Daily Note: Spatial Metaphors and Collaboration

These notes are a summary of concepts presented in “Locales Framework: Exploring foundations for collaboration support.”

G. Fitzpatrick, T. Mansfield and S. M. Kaplan, “Locales framework: exploring foundations for collaboration support,” Proceedings Sixth Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction, Hamilton, New Zealand, 1996, pp. 34-41, doi: 10.1109/OZCHI.1996.559985.

  1. Locales Framework and Social Worlds
    • Draws from sociologist Anselm Strauss’ work on interaction and social worlds
    • A locale integrates environment and interaction, encompassing varied spatial interpretations
  2. Social Worlds and Their Dynamics
    • Defined by shared goals, fluid membership, and dynamic interactions
    • Membership dimensions: size, duration, roles, formalization, etc
    • Require “site and means” for shared interactions and context
  3. Locale Foundations and Centers
    • Basic structures and affordances for social worlds
    • Centers form around collective purposes, defining relationships between people, tools, and resources
    • Support fluid membership and access control mechanisms
    • Enable processes for joining, leaving, socializing, and resource-sharing
  4. Mutuality
    • Concerns interaction support for shared place-awareness and presence
    • Presence-awareness mechanisms
      • Presence: Information entities share (identity, activity, etc.)
      • Awareness: Information others accept or focus on
    • Synchronous and asynchronous interactions require tailored media and choices
  5. Individual Views and View Intensity
    • Individuals dynamically manage focus and participation across locales
    • Locale views aggregate into individual perspectives shaped by social world membership
    • View intensity relates to mutuality and fluctuates based on task and preference
  6. Interaction Trajectories
    • Temporal aspects of interactions (past, present, future)
      • Includes Strauss’ sub-concepts: phasing, projection, scheme, arc of action, reciprocal impact, and management
  7. Civic Structures
    • Facilitate public interaction and connections between locales
    • Support
      • Integration of locales into public spheres
      • Serendipitous encounters and navigation
      • Emergence and dissolution of social worlds
    • Mechanisms
      • Boundary objects – Represent locale presence externally
      • Residual objects – Capture the output and trace of completed work