Recently I had to troubleshoot a computer problem with a couple of audio technicians at Slope Media. One of them was present in the radio studio with me, while the other found himself in a NYC office, collaborating with us through remote desktop. This remote desktop program, LogMeIn, afforded definite benefits, mostly the ability to include the third member's contributions. Yet the program also introduced issues in coordination, such as those discussed by Cao. There was no 'lock mouse' function, and therefore there needed to be another form of communication to indicate who should be controlling the pointing device.
An additional effect was the formation of two "in groups". The two of us present in the studio were able to communicate directly and thus indicate our work flow and progress with more ease. Only when we had gone through the process of gathering relevant information would we update the third. Dobbs and Crano note that “people preferentially collaborate with in-groups and that those part of in groups "typically enjoy more interaction and share more information with each other than they do with remote partners.”
Along with these separations, this remote desktop program helped “…maintain the group focus and facilitate awareness within the co-located in group" because "eye gaze(s)" of the other members attending to the same object on the screen was easily interpreted and served as a cue that the focus remained. If I was dealing with a mic connection, I could know that my other partner was still on the computer and could check the input levels.
This collaboration process could have been improved by the addition of auditory cues and lock mouse function. It was definitely a barrier to smooth transitions to not have instant explanations of behaviors by the person who was controlling the mouse. Additionally, the mouse could be arbitrarily controlled by anyone which lent to some coordination issues. With a centralized gate for synchronization, this group's work could have been improved.
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Our project for COMM 2450 involved Yuguu which as a screen share feature that allows other users to take control of each others computers. In tests we've run we noticed a lot of problems with communicating with remote users and coordinating who should be controlling the screen at a given moment as well. I think it can often be really hard to do though text-based communication especially and in these kind of hybrid configurations involving control I think audio is a helpful addition.
ReplyDeleteMy group task was also done using a hybrid configuration, and similarly I found that the two collocated members did not update the shared document until after we had verbally agreed upon our ideas. Then, we would share our ideas with the remote member, which also pointed to the formation of "in groups." The addition of auditory cues would be interesting to see if perceived input levels of each group member increase. Overall, nice post.
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