Date: November 4, 2009
Speaker: Sara Bly — Sara Bly Consulting
Much work in collaboration has focused on task-specific activities. The Media Space (a technologically-connected environment of audio and video) was counter to this trend in that it was always on and often peripheral to ongoing activity. It successfully allowed collaboration in a research laboratory geographically split between Portland, OR, and Palo Alto, CA, spawning a wide range of collaborative technologies in media spaces, shared drawing, and awareness.
It is not always easy to duplicate the success of that first media space. One such attempt initially appeared to offer the casual interactions and peripheral awareness provided by a media space. Nevertheless, the deployment was a disappointment. What lessons were learned and how can failed experiences be useful for future research success?
Download the slides from
(Dis)connecting Cultures:
When Collaboration Technologies Are Not Enough
About the Speaker
Sara Bly provides consulting services for designing and conducting user experience studies. Her studies encompass a wide range of methodologies to inform the design of technologies from early conceptual states to deployment. Methodologies include a range of qualitative methods including fieldwork and laboratory designed experiences. The work is iterative, learning from each phase and using that learning as grounding to inform next steps. Sara has a Ph.D. in computer science and worked for several years at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center.