yam@cbnewsi.ATT.COM (toshihiko.yamakami) (04/12/90)
I has been isolated from comp.groupware for a month. Please excuse me if this discussion is duplicate for you. In CHI'90(April 1-5), there were a lot of discussion about groupware. There was a panel 'what makes groupware practical'. Especially, the following remark caught my eyes. "Group decision often takes more than a week, even more than a month." It was discussed by Dr. Lee Sproul(CMU) and Dr. Bob Kraut(Bellcore), I think. This is very insightful remark for me. Computer and communication is very fast these days. Computer processes something in a millisecond or in a second. Then is it easy to do something in a week? No! (At least I think no.) It is totally different to do something in a millisecond from to do something in a week. Some researchers do 'realtime expert system', but I feel we need 'long term expert system' to support groupware. What is the keypoint of 'long term knowledge management' or 'long term expert system'? I think it is decision of 'know-when'. We need 'know-when' technology which lacks current technology. It is important to think about 'role', 'social impact', 'context', 'plan' and so on. However, it is important to consider everything may be fuzzy after a week or a month. Then what can we do? Human being will do 'ensure', 'update', 're-confirm' or 'make alternate decision'. Of course, computers can do. But when? When in a week or in a month should computers do these social interactions? One solution is that human beings teach 'when' to computer systems. Another solution is development 'know-when' technology. I am really interested in this 'know-when' technology after CHI'90's groupware panel. Any suggestions to related work will be welcome. -- yam (a groupwork architect) -- Toshihiko YAMAKAMI(NTT, Japan) Resident visitor in BellLabs until Feb 91 Room 4G634, AT&T Bell Labs, Crawfords Corner Rd. Holmdel, NJ 07733-1988 Tel:(201)949-5742 e-mail: yam@vax135.att.com (was: yam@nttmhs.ntt.jp) A groupwork architect