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Artifact-Based Coordination in Multimedia Production Hilda Tellio - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Artifact-Based Coordination in Multimedia Production Hilda Tellio lu Vienna University of Technology Institute of Design & Assessment of Technology Multimedia Design Group hilda.tellioglu@tuwien.ac.at http://as43.media.tuwien.ac.at


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SLIDE 1

Artifact-Based Coordination in Multimedia Production

Hilda Tellioğlu Vienna University of Technology Institute of Design & Assessment of Technology Multimedia Design Group

hilda.tellioglu@tuwien.ac.at http://as43.media.tuwien.ac.at CSAC 2007

4th International Workshop on Computer Supported Activity Coordination

June 12, 2007 Funchal, Madeira, Portugal

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SLIDE 2

Outline

  • Introduction
  • Multimedia Production
  • Case Studies: Webcom, Telecom, Archcom
  • Coordination with Partners
  • Artifacts - specialized, material, coordinative,

common, visual

  • Artifacts in our Cases
  • Artifact-based Coordination
  • Conclusions
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SLIDE 3

Introduction

  • study coordination applying theories [Malone & Crowston, 1994;

Tellioğlu, 2007]

  • investigate (the impact of technology on) work practices -

ethnography, CSCW [Andersen, 1994; Carstensen et al., 1995; Pycock & Sharrock,

1994]

  • understand what actors do & why they do certain things in

a certain way

  • characteristics of multimedia production
  • iterative & cooperative design processes
  • multiple representations
  • lack of design methods & best practice examples
  • importance/relevance of intentional networks & strategic

partnerships

  • differences & similarities in coordination work
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SLIDE 4

Outline

  • Introduction
  • Multimedia Production
  • Case Studies: Webcom, Telecom, Archcom
  • Coordination with Partners
  • Artifacts - specialized, material, coordinative,

common, visual

  • Artifacts in our Cases
  • Artifact-based Coordination
  • Conclusions
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SLIDE 5

Multimedia Production

  • dynamically arranged internal & external collaboration
  • coordination of parallel activities
  • to keep deadlines
  • to consider customers’ requirements
  • to optimally use companies’ human & non-human

resources

  • coordination work in multimedia production
  • contolled individual work
  • cooperative development
  • multidisciplinary teamwork
  • coordination with partners
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SLIDE 6

Outline

  • Introduction
  • Multimedia Production
  • Case Studies: Webcom, Telecom, Archcom
  • Coordination with Partners
  • Artifacts - specialized, material, coordinative,

common, visual

  • Artifacts in our Cases
  • Artifact-based Coordination
  • Conclusions
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SLIDE 7

Case Studies

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SLIDE 8

Webcom 1/2

  • Controlled individual work
  • standardized procedures with strict deadlines & controls of

intermediate results

  • a first meeting with customers for communication of main requirements
  • research about the customer in the Internet, its current web site, web sites of

customers’ competitors

  • creation of an offer including graphic design
  • management meeting with creative director, customer supporter, graphic

designer

  • start of the creative phase -> final graphic design
  • implementation of the design -> prototype
  • customer evaluates the prototype -> feedback to design
  • conventions from graphic design
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SLIDE 9

Webcom 2/2

  • Controlled individual work
  • work simultaneously on 3-4 projects, a small team for each

project

  • transparent progress status of ongoing projects
  • individual work, controlled intensively by the Managing

Director (MD)

  • process & temporal structures established -> status,

quality & quantity check

  • tight deadlines monitored closely
  • face-to-face communication & feedback in front of

computer -> dense cooperation

  • avoid or keep contingencies under control -> avoid any

increase of project costs -> controlled improvization

  • standardized format of offers
  • cover page, description of project team, introduction, goals & requirements,

contents, branding, home page, detail view ...

  • all offers have the same structure and length
  • + online presentation with links to the already developed web pages

(accessible for customers before the face-to-face presentation)

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SLIDE 10

Telecom 1/2

  • Cooperative development - Work process of iterative

cycles

  • idea of a new product or service
  • research about standards, technical challenges,

implementation possibilities, competitors’ products, market demands ... using the Internet, magazines, studies ...

  • choose of a product or service -> substantiation of design

idea

  • production of a simple user interface of the product-in-

development

  • focus on products’ functionality
  • revision & refinement of the product-in-development
  • presentation of the product in trade fair events
  • enhancements & adaptations by considering customers’

feedback

  • final product available on demonstration server
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SLIDE 11

Telecom 2/2

  • dense teamwork in a small interdiscipinary team
  • chaotic communication
  • well-organized team
  • always present in the same room, all involved in all

decisions, no hierarchy, open to critique & discussions, active participation of all

  • isolated from the rest -> garage company
  • their work is not accepted & appreciated by department’s

software engineers

  • differences in methods & priorities -> clash of working cultures

improvization & bricolage vs. traditional software design methods of research & implementation programming languages coding styles & programming conventions use of ready-to-use-products informal vs. written specifications

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SLIDE 12

Archcom 1/3

  • Multidisciplinary teamwork - best practice
  • plan used actively for project management
  • weekly project meetings with detailed minutes
  • detailed to-do lists used to organize the cooperative work
  • thorough research to support decision-making of

functionality & layout

  • detailed sketches of navigation & graphic layout of pages
  • detailed description of data for persistence layer
  • discussion before implementation
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SLIDE 13

Archcom 2/3

  • Product quality
  • structure of the product
  • history of the company

requirement analysis technical description description of deployment & use flash animation prototype storyboard glossary

  • UML to model the system & describe the use cases
  • coding conventions for simple, readable, understandable &

easy-to-maintain code

  • design representations: sketches, drawings, lists,

storyboards, HTML prototypes

  • video movie to present the use of the system
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SLIDE 14

Archcom 3/3

  • highly developed communication culture
  • weekly jour fix meetings for communication &

cooperation

  • salient work meetings
  • to solve problems together
  • to make design decisions (moderated by project manager)
  • to plan next steps
  • in-depth discussions
  • voice of users
  • highly detailed & thorough meeting minutes used

intensively by all between meetings

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SLIDE 15

Outline

  • Introduction
  • Multimedia Production
  • Case Studies: Webcom, Telecom, Archcom
  • Coordination with Partners
  • Artifacts - specialized, material, coordinative,

common, visual

  • Artifacts in our Cases
  • Artifact-based Coordination
  • Conclusions
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SLIDE 16

Coordination with Partners

  • different forms
  • cooperation with specialists
  • contracting out
  • mergers, joint ventures, strategic partnerships
  • cooperation in the Internet
  • personal networks <-> intensional networks

to activate regularly / on demand [Nardi et al., 2002]

  • work & particular skills of actors required
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SLIDE 17

Outline

  • Introduction
  • Multimedia Production
  • Case Studies: Webcom, Telecom, Archcom
  • Coordination with Partners
  • Artifacts - specialized, material, coordinative,

common, visual

  • Artifacts in our Cases
  • Artifact-based Coordination
  • Conclusions
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SLIDE 18

Artifacts 1/9

  • permanent symbolic constructs,

which play a very important role in the coordination work

  • examples: “instruments, signs,

procedures, machines, methods, laws, forms of work

  • rganization” [Kuutti, 1995]
  • clarify ambiguities & settle

disputes

  • act as intermediaries with a

format -> mediate articulation work -> mediate coordination

  • where is an artifact placed?
  • when is an artifact accessed?
  • by whom is an artifact modified?
  • what are the exact modifications?
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SLIDE 19

Specialized Artifacts 2/9

  • needed to articulate distributed

activities [Schmidt & Simone, 1996]

  • to reduce the complexity of

articulation work

  • to alleviate the need for ad hoc

delibaration & negotiation

  • examples: time tables,

schedules, catalogues, classification schemes for repositories

  • in contexts of conventions &

protocols

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SLIDE 20

Material Artifacts 3/9

  • accessible to all involved in a

shared work process [Schmidt & Wagner,

2002]

  • their location includes relevant

information -> some actors make sense of it, some cannot

  • their history is often readable

showing the past work & the contributions

  • materiality of artifacts

<-> affordances [Gibson, 1979] <-> immutability of inscriptions

  • n paper & their mobility [Latour,

1986]

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SLIDE 21

Coordinative Artifacts 4/9

  • material artifacts with a

coordinative role

  • communication objects &

persuasive [Wagner, 2000]

  • boundary objects [Star, 1989]
  • help actors in their daily work
  • create a common understanding
  • f an (design) idea or task
  • enable talking about a design in a

rich way

  • remind design principles,

approaches & methods, open questions

  • keep track of activities &

materials [Schmidt & Wagner, 2002]

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SLIDE 22

Coordinative Artifacts 5/9

  • annotations on artifacts
  • > create multilayers
  • > “facilitate coordination

between activities (and the people who are responsible for them). They, for instance, provide a collective or individual space for experimentation and change” [Schmidt & Wagner, 2002]

  • artifacts are interrelated to work

activities

  • dynamic & static states of

artifacts [Schmidt & Wagner, 2002]

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SLIDE 23

Coordinative Artifacts 6/9

  • Trace - indicates aspects of past

activities of coordinating actors [Schmidt, 2001]

  • Template - specifies properties of the

result of individual contributions, like product standards, drawings, style sheets etc. [Schmidt, 2001]

  • Map - specifies inter-dependencies of

tasks or objects in a cooperative work setting, like organizational charts, classification schemes, taxonomies

  • etc. [Schmidt, 2001]
  • Script - specifies a protocol of

interaction in view of task interdependencies in a cooperative work setting, like checklists, productions shedules etc. [Schmidt, 2001]

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SLIDE 24

Coordinative Artifacts 7/9

  • in multimedia production

coordinative design artifacts contain

  • work plans
  • work to do
  • project phases
  • instructions
  • material
  • metaphors
  • methods defining rules &

conventions

  • illustrations
  • references
  • names of actors ...
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SLIDE 25

Common Artifacts 8/9

  • used by more than one actor

[Robinson, 1993]

  • implement the basic

functionality to fulfill the requirements [Berlage & Sohlenkamp, 1999]

  • their structure & operation are

predictable

  • give an overview of the

cooperative work

  • enable implicit communication

within a team

  • serve as templates representing

a limited model of the work -> filled in templates -> records of the work

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SLIDE 26

Visual Artifacts 9/9

  • visualizations [Schmidt & Wagner, 2002]
  • support individual & cooperative thinking & organizing
  • help to keep the design concept present in the team
  • help to coordinate the work around it
  • used to illustrate the design ideas to different stakeholders

in the project, convincing them of the design idea & mobilizing their cooperation

  • visual artifacts
  • used for coordination
  • as part of discussions
  • as integral part of explanations
  • re-used in follow-up meetings
  • sometimes annotated
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SLIDE 27

Outline

  • Introduction
  • Multimedia Production
  • Case Studies: Webcom, Telecom, Archcom
  • Coordination with Partners
  • Artifacts - specialized, material, coordinative,

common, visual

  • Artifacts in our Cases
  • Artifact-based Coordination
  • Conclusions
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SLIDE 28

Artifacts in our Cases 1/2

  • standard format used to write an offer (Webcom)
  • deadlines kept in a spreadsheet (with responsible

persons assigned) (Webcom, Archcom)

  • the first prototypes created by using Adobe Photoshop

& displayed on the screen of the web designer (Webcom)

  • images an external programmer sends to show the

computer game programmed with Flash (Webcom)

  • emails they send & receive (Webcom, Telecom, Archcom)
  • written guiding themes MD uses to communicate the

design idea & related constraints (Webcom)

  • printouts of the web sites, annotated with short

descriptions & open questions (Archcom)

  • flip charts, PDAs, desktop computers (Telecom)
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SLIDE 29

Artifacts in our Cases 2/2

  • sketches & notes on papers or computers (Webcom, Telecom,

Archcom)

  • (annotated todo) lists, MS Word documents,

spreadsheets (Webcom, Telecom, Archcom)

  • a wallet & the image of the wallet (Telecom)
  • project plan in form of a spreadsheet for the

management of deadlines, responsibilities & work flows (Archcom)

  • sketches of navigation & graphic layout of the pages

(Archcom)

  • detailed descriptions of the data for the persistence

layer of the system (Archcom)

  • design representations in different media like sketches
  • n paper, computer-based drawings & lists,

storyboards, HTML prototypes (Archcom)

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SLIDE 30

Outline

  • Introduction
  • Multimedia Production
  • Case Studies: Webcom, Telecom, Archcom
  • Coordination with Partners
  • Artifacts - specialized, material, coordinative,

common, visual

  • Artifacts in our Cases
  • Artifact-based Coordination
  • Conclusions
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SLIDE 31

Artifact-based Coordination 1/3

  • artifacts enable (implicit or explicit) communication

between actors cooperating

  • artifacts mediate the status of work-in-progress
  • artifacts make participants aware of others’ activities
  • artifacts sometimes act as coordinators of work by
  • being communication objects
  • creating a common understanding of a task
  • enabling talking about tasks
  • reminding principles, approaches & methods connected to

tasks

  • keeping track of activities & materials
  • hosting work plans
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SLIDE 32

Artifact-based Coordination 2/3

  • artifacts can be used to
  • initiate & establish coordination within a work group
  • exchange data
  • deal with dependencies between activities
  • exchange work-in-progress implicitely
  • support articulation work e.g. by representing work carried
  • ut
  • point out possible & actual gaps in coordinating

dependencies between tasks

  • communicate the to-dos explicitely
  • assign tasks to persons
  • define & refine work to do
  • ...
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SLIDE 33

Artifact-based Coordination 3/3

  • artifacts can be basically used to coordinate the work
  • Artifact-based coordination is the coordination that
  • ccurs implicitely in work practices when work flow is

driven by artifacts.

  • artifacts help reduce coordination effort

e.g. by making coordination a part of the product to be developed or integrated in the product & therefore by making additional communication or articulation

  • bsolete
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SLIDE 34

Outline

  • Introduction
  • Multimedia Production
  • Case Studies: Webcom, Telecom, Archcom
  • Coordination with Partners
  • Artifacts - specialized, material, coordinative,

common, visual

  • Artifacts in our Cases
  • Artifact-based Coordination
  • Conclusions
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SLIDE 35

Conclusions 1/2

  • ethnography-based investigations can be used to

understand how coordination is actually supported in real work environments

  • a first step to implement a new framework for

coordination mechanisms

  • investigate the use of artifacts in multimedia production

teams for coordination purposes

  • identify the different types & roles of artifacts:

composed or atomic accessed simultaneously or asynchronously

  • wned by one or many

visual or textual material or virtual common or private

  • some artifacts are certainly shared & host several

coordination-related data accessed by many -> artifact- based coordination focuses on these common artifacts used in coordinative work practices

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SLIDE 36

Conclusions 2/2

  • the new attention point in the research of coordination

mechanisms = common artifacts

  • this is different than theories or systems based on

tasks, interdependencies between tasks, events, constraints, workflows

  • future work
  • new frameworks needed to analyze & describe properties
  • f artifacts

which can be primary or secondary depending on importance & relevance to the artifact itself & to the use of the artifact in a collaboration context

  • artifact-focused analysis of coordination work might be

used further to think about coordination patterns identified in cooperative work environments

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SLIDE 37

Thanks for your attention!

Hilda Tellioğlu hilda.tellioglu@tuwien.ac.at