Knowledge Sharing Media
For Group Memory
And Collaborative Brainstorming

Outline
Introduction: Knowledge Sharing Media
Plexus: Questions and Answers
Navigating the space
6.034 as an example
Whimsy: Brainstorming
Liberating ideas from the whiteboard
Five design goals
Conclusion: Design rationale capture

What are knowledge sharing media?

Digital knowledge sharing media
Mutability
Searchability
Navigability and visualization
Intelligent use of contents

Two Knowledge Media
Questions and answers
    Plexus:  Exploring a spatial metaphor for group memory

Questions and Answers
When a question arises:
Has it been asked before?
Whom to ask?
How to save the answer?
How to find it afterwards?
Preventing “getting lost”

Plexus: The Spatial Metaphor
Provide a shared, visual information space to structure this dialogue
Proximity implies relevance
Architect space with relevant navigation affordances

Why spatial Q’s and A’s?
Through proximity, askers know where to find relevant and related questions
Looser notion of relevance than a hierarchy
Experts can find questions they can answer
Overview of what prompts the most questions
Cognitive mapping: Engaging spatial memory

6.034:  Information Architecture
Landmarks, paths, regions (Lynch 60, Neveitt 00)

6.034:  Rules of Discourse
Students post questions
Questions are anonymous to other students
Teaching Assistants post answers
Answers may prompt more questions
Teaching Assistant may rearrange space

Plexus Interface

Plexus: Spatial vs. Hypertext Views
Asking: Placement in context vs. appending to a list
Answering:  “Regions of expertise”
Searching:  Navigation vs. hierarchical browsing

Plexus: Evaluation and Future Work
Used for two weeks by 6.034 students
Limited usage, positive feedback
Course-long study
Spatially organize existing Web FAQs

Outline
Introduction: Knowledge Sharing Media
Plexus: Questions and Answers
Navigating the space
6.034 as an example
Whimsy: Brainstorming
Liberating ideas from the whiteboard
Five design goals
Conclusion: Design rationale capture

Whimsy: Capturing Ideas
Spontaneous interaction
Structured brainstorming meetings
Work in progress

What is Brainstorming?
Osborne (1957):
Withhold criticism
Free-wheeling
Quantity first
Combination & improvement

Why a digital medium for brainstorming?
Pen and paper is convenient, but
Napkins are hard to file
Napkins are hard to photocopy
A digital medium can help
Ideas are archivable
Ideas are sharable

Brainstorming: Five design goals
Expressibility
Focus on the idea, not the medium
Accessibility
Ideas can occur anywhere
Preservation
No good idea should be lost
Reminding
“Where were we?”
Individual and Group
Personal notebook and shared whiteboard

Goal 1:  Expressibility
 Sketching and explaining

Goal 2: Accessibility
Pick up and use

Goal 3: Preservation
 Archiving and navigating, or

Goal 4: Reminding

Goal 5: Group and Individual

Whimsy: Some Hard Problems
Context capture and representation
Multimodal segmentation and indexing
Domain knowledge can help
Interfaces for adding and navigating ideas
Tivoli (Moran, Chiu, van Melle 97)
Usability and evaluation

Whimsy: Research Approach
Understand brainstorming activity
Cognitive and social aspects
Understand brainstorming facilitation
What do experts do?
Pick a domain
User interface design
Intermediate goals
User-assisted segmentation first

Digital knowledge sharing media
Mutability
Searchability
Navigability and visualization
Intelligent use of contents

Design Rationale Capture

Summary
Introduction: Knowledge Sharing Media
Plexus: Questions and Answers
Navigating the space
6.034 as an example
Whimsy: Brainstorming
Liberating ideas from the whiteboard
Five design goals
Conclusion: Design rationale capture