Monday

Jeff Smith is a researcher at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), currently at the NTT Multimedia Communications Laboratories in Palo Alto, CA USA. His research interests include CSCW, organizational theory, organizational design, and classical rhetoric.

One current project is EColabor, a collaborative requirements analysis system. Part of his work with EColabor is designing a distributed media server and control protocols.

Other activities include "Ingrid," a global, distributed search infrastructure, and a multicast debugging and monitoring tool, tentatively called mtool. Plans are to have a beta version of mtool available by the summer IETF.

Following his plenary presentation, Jeff will demonstrate EColabor, an active hypermedia for collaboratively elaborating documents. EColabor is designed to address problems in communication, agreement, and change management in document production, which are reportedly significant but rarely addressed. Based on the Inquiry Cycle model, EColabor supports stakeholders in systematically managing their documents. EColabor records all the processes of elaborating documents in shared hypermedia and provides comprehensive support for utilizing these records, applying multimedia and CSCW technologies to the document production process. The main technical challenges we are faced with are: (1) to establish feasible multimedia communication technology by using the Internet, (2) to integrate synchronous and asynchronous CSCW technologies, which have been independently developed, and (3) to develop a model and tools for multimedia note-taking. Conventionally, research on multimedia tends towards presentation. EColabor emphasizes support for authoring (or note-taking) multimedia information instead.
 

Jeff will demonstrate EColabor, an active hypermedia for collaboratively elaborating documents. EColabor is designed to address problems in communication, agreement, and change management in document production, which are reportedly significant but rarely addressed. Based on the Inquiry Cycle model, EColabor supports stakeholders in systematically managing their documents. EColabor records all the processes of elaborating documents in shared hypermedia and provides comprehensive support for utilizing these records, applying multimedia and CSCW technologies to the document production process.

Jeff Smith, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Monday 10:30-12:00pm - Panel Session
Collaboration for Community Outreach: Bridging the Gap (SIG LAN, TIS, and MED)

Panelists will describe community outreach programs which either use technology to give information to the community, offer direct service to the community using technology, or help instruct the community in the use of technology. Discussion after the presentation will focus on community outreach. Who are the information have-nots in our communities? What are their needs? What do we have to offer? How can we help? How can we form coalitions and collaborative projects to help?

Methods of Evaluating Community Networks (contributed paper)
Kim Gregson and Charlotte Ford, Indiana University

Town and Gown in Brooklyn: Teaching Technology
M. Dawn Armstrong, Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development

Teaching Technology to the Teachers: AT&T, Duke University Collaboration for Information Literacy
Laura Cousineau, Duke University

The Chicago AIDS Outreach Project Consortium
Javier B. Crespo, University of Illinois at Chicago Library

Strengthening the Community through Networking
Susan Holmes, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Moderator
Inez L. Sperr-Brisfjord, Pratt Institute
 

Monday 10:30-12:00pm - Panel Session
Corporate and University Collaborative Partnerships: Report from the Field

Increasingly corporations and universities are establishing collaborative partners that build on each other's strengths and help create innovative products and processes for the corporation, and provide funding to support research and education at the university. In these collaborative projects, diverse corporate employees and university faculty must interact to come to a working understanding about the project outcomes and how the collaborative process will proceed. In this panel, benefits and challenges in collaborations between academia and industry will be discussed.

Collaboration as Strategic Policy
Skip Bollenbacher, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Collaboration Management: Elements of Effectiveness
Mike Jaffe, Hoechst Celanese

Participation in Collaborative Projects: A Kaleidoscope of Perspectives.
Diane H. Sonnenwald, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Corporate and University Collaborative Partnerships
José-Marie Griffiths, University of Michigan

Moderator
Diane H. Sonnenwald, University of North Carolina
 

Monday 1:30-3:00pm - Panel Session
Developing a Culture of Measurement: Using Information to Foster Collaboration

Information Technology continues to spread into new areas such as primary and behavioral health care. If successful collaboration occurs, innovative technology can lead stakeholders to learn a common language and agree on common goals, increasing organizational effectiveness. What factors determine success and failure in the development, adoption, and use of technology? What organizational and psychological dimensions must be addressed to align individual needs, group interests, and organizational culture? The panelists will describe research, strategies, and experiences with implementing information technology in health care organizations.

Grant Grissom will describe research on how information technology enabled a residential unit to shift its organizational paradigm and to significantly increase effectiveness. David Marion consults to health care organizations implementing innovative information technology and will analyze factors critical to the outcome of such efforts. Linda Marion will discuss the continuing evolution of innovative technology in one organization via results of interviews with stakeholders.

Developing a Culture of Measurement.
Grant Grissom, Field Diagnostic Services, Inc.

Strategies for Successful Implementation of Information Technology in Health Care Organizations.
David J. Marion, Widener University

Once is not Enough: The Need for Continuing Collaboration, also Moderator.
Linda Marion, Drexel University

Moderator
Linda Marion, Drexel University
 

Claudio Ciborra and colleagues propose an approach of "hosting" and "appropriating" groupware as a way of managing groupware in a direction that can be beneficial to organizations. The main stress of the book is that we do NOT know what can happen with groupware once its placed into an organization. If groupware is not taken care of constantly, users aren't trained and motivated to use it, a flexibility in terms of outcomes of use isn't in place, and/or patience is lacking, the users will drift to some other tools and groupware can be useless. In addition, beneficial outcomes of the groupware may deviate from management expectations.

The panel will bring up the research evidence on the use of groupware. It will also demonstrate the user experience with groupware (Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell Groupwise). The third angle of looking at groupware will be the technical perspective, potentials and capabilities of technology, and the designer as seen by a groupware industry representative. These multiple angles, with help of moderation of the discussion, will hopefully create a more complete picture of groupware that can inform management practice.

Bob Travica, Indiana University

Paul Neff, Arlington Heights Memorial Library

Daniel Bednarek, GIGA Information Group

Moderator,
Geoff McKim, Indiana University

 

Some universities offer entire degree programs through distance education; others offer individual courses; others use cross-university cooperation to augment and enrich their own course offerings.  Each of these configurations of distance learning raises administrative issues that need to be resolved for the programs to be successful.  This panel will highlight some of these issues, and will discuss the "solutions" currently in place in the universities represented.

Phil Turner, University of North Texas

Ray Vondran, Syracuse University

Greg Hislop, Drexel University

Moderator,
Barbara M. Wildemuth, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Monday 3:30-5:00pm - Contributed Papers Session
Motivating Collaboration within Organizational Settings

Volunteer and Business Organizations: Similar Issues for Collaboration
M. Jay Norton, University of Southern Mississippi
 

Proposes that the motives of volunteers to participate in professional organizations (collaborative endeavors) could inform us about methods for motivating business workers.
 

The Potential of Computer Aided Industrial Design to Act as a Catalyst for Greater Professional Collaboration
Mark Evans, Loughborough University (UK)

This paper examines the traditional or 'conventional' nature of industrial design practice, and contrasts it with a methodology that adopts both CAID and a high degree of professional collaboration. This collaborative CAID strategy is illustrated using case study material that was produced whilst applying the methodology during the design of a nylon line grass trimmer.

Moderator,
Julie M. Hurd, University of Illinois, Chicago


 

Educational theories emphasize active and constructive learning that suggests learners should not be passive recipients of information. Through interaction with others and application of new information in relevant situations, students can integrate new information into their existing knowledge structures. Sonnenwald will report on her experiences in teaching a UNC course on collaboration in collaboration with Mirja Iivonen at the University of Oulu, Finland.  Agada will describe a 10-step process used to teach collaborative skills to LIS students working in teams.
Through the looking glass: teaching collaboration using collaboration technology.

Diane H. Sonnenwald, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and
Mirja Iivonen, University of Oulu (Finland)
 

Teaching collaborative skills in library and information science education (LISE)
John Agada, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (contributed paper)

Moderator,
Kris Liberman, Ernst & Young
 

One obvious effect of a distance learning program is that faculty and students are no longer assumed to be geographically local to each other.  This change in physical distance implies a change in communication patterns.  In this panel, a faculty member in the University of Illinois' LEEP3 program will discuss her perspectives on the quality of faculty-student interaction.  In addition, the results of a research study of faculty-student interaction in the University of North Texas' distance education program will be reported.

A Faculty Member's Perspective,
Christine Jenkins, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Viola Osborne, University of North Texas

Evaluation of PlaceWare Auditorium in a Distance Learning Experiment,
Susan Dziadosz, University of Michigan

Moderator,
Gretchen Whitney, University of Tennessee

Tuesday

Collaboration among Competitors: a First Economic Analysis
Eberhard Stickel, Viadrina University Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
 

Shows how transaction cost theory can be extended to treat effects due to competition between firms. Information sharing and joint development of systems are examined.
 

An Interactive and Collaborative Approach to Answering Questions for an Organization
Vladimir A. Kulyukin, University of Chicago

 

Proposes Information Exchange systems (something like FAQ libraries) as a method for providing information about an organization to the organization's clients.

Moderator,
Bonnie Carroll, Information International Assoc., Inc.
 

Design for Collaboration in Networked Information Retrieval
Robert J. Sandusky, Kevin R. Powell, and Annette C. Feng, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
 

Describes a prototype that addresses the loss of social interaction in digital libraries. The prototype supports community, collaboration, and communication within a large, networked information system.
 

The Adaptive Hypertext: Behavioral Capture of User Relevance Judgments
Terry Sullivan, University of North Texas

 

An adaptive hypertext system is proposed as a way of recording acts of document retrieval and re-ranking result sets based on prior retrieval history. Its appropriateness for homogeneous groups of users is discussed.

Moderator,
Myke Gluck, Florida State University
 

The panel will look at case studies or research in progress related to document management systems that support collaborative work and distributed authoring. The proposed panel will include presenters with current knowledge of developing standards and protocols related to electronic document management and version control. These include, but may not be limited to the following initiatives:

• WebDAV - Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (IETF Working Group)
• DMA - Document Management Alliance Specification (AIIM)
Topics will include a description of practical applications of current distributed authoring and electronic document management tools, implications for information management professionals and users, and a discussion of how these tools might solve issues related to archiving electronic documents.

A Standard for Collaborative Authoring on the Web: WebDAV
Jim Whitehead, University of California Irvine
Owen Ambur, United States Fish & Wildlife Service

Overview and Update on the Electronic Records Work Group
Mark Giguere, National Archives and Records Administration

DBA -- Bridging Islands of Information for Enterprise-wide Document Management
Charles R. Fay, FileNET Corporation

Moderator
Linda Schamber, University of North Texas
 

Some educational institutions have extended  the traditional university course model (i.e, instruction provided primarily through classroom interaction and independent study outside the classroom) through the use of collaborative communication technologies.  The papers included in this panel examine this phenomenon from the student's perspective, focusing on the interaction among students, rather than the student-teacher interaction.  The content as well as the methods used in the course at UNC focused on collaboration and collaborative technologies, and will be discussed by Will Sibert.  The LEEP3 program at the University of Illinois will be discussed by Jill Gengler, focusing on students' use of synchronous and asynchronous collaboration tools.  Judith Weedman will report on a study of students' ability to use an electronic conference to "steal" knowledge and to shape and extend their own socialization.

Will Sibert, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Jill Gengler, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Collaboration in Isolation: Working in Groups as a Distance Learning Student,
Donna L. Wilson, University of Michigan

Burglar's Tools: The Use of Collaborative Technology in Professional Socialization (contributed paper),
Judith Weedman, San Jose State University (contributed paper)

Moderator,
Steve Hardin, Indiana State University

Tuesday 10:30-12:00pm - Panel Session
Collaborating with IT Groups to Promote Technology Training (SIG LAN)

Collaboration between libraries, local departments, and central IT groups is essential in order to create and promote relevant training in the use of current technologies. This collaboration has yielded exciting and innovative results.

This session will examine collaborative technology training in three different organizations. Northwestern's Technology in Learning and Teaching Workshop, jointly sponsored by the University Library and Academic Technologies, focuses on teaching technology and resource staff responsible for the "incorporation of interactive multimedia and Internet resources into higher education curriculum."

Mary Dougherty, Northwestern University

Leslie Wykoff, Washington State University

Karen Zimerman, University of Iowa

Moderator
John Little, Duke University
 

Tuesday 12:30-1:30pm - Demonstration
The ISI Electronic Solution: Linking a Bibliographic Layer with Databases, Web Content, and Publishers' Full Text

Jay Trolley, ISI

Tuesday 12:30-1:30pm - Demonstration
If We Build It They Will Come: Collaboration in Advancing Information Arcade-inspired Teaching and Learning Spaces

This demonstration describes the process to date with next generation advancements in building collaborative learning and teaching environments. The current "Arcade" consists of an electronic classroom, multimedia workstations, an ethernet connection, and connections to a diversity of resources. The commons is a central support and delivery venue for courseware development, classroom instruction, health-related research, and independent learning. Arctic (Advanced Real Time Information Center) resulted from collaboration between the university libraries, the college of business Administration, and industry partners, and incorporates state-of-the-art interactive technologies for financial trading markets. Several other aspects will also be described. It is hoped that this demonstration of existing and works-in-progress will provide some useful models for planning high-tech collaborative physical spaces as well as a debate on the future of such facilities.

Barbara Dewey, University of Iowa
 

TWISTed Pairs: Librarian-Faculty Partnerships Create Web-Based Learning Environments
Karen Zimmerman, University of Iowa Libraries

Librarians are paired with faculty to create web-based guides to resources for specific courses. An individualized program is developed, including "pair" and student training, and the program is expanding to include non-reference librarians and the use of computer-mediated communication, image/sound/text databases, and other web-based tools. Information on copyright/fair use, privacy rights, and other issues are also included.
 

Collaborative Learning in an Intercultural Communication Course
Karen Zimmerman, University of Iowa Libraries
Kristine Fitch, University of Iowa

Using e-mail, FirstClass groupware and CU-SeeMe video conferencing, students from the University of Iowa were paired with students at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland to learn more about cultures, communication practices, and interpersonal ideologies. Joint term papers were produced using all three modes of electronic communications. We will demonstrate how each software was used for different functions of the collaborative learning process and will discuss the difficulties faced.

We will demonstrate the Chicago Information Exchange (CIE), an emerging application for managing the online textual expertise of the University of Chicago Computer Science Department. Our demo will show the natural language interfaces provided to the SIE clients (students), how the system initiates a dialog, and how the CIE experts collaborate with each other on the incoming questions.

Vladimir A. Kulyukin, University of Chicago
 

Tuesday 2:00-3:30pm - Panel Session
Case Studies in Academic Collaboration (SIG CRS, LAN, TIS)

Academe has endured many intellectual and cultural revolutions, but how well is it handling the technology evolution? New technologies have made enormous demands on the institutions of higher learning, Unusual, even un-imagined collaborative partnerships have been forged to address the demands of student, staff and faculty related to technology. How successful have these partnerships been? How does collaboration or lack of it impact the academy? How stressful are these partnerships? This panel will present case studies that involve two or more academic related organizations addressing needs generated by changes in technology.

Collaboration Between a Computer Services Help Desk and Library Reference Department.
Doug Kaylor, Wright State University
 
A Statewide Cooperative Project: The Louisiana Library Network
Carol Barry, Louisiana State University (Contributed paper)

Contrary to Collaboration: Issues of Academic Isolation
M. Jay Norton, University of Southern Mississippi
 

Collaboration Technology: Volatile Character of Group Decision Support Systems.
Bob Travica, Indiana University.

 

The paper reports on a qualitative case study that aimed at improving our understanding of the role of the facilitator of a group decision support system (GDSS). The volatility of groupware demands special attention of management, which has only recently been proposed in the relevant literature.
 

Pragmatic Collegiality: a Collaborative Planning and Governance Model for the Digital Library
William J. Hubbard and George E. Whitesel, Jacksonville State University

 

Case study of an academic library faced with making decisions about technology adoption. Proposes pragmatic collegiality as a way to incorporate librarians in decision making about technology.

Moderator,
Barbara M. Wildemuth, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
 

Measuring the Impact of Information on Work Performance of Collaborative Engineering Teams
Seung-Lye Kim, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

 

This paper is concerned with constructing an integrated perspective for measuring the impact of information on work performance of collaborative engineering teams. A proposed model provides insight into information roles and their impact on task completion or work performance.

 

Technology and virtual teams: using globally distributed groups in MBA learning
Lori Rockett, Josep Valor, and Paddy Miller, University of Navarra (Spain); Peter Naude, Manchester Business School (UK)

The experience of a globally distributed organization was simulated across three MBA programs.  The students, located in three countries, worked collaboratively in teams to create a common project, using technology as a means of communication.  Observations were made of local team interaction, as well as the intergroup exchange in a merged global team.
 

Sharing Cultural Differences to Support Collaborative Learning
Evelyn M. Poole-Kober, Atmospheric Sciences Modeling Division Library, EPA

In today's world of instant communication and global economic society, there is a need to examine and understand how cultural differences and behaviors influence collaboration and collaborative learning among institutions and individuals.  The concept of examining, understanding, and sharing cultural differences to support collaboration and collaborative learning will be discussed.

Moderator,
Charles H. Davis, Indiana University at Bloomington
 
 

Tom Kalil, National Economic Council, The White House, posed a question to ASIS at the '97 Annual Meeting - whether the membership of ASIS has a consensus on what the intellectual property protection initiatives should contain. The purpose of this session is to hear the viewpoints of ASIS members and other interested parties, to instigate productive discussions between possibly disparate opinions, and to gather ideas that can be used in formulating a white paper on ASIS views on data base protection.

A panel will listen to a series of presentations and then question each presenter, much like a Senate Hearing.

Hearing Panel:
Marjorie Hlava, Access Innovations
Bonnie Carroll, Information International Associates
Debora Shaw, Indiana University
Dick Kaser, National Federation of Abstracting and Indexing Services

Witnesses:
Bonnie Lawlor, UMI
Shelly Warwick, Queens College
Paul Uhlir, National Research Council
Daniel Duncan, Information Industry Association
 

 The Research Library at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) would like to share its accumulated knowledge of user research and product design with other organizations. The challenges faced at LANL, such as bridging the gap between users and developers, customizing products for a varied user population, are experienced in all information centers that continue the migration to electronic resources.

Currently each element of our Beta-testing process is itself being tested for its appropriateness for incorporating user input into product development. The goal is to create a truly collaborative environment between users and developers with open forums for user input and effective incorporation of this information into product design.

The demonstration for the 1998 ASIS Mid-Year Meeting will outline the steps of product testing, the Beta-testing process, including how these steps were formulated and tested within the user population. The presentation will detail the Beta-testing process in existence, evaluate its success, and also iterate the various means used to develop the process. Products resulting from application of the process, which range from search screens to interactive, dynamically produced custom products, will be explored and their appropriateness for different user groups. A highlight will be the "custom web page" program. In this module the developers have supplied the users with electronic tools necessary to design a personalized information resource. This represents a collaborative product where each participant brings his or her particular expertise to the product design. A workstation for conference participants to design their own customized web site is also planned.

Sandi Blackburn, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Dan Mahoney, Los Alamos National Laboratory
 

Wednesday

Drawing upon research at Ernst & Young's Center for Business Innovation, we will describe theory and practice of supporting collaborative and solo knowledge work. We will discuss recent research into the importance of leveraging the learning capacity of information "communities of practice" by creating links to more formalized knowledge representation approaches; we will describe E&Y's own internal technical and non-technical knowledge-sharing approach; and we will discuss a simulation of learning behaviors within organizations and use this model to illustrate the wide variety of "right" mixes of elements such as infrastructure, content organization, and solo/collaborative work. By combining research, practical experience, and simulation, we will illustrate many of the keys to supporting effective collaboration in a dynamic environment.

Rudy Ruggles, Ernst & Young

Kai Shih, Ernst & Young

Laura Eisenmann, Ernst & Young

Moderator
Kris Liberman, Ernst & Young
 

Distance education and site-independent learning are only possible if a technology infrastructure is in place.  These panelists will describe the technologies used to support distance learning and collaborative course offerings at their institutions.  Conclusions will be drawn about the appropriate mix of technologies for particular educational purposes.

Supporting Learning at a Distance, Vince Patone, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Roger Akers, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Samantha Hastings, University of North Texas

World Wide Web Elementary: Virtual Classrooms, Auditoria, Collaboratories, and Other Developments in Web-Based Schooling, Vlad Wielbut, Alliance for Community Technology

Moderator,
Elisabeth Logan, Florida State University

Wednesday 11:00-12:30pm - Plenary Speaker
Michael Schrage

A Merrill Lynch Forum Innovation Fellow, Michael Schrage writes and consults widely on the design and deployment of digital innovations. He is executive director of Merrill Lynch's Innovation Grant Competition and executive producer of IDG's Spotlight conference on interactive media. He explores technology design issues as a research associate with MIT's Media Lab.

He is author of the critically acclaimed Shared Minds: The New Technologies of Collaboration [Random House 1990] - the first book to explore both the tools and dynamics of successful collaboration in business, science and the arts. The Japanese edition was published as Mind Networks [President 1992]. An updated & revised paperback edition was published in 1995 as ''No More Teams'' by Doubleday Currency.

Schrage's ongoing work focuses on the role of prototypes, collaborative worknets and organizational media to support innovation. His book about the cultures of prototyping and simulation in business - Getting Real - will be published by Harvard Business School Press.

He is a co-creator of the Rockefeller Foundation's Science for Development Prize and of PF Magic's best-selling line of Catz and Dogz virtual pets. His clients have included Andersen Consulting, British Telecom, IDEO, Lazard Freres, McKinsey&Co., Procter & Gamble and NTT.

A contributing editor to WIRED, Schrage has written for the Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Red Herring, Fast Company, Forbes ASAP, I.D. magazine, Nikkei Multimedia, International Economy and other publications. His article ''The Culture(s) of Prototyping'' was awarded the 1994 Doblin Prize for Best Article in the Design Management Journal.

For six years, he wrote the internationally syndicated 'Innovation' column for the Los Angeles Times where he remains a member of the Board of Advisers. He currently writes columns for ComputerWorld, Marketing Computers and Luxe magazine.

 
 
(c) 1998, Association for Information Science
Last updated 5/13/98

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