Abstract
Some configuration settings have immediate impact on system state; others have impact over time. In collaborative systems, the timeline of impacts can be even more complex, because changes may impact not only the user who made them but also other users. In this paper, we analyze the challenges involved in specifying configuration in collaborative systems that have impact over time. To do so, we have chosen Google Inactive Account Manager (IAM) as a case study, since it offers a limited set of decisions, but that addresses different aspects that are relevant to future impact configuration. In order to generate a thorough and systematic analysis of the communicability of Google IAM’s decision space we used the Semiotic Inspection Method (SIM) and the Configurable Interaction Anticipation Challenges (CIAC), as well as the Modeling Language for Interactive Collaborative Conversations (MoLICC). Our results describe and explain some of the main issues associated to the complexity of decisions that users may take in during a configuration task.
Highlights
Digital technologies are embedded in many aspects of people’s daily lives: in their work, entertainment and civic behavior
Our research focuses on the challenges of specifying configurations in collaborative systems3 that may impact future interactive paths
Our goal was to discuss communication issues related to configuration in collaborative systems over time
Summary
Digital technologies are embedded in many aspects of people’s daily lives: in their work, entertainment and civic behavior. Through social computing systems people interact with other people, generate and store significant data over time, including work files, personal and professional contacts, photos, etc. Ackerman [1] argued that the mismatch between what is required socially and what can be done technically – the social-technical gap – is a fundamental problem for collaborative systems and much of it applies in social computing contexts. Research has investigated a broad set of issues, such as how users collaborate to tailor a system (groupware or not) [22]; toolkits [11] and frameworks [31] that support the development of adaptive groupware systems; and how to support users in understanding the impact of their choices in groupware [30]
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