Assignment 2: Proximity with Groups

In INFO 515, the class was split into groups. The groups were to give a presentation about an assigned topic. My group’s topic was “social norms” on the Internet.

The personnel of the group varied in knowledge, experience, and skills. Many members had different majors. There were even a few members of the group who were not college students, but administrators. And everyone had different outlooks and ideas about social norms on the Internet. My group consisted of 12 people, so it was a medium sized group. The task was to deliver a presentation to the rest of the class about social norms. This was a performance goal, as the quality was more important than the quantity. We wanted to supply an informative and entertaining presentation to the class about social norms on the internet. My group communicated through both face-to-face and computer-mediated communication. We took advantage of several tools, such as e-mail, PowerPoint, the Internet, and YouTube.

Immediately after class my group would meet face-to-face to discuss the project. Then everyone would go home and we would communicate from different places through e-mails. Because of this, my group’s interaction process was more complex. There were definitely effects of proximity present in the group. One example was action contributed. When the group was in the same place, I feel that people contributed more. It was easier to present your ideas and get immediate feedback. When the group was in different places and communicated through e-mail, I feel there were fewer contributions. There were only a few e-mail responses. Not as many ideas were introduced to the group. I think this is because the group interacted better when we were in the same place. As Kiesler & Cummings explain, “close proximity among people is associated with numerous emotional, cognitive, and behavioral changes that affect the work process for the better” (57). When we were e-mailing each other, not everyone’s questions were getting answered and we didn’t get as much feedback from the group. It also seemed like there was less participation. But when we were in the same place, we could get immediate feedback, throw out more ideas, and have a more effective meeting.

In the end, the group was able to complete the task. Our presentation went very well. I also believe that all the member’s needs were met. There weren’t too many issues. It is because of this that I think my group would have no problem working together again.

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog!

This is the blog for Comm3650/Info3650, Technology in Collaboration course taught during Spring 2009. This course focuses on understanding communication and behavior in groups, with a particular focus on the unique and sometimes difficult issues raised by the collaborative use of communication and computing technologies.

Here you will post your weekly short assignments (400 words max) throughout the term. These should be posted by the start of class each Tuesday. Approximately half of the assignments will be graded at random by the instructors each week.

You are also be expected to post substantive comments (~100 words) about two of your peers’ assignments before the start of class on Thursday. You should post comments only on posts that don’t already have two comments (i.e., each post should have a maximum of two). Comments on your own posts don’t count toward your total.

Good luck!