A9HoehlKohMeyersMcCabe

A9HoehlKohMeyersMcCabe

To-Do

please discuss / address the following issues:

1. enumerate, analyze, and discusses different "distances"
2. describe technologies for all the distances (existing ones, envisioned ones) which you identified in (1) which help to overcome and reduce these distances
3. does distance matter?
   1. yes? (under which circumstances)
   2. no? (under which circumstances)
4. describe one example based on your personal experience where distance and diversity was
   1. a positive experience
   2. a negative experience

Group Members

Jeff Hoehl, Kyuhan Koh, Jane Meyers, George McCabe

enumerate, analyze, and discusses different "distances"

1. Spatial - This refers to physical distance between two collaborators. While today's technology allows people from all over the world to work together easily through the internet or telephone, some of the personal aspect and subtle meaning of the interaction is lost when communication is not face-to-face and has less dimensions.
   

2. Temporal - This refers to work being done at different times. Work that is done far in the past can be difficult to decipher since the thought process used to come to the conclusion is not fresh in the author's memory. Properly commenting and documentation can reduce the progress lost when a project is put on hold.

3. Technological - Describes the difference of opportunity based on the availability of technological resources such as the internet. The digital divide causes less fortunate students' education to be restricted since they do not have access to the same material as privileged students. The One Laptop Per Child program is designed to bridge the gap between these groups and allow all students to have equal access to the resources needed to succeed. This reduces the amount of lost potential.

4. Conceptual - This refers to differences between communities and domains. The distance can exist between levels of knowledge or expertise within a group (i.e. novices vs. experts) and across groups (i.e. different practices). Conceptual distances are interesting because they can manifest as varying backgrounds coalescing and working together, but can also manifest as opposing groups coming together to compromise.

describe technologies for all the distances (existing ones, envisioned ones) which you identified in (1) which help to overcome and reduce these distances

1. Spatial - The Internet and digital communication technologies, like email and instant messaging, are obvious but incredibly important examples of bridging spatial distances to improve collaboration and creativity. Cellular technologies are also incredibly important, including text messaging, to also allow communication without being tied down to a physical location. Interesting future directions include continuing advances in long-distance medical collaboration like remote surgeries and remote diagnosis. As these become increasingly more reliable, they also increase in reach and can extend to more rural and developing regions.
   

2. Temporal - An interesting but often overlooked temporal technology is source control and revision history management in general. Maintaining source control allows individuals on software projects to peek into the previous history of the project and gain useful insight into how it evolved and why design choices were made. Revision histories on wiki's, Google Docs, and other collaboration environments also allow authors to see why choices were made and get a view for how content evolved without needing to have been an active part of the project from inception.

3. Technological - The OLPC movement is an interesting project to help reduce the differences in the technological distances and the Digital Divide. By providing computer and technology to youth in developing regions, the aim is to better empower them to use and adopt technology as they get older. However, this movement also assumes that technology will be available as the youth become older and pursue academic and professional interests as adults. The OLPC is an attempt to provide the skills to reduce technological distances, but future work is still needed to reduce technological differences in practice.

4. Conceptual - An interesting future research area is the ability to automate the representation of data into more easily digestible forms. For instance, the ability to quickly create meaningful visualizations of statistical data can be incredibly important in that it helps to bring complex information into easily understandable forms, thus increasing audience size and understanding. Currently, creating visualizations of complex topics is a very time-consuming and elaborate process requiring large amounts of creativity. By using technology to complement this process, learning can be greatly transformed.

does distance matter?

If we think about 'distance', it will come up with the spatial dimension first. This spatial distance had been a big obstacle until the transportation system upgraded. Thanks to the modern transportation system, we could overcome this spatial distance, but this spatial distance might still matter when you are dealing with ill-defined problems or establishing mutual trust as this paper discussed. In reality, you have to deal with many problems in face-to -face interaction even though they might be handled with phone call, email or other modern technology benefits. Besides these cases, the gaps created by spatial and temporal distance could be reduced by computer-mediated collaboration as this paper argued. Distributed collaborations over the world are quite common nowadays, and they carry out effective work.

describe one example (per group member) based on your personal experience where distance and diversity was

It should be done by individually. One per group member.

George: Positive - I have been playing music with a musician who is from Ghana, Africa. He traveled to the United States to play music. Our culture and background are very different. I have been learning a lot about the music and culture of his country, while he has learned quite a bit about America and its culture. Our diversity has allowed us to share what we have to offer and gain a new perspective that strays from our routine way of thinking.

Negative - I worked for a software security company over the summer. The person I was to report to with my progress was in San Francisco, CA while I was in Indiana. Although we communicated frequently via e-mail and telephone, there was a slight spatial barrier between us which limited the clarity of what he expected. The time difference between our two locations also created a barrier. I would arrive at work in the morning and the person in charge of my project would not be available until later in the day due to the three hour time difference.

Kyuhan: I had worked for a small landscape design company before I entered the graduate school. It was such a good experience for me to work in the field I was not familiar with. I think I could learn quickly how to use software such as photoshop, illustrator, or autocad, but it was not easy for me to understand the concept of design. The design in landscape design concept is somewhat different and similar to the design we discuss for UI design. We share the common concepts of design such as ease of use/access, aesthetic value etc, but the deploy of trees is a different story. Moreover, I needed to learn the proper trees or flowers for certain places and season. Fortunately, co-workers kindly advised and taught me as they knew I was a newbie in that field. So I could learn fast and catch up for the job. On the other hand, I had a chance to work with a grad student in geography. She believed that she was quite aware of computer science at least programming. This brought some issues to us. She was not willing to take my advice or suggestion easily. She always insisted her opinions because she thought I was totally ignorant in geography. It might be true, but the lack of communication and collaboration skills were bigger problems as I believe.

Jeff: Working in a professional software development environment definitely exposed the positive and negative aspects of having varying levels of expertise on a team (a CoI). On a positive note, during development periods with little available time and strict deadlines, having a variety of skill levels was very advantageous. More experienced developers and architects were able to spend time focusing on creating code that could easily be reused and shared, while less experienced developers focused on applying new code rather than inventing it. This allowed experienced developers to avoid routine and 'boring' coding and utilized their skills at a more useful level. However, this also led to several negative consequences. First, the less experienced developers rarely improved their skills. By simply applying new code rather than helping to develop it, they stymied their ability to advance their skills. Second, the separation of tasks often led to a lack of oversight and shared input on what was being developed. For instance, bad habits by less-experienced developers were never caught. The domains of the individuals became increasingly compartmentalized.

Jane:My family lives somewhat scattered throughout the eastern United States and has a common habit of renovating their homes during our family vacations. The primary problem is that my dad is the sole electrician, plumber, construction worker, and designer on all of these projects. Often times he needs to pre-build and design the artifacts, cabinets, closets so that all of the installation work can be completed over the break and that he can pack the right equipment. Spacial and conceptual differences come into play in these situations. Not only does my family live 12+ hours from most of our relatives but when describing potential projects my family members often don't tell my dad the important facts, but largely superficial ones. This is largely due to a lack of knowledge about what the important facts are. This break down, often leads to dozens of pre-vacation phone calls and countless digital photographs and drawings being emailed.On the other hand, over the years my relatives have specialized in certain renovation skills: tiling, painting, laying wood floor, hanging dry wall, testing circuits, etc. So when we do a project, regardless of size, their is usually a need for people to help in their area of expertise. This also implies that individuals can work on parts of the project that they enjoy and are good at, saving on both time and frustration.