| 14 Presence Technologies for Informal Collaboration (2008) | |||||||||||||||
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| Abstract. In this chapter we investigate presence technologies for supporting informal collaboration. Informal collaboration consists of spontaneous and unplanned interactions that occur frequently and transparently within organizations. Informal collaboration is crucial for developing working and social relations, and for long-term learning. We argue that mainstream presence research is focused on formal collaboration, i.e. collaboration that is planned beforehand and occurs in pre-arranged collaboration sessions. Although informal and formal collaborations are highly interconnected and transitions happen in a seamless manner in real world situations, it seems that research in presence technologies for supporting informal collaboration has happened in parallel to mainstream presence research. We believe this has negative consequences for widespread use of presence technologies, and that integration at the technological level is needed. We investigate a number of existing presence applications that are designed to support informal collaboration, and discuss how they are different from presence technologies for supporting formal collaboration. We introduce a system model that attempts to integrate support for presence needed in both informal and formal collaboration. | |||||||||||||||
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