Article

What is chat doing in the workplace?

Authors:

James D. HerbslebAuthors Info & Claims

CSCW '02: Proceedings of the 2002 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work

Pages 1 - 10

https://doi.org/10.1145/587078.587080

Published: 16 November 2002 Publication History

Abstract

We report an empirical study of a synchronous messaging application with group-oriented functionality designed to support teams in the workplace. In particular, the tool supports group chat windows that allow members of a group to communicate with text that persists for about a day. We describe the experience of 6 globally-distributed work groups who used the tool over a period of 17 months. An analysis of use shows that the group functionality was used primarily for bursts of synchronous conversations and occasional asynchronous exchanges. The content was primarily focused on work tasks, and negotiating availability, with a smattering of non-work topics and humor. Nearly all groups were remarkably similar in the content of their group chat, although the research group chatted far more frequently than the others. We conclude with suggestions for future research, and a discussion of the place of team-oriented synchronous messaging tools in the workplace.

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Cited By

Ferguson SMassimi M(2024)Circle Back Next Week: The Effect of Meeting-Free Weeks on Distributed Workers’ Unstructured Time and Attention NegotiationProceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642175(1-17)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642175
Easley WHurst AMentis HHamidi F(2023)Youths' Usage of an Informal Chatting Tool in an After-school 3D Print ShopProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35795947:CSCW1(1-20)Online publication date: 16-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3579594
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cover image ACM Conferences

CSCW '02: Proceedings of the 2002 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work

November 2002

396 pages

ISBN:1581135602

DOI:10.1145/587078

Conference Chairs:
Elizabeth F. Churchill
FX Palo Alto Laboratory, USA
,
Joe McCarthy
Intel Research, Seattle, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Christine Neuwirth
Carnegie Mellon University, USA
,
Tom Rodden
University of Nottingham, UK

Copyright © 2002 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 16 November 2002

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CSCW02: Computer Supported Cooperative Work

November 16 - 20, 2002

Louisiana, New Orleans, USA

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CSCW '02 Paper Acceptance Rate 39 of 193 submissions, 20%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 2,235 of 8,521 submissions, 26%

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642175
Easley WHurst AMentis HHamidi F(2023)Youths' Usage of an Informal Chatting Tool in an After-school 3D Print ShopProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35795947:CSCW1(1-20)Online publication date: 16-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3579594
Boudouraki AFischer JReeves SRintel S(2023)Your mileage may vary: Case study of a robotic telepresence pilot roll-out for a hybrid knowledge work organisationExtended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544549.3573871(1-7)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544549.3573871
Lee HChiang YChou YLin KChang Y(2023)What makes IM users (un)responsive: An empirical investigation for understanding IM responsivenessInternational Journal of Human-Computer Studies10.1016/j.ijhcs.2022.102983172(102983)Online publication date: Apr-2023
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2022.102983
Yang YYe HLi YJiau H(2023)A noise blocking methodology for effective collaborationSoftware: Practice and Experience10.1002/spe.3304Online publication date: 20-Dec-2023
https://doi.org/10.1002/spe.3304
Herbsleb J(2023)Global software engineering in the age of GitHub and zoomJournal of Software: Evolution and Process10.1002/smr.234735:6Online publication date: 1-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/smr.2347
Oesch SAbu-Salma RDiallo OKrämer JSimmons JWu JRuoti S(2022)User Perceptions of Security and Privacy for Group ChatDigital Threats: Research and Practice10.1145/34912653:2(1-29)Online publication date: 8-Feb-2022
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Mezouar Mda Costa DGerman DZou Y(2022)Exploring the Use of Chatrooms by Developers: An Empirical Study on Slack and GitterIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2021.310961748:10(3988-4001)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2022
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Oesch SAbu-Salma RDiallo OKrämer JSimmons JWu JRuoti S(2020)Understanding User Perceptions of Security and Privacy for Group Chat: A Survey of Users in the US and UKProceedings of the 36th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference10.1145/3427228.3427275(234-248)Online publication date: 7-Dec-2020
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