This paper describes an awareness tool called Tickertape. Tickertape is a lightweight, highly tailorable tool that provides an interface to a world of transient information via a single-line scrolling message window. We overview Tickertape, describing both its unidirectional and bidirectional message groups and its time-out feature. We then illustrate how it is being used within one organisation. In distributed environments, awareness is supported through the use of tools such as telephone, email, chat, and video-conferencing.
Work is also ongoing in the development of specialised awareness displays for groupware systems.
For example, Gutwin et al. In this paper, we report on a different type of awareness display called Tickertape, shown in Figure 1. This information can be in the form of interactive chat messages, or as messages relating to activities, objects or people. Tickertape can therefore support many forms of awareness and communication yet occupies minimal screen space. Our discussion of Tickertape is based on its specific use over a 3 month period within a semi-commercial research organisation where people are distributed across rooms and buildings.