From: riander@well.sf.ca.us (Richard Ivan Anderson)
Newsgroups: ba.seminars
Subject: BayCHI (Sept 8) - Multimedia Collaborative Technology / John Tang
Date: 1 Sep 92 22:50:40 GMT
Distribution: ba
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link


                                      BayCHI,
                       the San Francisco Bay Area ACM SIGCHI
             (Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction),
                          announces its September meeting:

                             Tuesday, September 8, 1991
                                   7:30 - 9:30 pm


                             Why Do Users Like Video?
      A Case Study in Developing Usable Multimedia Collaborative Technology
 
                             John Tang, SunSoft, Inc.


                               Xerox PARC Auditorium
                               3333 Coyote Hill Road
                               Palo Alto, CA 94304

ABSTRACT
 
In the Conferencing and Collaboration (COCO) group at Sun, we have
developed a prototype desktop conferencing system that provides audio,
video, and shared drawing connections among workstation desktops.  In
order to come to grips with some of the many issues involved in
introducing multimedia and collaborative technology to the desktop, we
have been involved in several studies of collaborative activity.  We
surveyed the users of the commercial video conferencing rooms to assess
users' perceptions of what they needed to support remote
collaboration.  We analyzed videotapes of an actual working team that
was split between East and West Coast sites to understand their actual
collaborative activity.  And, we studied how a distributed team used
our desktop conferencing prototype in their day-to-day work.
 
In this last study, we observed the team's collaborative activity under
three conditions: using conventional collaboration tools, adding our
desktop conferencing prototype, and subtracting the video capability
from our prototype.  Quantitative data on the use of phone, e-mail,
face-to-face meetings, and desktop conferencing; videotapes of actual
collaborative activity; and qualitative data on the users' perceptions
were collected across the conditions.  We found that taking away the
video capability greatly reduced the use of our desktop conferencing
prototype.  Desktop conferencing was found to substitute for shorter
2-person meetings and longer phone calls.  We also observed some novel
ways of working in a desktop conferencing situation, including the use
of eye gaze awareness.
 
In this talk, I'll be discussing these results and what we learned from
these studies.  Although more research needs to be done, these studies
provide more insights into why video is valuable in supporting
collaborative activity.

BIOGRAPHY
 
John Tang studies collaborative activity in order to guide the design
and development of multimedia collaborative systems.  He works in the
Conferencing and Collaboration group, which formerly resided in Sun
Microsystems Laboratories, Inc., but recently moved to become an
advanced development group within the Human Interface Engineering
department at SunSoft, Inc.  Prior to joining Sun, he worked at Xerox
PARC developing and studying several shared drawing prototype tools.
His doctoral research at Stanford University was on studying group
design activity.

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Subsequent Meetings: October 13, November 11, December 9, ...
                     (the second Tuesday of each month)

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                                About BayCHI

BayCHI, the San Francisco Bay Area ACM SIGCHI, is a group of user-interface
professionals who meet the second Tuesday of the month at 7:30 pm in the Xerox
PARC Auditorium. To join BayCHI, which will add you to the mailing list for the
newsletter, send a message to SAnderson.chi@xerox.com, or to BayCHI, PO Box
25, Menlo Park, CA 94026, and we will send you a membership form.  Membership
forms are also available at the BayCHI meetings.

***************************************************************************

                         BayCHI Steering Committee

The BayCHI steering committee meetings are open to anyone who is interested
in attending.  The meetings are generally held the first Tuesday of the month
at 7:30 p.m.  Please contact any member of the committee for directions to the
meeting.

Chair:              Richard Anderson  rianderson.chi@xerox.com  510-482-0464

Vice Chair:         Rosemary Wick     wick.chi@xerox.com        415-328-3600

Treasurer:          Ulrike Creach                               415-423-0843

Past Chair:         Kathy Hemenway    hemenway.chi@xerox.com    408-685-0466

Program:            Richard Anderson  rianderson.chi@xerox.com  510-482-0464

Membership:         Ulrike Creach                               415-423-0843

Newsletter:         Steve Anderson    SAnderson.chi@xerox.com   510-423-3283

Job Bank:           Richard Yamauchi  yamauchi.chi@xerox.com    510-422-4178

SIGCHI Liason:      Don Patterson     patterson.chi@xerox.com

Publicity:          Susan Wolfe       wolfe_susan@tandem.com    408-285-2650

Dinner Coordinator: Kate Finn         finn@erg.sri.com          415-859-2124

Birds-of-Feather:   David Rowley      varian!rowley@lll-winken.llnl.gov
                    Desiree McCrorey  Desiree_McCrorey.M5_A_TO_M@smtp.esl.com
                    Lora Shirley      lora@ask.com

Elections:          David Simkin      david@makesys.com         415-941-9800

At-large:           Ellen Francik     francik.chi@xerox.com     510-867-8662
                    Clark Streeter    streeter.chi@xerox.com    510-422-4493


                                  BayCHI
                                P.O. Box 25
                           Menlo Park, CA  94026


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                            Directions to Xerox

>From Highway 280, take the Page Mill Road exit. Go east one mile to Coyote
Hill Road (no light) and turn right. Go 1/2 mile and PARC will be on your
left. Follow the signs to the auditorium.

>From 101, take the Oregon Expressway exit west 2 miles to El Camino Real.
Oregon Expressway becomes Page Mill Road at El Camino Real. Follow Page
Mill Road 1.7 miles to Coyote Hill Road (no light) and turn left. Coyote
Hill Road is just past the intersection with Foothill Expressway. Go 1/2
mile and PARC will be on your left. Follow the signs to the auditorium.