Posted by Yogesh Malhotra on April 04, 1998 at 14:34:20:

In Reply to: Interaction rates posted by Denham on April 02, 1998 at 07:04:01:

Denham, your point about the richness of interaction is well taken. However, asynchronous and synchronous communication both seem to have their strong points in the flow of dialog. Asynchronous communications provide one the luxury of reflecting upon the issues, [often] constructing a well-thought out response and responding to the issue under discussion. Synchronous communications, on the other hand, generally capture reflexive/reactive responses and are desirable when the objective is to capture the default response to the provided stimulus, which may not br necessarily the most 'complete' response.

Many groupware systems [considering the term generally, as including CSCWs, electronic meeting systems and other collaboration systems] are designed around several key criteria, including the one mentioned above. The various permutations of these factors may be desirable under differing circumstances and for achieving different kinds of knowledge dynamics.

a. Temporal Aspect: Time Constraints / Immediacy of Interaction; Synchronous / Asynchronous

b. Proximity Aspect: Varies between persons interacting within the same room to persons sitting in different parts of the world (or their electronic incarnations or avatars interacting remotely)

c. Communication Channels: Text, voice, video, whiteboard, etc. and their permutations and combinations - greater number of communication channels, if used together, may increase the complexity involved in the interaction.

d. Interaction with Artificial / Human intelligence: Most computer-based training systems that deploy diverse channels for interaction may involve human-machine interaction, often the 'machine' may simulate intelligent response: examples include software applications that are often used in computer-based training environments. [In the 'traditional' mode of reading a paper- based book, the interaction occurred, however it involved all the work of constructing knowledge on the part of the reader. Motivated readers would often do further research or in rare occasions, contact the author to clarify specific ideas. Advanced software applications are attempting to overcome some of those barriers by providing hyperlinks to text, video and audio to electronic artifacts.]

e. Flexibility of Dialog: This relates to the immediate goals and the 'goal-stickiness' or 'domain- stickiness' of the various participants. Assuming all participants have shared goal (say, in a performance-oriented team mode), then the dialog will be well formulated and may be bounded in scope, which may restrict the flexibility or 'play' of ideas. On the other hand, in the case of virtual COP, diverse members are often trying to address diverse issues that are related at a much higher level. Examples of dialog between members of the same 'knowledge domain' (such as librarians, information scientists, CKOs, complexity theorists, rocket scientists) may be representative of the former category. Examples of dialog between members from diverse 'knowledge domains,' in contrast would be representative of the latter category.

f. Anonymity of Interaction: Often used for activities such as 'blind' voting, prioritizing, etc. It is generally assumed that anonymous interactions may elicit the most 'true' responses. However, the truth of the response may be affected by the pervading controls. [Earlier, we have had extensive discussions on control and performance issues on this forum.]

Consideration of the above and other related factors [from the literatures such as groupware, CSCWs, electronic meeting systems] could possibly help in developing better understanding of human interactions as they relate to knowledge dynamics.

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Follow Ups:

• Re: Human Interactions & Knowledge Dynamics Sansinee Pattanai 17:23:31 5/26/98 (1)
  • Re: Human Interactions & Knowledge Dynamics Yogesh Malhotra 18:12:34 5/26/98 (0)

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