Integrating Collaborative Awareness in Synchronous Distributed Groupware

Abstract

This paper presents a model for integrating collaborative awareness in development of a synchronous distributed groupware, which was expected to enhance team collaboration in home modification tasks. The model, which is a synthesis of Situation Awareness and Activity theory, has three levels of collaborative awareness, comprising subject-collaborator member, object-outcome, spatial-temporal relationship, and mediation-projector components. These components were hypothesized to support remote collaborators in performing collaborative tasks effectively. We report the findings of the first-level perception that tested the importance of subject-collaborator member and object-outcome components in enhancing awareness. Our experiment revealed that both components were frequently acquired during collaboration. If only the subject-collaborator member component was available, subjects made several errors, and if only the object-outcome component was present, subjects could not achieve common ground, nor distribute the task easily, or share their customization errors. Therefore, a groupware that supported both subject-collaborator member and object-outcome component is preferred in collaborative task performance.

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