Assignment 10 - Tom Ternquist

The videoconference this past Tuesday served as an excellent example of distributed cognition in action. In particular, one aspect of the conference that I found to be very relevant to the collaborative process was the effect that this technological tool has on workspace awareness.

Workspace awareness encompasses the notion of having a real-time understanding of another person’s interactions with the workspace. Simple video, i.e., a single camera, provides some benefits, as it is able to convey a live snapshot of part of a workspace. However, for many collaborative processes the use of only a single camera does little to provide awareness of the whole workspace. One might want to focus the camera on an object being manipulated, but then you would not be able to see any of your fellow collaborators. Furthermore, a basic video setup would typically only provide a one to one videoconference, placing another limitation on the level of awareness among the group members.

The videoconferencing setup we used addresses these issues and, as a result, vastly improves the level of workspace awareness. Before even using the service, the two most obvious features of the system we used was the fact that there were 4 cameras, 3 back-facing and 1 front-facing, and the very large projection area where video and workspaces can be displayed.
The cameras address the limited scope and context afforded by only a single camera setup. Collaborators have the ability to have cameras maintain focus on themselves as well as anything they may be working on in the physical environment. Additionally, the fact that the cameras can transmit a high definition feed means that the distributed members of the group can see in much greater detail and immersion, a wide snapshot of the physical workspace.

The very large projection area provides several benefits in terms of workspace awareness. The combination of high-resolution video and the large screen allows for detail to be seen at often life size or greater than life-size scales. This helps collaborators see, without technical limitation, the workspace at any given time. With the ability to share computer desktops and files in real-time, this workspace is also not limited to physical ones, either.

That being said, the videoconferencing setup did have some issues that hindered workspace awareness to an extent. One issue was that of camera focus, in that the cameras and video screens weren’t necessarily configured in such a way that provides natural dialog. Specifically, on our end, the camera focused on the class was at one end of the room, while we were looking at collaborators on a screen at the opposite end of the room. Another issue was that with so much going on at once on the projection screen it was sometimes difficult to see what the focus of the workspace was at any given moment.