Abstract Collaborative interpretation occurs when a group interprets and transforms a diverse set of information fragments into a coherent set of meaningful descriptions. This activity is characterized by emergence , where the participants' shared understanding develops gradually as they interact with each other and the source material. Our goal is to support collaborative interpretation by small, distributed groups. We built and evaluated a system that supports a specific collaborative interpretation task. This system provides a large workspace and several objects that encourage interpretation through emergence.
People manipulate cards that contain the raw information fragments.
They reduce complexity by placing duplicate cards into piles . They suggest groupings as they manipulate the spatial layout of cards and piles. They enrich spatial layouts through notes , text and freehand annotations . They record their understanding of their final groupings as reports containing coherent descriptions.