low on two of the sites, with few posts receiving

Fig. 1. Average time (mins.) to delete posts as a result of prototype 1

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more than two notices from users. Indeed, it became apparent that there was a rather large possibility that a potentially offending post would not have had enough time to receive a sufficient number of notices to suspend it under the new regime before being filtered by the old (owner-led) reporting system. Thus, a second prototype was implemented, where the number of notices needed before any action was taken on a potentially violating post was lowered to two. Looking at the effect of the second prototype at Kvinneguiden.no (Figure 2), one may see that the average time taken to delete a post actually went down (by exactly 500 minutes). Moreover, while combined owner-user moderation affected nine posts in March, it only affected five in May, notwithstanding the reduction of the number of notices needed for a post to be suspended under the second prototype. This may be explained by the fact that the time taken to delete a post using traditional owner-led moderation had actually witnessed a dramatic reduction between March and May (from 1226 minutes to 767 minutes). Thus, it may well be that 767 minutes was not a long enough time-span for a post to gather the minimum number of two notices required for it to be suspended using combined owner-user moderation. A different pattern is seen at Ungdomsportalene.no where the average time taken to delete a post decreased down to 2530 minutes, and at Diskusjon.no, where the average time taken to delete a post also decreased by 106 minutes when compared with the first prototype.

Fig. 2. Average time (mins.) to delete posts as a result of prototype 2

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5 Conclusions This paper reports the results of a study which examined the impact of multidimensional (i.e. combined owner-user) moderation on three Norwegian case sites. Whilst our work is inevitably limited by the context in which it took place, the participation of three leading bulletin boards of an IT-intensive country such as Norway in the study has offered some interesting and valuable insights into this particular type of moderation. Our results seem to suggest that, generally speaking, in the case of a post needing two reports for it to be deleted, user involvement does speed up the moderation process – either through posts being deleted more quickly as a direct result of userreporting, or, indeed, user involvement seemingly acting as a catalyst for ownermoderations to do a faster moderation of posts. Nonetheless, there are exceptions to these observations within our results and one would need to examine the impact of user involvement over a longer period of time in order to obtain a better picture of the trends concerned.

References 1. Cosley, D., Frankowski, D., Kiesler, S., Terveen, L., Riedl, J.: How oversight improves member-maintained communities. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, Portland, Oregon, USA, pp. 11–20 (2005) 2. Foley, T.J.: Managing Campus-Wide Information Systems: Issues and Problems. In: Proceedings of the 17th annual ACM SIGUCCS conference on User Services, Bethesda, Maryland, USA, pp. 169–174 (1989) 3. Jadad, A.R., Enkin, M.W., Glouberman, S., Groff, P., Stern, A.: Are virtual communities good for our health? British Medical Journal 332(7547), 925–926 (2006) 4. Lampe, C., Johnston, E.: Follow the (Slash) dot: Effects of feedback on New Members in an Online Community. In: Proceedings of the 2005 international ACM SIGGROUP conference on Supporting group work, Sanibel Island, Florida, USA, pp. 11–20 (2005) 5. Preece, J.: Etiquette online: From nice to necessary. Communications of the ACM 47(4), 56–61 (2004) 6. Preece, J., Nonnecke, B., Andrews, D.: The top five reasons for lurking: improving community experiences for everyone. Computers in Human Behavior 20(2), 201–223 (2003)

Modding as Rating Behavior in Virtual Communities: The Case of Rooster Teeth Productions Stefan Haefliger, Philip Reichen, Peter M. Jäger, and Georg von Krogh ETH Zurich, Department of Management, Technology and Economics, Kreuzplatz 5, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland {shaefliger,philipreichen,pejaeger,gvkrogh}@ethz.ch

Abstract. Virtual communities that make use of social network site features blend known applications of virtual communities. These communities can be simultaneously social and commercial, organization sponsored and heavily relying on member interaction. We explore modding behavior that allows members to evaluate other members’ contributions both with numerical value and qualitative rating. We show that approximately half of all members received mods on their comments, that the majority of mods given were positive, and that the amount of mods received for a comment was related to the position of the comment in the community website’s thread. Contributing to the emerging literature of social network sites and virtual communities, we discuss implications for theory, future research and management. Keywords: Virtual Communities, Communities of Consumption, Social Network Sites, Machinima.

1 Introduction In a recent MIT Sloan Management Review article, Bernoff and Li [4] suggested “People are connecting with one another in increasing numbers, thanks to blogs, social networking sites like MySpace and countless communities across the Web. Some companies are learning to turn this growing groundswell to their advantage.” With close to one billion1 people connected to the Internet, firms not only face unprecedented opportunities but also considerable threats in such a digital economy. Numerous firms have set up “virtual communities,” a term coined by Rheingold [19]. These communities are, mostly but not exclusively, online spaces in which customers and non-customers can interact with the firm and each other. Porter [17] defines virtual communities as an “aggregation of individuals or business partners who interact around a shared interest, where the interaction is at least partially supported and/or mediated by technology and guided by some protocols or norms.” (see also Porter and Donthu [18]). Virtual communities can have a positive impact on firm performance. According to one study, revenues have increased more than 50% for some firms [2] that have 1

Source: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2698

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managed these communities well. In addition members of virtual communities remain twice as loyal to and buy almost twice as often from the sponsoring firm. Armstrong and Hagel [3] found that “companies that create strong online communities will command customer loyalty to a degree hitherto undreamed of and, consequently, will generate strong economic returns”. In addition, virtual communities can shift bargaining power from suppliers to customers [13]; spread positive word-of-mouth [9]; help firms learn from customers [11]; increase website traffic [10]; raise entry barriers for competitors [10]; facilitate product development efforts [14]; and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty [21]. Recently, social network sites caught the attention of users, firms, and researchers [5]. Sometimes labeled “Web 2.0” coined by Tim O'Reilly2, social network sites (SNS) emphasize member profiles and direct interaction and links between members, provide content ratings, and enable rating behavior [7, 12, 16]. “Modding” (derived from “moderation”) refers to a type of trust rating that “allows members […] to evaluate other users’ reviews with numerical ratings” [12]. Modding is a direct feedback mechanism between community members. Both streams of research on virtual communities and social network sites belong to the field of computer-mediated communication. The combination of features within one online environment triggered new forms of behavior that warrant analysis. If virtual communities make use of SNS features the combination results in a new type of virtual community that cannot easily be understood by the frameworks used to classify virtual communities [17]. A virtual community that makes use of social software features may be organization sponsored, yet dominated by direct interaction among community members, hence, social and at the same time commercial. SNS features offer communication structures that make member-to-member communication easier and more frequent. Moderated communication makes members become more socially embedded in the virtual community [1, 7]. The availability of new communication structures that allow direct feedback on contributions calls for research exploring rating behavior. Specifically, modding of member comments by other members extends the communication options usually associated with virtual communities and call for more research on mass communication in virtual communities [20]. Schoberth and colleagues [20] found, among other things, heterogeneity in community participants' activities. Scholars have also called for more quantitative research using behavioral data from virtual communities [6, 7]. Thus, we ask: how do members of a virtual community make use of modding?

2 Methodology We conducted a large quantitative study on the virtual community of Rooster Teeth Productions, a Machinima Production company creating and publishing animated videos made in computer games. We present the sample case as well as data gathering and analysis in this section. 2

For more details: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/ what-is-web-20.html

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2.1 Sample Case Producing animated videos was previously restricted to media professionals because of the high cost of software packages. These restrictions led innovative users to produce animated shorts with computer games by using the underlying 3D render technology thus creating Machinima. Game engines were relatively cheap compared to traditional production tools. In addition, most of the in-game assets like characters and landscapes were already at hand, which reduced the overall production time for an animated movie significantly. Rooster Teeth Productions is one of the most successful Machinima companies (von Krogh et al., 2009). They sell sponsorship subscriptions, merchandising, and DVDs and reach a large user community. The latter, in fact, was triggered early on when Rooster Teeth introduced an elaborate community platform offering SNS features: “… well, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the community site that we have made … or at least at the time we made it … had features that weren’t that present in other places, we were a little ahead of the curve at that time, and so there were a lot of cool features that people were interested in. This is like before MySpace really had taken off … So we’ve always tried to give it a little functionality, things they do in a community website they’re interested in making … you know, interested in being a part of it. We tried to make the website almost like a game.” Geoff Ramsey, Rooster Teeth Productions Rooster Teeth Productions was founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, and Gus Sorola in Austin, Texas. Their first and most widely known Machinima production was Red vs. Blue (RvB), a show featuring two teams of soldiers in the game Halo who are stationed in an isolated canyon where their sole purpose is to fight each other. The popularity of the show that first aired April 1st, 2003 profited from the humorous dialogues between the different characters. While the comedy was first aimed at other gamers, a broad audience swiftly appreciated RvB. To date, Rooster Teeth has released five seasons of RvB ‘The Blood Gulch Chronicles,’ and one season of RvB ‘Reconstruction’ comprising 20 to 25 episodes each as well as several spin-off mini-series. Over the years, shooting the movies has advanced from the game Halo 1 on the xBox to the latest release Halo 3 running on xBox 360 with overwhelming new possibilities in graphics and artistic composition. In addition, most of their merchandising articles were related to RvB, which remained the flagship show. Apart from RvB, Rooster Teeth produced several other shows including ‘The Strangerhood’, ‘P.A.N.I.C.S.’, or ‘1-800-Magic’, using different game engines to shoot the films. Each series had its own website on which the videos were shown, important announcements from Rooster Teeth staff members published, and where fans discussed topics around the show. The discussion took place where the videos were viewed – especially while viewers waited for the download to finish or directly after watching videos online. Users did not have to actively go to a website to express their thoughts about the product as is the case with most websites of communities of consumption. Due to a steadily growing fan base, over the last four years the segment of the RvB community actively contributing to discussions grew to 42,000 members who posted

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Fig. 1. Age Distribution of Members Commenting on Red vs. Blue

more than 400,000 comments on 165 episodes. Members could choose their level of engagement. They could be mere “consumers” who just watched the videos and/or bought merchandising products without interacting, or they could interact with other community members. The Rooster Teeth community cannot be neatly classified as either VC or SNS since different users engaged differently. With 16% of all members, the 18 year olds represented the largest group (see figure 1). The average age of members was 21 years with a standard deviation of eight years. The age distribution was biased and positively skewed by the fact that members who didn’t enter any age were listed as zero, and that few members who apparently entered the maximum age of 88 years. 93% of the members were under 30 and the bulk was either in high school or college-age. Tracing the amount of members over four years, we found that the community had been growing at different speeds, but steadily in volume in a nearly linear fashion (r square= 0.95). There were four visible gaps in signups, which were located in the first two years of its existence with the longest gap lasting for two weeks (see figure 2). The amount of comments per episode varied from a minimum of 58 to a maximum of more than 28,000 with an average of 2,400 comments per video. Five different sections could be identified with a strong cyclicity given that the amount of comments increased notably during seasons: Section 1 represents the comments to Season 1 and 2 that were aired on a former version of the Rooster Teeth community website. Those comments were not migrated to the new and more elaborate software

Fig. 2. Accumulated Daily Sign-ups of Members over the last four Years

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infrastructure and therefore the amount of comments was low in section 1. Section 2 followed the launch of the new website before Season 3 leading to a steep increase in comments eventually coming to a slowdown after the end of the season. Section 3 was the most commented section ever covering Season 4. Half of the total commentspopulation was found in this section. This finding does not imply that all comments were made during Season 4 since it was possible to comment on archived videos. Section 4 and 5 covering Season 5 and the start of RvB ‘Reconstruction’ respectively contain again relatively little commented products. The basic units of analysis were the RvB-related comments made by members and the mod-points associated with the comments. These were displayed chronologically below the corresponding video similar to YouTube with the difference that the comments in our case were ordered by ascending post date (i.e. the oldest post was displayed first). All comments and the associated mod-points were publicly accessible. In order to leave a comment one had to be signed in as community member. Member accounts were free of charge and did not have to be activated by a moderator or an administrator. Hence, members were able to sign up at any time and start posting. Comment modding is the act of rating another member’s comment(s). Synonyms are ‘rating’, ‘giving mod-points’ or simply ‘modding’. In the Rooster Teeth community each modding of a comment consists of a combination of two values: a numerical value and a qualitative rating. The numerical value is either ‘+1’ or ‘-1’. Each numerical value has to be combined with one of four qualitative ratings from which users can choose in a drop down menu. The four qualitative ratings corresponding to ‘+1’ are ‘Cool, Ditto, Funny and Zing!3’. The four qualitative ratings corresponding to ‘-1’ are ‘WTF, Lame, Flamebait4 and Noob5’. Mod points could only be given once per user and per comment. A user who has one account can mod each comment by another user only once. The mod is then publicly displayed next to the comment. 2.2 Data Collection and Analysis For the purpose of the quantitative data analysis, we built up a database dedicated to the case under study. All available data from the Rooster Teeth RvB website concerning the episodes, the members, and the comments was automatically fetched during a three-day period from September 20th to September 22nd, 2008 and transferred to a local MySQL database for further analysis. To be granted full access to all the data, we obtained a sponsorship account. After screening and evaluating the data, we discovered some 3

4

5

Three possible definitions for our purpose: 1) New term for “owned”, said after saying something witty to someone in an insulting manner. 2) If someone makes an absolutely awful joke, or says something completely random or pointless. One member of the group may "zing" them. 3) A noise made when a person, place, or thing is discriminated against in a humorous manner. Source: www.urbandictionary.com A message posted to a public Internet discussion group, such as a forum, newsgroup or mailing list, with the intent of provoking an angry response (a "flame") or argument over a topic the troll often has no real interest in. Source: www.wikipedia.org Short for “Newbie”. A slang term for a newcomer to online gaming or an Internet activity. Source: www.wikipedia.org

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missing data sets that had been left out due to server maintenance by Rooster Teeth. For this, we obtained the missing data sets on October 2nd. All data entries in the local database indicate their fetch time stamp to check for possible inconsistency. We rebuilt the relational database structure of the original website using a separate table for episodes, members, and comments which were linked by their dataset identification number ‘id’ that remained the same as the online PHP web queries. We fetched a total of 42,771 member accounts and 483,272 comments with their corresponding information. Out of all 737,000 registered Rooster Teeth community members6, only those who at least commented once on a video of RvB were considered. Cleaning the fetched data sets from invalid information (either comments which link to a NULL member id or comments which link to empty member profiles) left us with 406,173 comments and 41,016 user profiles (see Table 1). SPSS, Excel and the phpMyAdmin interface of the local server were used for the quantitative data analysis.

3 Results Almost half of all members posted at least one comment, which has been modded, but only 15% of all comments were modded (see Table 1). One possible explanation could be information overload [7]. Members cannot browse the overwhelming amounts of comments that are posted. Observing modding behavior in more detail, we find that 60% of the modded comments obtained positive values (cumulated mod rating > 0), 36% obtained negative values (cumulated mod rating < 0), and for 4% of the comments the mods evened out (cumulated mod rating = 0). The fact that 60% of all comments carried a positive rating, with “Cool” being the predominant rating class, showed that members generally tended to give friendly mods. Table 1. General Statistics for Modding Behavior in the Rooster Teeth Online Community

6

http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/members/stats/

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Next, casual observation suggested that modding behavior centered around early comments. We analyzed the attention different comments received based on their position in the comments thread (see Figure 3). This position corresponded to the time the comment had been posted in ascending order i.e. the comment that was posted first is at position 1, second at position 2, and so forth. Post numbers are displayed on the x-coordinate. For the y-coordinate we defined and calculated a ranking variable. We summed [0 to 36,921] the absolute values [0 to 2,920] of all mod points given to comments which share the same position (post number) [1 to 32,780]7 and divided this value by the amount of modded comments [1 to 165]8 per position. We thus calculated the average mod points per comment position. In effect, we used the absolute mod value for a better representation of the attention a comment received, than the net value.

Fig. 3. Relationship between the order in which comments were posted (ascending) and the rank based on the average (absolute) mod value the respective comments received (ascending; average to rank inversely proportional): both scales were logged

We then ordered this quotient by descending value, i.e. starting with the highest value in order to receive a non-scaled ranking. For example, the data point at y=1 is calculated as follows: We considered all comments with post number 1. Since all 165 videos were commented at least once, 165 comments resulted. Some of these comments appeared to have invalid data base entries on the website. After pruning those, we were left with 147 valid comments. Out of these 147 comments we only examined those that were modded. In post number 1, all 147 were modded. We then summarized 147 absolute mod values, and divided the sum by 147, resulting in 36,921/147= 251. Repeating this procedure for all comments that were posted second (position 2) we get 107 respectively. Next, we ordered the quotients by descending value and displayed them as ranking. Thus, the y-axis represents the ‘attention’ or the valuation (negative or positive) members accorded a comment where 1 is the top rank with the highest attention. 7

Even though a maximum of 28,000 comments per video were collected, post numbers in excess of this are possible since not all posted comments were considered due to validity checks (see Methodology section for further information). 8 The maximum amount of 165 videos that could be commented on limited this number.

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The results show that the first comments on each video received on average more (absolute) mod points than the respective subsequent comments. This holds true to a certain comment position from which on the data points become scattered. A threshold seems to appear around post number 50. The relationship between the post number of a comment, that is its position, and the mod value it received on average was positive and statistically significant (beta(14665) = 0.578 ; p ≤ 0.01).

4 Discussion This exploratory study of modding behavior in a virtual community revealed three findings that open up for future research. First, just under half of the community members received mods on their contributions, while the other half did not received mods. Looking at the entire volume of comments, only 15% were modded. Second, the community studied leaned towards ‘positive modding’, with 60% of all mods being positive. Third, the time and location of a comment mattered strongly for the likelihood that it would be modded. Comments that appeared early after the release of a new product and appeared on the first two pages of comments, received disproportionately high amounts of mod-points. After approximately 50 contributions, the direct link between the position and the rank of mod-points weakened. These findings warrant further research on virtual communities with SNS features in three areas: individual behavior, collective behavior, and community structures. First, roughly half of the community members never receive mods on their comments. The behavior does not seem to catch on throughout the member base. The extension to mass communication in virtual communities provided by modding seems to be used unevenly. Hence our results extend the findings of Schoberth and colleagues [20] on heterogeneous communication behavior in online communities. Future research should analyze the factors that explain this behavior. Is modding considered to be costly, either in giving or in receiving? Is modding contested? Do member demographics explain modding behavior? Further, how does modding impact on contributions? Do members who received negative mods learn or change their behavior? Do positive mods (or mods at all) induce participation? Second, we observed a friendly community who distributed more positive than negative mods. This result may impact on community growth, the willingness of members to contribute, and ultimately, consumer behavior. The result could support the idea that mods express trust rather than distrust or disapproval [12]. What explains this bias? How does this finding compare to other communities’ behavior? Can communities that lean towards offensive behavior be sustained? Also, researchers should conduct longitudinal studies of posting and modding behavior in order to identify changes in community behavior over time. Third, comments that appeared early and high up in the (chronological) list of comments received disproportionately more mods than subsequent, less visible comments. A first interpretation suggests that community members may suffer from information overload and pay far less attention to later comments than to early comments. This finding raise doubts regarding the high expectations by some authors attached to modding and rating systems as quality signaling or filtering tools [8, 22]. Should the timing and position of a comment matter more than its quality in

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predicting the number of mods received, the modding system may be of little use to managers, marketing experts, and users of virtual communities. However, this issue needs much more investigation in future studies. We observed that after a certain threshold the post number did not predict the number of aggregate mods received. This calls for a refined analysis across multiple contexts and communication structures. Is it important that the first page contains 30 comments? Does the chronological order matter or could it be reversed and produce the same pattern? Managers of virtual communities and social network sites may take away three insights from our study. First, virtual communities gain significantly new characteristics by adopting features associated with social network sites. Managers may think of more effective ways of distinguishing communities, possibly based on posting or modding behavior by members. The case of Rooster Teeth Production provides evidence as to the successful combination of product feedback and social network site features. Community members comment on a firm’s products when they are released. They evaluate each other’s comments and make use of the social infrastructure provided. Second, the modding behavior confirmed the impression of a friendly community. While this is only a first, preliminary finding it shows that the option of modding other community members’ contributions was being used in a ‘productive and supportive manner’. In general social network site features could be meaningful extensions to existing virtual communities. Third, filtering valuable comments with the use of member-based modding tools may not be a simple matter. Our results show that only after about 50 comments the mods received started to deviate from the comment number as received chronologically. This may mean that after the first rush by people to make their comments visible, perhaps later mods may signal high-quality comments.

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