We describe the i-LAND environment which constitutes an example of our vision of the workspaces of the future, in this case supporting cooperative work of dynamic teams with changing needs. i-LAND requires and provides new forms of human-computer interaction and new forms of computer-supported cooperative work. Its design is based on an integration of information and architectural spaces, implications of new work practices and an empirical requirements study informing our design. i-LAND consists of several ‘roomware ’ components, i.e. computer-augmented objects integrating room elements with information technology. We present the current realization of i-LAND in terms of an interactive electronic wall, an interactive table, two computer-enhanced chairs, and two “bridges” for the Passage-mechanism. This is complemented by the description of the creativity support application and the technological infrastructure. The paper is accompanied by a video figure in the CHI’99 video program.

The characteristics of a group's task have been shown to account for more than half the variation in group interaction. In the context of group support systems (GSS), the importance of task has been underscored by the recommendation that achieving a fit between task and technology should be a principle for effective GSS use. Although the body of group support systems research has grown in recent years, and experience with different tasks and technologies now exists, no generally accepted theory of task/technology fit has emerged. This paper develops a theory of task/technology fit in GSS environments based on attributes 'Robert Zmud was the accepting senior editor for this paper. GSS Task/Technology Fit of task complexity and their relationship to relevant dimensions of GSS technology. Propositions to guide further research are developed from the theory.

In this paper, we introduce the concepts of "cooperative buildings" and "roomware" and place them in the context of the integrated design of real, physical, resp. architectural spaces and virtual, resp. digital information spaces. By "roomware" we mean computer-augmented things in rooms, like doors, walls, furniture, and others. The general approach is detailed via examples from the i-LAND project where we develop several "roomware" components in order to realize an interactive information and cooperation landscape, e.g. an innovative work environment for creativity teams. We describe the current realization of i-LAND which includes an interactive electronic wall, an interactive table, computer-augmented chairs, and a mechanism for assigning physical objects as representatives of information objects in the virtual world.

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Electronic conversations often seem less polite than spoken conversations. The usual explanation for this is that people who are not physically copresent become depersonalized and less inhibited by social norms. While this explanation is intuitively appealing, we consider another possibility, based on the costs of producing "polite" utterances when speaking versus when typing. We examined a corpus of conversations generated by 26 three-person groups who interacted either face-to-face or electronically to do a collaborative memory task. We coded hedges (which mark an utterance as provisional) and questions (which display doubt or invite input from others), as people presented their own recollections, accepted, modified, or rejected those of others, and tried to reach consensus. Both of these devices are associated with politeness. For most people, hedging is more difficult when typing than when speaking because additional words are required, while marking an utterance as a question is equally easy in both media. The two groups made somewhat different use of these devices: Faceto -face groups hedged more than electronic groups, but both groups used questions just as often. We discuss how these and other differences emerge from the costs and affordances of communication media.

help with the logistics of this experiment, as well as Robert Klein and his team at Applied Marketing Science, Inc. for their cooperation and suggestions. Idea Generation, Creativity, and Incentives Idea generation (ideation) is critical to the design and marketing of new products, to mar-keting strategy, and to the creation of effective advertising copy. However, there has been rela-tively little formal research on the underlying incentives with which to encourage participants to focus their energies on relevant and novel ideas. Several problems have been identified with tra-ditional ideation methods. For example, participants often free ride on other participants ’ efforts because rewards are typically based on the group-level output of ideation sessions. This paper examines whether carefully tailored ideation incentives can improve creative output. I begin by studying the influence of incentives on idea generation using a formal model of the ideation process. This model illustrates the effect of rewarding participants for their impact on the group, and identifies a parameter that mediates this effect. I then develop a practical, web-based, asynchronous “ideation game, ” which allows the implementation and test of various in-centive schemes. Using this system, I run two experiments, which demonstrate that incentives do have the capability to improve idea generation, confirm the predictions from the theoretical analysis, and provide additional insight on the mechanisms of ideation.

Previous research has indicated that the creative task of deciding upon the initial specijcations for a sojtware SySfem can benefit from a structured process to guide group interaction in Face-to-Face meetings, and can benejlt from computer support. This 2x2 experiment is the Jrst to look at the joint effects of a distributed asynchronous computer conferencing mode of communication (CC, as compared to Face to Face), and a structured process, on sojtware design outcomes. Subjects were teams of graduate students in computer science and business, who designed an automated post of&e as a course assignment. Though the quality of solution produced by the CC groups was judged to be higher, it was not significantly so. However, the CC groups were considerably more creative. There were no main effects for the structured/unstructured factor, nor an-v signi$cant interactions. 1

Group decision making methods such as Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) have been developed extensively, but their organizational use for group decision making has been difficult. According to Arrow's Impossibility Theorem, one possible reason is that a group decision outcome could never satisfy every decision maker's individual preference. This paper proposes a fuzzy GSS (Group Support System) approach to improve the quality of the group decision outcome. The fuzzy GSS approach integrates a fuzzy MCDM model and a structured group decision making process with a GSS. The fuzzy MCDM model includes fuzzy individual preference generation and group aggregation. Supported by the GSS, the structured decision making process makes group participation effective. The proposed approach aims at providing more decision information, and enhancing group consensus, satisfaction and understanding of the decision outcome. This paper also postulates that the fuzzy GSS approach enhances group consensus, satisfaction and understanding of the group decision outcome. An empirical study was conducted to test the research predictions.

Creativity is increasingly important in today’s fast changing world. The use of Group Support Systems has been shown to improve the quantity and quality of ideas produced by groups during idea generation. Similarly, creative techniques may be used to increase creativity. Therefore, the use of creative techniques together with a GSS may help groups think more creatively. Brainstorming is the most used and studied of the techniques. However, to further increase creativity, other types of creative techniques may be used. This paper presents a theory addressing structural aspects of both creative techniques and GSS, including testable hypotheses. A laboratory experiment is described that tests these hypotheses for three creative techniques (Brainstorming, Assumption Reversals and Analogies) implemented using a GSS. Results support the proposed theory. Analogies produced fewer but more creative ideas. Assumption Reversals produced the most ideas, but these ideas were less creative than ideas produced by Analogies and Brainstorming.

This paper reports a set of experiments motivated by the observation that the design of group decision processes is crucial to the success of electronic meeting room usage. Decision processes can be designed with more emphasis either on exchanging meanings (discussing issues) or exchanging artefacts (generating and structuring topics). Our problem is that, given a particular case to be discussed in an electronic meeting room, we do not know how to design the meeting for best performance. The paper builds a framework for studying this problem based on the notion of communication mode. The experiments already made confirm that quality of results varies when different communication modes are used and show that meetings that do not exchange meanings result in solutions with inferior quality. Keywords: Electronic Meeting Rooms, Group Support Systems, Communication Modes.