Augmenting Online Chat for Long-Term Knowledge Management

David Fono
University of Toronto

Ronald Baecker
University of Toronto

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     Last modified: March 15, 2005

Abstract
Formal discussion and debate is at the heart of communal deliberation. However, tools to facilitate these processes within an online, synchronous context are not well developed. Studies of instant messaging and other existing online chat tools indicate that while they can sustain reasoned, purposeful communication (Isaacs et al., 2002), they face significant barriers to effective use (Herbsleb et al., 2002). In contrast, the development and evaluation of augmented tools indicates that they can play an important role in the activities of a working group (e.g. Halverson et al., 2003).

Real-time conversations naturally generate a significant amount of transient information, which tends to persist only in the minds of the participants. We are interested in augmenting online chat to capture this information, thus allowing further reflection, as well as sustaining longer and more thoughtful discussions. To this end, we are developing a number of preliminary lightweight prototypes, and distributing them as add-ons for a popular instant messaging client. We intend to present at the conference our prototype designs, as well as the results of an initial evaluation by trial users.

Our designs focus on facilitating the use of conversations as shared artifacts amongst users. Participants in a conversation can build a record of consensus by selecting and storing conversation “fragments” within a separate view. These views serve as distillations of key points and decisions that have emerged from the conversation. Furthermore, each fragment can be linked to a distinct sub-conversation, giving a hierarchal structure to the overall discussion. Finally, conversations, fragments, and views of fragments are all first-class objects that can be shared and published to the web. Thus, new participants can join a discussion with full access to its history, and existing participants can look back and examine the discussion’s process. Given the amount of sprawling text and sub-conversations that a successful discussion would generate, appropriate visualization techniques are required, and form a key part of our designs.

References

Halverson, C., Erickson, T., & Sussman, J. (2003). What counts as success? Punctuated patterns of use in a persistent chat environment. Proceedings of the 2003 ACM Conference on Supporting Group Work. Sannibel Island, FL: ACM Press.

Herbsleb, J., Atkins, D., Boyer, D., Handel, M., & Finholt, T. (2002). Introducing instant messaging and chat in the workplace. Proceedings of the 2002 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing. Minneapolis, MN: ACM Press.

Isaacs, E., Walendowski, A., Whittaker, S., Schiano, D., & Kamm, C. (2002). The character, functions, and styles of instant messaging in the workplace. Proceedings of the 2002 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work. New Orleans, LA: ACM Press.