Systems for Socially-Challenging Information Management

ABSTRACT In collaborative settings, information management becomes even more challenging. In addition to the classic challenge of information management (i.e. information overload), collaboration also introduces social barriers between group members; this entails asymmetric roles, where different stakeholders have different levels of motivation, knowledge, social capital, authority, or time. To successfully manage their information, groups of people need to coordinate their needs and resources. In my thesis, I focus on building interfaces for lowering social burdens to negotiate and communicate the distribution of resources. I develop coordination systems that guide interaction for collaborative information-management tasks. I first introduce a system called Ziva, which supports interdisciplinary teams by coordinating information exchange. Then, I describe TaskLight, which aims to support information management during the help-seeking process. Lastly, I present challenges of coordinating tool preferences and a resulting system called CollaboRanger.