Publications

These are all the papers my colleagues and I have published, newest first. Each has its own page, and 93 have a research brief. Two research overviews, Better Meetings and Better Thinking With AI, bring 32 of them together to show what they find as a set.

Hover over a dot to see details · Click to open the paper
› Archived – Microsoft Projects

Intentional Meetings

62 publications

Tools for Thought

21 publications

The New Future of Work

52 publications

Understanding Virtual & Hybrid Meetings

33 publications

Meeting (the) Pandemic

25 publications

Mobile Robotic Telepresence

9 publications

VROOM Telepresence

3 publications

Social Devices

2 publications

Freelancers in the Enterprise

2 publications

2020 Microsoft New Future of Work Symposium
› Archived – Older Work

Tech Journalism

From 2011 to 2014, while I worked in The University of Queensland's School of Journalism and Communication, I published a bunch of articles about internet and technology trends in The Conversation. The Conversation is a not-for-profit online news site in which researchers write their takes about current issues or events, typically from the perspective of their research area or expertise.

As they say:

The Conversation is an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community and delivered direct to the public. Our team of professional editors work with university and research institute experts to unlock their knowledge for use by the wider public. Access to independent, high quality, authenticated, explanatory journalism underpins a functioning democracy. Our aim is to promote better understanding of current affairs and complex issues. And hopefully allow for a better quality of public discourse and conversations.

I explored or commented on a wide range of topics, some of which also coincided with my work as a digital rights advocate.

Articles

Editing

  • Section Editor, Communication and Technology, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication (2015–2017)
  • Guest Co-editor, Special Issue "Communication practices in the gig, sharing, and on-demand economy", Australian Journal of Communication 40(3), 2013
  • Guest Co-editor, Special Issue "Conversations 2.0: New Media interactions", ECQHR Special Issue of Estudos em Comunicação / Communication Studies, 2012
  • Issue Editor, "Passing", M/C Journal 6(3), June 2003
  • Issue Editor, "Speed", M/C Journal 3(3), June 2000

Unpublished Conference Presentations

  • Rintel, S. (2015). How Skype and FaceTime have changed relationships. IF Oxford.
  • Rintel, S. (2015). Video calling and relationships. The Good, The Bad, The Web: Mapping the digital practices of everyday life (symposium).
  • Rintel, S. (2014). Participatory Communication. Invited panelist, Social Work and Human Services Research Symposium, The University of Queensland.
  • Rintel, S. (2014). Social Media Research. Invited panelist, PhD Candidates' Seminar, School of Political Science and International Studies, The University of Queensland.
  • Rintel, S. (2013). Social Media: Tools and Techniques. Invited lecture and workshop, IAP2 Engagement Stream, Curriculum Renewal Project, Faculty of Engineering, Architecture, and Information Technology, The University of Queensland.
  • Rintel, S. (2012). Skype calls and relationship maintenance: How couples use webcam to 'do being together'. Seminar, School of Communication, Simon Fraser University.
  • Rintel, S. (2012). Digital tools for political participation: Designing with a critical edge. Invited presentation, Digital tools for political participation workshop, ICA pre-conference.
  • Rintel, S. & Pittaway, E. (2011). Designing for deliberation: Online engagement for social change. Invited workshop, 2nd Annual Community Engagement Conference, Engagement Australia.
  • Rintel, S. (2010). Interactional practices that manage trouble in video communication. Seminar, School of Journalism & Communication, The University of Queensland.
  • Rintel, S. (2009). The trouble with video communication. Invited presentation, Microsoft Research New England.
  • Rintel, S. (2009). The interactional management of video-mediated communication trouble. Invited presentation, Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, & Society (Brown Bag Series), University of California, Berkeley.
  • Rintel, S. (2008). The problem with video communication: A conversation analysis of screen-mediated distortion. Invited presentation, Human Interaction Lab, Stanford University.
  • Rintel, S. (2007). Digital photography: The good, the bad, and the ugly. Invited presentation plus panel, Kids and Screens, Hudson Valley Community College.
  • Rintel, S. (2006). Designing for belonging: Implications of online belonging for online interaction and online collaboration. Invited presentation, Communication and Rhetoric Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
  • Rintel, S. & Mullin, J. (2004). Connecting communities, building bridges: University–community research in the digital age. Public talk, Social Sciences Department, University at Albany, SUNY.
  • Rintel, S. (2001). What's so special about digital communication? Invited panel, Sociology Department, The University of Queensland.
  • Rintel, S. (1999). Real-time talk on the Internet. Invited public seminar, Department of English, The University of Queensland.
  • Rintel, S. & Mullin, J. (1999). The use and abuse of chat on the Internet. State-wide teachers' workshop, Hudson Valley Community College.
  • Rintel, S. (1996). In-jokes: Functional aspects of in-group humour in interaction. Seminar, Department of English, The University of Queensland.
2026

Metacognitive Scaffolds Create Productive Friction for AI-Assisted Knowledge Work

Viktor Kewenig, Lev Tankelevitch, Sean Rintel, Advait Sarkar, Abigail Sellen
arXiv, October 2026
Preprint (arXiv)

Metacognitive scaffolds, which ask people to set goals and break down a task before AI drafts anything, improved their writing and their later prompting without the scaffold. This productive friction felt harder and less helpful but seemed to pay off. Read the brief

Abstract
Generative AI imposes new metacognitive demands on knowledge workers as their work shifts from production to planning, evaluation, and orchestration. In a randomized, between-subjects experiment on AI-assisted writing (297 workers, 594 essays), we test dynamically-generated metacognitive scaffolds supporting goal specification and task decomposition. We find that scaffolds improve writing quality, with this boost persisting in short-lag transfer when scaffolds are removed. We also find evidence of improved topic recall three days later. These effects are consistent with observed changes in how people learn to prompt AI systems after exposure to scaffolding. However, scaffolded participants rate the AI as less helpful and more cognitively demanding even as they perform better, suggesting that subjective ease can understate the value of support. Our findings make the case for metacognitive scaffolds in AI-assisted knowledge work, revealing a productive friction worth designing for as workers increasingly delegate work to agentic AI.

Stund: Activity-Enriched Collaborative Workspaces Mediated by Artificial Intelligence

Marcel Borowski, Janus Bager Kristensen, Payod Panda, Sean Rintel, Niklas Elmqvist, Jens Emil Sloth Grønbæk, Clemens Nylandsted Klokmose
UIST 2026
Author's version (Aarhus University)

A collaborative workspace can keep every voice, video and edit as a trace that AI can query. Teams could then ask why a note exists, or have AI build tools mid-meeting, like a catch-up summary for a returning colleague. Read the brief

Abstract
Time is a second-class citizen in most collaborative software: activity traces are fragmented across tools or entirely ephemeral. We introduce Stund, an activity-enriched collaborative workspace where all activities—voice, video, interactions, and content edits—leave traces that become part of the medium of the ongoing collaboration. Unlike traditional chatbots or meeting assistants, artificial intelligence (AI) is embedded in the medium as well, allowing users to directly leverage traces through it. We demonstrate this through scenarios such as: spontaneously creating an instrument during the meeting to play back the recorded conversation around a particular spreadsheet edit; automatically detecting when someone is absent to summarize what was missed when they return; or detecting and resurfacing when sticky notes have been shaken in excitement when ideas are presented. The entire workspace is queryable, transformable, and reified through AI. Stund introduces a new approach to malleable collaborative software, where activity traces and AI are an integral part of the workspace medium.

Learning behavior accounts for background-related advantage in AI-assisted education

Jingwei Yi, Yueqi Xie, Jiyan He, Rui Ye, Junming Huang, Bin Zhu, Sean Rintel, Yu Xie, Xing Xie, Fangzhao Wu
arXiv, July 2026
Preprint (arXiv)

Students who try problems before asking AI and check its answers score higher on later AI-free exams, while copying or ignoring it does not help. Better-prepared students do this more, so equal access may yield unequal learning. Read the brief

Abstract
Generative AI has been found, and will likely be found increasingly, useful in education. However, existing AI-for-education studies provide inconsistent evidence on its average effects. More broadly, research on prior educational technologies shows that average effects often mask substantial heterogeneity across student populations. Motivated by this evidence, this study examines heterogeneity in students' learning behavior with AI, which students benefit from AI assistance, and how learner profiles and learning behavior shape these patterns. To this end, we recruited 318 university students to participate in structured learning experiments lasting up to 125 minutes. Our findings indicate that students' learning behavior is strongly associated with learning outcomes, with behaviors characterized by proactive and critical engagement, rather than limited engagement, associated with significantly better performance. These behavioral differences are related to learner profiles, with students from higher-ranking universities and those with greater prior knowledge tending to benefit more, consistent with their greater likelihood of adopting proactive interaction strategies. Accounting for learning behavior substantially weakens or eliminates the associations between learner profiles and learning outcomes, suggesting that how students use AI is a key pathway through which background differences are linked to learning gains. Overall, this work provides a deeper understanding of AI assistance in education by showing how differences in learner profiles and learning behavior shape who benefits from AI-supported learning. These insights can help educators and students better navigate and integrate AI into educational practices.

Tools for Thought: Understanding, Protecting, and Augmenting Human Cognition with Generative AI — From Vision to Implementation

Zelun Tony Zhang, Nick von Felten, Leon Reicherts, Lev Tankelevitch, Zhitong Guan, Sean Rintel, Yue Fu, Jessica He, Kenneth Holstein, Advait Sarkar, Gonzalo Ramos, Anuschka Schmitt, Anjali Singh, Haotian Li, Srishti Palani, Peter Dalsgaard
CHI 2026
Free from the publisher

Generative AI can be a tool for thought, protecting and augmenting people's reasoning rather than only speeding work. That means judging tools by how they change thinking and learning, not just output, and expecting resistance to designs that add friction. Read the brief

Abstract
Building on the first Tools for Thought (TfT) workshop at CHI 2025, we invite researchers, designers, and practitioners to further operationalise approaches for the design, usage, and evaluation of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) as a TfT. The first goal of the workshop is to put into focus which outcomes a TfT should help people achieve to effectively augment their cognition while avoiding its erosion. Secondly, we will explore how to achieve these outcomes through design and usage strategies. Third, the workshop will also address what a TfT needs for its successful adoption and integration into people’s flow, so that they can benefit from the tools’ potential in their own terms. By focussing on these three research goals, the workshop aims to further develop and advance the multidisciplinary TfT community interested in exploring research frameworks, theories, methods, and approaches to conceptualising, designing, and researching GenAI as a TfT.

Nudging Attention to Workplace Meeting Goals: A Large-Scale, Preregistered Field Experiment

Lev Tankelevitch, Ava Elizabeth Scott, Nagaravind Challakere, Payod Panda, Sean Rintel
CHI 2026
Free from the publisher

Goal-reflection surveys before and after meetings, or only after, were followed by clearer, better-communicated goals, which may build meeting intentionality, knowing why you meet. Most workers wanted pre-meeting goal prompts, yet adding them brought no measurable gain in rated effectiveness. Read the brief

Abstract
Ineffective meetings are pervasive. Thinking ahead explicitly about meeting goals may improve effectiveness, but current collaboration platforms lack integrated support. We tested a lightweight goal-reflection intervention in a preregistered field experiment in a global technology company (361 employees, 7196 meetings). Over two weeks, workers in the treatment group completed brief pre-meeting surveys in their collaboration platform, nudging attention to goals for upcoming meetings. To measure impact, both treatment and control groups completed post-meeting surveys about meeting effectiveness. While the intervention impact on meeting effectiveness was not statistically significant, mixed-methods findings revealed improvements in self-reported awareness and behaviour across both groups, with post-meeting surveys unintentionally functioning as an intervention. We highlight the promise of supporting goal reflection, while noting challenges of evaluating and supporting workplace reflection for meetings, including workflow and collaboration norms, and attitudes and behaviours around meeting preparation. We conclude with implications for designing technological support for meeting intentionality

Goals as First-Class Abstractions in Human-AI Collaboration

Lev Tankelevitch, Sean Rintel
AutomationXP26 Workshop, CHI 2026
Workshop paper (PDF)

Goals should become shared, persistent objects that people and AI agents work from, because as AI takes over production, human work shifts to planning, orchestrating and evaluating. Generative AI can handle the fuzzy, evolving goals earlier systems could not. Read the brief

Abstract
As AI assumes more of the material production in knowledge work, human effort shifts toward planning, orchestration, and evaluation, all of which revolves around goals. Yet goals remain poorly represented in knowledge work tools and workflows: implicit, unexpressed, or confused with outputs. Beyond their importance for human work, clear goals are fundamental to human-AI communication and collaboration. We review research establishing the value of explicit goals, show through a review of commercial tools that existing ecosystems support goal tracking but not goal articulation, alignment, or contextual use, and use meetings as a proving ground demonstrating that upstream goal articulation produces disproportionate downstream value for both humans and AI agents. We argue that goals should be encoded as first-class abstractions that drive human-AI collaborative workflows and that generative AI's natural-language capabilities make this a uniquely opportune moment. We outline six design requirements for goal-oriented human-AI collaborative systems.
2025

Microsoft New Future of Work Report 2025

MSR-TR-2025-58
Author's copy (PDF)
Abstract
Note from Chief Scientist and editor Jaime Teevan:As you sit down to read the 2025 New Future of Work report, it’s worth pausing to consider the thread that ties the past five years of reports together. Theinaugural New Future of Work report(opens in new tab), published in 2021, focused on new ways people could work without relying on colocation as a key productivity tool.The second, in 2022(opens in new tab), centered on the reintroduction of physical offices and the emergence of hybrid work.In 2023(opens in new tab), we explored how large language models could reshape everyday work, and,in 2024(opens in new tab), how those advances moved from promise to real‑world impact.

Effects of LLM Use and Note-Taking On Reading Comprehension and Memory: A Randomised Experiment in Secondary Schools

Pia Kreijkes, Viktor Kewenig, Martina Kuvalja, Mina Lee, Jake Hofman, Sylvia Vitello, Abigail Sellen, Sean Rintel, Daniel G. Goldstein, David Rothschild, Lev Tankelevitch, Tim Oates
Computers & Education, 2025
Free from the publisher

Taking notes, alone or alongside an AI chatbot, helped secondary-school students understand and remember history texts days later better than the chatbot alone. The chatbot may do the summarising for them, yet students enjoyed it more and found it easier. Read the brief

Abstract
Students’ rapid uptake of Generative Artificial Intelligence tools, particularly large language models (LLMs), raises urgent questions about their effects on learning. We compared the impact of LLM use to that of traditional note-taking, or a combination of both, on secondary school students’ reading comprehension and retention. We conducted a pre-registered, randomised controlled experiment with within- and between-participant design elements in schools in England. 405 students, aged 14-15 years, studied two text passages and completed comprehension and retention tests three days later. Quantitative results demonstrated that both note-taking alone and combined with LLM use had significant positive effects on retention and comprehension compared to using the LLM alone. Yet, most students preferred using the LLM over note-taking, and perceived it as more helpful. Qualitative results revealed that many students valued the LLM for making complex material more accessible and reducing cognitive load, while they appreciated note-taking for promoting deeper engagement and aiding memory. Additionally, we identified “archetypes” of prompting behaviour, offering insights into the different ways students interacted with the LLM. Overall, our findings suggest that, while note-taking promotes cognitive engagement and long-term comprehension and retention, LLMs may facilitate initial understanding and student interest. The study reveals the continued importance of traditional learning activities, the benefits of combining LLM use with traditional learning over using LLMs alone, and the AI skills that students need to maximise those benefits.

Avatars in mixed-reality meetings: A longitudinal field study of realistic versus cartoon facial likeness effects on communication, task satisfaction, presence, and emotional perception

Georgiana Cristina Dobre, Marta Wilczkowiak, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 2025
Author's copy (PDF)

For avatars in mixed-reality work meetings, communicative value matters more than likeness. Over weeks of real meetings, co-workers read each other's moods more accurately with cartoon faces, though realistic faces seemed more expressive. Read the brief

Abstract
We conducted a within-subjects study to examine how realistic faces and cartoon faces on avatars affect communication, task satisfaction, sense of presence, and mood perception in mixed reality meetings. Over the course of two weeks, six groups of co-workers (14 people) held recurring meetings using Microsoft HoloLens2 devices, each person embodying a personal full-body avatar with either a realistic face or cartoon face. Half of the groups started with the realistic face avatar and switched to the cartoon face version halfway through (RC condition), and the other half with the cartoon-face avatar first (CR condition). Results showed that participants in the RC condition may have had higher expectations and more errors in perceiving their colleagues’ moods. Participants in the CR condition reported that the avatars’ appearance mattered less over time and experienced increased comfort and improved identification of their colleagues. Participants rated words, tone of voice, and movement as the most useful cues for perceiving colleagues’ moods, regardless of avatar rendering style. In the RC condition, participants rated gaze as more useful than facial expressions, while in the CR condition, both gaze and facial expressions were rated as the least useful. Results also suggested that participants had more errors when perceiving negative moods in their colleagues, with this trend appearing for most moods, but depending on conditions. Implications of these findings for mixed and virtual reality meetings are discussed. This work contributes to the field of remote collaboration by providing insights from longitudinal data on the impact of avatar appearance on various aspects of work meetings in virtual environments.

Nods of Agreement: Webcam-Driven Avatars Improve Meeting Outcomes and Avatar Satisfaction Over Audio-Driven or Static Avatars in All-Avatar Work Videoconferencing

Fang Ma, Ju Zhang, Lev Tankelevitch, Payod Panda, Torang Asadi, Charlie Hewitt, Lohit Petikam, James Clemoes, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel, Marta Wilczkowiak
CSCW 2025 (Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 9(2), Article CSCW142, April 2025)
Free from the publisher

In all-avatar work meetings, meaningful movement beats realism. Webcam-driven nods and smiles made colleagues more comfortable and included than lip-synced or static avatars, though agreement with group decisions did not differ. Read the brief

Abstract
Avatars are edging into mainstream videoconferencing, but evaluation of how avatar animation modalities contribute to work meeting outcomes has been limited. We report a within-group videoconferencing experiment in which 68 employees of a global technology company, in 16 groups, used the same stylized avatars in three modalities (static picture, audio-animation, and webcam-animation) to complete collaborative decision-making tasks. Quantitatively, for meeting outcomes, webcam-animated avatars improved meeting effectiveness over the picture modality and were also reported to be more comfortable and inclusive than both other modalities. In terms of avatar satisfaction, there was a similar preference for webcam animation as compared to both other modalities. Our qualitative analysis shows participants expressing a preference for the holistic motion of webcam animation, and that meaningful movement outweighs realism for meeting outcomes, as evidenced through a systematic overview of ten thematic factors. We discuss implications for research and commercial deployment and conclude that webcam-animated avatars are a plausible alternative to video in work meetings.

Designing Interfaces that Support Temporal Work Across Meetings with Generative AI

Rishi Vanukuru, Payod Panda, Xinyue Chen, Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, Sean Rintel
DIS2025
Free from the publisher

Meeting intentionality spans a series of meetings, which people link through temporal work by looking back and ahead. Generative AI should carry goals and context from one meeting to the next, in instant recaps and handoffs. Read the brief

Abstract
Temporal work is an essential part of the modern knowledge workplace, where multiple threads of meetings and projects are connected across time by the acts of looking back (retrospection) and ahead (prospection). As we develop Generative AI interfaces to support knowledge work, this lens of temporality can help ground design in real workplace needs. Building upon research in routine dynamics and cognitive science, and an exploratory analysis of real recurring meetings, we develop a framework and a tool for the synergistic exploration of temporal work and the capabilities of Generative AI. We then use these to design a series of interface concepts and prototypes to better support work that spans multiple scales of time. Through this approach, we demonstrate how the design of new Generative AI tools can be guided by our understanding of how work really happens across meetings and projects.

Dynamic Prompt Middleware: Contextual Prompt Refinement Controls for Comprehension Tasks

Ian Drosos, Jack Williams, Advait Sarkar, Nicholas Wilson, Sean Rintel, Payod Panda
CHIWORK 2025
Free from the publisher

Dynamic prompt middleware generates controls for each AI request, such as detail level or learning goal, so people can steer explanations without retyping. People rated it better for steering than fixed controls, though an option's effect stayed hard to predict. Read the brief

Abstract
Effective prompting of generative AI is challenging for many users, particularly in expressing context for comprehension tasks such as explaining spreadsheet formulas, Python code, and text passages. Prompt middleware aims to address this barrier by assisting in prompt construction, but barriers remain for users in expressing adequate control so that they can receive AI-responses that match their preferences. We conduct a formative survey (n=38) investigating user needs for control over AI-generated explanations in comprehension tasks, which uncovers a trade-off between standardized but predictable support for prompting, and adaptive but unpredictable support tailored to the user and task. To explore this trade-off, we implement two prompt middleware approaches: Dynamic Prompt Refinement Control (Dynamic PRC) and Static Prompt Refinement Control (Static PRC). The Dynamic PRC approach generates context-specific UI elements that provide prompt refinements based on the user’s prompt and user needs from the AI, while the Static PRC approach offers a preset list of generally applicable refinements. We evaluate these two approaches with a controlled user study (n=16) to assess the impact of these approaches on user control of AI responses for crafting better explanations. Results show a preference for the Dynamic PRC approach as it afforded more control, lowered barriers to providing context, and encouraged exploration and reflection of the tasks, but that reasoning about the effects of different generated controls on the final output remains challenging. Drawing on participant feedback, we discuss design implications for future Dynamic PRC systems that enhance user control of AI responses. Our findings suggest that dynamic prompt middleware can improve the user experience of generative AI workflows by affording greater control and guide users to a better AI response.

What Does Success Look Like? Catalyzing Meeting Intentionality with AI-Assisted Prospective Reflection

Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, Payod Panda, Rishi Vanukuru, Xinyue Chen, Sean Rintel
CHIWORK 2025
Free from the publisher

Before meetings, AI can build meeting intentionality by asking why a meeting is needed, what success looks like and what could derail it. People clarified goals, prepared, shared agendas and rethought recurring meetings. Read the brief

Abstract
Despite decades of HCI and Meeting Science research, complaints about ineffective meetings are still pervasive. We argue that meeting technologies lack support for prospective reflection, that is, thinking about why a meeting is needed and what might happen. To explore this, we designed a Meeting Purpose Assistant (MPA) technology probe to coach users to articulate their meeting’s purpose and challenges, and act accordingly. The MPA used Generative AI to support personalized and actionable prospective reflection across the diversity of meeting contexts. Using a participatory prompting methodology, 18 employees of a global technology company reflected with the MPA on upcoming meetings. Observed impacts were: clarifying meeting purposes, challenges, and success conditions; changing perspectives and flexibility; improving preparation and communication; and proposing changed plans. We also identify perceived social, temporal, and technological barriers to using the MPA. We present system and workflow design considerations for developing AI-assisted reflection support for meetings. KEYWORDS: videoconferencing, meetings, goals, purpose, intentionality, workplace, prospective reflection, generative AI, participatory prompting

Are We On Track? AI-Assisted Active and Passive Goal Reflection During Meetings

Xinyue Chen, Lev Tankelevitch, Rishi Vanukuru, Ava Elizabeth Scott, Payod Panda, Sean Rintel
CHI 2025
Free from the publisher

During meetings, AI that makes goals explicit can support meeting intentionality by helping people spot drift. A passive display of topics and goals was easily overlooked, while active pop-up questions invited action but could interrupt. Read the brief

Abstract
Meetings often suffer from a lack of intentionality, such as unclear goals and straying off-topic. Identifying goals and maintaining their clarity throughout a meeting is challenging, as discussions and uncertainties evolve. Yet meeting technologies predominantly fail to support meeting intentionality. AI-assisted reflection is a promising approach. To explore this, we conducted a technology probe study with 15 knowledge workers, integrating their real meeting data into two AI-assisted reflection probes: a passive and active design. Participants identified goal clarification as a foundational aspect of reflection. Goal clarity enabled people to assess when their meetings were off-track and reprioritize accordingly. Passive AI intervention helped participants maintain focus through non-intrusive feedback, while active AI intervention, though effective at triggering immediate reflection and action, risked disrupting the conversation flow. We identify three key design dimensions for AI-assisted reflection systems, and provide insights into design trade-offs, emphasizing the need to adapt intervention intensity and timing, balance democratic input with efficiency, and offer user control to foster intentional, goal-oriented behavior during meetings and beyond. KEYWORDS: videoconferencing, meeting, goal, intentionality, generative AI, probe, active, passive, intervention, interruption

The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers

Hao-Ping (Hank) Lee, Advait Sarkar, Lev Tankelevitch, Ian Drosos, Sean Rintel, Richard Banks, Nicholas Wilson
CHI 2025
Free from the publisher

Generative AI saves knowledge workers effort and shifts their critical thinking from doing tasks to stewarding them, verifying and integrating AI output. Trusting the AI went with less reported critical thinking, and self-confidence with more. Read the brief

Abstract
The rise of Generative AI (GenAI) in knowledge workflows raises questions about its impact on critical thinking skills and practices. We survey 319 knowledge workers to investigate 1) when and how they perceive the enaction of critical thinking when using GenAI, and 2) when and why GenAI affects their effort to do so. Participants shared 936 first-hand examples of using GenAI in work tasks. Quantitatively, when considering both task- and user-specific factors, a user’s task-specific self-confidence and confidence in GenAI are predictive of whether critical thinking is enacted and the effort of doing so in GenAI-assisted tasks. Specifically, higher confidence in GenAI is associated with less critical thinking, while higher self-confidence is associated with more critical thinking. Qualitatively, GenAI shifts the nature of critical thinking toward information verification, response integration, and task stewardship. Our insights reveal new design challenges and opportunities for developing GenAI tools for knowledge work.

YES AND: A Generative AI Multi-Agent Framework for Enhancing Diversity of Thought in Individual Ideation for Problem-Solving Through Confidence-Based Agent Turn-Taking

Pratik Ghosh, Sean Rintel
CHI EA 2025
Free from the publisher

AI expert personas can brainstorm with one person, giving the diversity of thought a group brings. In confidence-based turn-taking, each speaks only when confident of adding something new, so they ask questions and build on each other's ideas. Read the brief

Abstract
Diversity of thought is crucial in ideation for problem-solving, yet professionals in organisational settings often face challenges such as limited access to varied expertise and resource constraints which hinder the ideation process. To address this issue, we propose YES AND, a Generative AI based multi-agent framework that simulates diverse perspectives through AI agents for ideation with a single user. Leveraging a unique confidence-based turn-taking model, these agents organically take turns as they build on ideas, pose clarification questions to the user for improved contextual understanding, and allow the user to interject and steer the conversation. Beyond addressing the limitations of traditional ideation, this framework offers a novel approach to leveraging Generative AI for ideation, moving away from the rigidity of pre-defined interaction rules towards a more dynamic and creative process that enables serendipitous development of ideas.

The New Calculator? Practices, Norms, and Implications of Generative AI in Higher Education

Auste Simkute, Viktor Kewenig, Abigail Sellen, Sean Rintel, Lev Tankelevitch
arxiv, 2025
Preprint (arXiv)

Students' generative AI use is shaped by the university around them, not just the tool. Facing unclear, plagiarism-focused guidelines and educators reluctant to discuss AI, students used it as tutor or assistant and set their own unspoken rules. Read the brief

Abstract
Generative AI (GenAI) has introduced myriad opportunities and challenges for higher education. Anticipating this potential transformation requires understanding students’ contextualised practices and norms around GenAI. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 26 students and 11 educators from diverse departments across two universities. Grounded in Strong Structuration Theory, we find diversity in students’ uses and motivations for GenAI. Occurring in the context of unclear university guidelines, institutional fixation on plagiarism, and inconsistent educator communication, students’ practices are informed by unspoken rules around appropriate use, GenAI limitations and reliance strategies, and consideration of agency and skills. Perceived impacts include changes in confidence, and concerns about skill development, relationships with educators, and plagiarism. Both groups envision changes in universities’ attitude to GenAI, responsible use training, assessments, and integration of GenAI into education. We discuss socio-technical implications in terms of current and anticipated changes in the external and internal structures that contextualise students’ GenAI use.
2024

Microsoft New Future of Work Report 2024

MSR-TR-2024-56
Microsoft Research PDF
Abstract
As Microsoft approaches its 50th anniversary, the landscape of work continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace. The past year has marked a pivotal shift, moving from predictions and controlled lab studies to the real-world implementation and impact of new technologies. These advancements, built on decades of research and development, are beginning to yield tangible results, offering a clearer view of how generative AI is reshaping the way work gets done. This fourth edition builds on the foundation of the previous reports but is distinct in its emphasis on lessons learned from real-world applications. Over the past year, organizations have begun deploying generative AI at scale, revealing both its promise and its challenges.

Hybridge: Bridging Spatiality for Inclusive and Equitable Hybrid Meetings

Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, Becky Spittle, Kori Inkpen, John Tang, Sasa Junuzovic, Qianqian Qi, Pat Sweeney, Andrew D. Wilson, Bill Buxton, Abigail Sellen, Sean Rintel
CSCW 2024
Free from the publisher

Embracing asymmetry can make hybrid meetings more equitable. In the room each remote person gets a life-size screen at the table, while remotely they enter a 3D replica of the room, choosing their seat and where to look. Read the brief

Abstract
Hybrid meetings limit inclusion for remote participants. The Hybridge experimental system provides different interfaces for remote and room endpoints, focusing on improving inclusion via shared spatiality and remote agency. In-room participants see remotes on displays around a table, and remotes see video integrated into a digital twin. Remotes can choose where to appear and from where they view the room. We tested Hybridge in a within-subjects study of group survival tasks. An in-person condition was followed by a counterbalanced order of hybrid traditional videoconferencing (“Gallery”) and Hybridge. We found that co-presence and agency differences between in-room and remotes were alleviated in Hybridge but remained in Gallery. Physical presence for remotes was higher in Hybridge than Gallery. Conversation flow was better in Hybridge than Gallery, but ease of awareness was not different. We argue that asymmetry should be embraced when designing hybrid meeting systems, with inclusivity achieved by tailoring features for the needs of different endpoints.

TableBot: Getting a Handle on Hybrid Collaboration by Negotiating Control of a Tabletop Telepresence Robot

Maja Dybboe, Johannes Ellemose, Alexander Langagergaard Vastrup, Andriana Boudouraki, Sean Rintel, Marianne Graves Petersen, Jens Emil Sloth Grønbæk, Clemens Nylandsted Klokmose
NordiCHI 2024
Free from the publisher

A handle on a tabletop telepresence robot lets people in the room lift it and move the remote person's view, sharing control. Groups that shared control included the remote person best, and remote people mostly found being moved helpful. Read the brief

Abstract
Mobile Remote telePresence robots (MRPs) have been explored as a promising approach to strengthen the agency and presence of remote participants in hybrid work settings. Despite the need and interest in how they might better support hybrid collaboration, substantial challenges remain in terms of their price, availability, and successful application in meeting room contexts. In response to these challenges, this paper explores the opportunities for designing lightweight telepresence robots supporting negotiation of control in hybrid meeting contexts. This paper describes a serial Research-through-Design process, exploring three iterations of design and evaluation of TableBot, a novel tabletop telepresence robot. Based on this work, we present the design of TableBot, and articulate the design space of telepresence robots for hybrid meetings in terms of three trade-offs and a framework for analysing telepresence systems regarding negotiation of control.

Ironies of Generative AI: Understanding and Mitigating Productivity Loss in Human-AI Interaction

Auste Simkute, Lev Tankelevitch, Viktor Kewenig, Ava Elizabeth Scott, Abigail Sellen, Sean Rintel
International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 2024
Author's copy (PDF)

Decades of automation research predict where generative AI costs productivity. People shift from producing work to checking output they did not create, unrequested suggestions break concentration, and easy tasks get easier while hard ones can get harder. Read the brief

Abstract
Generative AI (GenAI) systems offer opportunities to increase user productivity in many tasks, such as programming and writing. However, while they boost productivity in some studies, many others show that users are working ineffectively with GenAI systems and losing productivity. Despite the apparent novelty of these usability challenges, these ‘ironies of automation’ have been observed for over three decades in Human Factors research on the introduction of automation in domains such as aviation, automated driving, and intelligence. We draw on this extensive research alongside recent GenAI user studies to outline four key reasons for productivity loss with GenAI systems: a shift in users’ roles from production to evaluation, unhelpful restructuring of workflows, interruptions, and a tendency for automation to make easy tasks easier and hard tasks harder. We then suggest how Human Factors research can also inform GenAI system design to mitigate productivity loss by using approaches such as continuous feedback, system personalization, ecological interface design, task stabilization, and clear task allocation. Thus, we ground developments in GenAI system usability in decades of Human Factors research, ensuring that the design of human-AI interactions in this rapidly moving field learns from history instead of repeating it.

Productivity implications for generative AI role-based prompts as a networked hermeneutic (Commentary)

Sean Rintel
Discourse & Communication, 2024
Author's copy (PDF)

Prompts asking AI to play a role draw on shared, everyday ways of sorting people into roles, and AI replies reflect that understanding back. Seeing this could help explain AI's mistakes, simulate role-based conduct and help teams understand each other. Read the brief

Abstract
A commentary on Housley and Dahl (2024), who show that role-based prompts for generative AI draw on vernacular resources of membership categorisation and action description, forming a networked hermeneutic of lay and professional sociology. From a human-computer interaction perspective, I outline three implications for designing generative AI for productivity. First, treating AI responses as enactments of that hermeneutic may improve explainability, supporting users' metacognition and the co-auditing of AI output. Second, AI's synthetic reflection of role-based behaviour opens new technomethodological inquiry, provided synthetic personas are not naïvely substituted for real people. Third, understanding role-based prompting could help teams collaborate, from coaching users to specify interactional stances to helping members understand the stances of absent colleagues.

The CoExplorer Technology Probe: A Generative AI-Powered Adaptive Interface to Support Intentionality in Planning and Running Video Meetings

Gun Woo (Warren) Park, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, Sean Rintel
DIS 2024
Free from the publisher

Generative AI can support meeting intentionality by drafting goals and polling attendees before a meeting, then opening files and apps as talk changes phase. People welcomed the poll but wanted to approve the AI's changes. Read the brief

Abstract
Effective meetings are effortful, but traditional videoconferencing systems offer little support for reducing this effort across the meeting lifecycle. Generative AI (GenAI) has the potential to radically redefine meetings by augmenting intentional meeting behaviors. CoExplorer, our novel adaptive meeting prototype, preemptively generates likely phases that meetings would undergo, tools that allow capturing attendees’ thoughts before the meeting, and for each phase, window layouts, and appropriate applications and files. Using CoExplorer as a technology probe in a guided walkthrough, we studied its potential in a sample of participants from a global technology company. Our findings suggest that GenAI has the potential to help meetings stay on track and reduce workload, although concerns were raised about users’ agency, trust, and possible disruption to traditional meeting norms. We discuss these concerns and their design implications for the development of GenAI meeting technology. KEYWORDS: video meetings, effectiveness, effort, design, adaptive user interface, windowing system, speech recognition; intent recognition, technology probe

Virtual voices: Exploring individual differences in chat and verbal participation in virtual meetings

Liana Kreamer, Steven G. Rogelberg, Lev Tankelevitch, Sean Rintel
Journal of Vocational Behavior, 2024
Free from the publisher

In virtual meetings, women chatted more and men spoke more, senior women chatted most, and junior staff chatted more when they felt psychologically safe. Chat is a second channel, so valuing and moderating it could widen who is heard. Read the brief

Abstract
A key component of team performance is participation among group members. One widespread organizational function that provides a stage for participation is the workplace meeting. With the shift to remote work, roughly half of all meetings are conducted virtually. One encouraging opportunity that can elevate meeting participation in this context is the use of written chat. Chat offers a second avenue of participation during a meeting, where attendees can synchronously contribute to the conversation through writing. This study explores factors influencing participation in virtual meetings, drawing on individual differences (status characteristics theory), psychological safety perceptions, and group communication. Results reveal gender and job level nuances: women engage more in chat, while men verbally contribute more frequently. Further, we found men highest in job level verbally contributed the most in virtual meetings, whereas women highest in job level use the chat the most frequently. Regarding type of chats sent, women use emoji reactions more often than men, and men send more attachments than women. Additionally, results revealed psychological safety moderated the relationship between job level and overall chat participation, such that employees low in job level with high perceptions of psychological safety sent more chats than their counterparts. This study provides insights into communication patterns and the impact of psychological safety on participation in technology-mediated spaces.

“It’s like a rubber duck that talks back”: Understanding Generative AI-Assisted Data Analysis Workflows through a Participatory Prompting Study

Ian Drosos, Advait Sarkar, Xiaotong Xu, Carina Negreanu, Sean Rintel, Lev Tankelevitch
CHIWORK 2024
Free from the publisher

Generative AI can act as a thinking partner for spreadsheet users analysing their own data, cutting search effort and suggesting hypotheses and ways to test them. The hard parts are stating what you want and checking its answers. Read the brief

Abstract
Generative AI tools can help users with many tasks. One such task is data analysis, which is notoriously challenging for non-expert end-users due to its expertise requirements, and where AI holds much potential, such as finding relevant data sources, proposing analysis strategies, and writing analysis code. To understand how data analysis workflows can be assisted or impaired by generative AI, we conducted a study (n=15) using Bing Chat via participatory prompting. Participatory prompting is a recently developed methodology in which users and researchers reflect together on tasks through co-engagement with generative AI. In this paper we demonstrate the value of the participatory prompting method. We found that generative AI benefits the information foraging and sensemaking loops of data analysis in specific ways, but also introduces its own barriers and challenges, arising from the difficulties of query formulation, specifying context, and verifying results.

An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations

Tom Cashman, Tim Hutton, Martin de La Gorce, Tibor Takács, Antonio Criminisi, Milica Ðorđević, Goran Dubajić, Ðorđe Marjanović, Milena Okošanović, Vukašin Ranković, Ivan Razumenić, Bojan Roško, Teo Šarkić, Marko Skakun, Miloš Stojanović, Nikola Veličković, Predrag Jovanović, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, Sean Rintel
CHI EA 2024
Free from the publisher

Seating people in a video meeting around one shared virtual table, as live 3D video from an ordinary webcam, helped them tell who was looking at whom. Yet most preferred the familiar grid as more comfortable. Read the brief

Abstract
Work video meetings in the traditional grid interface have inclusion,effectiveness, and fatigue problems, due in part to the difficulty ofdirecting or communicating attention. Virtual 3D meeting spaceshave value, but representing people in them is a challenge. Avatarsface resistance, and 2D video is limited to near-frontal views, constraining the spatial layout. We present a novel experimental systemfor virtual meeting rooms that predicts 3D video of users in real-time from a standard webcam, positions them in a shared 3D space,and renders a controllable first-person view. We report study results comparing this system to a traditional grid, and to 2D videoof people in the same 3D space. While spatial layouts fared better in terms of attention and co-presence, the traditional grid wasmore comfortable and professional. This is likely due to unsettled3D design, the need for manual control, and a preference for thefamiliar.

CoExplorer: Generative AI Powered 2D and 3D Adaptive Interfaces to Support Intentionality in Video Meetings

Gun Woo (Warren) Park, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, Sean Rintel
CHI EA 2024
Free from the publisher

To support meeting intentionality before meetings, generative AI can draft goals and phases from the invitation, focused where attendees disagree. During them, it can lay out each phase's apps and files, on screen or in VR, unless someone objects. Read the brief

Abstract
Current online meeting technologies lack holistic support for reducing the effort of planning and running meetings. We presentCoExplorer2D and CoExplorerVR, generative AI (GenAI)-driventechnology probes for exploring the significant transformative potential of GenAI to augment these aspects of meetings. In eachsystem, before the meeting, these systems generate tools that allow Current online meeting technologies lack holistic support for reducing the effort of planning and running meetings. We present CoExplorer2D and CoExplorerVR, generative AI (GenAI)-driven technology probes for exploring the significant transformative potential of GenAI to augment these aspects of meetings. In each system, before the meeting, these systems generate tools that allow synthesis and ranking of attendees’ key issues for discussion, and likely phases that a meeting would require to cover these issues. During the meeting, these systems use speech recognition to generate 2D or VR window layouts with appropriate  applications and files for each phase, and recognize the attendees’ progress through the meeting’s phases. We argue that these probes show the potential of GenAI to contribute to reducing the effort required for planning and running meetings, providing participants with a more engaging and effective meeting experiences.

Comparing the Agency of Hybrid Meeting Remote Users in 2D and 3D Interfaces of the Hybridge System

Becky Spittle, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, Kori Inkpen, John Tang, Sasa Junuzovic, Qianqian Qi, Pat Sweeney, Andrew D. Wilson, Bill Buxton, Abigail Sellen, Sean Rintel
CHI EA 2024
Free from the publisher

Asymmetric hybrid meetings can give each remote person a screen-and-camera seat at the table. Remotely, choosing that seat in a 3D replica of the room and looking around raised their agency, awareness and presence over fixed 2D views. Read the brief

Abstract
Hybridge is an experimental system for exploring the design of remote inclusion for hybrid meetings. In-room users see remote participants on individual displays positioned around a table, and remotes see video feeds from the room integrated into a digital twin of the meeting room. Remotes can choose where to appear in and view the meeting room from. We designed two digital interfaces for remote attendees, one using a 2D canvas, and the other using a 3D digital twin of the room as the medium of interaction. To decide which interface to use for future evaluation, we conducted a within-subjects comparison of 24 groups completing survival tasks. We found that 3D outperformed 2D in the participants’ perceived sense of awareness, sense of agency, and physical presence. Majority of participants also subjectively preferred 3D over 2D. We discuss design recommendations based on usage patterns and participant comments, and plans for further research.

Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies

Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, Sean Rintel
CHI 2024
Free from the publisher

People hold two mental models of meeting goals, seeing meetings as a means to an end or as ends in themselves for connection and discovery. Tools that surface goals from scheduling onward can support meeting intentionality. Read the brief

Abstract
Ineffective meetings due to unclear goals are major obstacles to productivity, yet support for intentionality is surprisingly scant in ourmeeting and allied workflow technologies. To design for intentionality, we need to understand workers’ attitudes and practices aroundgoals. We interviewed 21 employees of a global technology company and identified contrasting mental models of meeting goals:meetings as a means to an end, and meetings as an end in themselves. We explore how these mental models impact how meetinggoals arise, goal prioritization, obstacles to considering goals, and how lack of alignment around goals may create tension betweenorganizers and attendees. We highlight the challenges in balancing preparation, constraining scope, and clear outcomes, with theneed for intentional adaptability and discovery in meetings. Our findings have implications for designing systems which increaseeffectiveness in meetings by catalyzing intentionality and reducing tension in the organisation of meetings.KEYWORDS: videoconferencing, meeting, goal, agenda, intentionality, calendar, teams, workflows

The Metacognitive Demands and Opportunities of Generative AI

Best Paper
Lev Tankelevitch, Viktor Kewenig, Auste Simkute, Ava Elizabeth Scott, Advait Sarkar, Abigail Sellen, Sean Rintel
CHI '24, 2024
Free from the publisher

Generative AI is hard to use partly because it demands metacognition, monitoring and controlling your own thinking as you state goals, break down tasks and judge outputs. Tools could prompt planning and self-evaluation, and demand less by explaining outputs. Read the brief

Abstract
Generative AI (GenAI) systems offer unprecedented opportunities for transforming professional and personal work, yet present challenges around prompting, evaluating and relying on outputs, and optimizing workflows. We argue that metacognition – the psychological ability to monitor and control one’s thoughts and behavior – offers a valuable lens to understand and design for these usability challenges. Drawing on research in psychology and cognitive science, and recent GenAI user studies, we illustrate how GenAI systems impose metacognitive demands on users, requiring a high degree of metacognitive monitoring and control. We propose these demands could be addressed by integrating metacognitive support strategies into GenAI systems, and by designing GenAI systems to reduce their metacognitive demand by targeting explainability and customizability. Metacognition offers a coherent framework for understanding the usability challenges posed by GenAI, enabling us to offer research and design directions to advance human-GenAI interaction.

Avatars in mixed reality meetings: A field study of avatar facial realism on felt and perceived emotion

Best Paper Runner-Up
Georgiana Cristina Dobre, Marta Wilczkowiak, Marco Gillies, Sylvia Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel
EMRN 2024: A Metaverse For Good
Project page (EventLab)

In mixed reality meetings, realistic avatar faces cut both ways. Co-workers who started with them felt more positive than after switching to cartoon faces, though this seemed to fade, yet realistic faces made colleagues' emotions harder to judge. Read the brief

Abstract
We conducted a within-subjects study to examine how realistic faces and cartoon faces on avatars effect communication, task satisfaction, sense of presence, and emotional state perception in mixed reality meetings. Over the course of two weeks, six groups of co-workers (14people) held recurring meetings using Microsoft HoloLens2 devices, each person embodying a personal full-body avatar with either a realistic face or cartoon face. Half of the groups started with the realistic face avatar and switched to the cartoon face version halfway through (RC condition), and the other half with the cartoon-face avatar first (CR condition). For this paper, we focus on our results of emotion felt and perceived. We found that participants reported more positive emotions with the realistic face avatar but only in the RC condition. This positive emotion also seemed to have reduced over time. The realistic face avatar also caused more error in judgement of their colleagues emotions, and again this was worse in the RC condition.

Ecological Validity and the Evaluation of Avatar Facial Animation Noise

Marta Wilczkowiak, Ken Jakubzak, James Clemoes, Cornelia Treptow, Michaela Porubanova, Kerry Read, Daniel McDuff, Marina Kuznetsova, Sean Rintel, Mar Gonzalez-Franco
Workshop Series on Animation in Virtual and Augmented Environments (ANIVAE 2024)
Author's copy (PDF)

Ecological validity, how closely a test resembles real use, changes avatar verdicts. People watching a full conversation seemed to forgive more facial animation glitches than when tuning isolated clips, but empathy and possible gender bias swayed their judgements. Read the brief

Abstract
Facial animation noise levels affect the acceptance of avatars in communication systems. However, there is no standard for evaluation, especially with regard to ecological validity. We investigate low and high ecological validity on two within-subjects experiments conducted in Augmented Reality on a Hololens2. We simulated facial-expression noise introduced on stylized cartoon avatars, and found that in the high ecological validity experiment, subjects were less sensitive to noise parameters, but their judgement was more influenced by empathy scores and gender biases. This highlights the importance of considering both technical parameters and user experience when designing communication systems. We make some general recommendations for evaluating issues of avatar acceptance given the trade-offs between the approaches, and propose the ‘Triple C’ factors of Context, Culture and Character as an important set of ecological factors to consider.
2023

Microsoft New Future of Work Report 2023

MSR-TR-2023-34
Author's copy (PDF)
Abstract
In the past three years, there have been not one but two generational shifts in how work gets done, both of which were only possible because of decades of research and development. The first shift occurred when COVID made us realize how powerful remote and hybrid work technologies had become, as well as how much science was available to guide us in how to (and how not to) use these technologies. The second arrived this year, as it became clear that, at long last, generative AI had advanced to the point where it could be valuable to huge swaths of the work people do every day.

Perspectives: Creating Inclusive and Equitable Hybrid Meeting Experiences

John Tang, Kori Inkpen, Sasa Junuzovic, Keri Mallari, Andrew D. Wilson, Sean Rintel, Shiraz Cupala, Tony Carbary, Abigail Sellen, Bill Buxton
CSCW 2023
Free from the publisher

Seating everyone around one virtual table, each with a fixed place and their own view, can make hybrid meetings feel more like one room than a video grid. People ranked it above standard layouts, though remote attendees liked it less. Read the brief

Abstract
With the shift to hybrid meetings in work spaces, there is an increasing need to create a more inclusive hybrid meeting experience where people meeting together in a room interact with those joining remotely. This paper describes a design exploration, implementation, and evaluation of Perspectives, a novel hybrid meeting system that aimed to create an inclusive and equitable space for hybrid meetings. Perspectives digitally composites everyone into a virtual room so that each person has a unique but spatially consistent viewpoint into the meeting. The user study compared Perspectives with three commercially available UX designs for hybrid meetings: Gallery, Together Mode, and Front Row. Results from this study revealed key benefits of Perspectives, including supporting natural interactions, creating a strong sense of co-presence, and reducing cognitive load. Results from the study also helped iterate on the design principles of Perspectives, which offer important insights on supporting hybrid meetings.

Mobility and Utility in Robot Mediated Interaction: An Interactive Workshop for the Identification of Use Cases and Affordances of Telepresence Robots

Eike Schneiders, Andriana Boudouraki, Gisela Reyes-Cruz, Juan Pablo Martinez Avila, Houda Elmimouni, Jens Emil Sloth Grønbæk, Sean Rintel, Swapna Joshi
Mobile HCI 2023
Free from the publisher
Abstract
In recent years virtual meetings have become the predominant alternative to face-to-face meetings. Ongoing efforts in the design of telepresence robots promise remote access to physical settings and a greater sense of presence, leading to improved remote collaboration. However, a comparable sense of physical presence and utility has yet to be achieved. Mobile telepresence still provides limited ways to interact with remote users (e.g., with the environment and other people). This workshop aims to re-imagine telepresence robots, moving away from the decades-old ‘iPad-on-a-stick’ paradigm. Using interactive activities involving existing telepresence robots and a hybrid workshop format, we hope to ideate ways of expanding the capabilities of mobile telepresence robots through a range of mechanisms (e.g., mobile and wearable technology, Augmented Reality, Internet of Things, etc.) and to inform the future design of these devices to provide additional affordances. In doing so, we plan to identify use cases for which mobile telepresence robots can provide additional value through their locomotive capabilities compared to current screen-based remote interactions. Lastly, we aim to identify scenarios for future research in Mobile HCI using use cases and affordances identified during the workshop to support more equitable participation for remote users.

Participatory prompting: a user-centric research method for eliciting AI assistance opportunities in knowledge workflows

Advait Sarkar, Ian Drosos, Robert DeLine, Andy Gordon, Carina Negreanu, Sean Rintel, Jack Williams, Ben Zorn
Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG 2023)
Author's copy (PDF)

Participatory prompting grounds generative AI user research in what real systems can do, unlike Wizard-of-Oz. A researcher prompts a working chatbot about a person's own work problem using prepared strategies, and the person reflects on each answer. Read the brief

Abstract
Generative AI, such as image generation models and large language models, stands to provide tremendous value to end-user programmers in creative and knowledge workflows. Current research methods struggle to engage end-users in a realistic conversation that balances the actually existing capabilities of generative AI with the open-ended nature of user workflows and the many opportunities for the application of this technology. In this work-in-progress paper, we introduce participatory prompting, a method for eliciting opportunities for generative AI in end-user workflows. The participatory prompting method combines a contextual inquiry and a researcher-mediated interaction with a generative model, which helps study participants interact with a generative model without having to develop prompting strategies of their own. We discuss the ongoing development of a study whose aim will be to identify end-user programming opportunities for generative AI in data analysis workflows.

Beyond Audio: Towards a Design Space of Headphones as a Site for Interaction and Sensing

Best Paper
Payod Panda, Molly Jane Nicholas, David Nguyen, Eyal Ofek, Michel Pahud, Sean Rintel, Mar Gonzalez Franco, Ken Hinckley, Jaron Lanier
DIS'23: ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2023
Free from the publisher

Headphones can become context-aware input devices by reading signals people already make, like lifting an earcup to mute a call or turning away to blur their video. Reading where someone looks lets the same few gestures control many devices. Read the brief

Abstract
Via Research through Design (RtD), we explore the potential of headphones as a general-purpose input device for both foreground motion-gestures as well as background sensing of user activity. As a familiar wearable device, headphones offer a compelling site for head-situated interaction and sensing. Using emerging sensing modalities such as inertial motion, capacitive touch sensing, and depth cameras, our implemented prototypes explore sensing and interaction techniques that offer a range of compelling capabilities.

“There is a Bit of Grace Missing”: Understanding Non-use of Mobile Robotic Telepresence in a Global Technology Company

Andriana Boudouraki, Stuart Reeves, Joel Fischer, Sean Rintel
TAS 2023
Free from the publisher

Telepresence robots went largely unused because they did not fit how office work flowed. With work mostly digital and meetings back to back, video calls were easier, while robots made remote users spectators, too slow to ease into conversations. Read the brief

Abstract
Mobile robotic telepresence technology may be a potential solution to hybrid communication as it allows remote attendees embodied movement in space. Yet, there is little exploration into how its affordances fit with the practices and needs of workplaces. This paper presents findings from interviews conducted following a discontinued deployment of telepresence robots at the offices of a global technology company. The findings indicate that in this case 1) The knowledge workers were equipped to manage hybrid work, 2) the robots offered limited perceived value, and 3) the robots were a poor fit to the knowledge workers’ physically distributed workflows. Drawing workflows and non-use literature, we explore how features of the technology failed to align with the office’s work practices and needs, and discuss the implications for evaluating the low use of robotic telepresence.

Hear We Are: Spatial Audio Benefits Perceptions of Turn-Taking and Social Presence in Video Meetings

Honorable Mention
Kate Nowak, Lev Tankelevitch, John Tang, Sean Rintel
CHIWORK 2023
Free from the publisher

Spatial audio, playing each voice from where the speaker appears on screen, can make video meetings feel more interactive and more like sharing a room. It restores cues for telling who is speaking, though task scores did not significantly improve. Read the brief

Abstract
Relative to in-person meetings, conversations in video meetings have long been reported as stilted. Spatial audio in video meetings can simulate the way we hear the world by separating audio streams based on speakers’ virtual locations. We report on a within-subject experiment in which 75 employees of a global technology company completed two group survival tasks with spatial audio enabled or disabled. Spatial audio increased perceptions of interactivity, shared space, and ease of understanding. Women experienced effects for social presence while men experienced effects for turn-taking. We discuss implications for inclusion, task performance, fatigue, and future research.

Is a Return To Office a Return To Creativity? Requiring Fixed Time In Office To Enable Brainstorms and Watercooler Talk May Not Foster Research Creativity

Tianna Xu, Advait Sarkar, Sean Rintel
CHIWORK 2023
Free from the publisher

Research creativity grows slowly from long solitary focus, rest and problem-oriented discussions with colleagues when the work needs them. Fixed weekly office days can undermine it, and researchers did not credit brainstorms or watercooler chats with driving it. Read the brief

Abstract
In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, many professionals, including researchers, have transitioned into hybrid work. One concern arising from this transition is the cost to creativity in an environment of variable co-presence. We interviewed 24 researchers fromseveral disciplines and varying levels of seniority, across 7 research labs in academia and industry about their hybrid work patterns and sources of creativity. Co-present ‘brainstorming’ and serendipitous ‘watercooler’ conversations are both often cited as argumentsfor mandating co-located work patterns in research organisations. Contrary to the dominant account which associates co-presence with increased creativity, we find that the flexibility of hybrid work, and carefully managed co-present interactions punctuating a regime of focused individual work, is the main catalyst of creativity. We find that the ‘problem-oriented discussion’ over time is a more powerful pattern for researcher collaboration than the ‘brainstorm’, that these discussions benefit greatly from the freedom to choose work locations afforded by hybrid work. We also find that serendipitous ‘watercooler’ conversations, while reported as valuable for collegiality, are reported as less valued for their contribution to creativity. We suggest that scheduling time in office should extend temporalities beyond the weekly cadence, and that tools and timing for serendipitous productivity and serendipitous collegiality do not necessarily have to be coupled.

Reflecting on Hybrid Events: Learning from a Year of Hybrid Experiences

Alberta A Ansah, Adriana S Vivacqua, Sailin Zhong, Susanne Boll, Marios Constantinides, Himanshu Verma, Abdallah El Ali, Alina Lushnikova, Hamed Alavi, Sean Rintel, Andrew L Kun, Orit Shaer, Anna L. Cox, Kathrin Gerling, Michael Muller, Vit Rusnak, Leticia Santos Machado, Thomas Kosch, CHIWORK Collective, SIGCHI Executive Committee
CHI 2023
Free from the publisher
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a sudden shift to virtual work and events, with the last two years enabling an appropriated and rather simulated togetherness—the hybrid mode. As we return to in-person events, it is important to reflect on not only what we learned about technologies and social justice, but about the types of events we desire, and how to re-design them accordingly. This SIG aims to reflect on hybrid events and their execution: scaling them across sectors, communities, and industries; considering trade-offs when choosing technologies; studying best practices and defining measures of “success” for hybrid events; and finally, identifying and charting the wider social, ethical, and legal implications of hybrid formats. This SIG will consolidate these topics by inviting participants to collaboratively reflect on previous hybrid experiences and what can be learned from them.

Your Mileage May Vary: Case Study of a Robotic Telepresence Pilot Roll-out for a Hybrid Knowledge Work Organisation

Andriana Boudouraki, Joel E. Fischer, Stuart Reeves, Sean Rintel
CHI 2023
Free from the publisher

Rolling out office telepresence robots took weeks of safety, accessibility and security work, yet few used them, as effort likely outweighed value. Hybrid staff socialised on office days, and remote staff met poor audio and few reasons to roam. Read the brief

Abstract
Organisations wishing to maintain employee satisfaction for hybrid collaboration need to explore flexible solutions that provide value for both remote and on-site employees. In this case study, we report on the roll-out of a telepresence robot pilot at Microsoft Research Cambridge UK to test whether robots would provide enjoyable planned and unplanned encounters between remote and on-site employees. We describe the work that was undertaken to prepare for the roll-out, including the Occupational Health and Safety assessment, systems for safety and security, and the information for employees on safe and effective use practices. The pilot ended after three months, and robot use has been discontinued after weighing the opportunities against low adoption and other challenges. We discuss the pros and cons within this organisational setting, and make suggestions for future work and roll-outs.

“Being In On The Action” in Mobile Robotic Telepresence: Rethinking Presence in Hybrid Participation

Andriana Boudouraki, Joel E. Fischer, Stuart Reeves, Sean Rintel
HRI 2023
Free from the publisher

Presence through a telepresence robot is better understood as being in on the action, able to take part and treated as present, than as feeling there. The robot also made long-term users conspicuous, their mistakes remarked on, not overlooked. Read the brief

Abstract
Mobile Robotic Telepresence (MRP) systems afford remote communication with an embodied physicality and autonomous mobility, which is thought to be useful for creating a sense of presence in hybrid activities. In this paper, drawing on phenomenology, we interviewed seven long term users of MRP to understand the lived experience of participating in hybrid spaces through a telepresence robot. The users’ accounts show how the capabilities of the robot impact interactions, and how telepresence differs from in-person presence. Whilst not feeling as if they were really there, users felt present when they were being able to participate in local action and be treated as present. They also report standing out and being subject to behaviour amounting to ‘othering’. We argue that these experiences point to a need for future work on telepresence to focus on giving remote users the means to exercise autonomy in ways that enable them to participate — to be ‘in on the action’ — rather than in ways that simply simulate being in-person.
2022

Semi-Automated Analysis of Collaborative Interaction: Are We There Yet?

Thomas Neumayr, Mirjam Augstein, Johannes Schönböck, Sean Rintel, Helmut Leeb, Thomas Teichmeister
ISS 2022
Free from the publisher

AI can take a first pass at coding video of people collaborating, with researchers correcting it. It already tracks who is present and where when cameras see them, but gaze and object detection lag, so it is about half-way there. Read the brief

Abstract
In recent years, research on collaborative interaction has relied on manual coding of rich audio/video recordings. The fine-grained analysis of such material is extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive. This is not only difficult to scale, but, as a result, might also limit the quality and completeness of coding due to fatigue, inherent human biases, (accidental or intentional), and inter-rater inconsistencies. In this paper, we explore how recent advances in machine learning may reduce manual effort and loss of information while retaining the value of human intelligence in the coding process. We present ACACIA (AI Chain for Augmented Collaborative Interaction Analysis), an AI video data analysis application which combines a range of advances in machine perception of video material for the analysis of collaborative interaction. We evaluate ACACIA’s abilities, show how far we can already get, and which challenges remain. Our contribution lies in establishing a combined machine and human analysis pipeline that may be generalized to different collaborative settings and guide future research.

Collaboration, Invisible Work, and the Costs of Macrotask Freelancing

Srihari Hulikal Muralidhar, Sean Rintel, Siddharth Suri
CSCW 2022
Free from the publisher

Skilled freelance work on online platforms is a joint achievement with clients, full of unrecognised invisible work such as scoping tasks and chasing feedback. So freelancers seek repeat clients, who bring steadier income and shared context. Read the brief

Abstract
Online labour platforms promise efficient, low-friction matching of workers with clients at scale and on-demand. Prior studies on Upwork have shown that the combination of specialized knowledge and expertise, high autonomy, and extent of client-worker engagement makes macrotasks a unique category of ‘on-demand’ work. However, there is a need to unpack the nature of macrotask work from the freelancers’ perspective. Based on a qualitative study of 21 freelancers on Upwork, this paper fills this important gap by delineating how freelancers reason about accomplishing macrotasks, their interaction with clients, the key challenges that they face in various stages of the work process, and the strategies they devise to mitigate the costs and overhead. This paper shows that freelancers perceive accomplishing macrotasks as a collaborative achievement with the client. It also demonstrates that the skill-intensive nature of tasks implies that matching freelancer with the task/client is of enormous importance. It describes three programmatic solutions that the platform offers to facilitate the matching process along with their benefits and limitations. It, then, shows how freelancers seek to minimize the costs and work associated with matching and collaboration through repeat hiring along the benefits they result in. Lastly, the paper highlights how the same set of core issues is mirrored for both the freelancer and client sides of the market, which need to be addressed in order to enhance the ease and effectiveness of client-freelancer collaboration.

Meeting (the) Pandemic: Videoconferencing Fatigue and Evolving Tensions of Sociality in Enterprise Video Meetings During COVID-19

Rachel Bergmann, Sean Rintel, Nancy Baym, Advait Sarkar, Damian Borowiec, Priscilla Wong, Abigail Sellen
Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, 2022
Free from the publisher

The pull between getting work done and staying connected cannot be designed away. Videoconferencing fatigue grew partly because the meeting became a container for everything, so systems should offer recognisably different encounters and let teams find their own balance. Read the brief

Abstract
When COVID-19 led to mandatory working from home, significant blind spots in supporting the sociality of working life—in the moment and over time—were revealed in enterprise video meetings, and these were a key factor in reports about videoconferencing fatigue. Drawing on a large study (N = 849) of one global technology company’s employees’ experiences of all-remote video meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic, we use a dialectic method to explore the tensions expressed by employees around effectiveness and sociality, as well as their strategies to cope with these tensions. We argue that videoconferencing fatigue arose partly due to work practices and technologies designed with assumptions of steady states and taken-for-granted balances between task and social dimensions of work relationships. Our analysis offers a social lens on videoconferencing fatigue and suggests the need to reconceptualize ideas around designing technologies and practices to enable both effectiveness and sociality in the context of video meetings.

Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings

Carlos Gonzalez Diaz, John Tang, Advait Sarkar, Sean Rintel
CHIWORK 2022
Free from the publisher

Video meetings can make room for arriving, small talk and leave-taking by opening a social space minutes before and after. People drift between groups as video bubbles heard louder up close, though stepping into the meeting itself confused early testers. Read the brief

Abstract
Unlike meetings in person, it is a well known but still unsolved problem that in traditional videoconferencing people just appear and disappear  [56]. The lack of Conversational Transitions (CTs) is unnatural and also limits the both ritualistic and spontaneous small talk of collegiality and productivity that happen in transitional moments. We report a design investigation of the pros and cons of a CT-Space UI that that intertwines spatial and temporal metaphors to support a range of conversational transitions before, during, and after meetings, but, crucially, might also fit into standard periodic workplace practices rather than require all-day connection. We explore the comprehensibility of visual transitions in space, how spatial audio supports transitions, blending spatial and temporal metaphors, and fluid and visible group clustering. We argue that CTs should be a standard requirement for videoconferencing services.

Microsoft New Future of Work Report 2022

MSR-TR-2022-3
Author's copy (PDF)
Abstract
Due to the “Great Remote Work Experiment” that began in March 2020 when workplaces around the world rapidly shut down, work is changing faster than it has in a generation. As many people now return to the workplace and begin to experiment with hybrid work, a range of different outcomes is possible. Thankfully, researchers at Microsoft and from around the world have been investigating evolving hybrid work practices and developing technologies that will address the biggest new challenges while taking advantage of the biggest new opportunities.​

Social Presence in Virtual Event Spaces

Matthew J. Bietz, Nitesh Goyal, Nicole Immorlica, Blair MacIntyre, Andrés Monroy-Hernández, Benjamin C. Pierce, Sean Rintel, Donghee Yvette Wohn
CHI 2022
Free from the publisher
Abstract
It is generally acknowledged that the virtual event platforms of today do not perform satisfactorily at what is arguably their most important function: providing attendees with a sense of social presence. Social presence is the “sense of being with another” and can include ways of knowing who is in the virtual space, how others are reacting to what is happening in the space, an awareness of others’ activities and availability, and an idea of how to connect with them. Issues around presence and awareness have been perennial topics in the CHI and CSCW communities for decades. Nevertheless, the time feels ripe for a new effort with a special focus on larger-scale virtual events, given the accelerated pace of change in the socio-technological landscape and the tremendous potential impact that new insights could now have. The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers and developers from academia and industry with a shared interest in improving the experience of virtual events to exchange insights and hopefully energize an ongoing community effort in this area.

Automated mapping of competitive and collaborative overlapping talk in video meetings

Eleni Margariti, Sean Rintel, Brendan Murphy, Abigail Sellen
CHI EA 2022
Free from the publisher

The timing and speaker labels in video meeting transcripts, read without the words, can map who keeps or cedes the floor when talked over. But timing cannot always tell a supportive 'uh huh' from a bid for the floor. Read the brief

Abstract
Video meetings are notorious for difficulties with conversational turn-taking, which has impacts on inclusion and outcomes. We present a scalable automatic process to categorize turn-taking patterns in remote meetings based on eyes-off analysis of meeting transcripts. Drawing on a series of remote meetings (10 series, 34 total meetings) recorded in July-August 2021 by employees of a global technology company, we identified and parametrized patterns of cooperative and competitive overlaps of turns. The results show initial success characterizing people’s behaviours as either likely to continue or cede turns based on either the amount of overlap that they produce during other’s turns or the amount of overlap they experience in their own turns. With further development and validation, this method could be used to measure inclusion in remote and hybrid meetings.

Mediated Visits: Longitudinal Domestic Dwelling with Mobile Robotic Telepresence

Andriana Boudouraki, Stuart Reeves, Joel E. Fischer, Sean Rintel
CHI 2022
Free from the publisher

Telepresence-robot visits can build intimacy through everyday togetherness rather than imitating being there. Driving the robot themselves, family visitors can look around and keep the host company on their own initiative, and its slowness can become play. Read the brief

Abstract
Mobile Robotic Telepresence (MRP) systems are remotely controlled, mobile videoconferencing devices that allow the remote user to move independently and have a physical presence in the environment. This paper presents a longitudinal study of MRP use in the home, where the first author used an MRP to connect with family, her partner, and friends over a six-month period. Taking an ethnomethodological approach, we present video recorded fragments to explore the phenomenon of ‘visiting’ where MRP users drop into the home for a period of time. We unpack the more ‘procedural’ elements—arriving and departing—alongside ways of ‘dwelling’ together during a visit, and the qualities of mobility, autonomous presence and spontaneity that emerge.

Nice is Different than Good: Longitudinal Communicative Effects of Realistic and Cartoon Avatars in Real Mixed Reality Work Meetings

Georgiana Cristina Dobre, Marta Wilczkowiak, Marco Gillies, Xueni Pan, Sean Rintel
CHI EA 2022
Free from the publisher

Realistic avatar faces are not automatically better for communication. In mixed reality work meetings, identical body language seemed more useful on realistic faces, yet colleagues who started with cartoon faces came to care less about appearance. Read the brief

Abstract
We report a within-subjects study of the effect of realistic and cartoon avatars on communication, task satisfaction, and perceived sense of presence in mixed reality meetings. For 2 − 3 weeks, six groups of co-workers (14 people) held a recurring real work meeting using Microsoft HoloLens2 devices. Each person embodied a personalised full-body avatar with a realistic face and another with a cartoon face. Half the groups started in the realistic condition and the other half started in the cartoon condition; all groups switched conditions half-way. Initial results show that, overall, participants found the realistic avatars’ nonverbal behaviour more appropriate for the interaction and more useful for understanding their colleagues compared to the cartoon one. Regarding the  results over time, we identify different insights for cartoon and realistic avatars based on the type of avatar was embodied first. We discuss the implications of these results for mixed and virtual  reality meetings.

Bridging social distance during social distancing: Exploring social talk and remote collegiality in video conferencing

Anna Bleakley, Daniel Rough, Justin Edwards, Philip Doyle, Odile Dumbleton, Leigh Clark, Sean Rintel, Vincent Wade, Benjamin R. Cowan
Human–Computer Interaction, 2022
Author's copy (PDF)

Social talk builds collegial bonds, and when working from home, video calls widened and deepened them, though chats had to be scheduled. In group calls, lag and one shared audio channel caused talk-overs, and polite giving way lengthened the silences. Read the brief

Abstract
Video conferencing systems have long facilitated work-related conversations among remote teams. However, social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic has forced colleagues to use video conferencing platforms to additionally fulfil social needs. Social talk, or informal talk, is an important workplace practice that is used to build and maintain bonds in everyday interactions among colleagues. Currently, there is a limited understanding of how video conferencing facilitates multiparty social interactions among colleagues. In our paper, we examine social talk practices during the COVID-19 pandemic among remote colleagues through semi-structured interviews. We uncovered three key themes in our interviews, discussing 1) the changing purposes and opportunities afforded by using video conferencing for social talk with colleagues,2) how the nature of existing relationships and status of colleagues influences social conversations and 3) the challenges and changing conversational norms around politeness and etiquette when using video conferencing to hold social conversations. We discuss these results in relation to the impact that video conferencing tools have on remote social talk between colleagues and outline design and best practice considerations for multiparty videoconferencing social talk in the workplace.

The Future of Remote Work: Responses to the Pandemic

Gloria Mark, Sean Rintel, Andrew L. Kun, Abigail Sellen
Human-Computer Interaction, 2022
Publisher (paywalled)
Abstract
The goal of this special issue on The New Future of Work is to provide a forum to explore where we have come from and to suggest future directions if we are to meet these challenges. This issue showcases timely and novel research on currently disrupted or evolving work practices that can enable us to reflect on how past findings shed light on our current situation, to help us prepare for a world in which work may be done very differently.
2021

What was Hybrid? A Systematic Review of Hybrid Collaboration and Meetings Research

Thomas Neumayr, Banu Saatci, Sean Rintel, Clemens Nylandsted Klokmose, Mirjam Augstein
2021
Preprint (arXiv)

Before the pandemic, research on hybrid collaboration, co-located and remote people working together, was scattered under dozens of names and mostly small experiments. Problems it had already found, like remote people becoming an out-group, resurfaced when hybrid work surged. Read the brief

Abstract
Interest in hybrid collaboration and meetings (HCM), where several co-located participants engage in coordinated work with remote participants, is gaining unprecedented momentum after the rapid shift in working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, while the interest is new, researchers have been exploring HCM phenomena for decades, albeit dispersed across diverse research traditions, using different terms, definitions, and frameworks. In this article, we present a systematic literature review of the contexts and tools of HCM in the ACM Digital Library. We obtained approximately 1,200 results, which were narrowed down to 62 key articles. We report on the terms, citations, venues, authors, domains, study types, and data of these publications and present a taxonomic overview based on their reported hybrid settings’ actual characteristics. We discuss why the SLR resulted in a relatively small number of publications, and then as a corollary, discuss how some excluded high-profile publications flesh out the SLR findings to provide important additional concepts. The SLR itself covers the ACM until November 2019, so our discussion also includes relevant 2020 and 2021 publications. The end result is a baseline that researchers and designers can use in shaping the post-COVID-19 future of HCM systems.

XRmas: Extended Reality Multi-Agency Spaces for a Magical Remote Christmas

Yaying Zhang, Brennan Jones, Sean Rintel, Carman Neustaedter
2021
Publisher (ACM)

AR/VR telepresence can aim beyond the feeling of being there. In XRmas, a remote family member in VR can move both virtual and physical objects in the family's home and share Christmas activities made magical with holographic effects. Read the brief

Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has raised attention toward remote and hybrid communications. Currently, one highly-studied solution lets a remote user use virtual reality (VR) to enter an immersive view of a local space, and local users use augmented reality (AR) to see the remote user’s representation and digital contents. Such systems give the remote user a sense of ‘being there’, but we identify two more challenges to address. First, current systems provide remote users with limited agency to control objects and influence the local space. It is necessary to further explore the relationship between users, virtual objects, and physical objects, and how they can play a role in providing richer agency. Second, current systems often try to replicate in-person experiences, but hardly surpass them. We propose XRmas: an AR/VR telepresence system that (1) provides a multi-agency space that allows a remote user to manipulate both virtual and physical objects in a local space, and (2) introduces three family activities in a Christmas context that adopt holographic animation effects to create a ‘magical’ experience that takes users beyond merely the feeling of ‘being there’. We report on preliminary insights from the use of such a system in a remote family communication context.

Large Scale Analysis of Multitasking Behavior During Remote Meetings

Honorable Mention
Hancheng Cao, Chia-Jung Lee, Shamsi Iqbal, Mary Czerwinski, Priscilla Wong, Sean Rintel, Brent Hecht, Jaime Teevan, Longqi Yang
CHI 2021
Free from the publisher

Long, large, recurring and morning remote meetings draw more email and side work, often because people must catch up or topics do not concern them. Multitasking can help when it serves the meeting, but its main cost is attention. Read the brief

Abstract
Virtual meetings are critical for remote work because of the need for synchronous collaboration in the absence of in-person interactions. In-meeting multitasking is closely linked to people’s productivity and wellbeing. However, we currently have limited understanding of multitasking in remote meetings and its potential impact. In this paper, we present what we believe is the most comprehensive study of remote meeting multitasking behavior through an analysis of a large-scale telemetry dataset collected from February to May 2020 of U.S. Microsoft employees and a 715-person diary study. Our results demonstrate that intrinsic meeting characteristics such as size, length, time, and type, significantly correlate with the extent to which people multitask, and multitasking can lead to both positive and negative outcomes. Our findings suggest important best-practice guidelines for remote meetings (e.g., avoid important meetings in the morning) and design implications for productivity tools (e.g., support positive remote multitasking).

MeetingCoach: An Intelligent Dashboard for Supporting Effective and Inclusive Meetings

Samiha Samrose, Daniel McDuff, Robert Sim, Jina Suh, Kael Rowan, Javier Hernandez, Sean Rintel, Kevin Moynihan, Mary Czerwinski
CHI 2021
Free from the publisher

Video meetings people rate effective are ones where they felt included and took part. An AI dashboard reviewed afterwards can show who spoke and when, which people found most useful, while facial sentiment readings were doubted. Read the brief

Abstract
Video-conferencing is essential for many companies, but its limitations in conveying social cues can lead to ineffective meetings. We present MeetingCoach, an intelligent post-meeting feedback dashboard that summarizes contextual and behavioral meeting information. Through an exploratory survey (N=120), we identified important signals (e.g., turn taking, sentiment) and used these insights to create a wireframe dashboard. The design was evaluated with in situ participants (N=16) who helped identify the components they would prefer in a post-meeting dashboard. After recording video-conferencing meetings of eight teams over four weeks, we developed an AI system to quantify the meeting features and created personalized dashboards for each participant. Through interviews and surveys (N=23), we found that reviewing the dash-board helped improve attendees’ awareness of meeting dynamics, with implications for improved effectiveness and inclusivity. Based on our findings, we provide suggestions for future feedback system designs of video-conferencing meetings.

The Promise and Peril of Parallel Chat in Video Meetings for Work

Advait Sarkar, Sean Rintel, Damian Borowiec, Rachel Bergmann, Sharon Gillett, Danielle Bragg, Nancy Baym, Abigail Sellen
CHI EA 2021
Free from the publisher

Text chat in video meetings lets people share links, work around technical trouble and contribute without interrupting, including those who struggle to get the floor. But side talk can split attention, so norms and moderators voicing key messages could help. Read the brief

Abstract
We report the opportunities and challenges of parallel chat in work related video meetings, drawing on a study of Microsoft employees’ remote meeting experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that parallel chat allows groups to communicate flexibly without interrupting the main conversation, coordinate action around shared resources, and also improves inclusivity. On the other hand, parallel chat can also be distracting, overwhelming, and cause information asymmetries. Further, we find that whether an individual views parallel chat as a net positive in meetings is subject to the complex interactions between meeting type, personal habits, and intentional group practices. We suggest opportunities for tools and practices to capitalise on the strengths of parallel chat and mitigate its weaknesses.

Belonging There: VROOM-ing into the Uncanny Valley of XR Telepresence

Brennan Jones, Yaying Zhang, Priscilla N. Y. Wong, Sean Rintel
2021 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Free from the publisher

Telepresence should offer remote people the comforts of belonging, not just imitate being there. Showing locals a life-size avatar on the robot and the remote person an immersive 360° view imitated presence, but unmet expectations seemed to lower belonging. Read the brief

Abstract
The world is entering a new normal of hybrid organisations, in which it will be common that some members are co-located and others are remote. Hybridity is rife with asymmetries that affect our sense of belonging in an organisational space. This paper reports a study of an XR Telepresence technology probe to explore how remote workers might present themselves and be perceived as an equal and unique embodied being in a workplace. VROOM (Virtual Robot Overlay for Online Meetings) augments a standard Mobile Robotic Telepresence experience by (1) adding a virtual avatar overlay of the remote person to the local space, viewable through a HoloLens worn by the local user, through which the remote user can gesture and express themselves, and (2) giving the remote user an immersive 360° view of the local space, captured by a 360° camera on the robot, which they can view through a VR headset. We ran a study to understand how pairs of participants (one local and one remote) collaborate using VROOM in a search and word-guessing game. Our findings illustrate that there is much potential for a system like VROOM to support dynamic collaborative activities in which embodiment, gesturing, mobility, spatial awareness, and non-verbal expressions are important. However, there are also challenges to be addressed, specifically around proprioception, the mixing of a physical robot body with a virtual human avatar, uncertainties of others’ views and capabilities, fidelity of expressions, and the appearance of the avatar. We conclude with further design suggestions and recommendations for future work.

Parallel Meeting Chat Guide for Moderators and Participants: Drawing on Findings from Microsoft Employees During Covid-19

Sharon Gillett, Danielle Bragg, Nancy Baym, Rachel Bergmann, Advait Sarkar, Abigail Sellen, Sean Rintel
2021-02-FOW-SIM2
Author's copy (PDF)

Text chat alongside a video meeting can let more voices in or distract. Moderators can keep it useful by setting norms upfront, asking about access needs, having key chat spoken aloud and recapping overlooked messages afterwards. Read the brief

Abstract
This report provides guidelines for meeting moderators and meeting participants using parallel chat in video meetings for work. It draws on a large-scale (N=849) study of Microsoft employees’ experiences of all-remote meetings during COVID-19. The report covers chat issues before, during, and after the meeting. There is an emphasis on accessibility practices for ensuring that parallel chat is inclusive of people with a range of abilities.

Collaboration and Meetings – Chapter 1 of the 2021 New Future of Work report

Nancy Baym, Rachel Bergmann, Adam Coleman, Ricardo Reyna Fernandez, Sean Rintel, Abigail Sellen, Tiffany Smith
The New Future of Work: Research from Microsoft on the Impact of the Pandemic on Work Practices, 2021
Author's copy (PDF)
Abstract
Perhaps the most obvious change that information workers experienced when moving to remote work as a result of COVID-19 was that the meetings they had previously attended in-person shifted to being remote, resulting in many new kinds of ‘meetings’ and other collaborative practices that attempted to make up for the loss of the full range of social interaction people had previously relied on at work. Thus, we begin by looking at the way collaboration and meeting practices evolved over the course of the pandemic. In addition to how meetings and other forms of collaboration have changed, we also discuss how remote work affected inclusion and the collaborative connections people form, and what changes people hope or expect will continue post-COVID.

The New Future of Work: Research from Microsoft into the Pandemic’s Impact on Work Practices

MSR-TR-2021-1
Author's copy (PDF)
Abstract
The coronavirus pandemic not only caused a public health crisis, it also caused technological, social, and cultural disruption. This past year, people across the globe experienced a rapid shift to remote work that upended their existing practices and will have long-term implications for how work gets done in the future. Looking forward, we expect that some of those who used to work from offices will continue to work remotely, while others will adopt hybrid models that will involve a combination of working from the office and working remotely. The current moment presents a unique opportunity to understand the nature of work itself, to improve remote support for a range of work practices, and to use what we have learned through remote work to improve in-office and hybrid practices.
2020

(Re)Configuring Hybrid Meetings: Moving from User-Centered Design to Meeting-Centered Design

Best Paper
Banu Saatçi, Kaya Akyüz, Sean Rintel, Clemens Nylandsted Klokmose
Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 2020
Author's copy (PDF)

Hybrid meetings can be more inclusive if design configures the whole meeting, not just each user, showing everyone the order of talk, expected behaviour and technical state. Otherwise rooms keep meetings moving by sidelining remote colleagues whom the technology fails. Read the brief

Abstract
Despite sophisticated technologies for representational fidelity in hybrid meetings, in which co-located and remote participants collaborate via video or audio, meetings are still often disrupted by practical problems with trying to include remote participants. In this paper, we use micro-analysis of three disruptive moments in a hybrid meeting from a global software company to unpack blended technological and conversational practices of inclusion and exclusion. We argue that designing truly valuable experiences for hybrid meetings requires moving from the traditional, essentialist, and perception-obsessed user-centered design approach to a phenomenological approach to the needs of meetings themselves. We employ the metaphor of ‘configuring the meeting’ to propose that complex ecologies of people, technology, spatial, and institutional organization must be made relevant in the process of design.

Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19

Sean Rintel, Priscilla Wong, Advait Sarkar, Abigail Sellen
2020-10-FOW-SIM1
Author's copy (PDF)

A sudden shift in work can be studied as it unfolds with guided diaries, mixing rotating prompts with the same ratings each time, plus weekly polls reacting to early findings. Most diarists dropped out early. Read the brief

Abstract
This report explains the project data collection methodology and participation demographics for a diary study of Microsoft employees coping with all-remote meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic from April through August 2020.

Everyday time travel: Temporal mobility and multitemporality with smartphones

Roxana Morosanu Firth, Sean Rintel, Abigail Sellen
Making Time for Digital Lives: Beyond Chronotopia, 2020
Author's copy (PDF)

Smartphones let people act on time, not just tell it. In spare moments they jump from the present to past photos or future plans, and they record ordinary scenes now as future nostalgia. Read the brief

Abstract
How have you last checked the time? Chances are that you did not need a specialized technology, such as a watch or a clock, because the device you are using to read this text on might display the time on one corner of the screen or another. These days it is almost impossible to not know the time. Most, if not all, digital technologies, from fitness trackers to smart TVs, have an incorporated time feature that shows the satellite-determined exact time. This chapter argues that while situating everyday life in relation to a globally precise time, digital technologies can also be creatively employed to unsettle time—to jump from present to past and future, or to juxtapose moments to create unique temporal experiences. The accounts discussed here focus on the temporal experiences of people in full-time employment working in the fast-paced sector of technology. In these contexts, the tool that is specifically employed to navigate and manipulate time is the smartphone.

“I can’t get round”: Recruiting Assistance in Mobile Robotic Telepresence

Honorable Mention
Andriana Boudouraki, Joel E. Fischer, Stuart Reeves, Sean Rintel
CSCW 2020
Free from the publisher

People driving telepresence robots tend to hint at trouble rather than ask for help, and locals often clear the way unasked. But remote drivers get little feedback on whether they were seen or heard, so hints can go unanswered. Read the brief

Abstract
Via audiovisual communications and a controllable physical embodiment, Mobile Robotic telePresence (MRP) systems aim to support enhanced collaboration between remote and local members of a given setting. But MRP systems also put the remote user in positions where they frequently rely on the help of local partners. Getting or ‘recruiting’ such help can be done with various verbal and embodied actions ranging in explicitness. In this paper, we look at how such recruitment occurs in video data drawn from an experiment where pairs of participants (one local, one remote) performed a timed searching task. We find a prevalence of implicit recruitment methods and outline obstacles to effective recruitment that emerge due to communicative asymmetries that are built into MRP design. In a future where remote work becomes widespread, assistance through remote work technology like MRPs needs close examination at a fundamental interactional level, taking into account how communicative asymmetries are at play in everyday use of such technologies.

Stuck in the middle with you: The transaction costs of corporate employees hiring freelancers

Caitlin Lustig, Sean Rintel, Liane Scult, Siddharth Suri
CSCW2020
Free from the publisher

Hiring freelancers saves corporate employees time but leaves them stuck between employer, platform and freelancer. Wanting to be fair, they struggle to define unfamiliar tasks and set pay, which pay guidance and examples of good task definitions could ease. Read the brief

Abstract
Corporations are increasingly empowering employees to hire on-demand workers via freelance platforms. We interviewed full-time employees of a global technology company who hired freelancers as part of their job responsibilities. While there has been prior work describing freelancers’ perspectives there has been little research on those that hire them, the “clients”, especially in the corporate context. We found that while freelance platforms reduce many administrative burdens, there are number of conditions in which using freelance platforms in a corporate context creates high transaction costs and power asymmetries that make it difficult for clients to negotiate work rights and responsibilities. This leads corporate employee clients to feel “stuck in the middle” between their employer, the platform, and the freelancer. Ultimately, these transactions costs are a potential barrier to wider adoption. If corporations want to leverage the value of the freelance economy then better guardrails, guidelines, and perhaps even creative technology solutions will be needed.

Classification of Functional Attention in Video Meetings

Anastasia Kuzminykh, Sean Rintel
CHI 2020
Free from the publisher

Attention in video meetings can be direction, where people look, action, looking to see, be seen or follow the work, or state, overall engagement. Features should start with attention as action, because it feeds engagement. Read the brief

Abstract
Participants in video meetings have long struggled with asymmetrical attention levels, especially when participants are distributed unevenly. While technological advances offer exciting opportunities to augment remote users’ attention, the phenomenological complexity of attention means that to design attention-fostering features we must first  understand what aspects of it are functionally meaningful to support. In this paper, we present a functional classification of observable attention for video meetings. The classification was informed by two studies on sense-making and selectiveness of attention in work meetings. It includes categories of attention accessible for technological support, their functions in a meeting process, and meeting-related activities that correspond to these functions. This classification serves as a multi-level representation of attention and informs the design of features aiming to support remote participants’ attention in video meetings.

Low Engagement As a Deliberate Practice of Remote Participants in Video Meetings

Anastasia Kuzminykh, Sean Rintel
CHI 2020
Free from the publisher

Low engagement in video meetings can be a deliberate social practice, not just a technical failing. Some experienced users join remotely to signal a meeting matters less, using remote participation's limits as cover for listening in and multitasking. Read the brief

Abstract
Video meeting research has long reported that technological constraints can lead to low engagement levels of remote participants. Under-reported, however, are the ways in which remote participants can choose their level of engagement, with the technology framing but not determining their social action. This paper presents preliminary research into the engagement practices of experienced video meeting users, which propose that the constraints of remote participation can be used to set personal and group expectations for engagement. Future video meeting systems should include a spectrum of engagement levels for remote meeting participants.

VR-Enabled Telepresence as a Bridge for People, Environments, and Experiences

Brennan Jones, Yaying Zhang, Priscilla N. Y. Wong, Sean Rintel, Yasamin Heshmat
CHI 2020
Author's copy (PDF)

VR and AR can bridge people to real places, not only virtual ones, for example by putting a remote person's avatar on a telepresence robot. Read the brief

Abstract
Rather than thinking of Virtual Reality (VR) as enabling geo-distant people to go to a common place, we have a more expansive view of VR as a bridge between people, environments, and experiences. We are interested in using VR and the related technology of Augmented Reality (AR), as tools to(1)bring a distant part of the physical world to someone, and (2) bring someone to a distant part of the physical world. This workshop paper discusses two design explorations we conducted to explore these subtle but important distinctions. We first discuss a unidirectional VR robotic telepresence interface that immerses a remote user in a distant environment, which was investigated for its value in outdoor exploration. We then discuss a bi-directional asymmetric VR-AR system that adds a photorealistic avatar for the remote user on to VR robotic telepresence. The avatar is viewed in third person by the local user as superimposed over the robot, and viewed in first person by the remote user. While the underlying technologies still need much development, we see promise in the ‘VR as bridge’ concept as a way to open up the design space to a critical need for flexible, diverse, and inclusive user needs.

VROOM: Virtual Robot Overlay for Online Meetings

Brennan Jones, Yaying Zhang, Priscilla Wong, Sean Rintel
CHI 2020
Free from the publisher

Overlaying a life-size avatar of the remote person on a telepresence robot, seen through AR glasses, could show body language, where they look and point. The remote person, in a VR headset, sees a live all-round view from the robot. Read the brief

Abstract
Telepresence robots allow remote users to freely explore a space they are not in, and provide a physical embodiment in that space. However, they lack a compelling representation of the remote user in the local space. We present VROOM (Virtual Robot Overlay for Online Meetings), a two-way system for exploring how to improve the social experience of robotic telepresence. For the local user, an augmented-reality (AR) interface shows a life-size avatar of the remote user overlaid on a telepresence robot. For the remote user, a head-mounted virtual-reality (VR) interface presents an immersive 360° view of the local space with mobile autonomy. The VR system tracks the remote user’s head pose and hand movements, which are applied to the avatar. This allows the local user to see the remote’s head direction and hand gestures, and the remote user to identify with the robot as an identifiable embodiment of self.
2019

Hybrid Meetings in the Modern Workplace: Stories of Success and Failure

Banu Saatci, Roman Rädle, Sean Rintel, Kenton O'Hara, Clemens Nylandsted Klokmose
CollabTech 2019
Author's copy (PDF)

Hybrid meetings falter on technical and social imbalances between room and remote participants, like weaker far-end equipment and whiteboards remote people cannot see. The one seemingly successful meeting avoided them, a large audio call with everyone on their own device. Read the brief

Abstract
Hybrid meetings, in which co-located and remote participants connect via video or/audio, have become ubiquitous in the globalized modern workplace. Despite, or perhaps because of this ubiquity, conducting hybrid meetings is not straightforward. In this paper, we investigate the opportunities and challenges of hybrid meetings. We conducted a multi-site study of hybrid meetings in two global software companies in Europe, using participant observation, semi-structured interviews and video-analysis. Our findings show that there is a significant diversity in formats and requirements for hybrid meetings in different working environments. Further, hybrid meeting participants perceive and handle a range of both expected and emergent problems. While some problems can be attributed to difficulties or failures of technical infrastructure, others arise out of asymmetries of interaction and social and cultural context across the co-located and remote settings. We argue that managing these asymmetries is key to a successful hybrid meeting.

Meeting in the Middle: The Interpretation Gap Between People and Machines

Anastasia Kuzminykh, Sean Rintel
CHI 2019
Author's copy (PDF)

Machines describing meetings to visually impaired colleagues face an interpretation gap. A cue people call simple and objective, such as someone listening to two others, is many pose and gaze labels added up, because social attention is selective sense-making. Read the brief

Abstract
Effectively bridging the fields of HCI and AI requires operationalizing what human users treat as meaningful in the stream of environmental and content information. Research has yet to systematically address the significant gap between levels of granularity and interpretation of machine labels and of human comprehension. To illustrate the problem, we provide some preliminary results from our study on using machine vision to make work meetings more inclusive, particularly for visually impaired participants.

Politeness Strategies in the Design of Voice Agents for Mental Health

Joseph Newbold, Gavin Doherty, Sean Rintel, Anja Thieme
CHI 2019 Workshop
Author's copy (PDF)

Politeness theory lets mental health voice agents ask about mood as a caring companion, appealing to people's wish to feel wanted, or as a neutral assistant that avoids imposing. Caring wording risks implying empathy the agent lacks. Read the brief

Abstract
There is growth in the development of conversational agents or chatbots to support (self-)management in mental health. Previous work has shown how perceptions of conversational agents as caring or polite both can contribute to a sense of empathy and aid disclosure of sensitive information; but also risk inviting misperceptions of their emotional capabilities. Recent research suggests that we need to better understand how the design of dialogue systems may impact people’s perceptions of a conversational agent, and through this their readiness to engage or to openly disclose about their mental health. In this paper, we suggest the use of Brown and Levinson’ politeness strategies to create dialogue templates for a mental health ‘mood log’, which has been shown to be beneficial way for technology to support mental health self-management, as a theoretical underpinning to the design of conversational dialogue structure.

The Future of Skill: What Is It to Be Skilled at Work?

Axel Niklasson, Sean Rintel, Stephann Makri, Alex Taylor
The Future of Work @ CHI 2019 (workshop), Glasgow, May 2019; posted to arXiv in 2024 (arXiv:2411.10488)
Preprint (arXiv)

Skill at work is something people do together with colleagues and tools, not a trait they own. In team chat it shows in timely replies building on earlier messages, so AI designers should ask whether tools extend or replace it. Read the brief

Abstract
In this short paper, we introduce work that is aiming to purposefully venture into this mesh of questions from a different starting point. Interjecting into the conversation, we want to ask: 'What is it to be skilled at work?' Building on work from scholars like Tim Ingold, and strands of longstanding research in workplace studies and CSCW, our interest is in turning the attention to the active work of 'being good', or 'being skilled', at what we as workers do. As we see it, skill provides a counterpoint to the version of intelligence that appears to be easily blackboxed in systems like Slack, and that ultimately reduces much of what people do to work well together. To put it slightly differently, skill - as we will argue below - gives us a way into thinking about work as a much more entangled endeavour, unfolding through multiple and interweaving sets of practices, places, tools and collaborations. In this vein, designing for the future of work seems to be about much more than where work is done or how we might bolt on discrete containers of intelligence. More fruitful would be attending to how we succeed in threading so many entities together to do our jobs well - in 'coming to be skilled'.
2018

Beyond presentation: Shared slideware control as a resource for collocated collaboration

Debaleena Chattopadhyay, Francesca Salvadori, Kenton O'Hara, Sean Rintel
Human-Computer Interaction, 2018
Author's copy (PDF)

When anyone in a small meeting can steer the shared slides from their phone, people can take turns at control as they do at talk. Gaze, posture and talk kept order, with no technical rules on who controls the screen. Read the brief

Abstract
Traditional models of slideware assume that one presenter controls attention through slide navigation and on-screen pointing while a passive audience views the action. This paradigm limits group interactions, curtailing opportunities for attendees to use slides to participate in a collaborative discourse. However, as slideware permeates contexts beyond simple one-to-many presentations, there are growing efforts to shift the dynamics of collocated interactions. Technologies exist to shift the one-to-many information control paradigm to variations that extend functions to multiple attendees. But there is limited detailed research on how to design such multi-person attentional control and facilitate collocated  interactions without disrupting existing work practices. This article reports on a detailed naturalistic case of using a presentation in a design meeting. In the meeting, participants used Office Social, an experimental slideware technology that enabled open access to attentional control across multiple devices. We explore the extent to which the design of Office Social supported informal collaboration. Our video-based analyses reveal how the orderly structures of conversational turn-taking and bodily conduct were used in conjunction with the affordances of the socio-technical ecosystem in the room to organize collective activity. We suggest that supporting collocated interactions should take account of the existing conversational methods for achieving orderly collaboration rather than superimposing prescriptive technological methods of order.
2017

The ‘interrogative gaze’: Making video calling and messaging ‘accountable’

Richard Harper, Sean Rintel, Rod Watson, Kenton O'Hara
Pragmatics, 2017
Reprinted in Skyping the Family: Interpersonal video communication and domestic life, 2019
Free from the publisher

Video calling carries an interrogative gaze, a right to look purposefully that relationships grant, so a mother can ask to see your new room. Because being seen can confine talk to the visible, avoiding video can be a reasonable choice. Read the brief

Abstract
This paper identifies salient properties of how talk about video communication is organised interactionally, and how this interaction invokes an implied order of behaviour that is treated as ‘typical’ and ‘accountably representative’ of video communication. This invoked order will be called aninterrogative gaze. This is an implied orientation to action, one that is used as a jointly managed interpretative schema that allows video communication to be talked about and understood as rationally, purposively and collaboratively undertaken in particular, ‘known in common’ ways. This applies irrespective of whether the actions in question are prospective (are about to happen) or have been undertaken in the past and are being accounted for in the present or are ‘generally the case’ – in current talk. The paper shows how this constitutive device also aids in sense making through such things as topic management in video-mediated interaction, and in elaborating the salience of the relationship between this and the patterned governance of social affairs – viz, mother-daughter, friend-friend – as normatively achieved outcomes. It will be shown how the interrogative gaze is variously appropriate and consequentially invoked not just in terms of what is done in a video call or making such calls accountable, but in helping articulate different orders of connection between persons, and how these orders have implications for sensible and appropriate behaviour in video calling and hence, for the type of persons who are involved. This, in turn, explains how a decision to avoid using video communication is made an accountably reasonable thing to do. The relevance of these findings for the sociology of everyday life and the philosophy of action are explored.

Membership Categorisation Analysis. Technologies of social action

Richard Fitzgerald, William Housley, Sean Rintel
Journal of Pragmatics, 2017
Author's copy (PDF)
Abstract
The origin of this special issue was a panel organised at the International Institute of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis (IIEMCA) on Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA), held at Kolding in Denmark in 2015. The panel, in memory of Stephen Hester who died in 2014, brought together a number of researchers to discuss the current state of the field and present new directions in research in MCA. Building on the pioneering work of Harvey Sacks and the later work of Hester and others the special issue highlights the contemporary development of MCA as a rigorous empirical approach to the study of situated identity within the flow of social interaction. The papers, placed at the intersection between pragmatics and sociology in examining multiple sequentially organised layers of category work, examine the organisation of social knowledge and knowledge entitlement, of moral ordering and the deployment of social norms, but also new and emergent areas of interest around spatial and embodied social action within the frame of technology and technologies of interaction.
2016

Office Social: Presentation Interactivity for Nearby Devices

Debaleena Chattopadhyay, Kenton O'Hara, Sean Rintel, Roman Radle
CHI 2016
Free from the publisher

Letting presentation attendees browse slides on their phones and take over the shared screen when ready can lower the cost of taking the floor. People rehearsed privately, caught up after arriving late and kept discussions on the right slide. Read the brief

Abstract
Slide presentations have long been stuck in a one-to-many paradigm, limiting audience engagement. Based on the concept of smartphone-based remote control of slide navigation, we presentOffice Social—a PowerPoint plugin and companion smartphone app that allows audience members qualified access to slides for personal review and, when the presenter enables it, public control over slide navigation. We studied the longitudinal use of Office Social across four meetings of a workgroup. We found that shared access and regulated control facilitated various forms of public and personal audience engagement. We discuss how enabling ad-hoc aggregation of co-proximate devices reduces ‘interaction costs’ and leads to both opportunities and challenges for presentation situations.

The Tyranny of the Everyday in Mobile Video Messaging

Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, Kenton O'Hara
CHI 2016
Free from the publisher

Video-only messaging suits crafted, gift-like exchanges but imposes a 'tyranny of the everyday'. When every reply must be on camera, being ordinary takes effort, so many people return to lighter apps. Read the brief

Abstract
This paper reports on how asynchronous mobile video messaging presents users with a challenge to doing ‘being ordinary’. 53 participants from three countries were recruited to try Skype Qik at launch for two weeks. Some participants embraced Skype Qik as a gift economy, emphasizing a special relationship enacted through crafted self-presentation. However, gift exchange makes up only a small proportion of conversation. Many participants struggled with the self-presentation obligations of video when attempting more everyday conversation. Faced with the ‘tyranny of the everyday’, many participants reverted to other systems where content forms reflected more lightweight exchange. We argue that designing for fluid control of the obligations of turn exchange is key to mobile applications intended to support everyday messaging.

Ripples of mediatization: Social media and the exposure of the pool interview

Sean Rintel, Daniel Angus, Richard Fitzgerald
Discourse, Context, and Media, 2016
Author's copy (PDF)

Social media can expose how politicians and journalists co-produce news. When video of an interview recorded for several broadcasters showed Ed Miliband giving the same answer to six questions, commentators mostly mocked him, not the shared routine behind it. Read the brief

Abstract
During the 2011 UK public sector protests, controversy ignited over the “Miliband Loop”, an unedited video from a pool interview showing Labour leader Ed Miliband to have provided largely the same answer in response to six questions. The interviewer subsequently complained in a TwitLonger that the incident epitomized the clash of public relations and journalism. In this paper we unpack the practical production of the pool interview as a delamination of the interview-as-lived from the interview-asmedia-production-mechanism. We then explore professional and public understanding (or lack thereof) of exposure of this delamination issue and its relation to politics. While the controversy did not directly affect Miliband’s position as leader, it is clear that the Internet is a dangerous place for the old rules of mediatization.

Reorienting categories as a members’ phenomena

Richard Fitzgerald, Sean Rintel
Discursive psychology: Classic and contemporary studies, 2016
Author's copy (PDF)

Categories are social actions in talk, not schemas in the head, since people describe the same thing differently for different purposes. Edwards' reading of Sacks brought this into discursive psychology, which in turn feeds membership categorisation analysis. Read the brief

Abstract
Edwards’ paper, ‘Categories are for talking’ (1991), is a critical dissection of the static role of categories as conceived in traditional Cognitive Psychology and the then-recent work of Lakoff’sWomen, Fire and Dangerous Things(1987) through the use of Harvey Sacks’ (1974; 1992) work on membership categorisation. Edwards uses Sacks to take aim at the prominent theoretical and methodological trends at the time, seeking to liberate members’ category work from ironically external conceptions of a shrouded realm located inside the head. However, while the focus for Edwards was on psychology, his detailed under – standing of Sacks’ work served to open a conceptual space for those working in discursive psychology to engage with members categorisation work as fundamental to the epistemological and methodological repertoires of Discursive Psychology (DP) in ways that ally with the emergence of Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA: Eglin and Hester, 1992; Watson,1994; Hester and Francis, 1994). In the discussion below we focus on how the paper shows three areas of intersection in the emergence of DP and MCA. First, we outline how the initial use of Sacks’ category work in the paper was directed towards psychological topics at a time when his ideas were largely confined to the sociological fields of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. Second, we trace Edwards’ work to embed Sacks’ categorial work as an analytic method for DP while running parallel to the emergence and development of MCA. Finally, we situate the contemporary influence of Edwards’ paper and use of Sacks’ work in the creation of a rich confluence and openness to ideas that have become a hallmark of the contemporary DP approach – an approach that not only incorporates a deep understanding of Sacks’ categorisation work but, in turn, contributes significantly to the further development of MCA.
2015

Ad hoc adaptability in video-calling

Sean Rintel, Kenton O'Hara, Behnaz Rostami Yeganeh, Roman Rädle
2015
Author's copy (PDF)

Video calls should let people bring in any device at hand, like mirroring a phone to the shared screen, since sharing needs often arise unplanned. Connections should be visible to all, but remote people's moves to share were easily missed. Read the brief

Abstract
In this position paper we explore ad hoc adaptability across devices in video-calling. We note the current difficulty of even simple combinations, discuss design issues, briefly report on a study of ad hoc screen mirroring, and note future directions.

SonicAIR: Supporting independent living with reciprocal ambient audio awareness

Hanif Baharin, Stephen Viller, Sean Rintel
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 2015
Free from the publisher

Sharing everyday rhythms by sound could ease the isolation of older people living alone. When opening a fridge played a sound in a friend's or daughter's kitchen, people heard routines, built comforting stories and sometimes changed habits out of care. Read the brief

Abstract
SonicAIR is an ambient awareness technology probe designed to explore how connecting the soundscapes of friends or family members might reduce the isolation of seniors living independently. At its core, SonicAIR instruments kitchen activity sites to produce an always-on real-time aural representation of remote domestic rhythms. This paper reports how users in two pilot SonicAIR deployments used the sounds as resources for recognizing comfortable narratives of sociability. Used alongside telecare monitoring, such technologized interaction might enable older people to engage in community-oriented soundscape narratives of shared social responsibility.

Conversation Analysis of Video-Mediated Communication: Interactional Repair of Distortion in Long-Distance Couples’ Video Calls

Sean Rintel
2015
Publisher (paywalled)

Conversation analysis can show how people repair video-call distortions, such as garbled, frozen or missing sound and picture, in their talk and relationships. This exemplar teaches how to record, transcribe and analyse long-distance couples' video calls. Read the brief

Abstract
Ethnomethodology and the related fields of Conversation Analysis and Membership Categorisation Analysis investigate how the local production of practical, social understandings is a situated achievement. This is typically undertaken through a close analysis of video or audio of naturally-occurring activities, with the aid of transcripts to pin down precise sequences of actions. This exemplar illustrates how this approach can be used to explore interaction via technology, in this case video-mediated communication. The data is provided by Dr Sean Rintel, collected while undertaking his dissertation at the University at Albany, State University of New York and subsequently re-analysed for later publication. He recruited couples in existing long-distance relationships to try video calling, and created an automated remote recording system to capture all their video calls with their consent. As was the case then, and is still common now, domestic video calls often involve moments where the audio or video are distorted. Audio may be delayed, garbled, or missing. Video may be pixelated, frames dropped, frozen, or missing. Sometimes the audio and video are desynchronised. Collectively these issues are termed audio/video distortions. Audio/video distortions arose as an endogenous issue for all couples – that is, they were not introduced by the researcher, rather they were an internally-generated part of the medium. His research thus developed around how the couples repaired these distortions as a material issue in their conversations and the conduct of their relationships. In this exemplar, Sean explains gathering, transcribing, and analysing naturally-occurring video calling data. This exemplar will be useful for those who want to understand the ramifications of methodological choices when building a case for a particular argument about interactional practices in a technological context.

Me For You: Lessons About Everyday Video Messaging From Skype Qik

Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, Rod Watson, Kenton O'Hara
CHI 2015
Author's copy (PDF)

Video-only messaging invites 'Me For You', crafting oneself as worth watching for someone close, which makes treasured gifts like singing for an overseas friend. But everyday chat can stall when every video reply must be worth watching. Read the brief

Abstract
In this position paper we outline the opportunities and challenges of pure asynchronous video messaging as an everyday utility. We recruited 53 users to try Skype Qik ‘in the wild’ for two weeks from its launch in October 2014. We found users orienting to an organizational principle that we term ‘Me For You’, a self-conscious yet creative orientation that allowed users to transform features of their everyday affairs into show-about-ables that can be subject to and warrant the interrogative gaze of a Qik recipient. We found that such acts implied a reciprocity that was valuable in some special contexts, while at other times proving dissonant with assumptions about mundane communicative practices between particular parties. To warrant another’s gaze requires artfulness, but in some relationships one might not want to demand that artfulness in return. We argue that richness is not a matter of mode but of perceived control, within which the morality of gaze represents an ongoing challenge for designing everyday telepresence.

Omnirelevance in Technologised Interaction: Couples Coping with Video Calling Distortions

Sean Rintel
R. Fitzgerald & W. Housley (Eds.) Membership categorization analysis: Studies of social knowledge in action, 2015
Author's copy (PDF)

Video-calling couples handle glitches by invoking two contexts that are always available, the technology and their relationship, to settle what a moment means. Blaming the connection heads off a relational misreading of garbled audio, while frozen video becomes affectionate teasing. Read the brief

Abstract
Omnirelevance in Membership Categorisation Analysis refers to participants invoking categories that treat particular interactional moments as controlled by the context of the current activity. This chapter argues that omnirelevance is a central feature of technologised interaction, and explores it through how couples in long-distance relationships cope with audio and video distortions when video calling. Drawing on naturalistic recordings of six couples over two months (145 cases of coping with distortion), I show that couples treat both the relationship and the technology as omnirelevant devices, deployed in a fluid interdependence. With audio distortions, relational and technological omnirelevance is used to disambiguate the source of trouble in repairs. With video distortions, it becomes a resource for expressive performance, including relational teasing that turns distortion into a display of doing being a couple. Distortions are thus not simply noise to be remedied but organisational resources for achieving conversational continuity. The chapter proposes that omnirelevance and affordances, taken together, offer a productive approach to the interdependence of technology and social interaction.
2014

Australian Social Media Trends

John Harrison, Sean Rintel, Elizabeth Mitchell
Social Media in Asia., 2014
Author's copy (PDF)

Social media spread fast in Australia, whose vast distances have long encouraged early adoption, but media law built for traditional media sits in unresolved conflict with it. Online outrage over a murder case, for example, at times threatened the prosecution. Read the brief

Abstract
The vast distances Australians must negotiate to connect their small, highly urbanized population both nationally and internationally have long created the incentive for invention, innovation and the early adoption of communication technologies. Important also in any reflection in relation to Australia's socio-technological evolution is this country's location as a modern, developed, predominately western nation perched in the southeast of the Asian landmass. The Australian continent's seven million square kilometers are geographically, and increasingly economically, politically and culturally, part of Asia. Forty percent of Australians were born overseas and almost one third of overseas-born Australians were born in Asia (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2013). At the end of 2012, Australia's population was approaching 23 million with about half that number-12.2 million-Internet subscribers. Broadband subscribers accounted for 98% of subscriptions; the split between private and public (business or government) use was 76% and 24% respectively. After exploring some of the central characteristics and tensions of the social media landscape in Australia, the authors illustrate issues and trends in social media usage in Australia and conclude with a discussion of salient policy issues, including challenges around the evolution of digital infrastructure, media law and copyright.
2013

Facebook in the university workplace

Aurora Francois, Aparna Hebbani, Sean Rintel
Media International Australia, 2013
Author's copy (PDF)

In a university faculty with unrestricted Facebook access, staff who used it at work mostly treated it as a self-regulated break that helped them refocus, not a work tool. Many saw a ban as a sign of distrust. Read the brief

Abstract
Access to social network sites (SNS) in the workplace has been much debated. While some consider SNS a distraction, others consider them a tool for professional socialisation and that recreational access positively impacts satisfaction. This exploratory study reports results from an online survey of employees from one faculty of an Australian university, exploring how they used Facebook at work and how they would react to a hypothetical Facebook ban. Three-quarters of respondents used Facebook at work, primarily for personal socialisation during breaks. Many self-imposed a strict personal/professional separation, but opposed a hypothetical SNS ban, perceiving it as an infringement on their workplace autonomy. It is argued that university employees - academic and professional - can be trusted to self-regulate access.

From lifeguard to bitch: How a story character becomes a promiscuous category in a couple's video call

Richard Fitzgerald, Sean Rintel
Australian Journal of Communication, 2013
Author's copy (PDF)

When a teller leaves a story character's relevance unclear, a partner can recast them through 'our relationship', which is always available. So a friendly lifeguard in a boyfriend's video-call story became someone he had to account for. Read the brief

Abstract
This paper examines a single case of story telling between a couple in a long-distance relationship conducted via video calling. Drawing on Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) we examine the way the teller incrementally reveals information about a character in order to build a story of coincidences. In doing this, however, the recipient begins to treat the evolving character as relevant to a different device, that of their relationship. Our discussion develops on the analysis of omnirelevance devices (Sacks, 1995) by examining how categories can be shifted between devices. In so doing, we highlight the way categories introduced for one task may be put to other uses; that is, how categories may become 'promiscuous'.

Rhythms of the Domestic Soundscape: Ethnomethodological Soundwalks for Phatic Technology Design

Hanif Baharin, Sean Rintel, Stephen Viller
INTERACT 2013, Part IV, LNCS 8120
Author's copy (PDF)

Even for people living alone, home can sound peopled, with everyday sounds heard as neighbours' routines and woven into stories. Because people build stories from sparse cues, technologies for staying in touch could add sounds and rhythms that invite them. Read the brief

Abstract
The importance of the domestic soundscape as a context for technological interventions has received little attention in HCI research. In this paper, we discuss how an ethnomethodological soundwalk method facilitated design principles for a phatic technology probe for seniors living alone. Taking soundscape concepts as a starting point, we suggest that the soundwalk works much like a breaching experiment, changing the participant’s role in engaging with their soundscape from reactive automatic agent to proactive reflective agent. This enables participants to reveal their own systematic orderliness when accounting for everyday sounds. We find that sounds are accounted for in terms of people placed in narratives. As such, we argue that phatic technologies use new sounds and rhythms to augment the domestic soundscape to take advantage of people’s abilities to create social narratives from limited cues.

Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression

Sean Rintel
Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 2013
Author's copy (PDF)

Crisis memes spread fast because people refill familiar picture and caption templates to mock power, joke about disasters or criticise online commentary. That gives people a public voice outside traditional media, which restrictive copyright may threaten. Read the brief

Abstract
Crisis memes are the ghoulish and satirical posts that spread through social media concurrently with serious journalistic reportage. They are folk productions that respond to challenging events based on thematic and structural templates of popular online image macros. This article explores how templatability is relevant to the underpinnings, development, structure and value of crisis memes. The combination of frivolity and ghoulishness that is typical of crisis memes may be criticized for not being reasoned discourse, reinforcing cultural divides and making use of copyrighted content without permission and in ways that the copyright holder may not wish. However, the value of crisis memes lies not in their content but rather their place as a public voice that sidesteps the constraints of traditional media and as an illustration of freedom of expression that may be threatened by increasingly restrictive copyright regimes.

Video Calling in Long-Distance Relationships: The Opportunistic use of Audio/Video Distortions as a Relational Resource

Sean Rintel
The Electronic Journal of Communication / La Revue Electronic de Communication (EJC/REC), 2013
Free from the publisher

Long-distance couples can turn audio and video glitches into intimacy. A frozen screen became cover for a playful tease and a blurry picture sparked a parody, because technology frames talk without determining it. Read the brief

Abstract
Video calling is now a realistic option for couples in distance relationships. This paper explores whether audio/video distortions block intimate relational talk. From a naturalistic two-month trial of couples trying video calling to maintain their distance relationships, it is found that couples can opportunistically use audio/video distortions as a relational resource rather than simply treating them as a blocking or outside of relational talk. First, technological mediation can be treated as relevant to disambiguating whether the repair involves simple content repetition or a more complex relational issue. Second, distortions can be treated as resources for relational parody and teasing. It is argued that the opportunistic use of distortions as a relational resource extends Hutchby's (2001b) notion of technologized interaction, in which technology frames but does not determine social action. Rather than proposing yet another model of communication that includes more detail about noise as deviance that must be remedied, or taking an undifferentiated approach to distortion as "trouble," the technologized interaction approach broadens our conceptions of online relationships as involving the use of technological features to a more holistic sense of technological mediation being part and parcel of maintaining online relationships.

Tech-tied or tongue-tied? Technological versus social trouble in relational video calling

Sean Rintel
HICSS'46, 2013
Author's copy (PDF)

On video calls, deciding whether trouble is technical or social is relational work. Couples can blame the connection for inattention or seeming forgetfulness, a handy escape that works only if the partner accepts it. Read the brief

Abstract
Maintaining a relationship via video calling requires intertwining relational and technological talk. Using detailed qualitative analysis of transcripts from naturalistic recordings of couples in a video calling field trial, this paper explores how couple members use the possibility of technological distortion as a resource for negotiating around the problem of inattentive or inappropriate responses. Inattention may be cast as technological trouble, and, conversely, the technology can be blamed for an apparently relationally inappropriate response. It is argued that research on technologically mediated relationship creation and maintenance should not treat technology as simply a container of relationships or a variably rich transmission system for relational material. Rather, mediation should be explored as a fundamental participant concern in online relationship research.

Making sense of big text: A visual-first approach for analysing text data using Leximancer and Discursis

Daniel Angus, Sean Rintel, Janet Wiles
International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 2013
Author's copy (PDF)

Visual-first text analytics makes visualisation the start of analysis, not its end product. Software maps a large text's themes and how topics recur over time, and researchers interpret and adjust those maps instead of hand-coding. Read the brief

Abstract
This article reports on Leximancer and Discursis, two visual text analytic software tools developed at the University of Queensland. Both analyse spatial and temporal relationships in text data, but in complementary ways: Leximancer focuses on thematic analysis, while Discursis focuses on sequential analysis. Our report explains how they work, how to work with them and how visual concepts are relevant to all stages of their use in analytic decision-making.
2012
2011

What’s going on here? The pedagogy of a data analysis session

J. Harris, M. Theobald, S. Danby, E. Reynolds, Sean Rintel, Transcript Analysis Group (TAG)
Reshaping Doctoral Education: International Approaches and Pedagogies, 2011
Author's copy (PDF)

In conversation analysis data sessions, expertise is a fluid, shared achievement, because spotting something in the data, more than seniority, earns the right to lead the talk. Experts help newcomers build observations and keep their standing through technical summaries. Read the brief

Abstract
Data analysis sessions are a common feature of discourse-analytic communities, often involving participants with varying levels of expertise to those with significant expertise. Learning how to do data analysis and working with transcripts, however, are often new experiences for doctoral candidates within the social sciences. While many guides to doctoral education focus on procedures associated with data analysis (Heath et al., 2010; McHoul and Rapley, 2001; Silverman, 2011; Wetherall et al., 2001), the in situ practices of doing data analysis are relatively undocumented. This chapter has been collaboratively written by members of a special interest research group, the Transcript Analysis Group (TAG), who meet regularly to examine transcripts representing audio-and video-recorded interactional data. Here, we investigate our own actual interactional practices and participation in this group, where each member is both analyst and participant. We particularly focus on the pedagogic practices enacted in the group through investigating how members engage in the scholarly practice of data analysis. A key feature of talk within the data sessions is that members work collaboratively to identify and discuss ‘noticings’ from the audio-recorded and transcribed talk being examined, produce analytic observations based on these discussions, and evaluate these observations. Our investigation of how talk constructs social practices in these sessions shows that participants move fluidly between actions that demonstrate pedagogic practices and expertise. Within any one session, members can display their expertise as analysts and, at the same time, display that they have gained an understanding that they did not have before. We take an ethnomethodological position that asks ‘what’s going on here?’ in the data analysis session. By observing the in situ practices in fine-grained detail, we show how members participate in the data analysis sessions and make sense of a transcript.

The Evolution of Fail Pets: Strategic Whimsy and Brand Awareness in Error Messages

Sean Rintel
UX Magazine, 2011
Free from the publisher

Error messages are brand moments, because failure stirs emotion. Cute mascots like Twitter's Fail Whale showed care and earned publicity, but memorable ones risk tying brands to failure, so designs seem to have shifted to generic faces and robots. Read the brief

Abstract
Error messages present a strategic moment for brands. This article looks at the history and evolution of error screens from Microsoft’s Blue Screen of Death, to friendly “fail pets” like Twitter’s Fail Whale, to more recent approaches.

Book Review: Crystal, D., Internet Linguistics: A Student Guide

Sean Rintel
Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 2011
Author's copy (PDF)
Abstract
I approached this book as a teacher of novices, taking seriously David Crystal’s proposition that Internet Linguistics: A Student Guide is an introduction to a nascent field for someone with no subject-matter knowledge beyond raw experience and no language research expertise beyond simple thematic analysis. From that perspective, Crystal succeeds in building an easily grasped overview of the way in which the linguistic discipline might approach the Internet as a principled research enterprise.
2010

Conversational management of network trouble perturbations in personal videoconferencing

Sean Rintel
OZCHI 2010
Free from the publisher
Abstract
Domestic personal videoconferencing (PV) is vulnerable to network trouble perturbations. This paper shows that long-distance couples treat perturbations as a matter of social management as much as technological resolution. Three management strategies are illustrated: technology-oriented remedies, content-oriented remedies, and non-remedial accounts for trouble. All three involve collaborative work to account for the effect of technology on conversational continuity and the relationship.
2007

Maximizing environmental validity: remote recording of desktop videoconferencing

Sean Rintel
HCII 2007
Author's copy (PDF)

Maximizing environmental validity, studying real use in its real setting, means choosing the least intrusive recording. Home video calls were best captured by the researcher's computer joining each call as a silent third party, so people stayed at ease. Read the brief

Abstract
This paper discusses the development of the technical methodology for remote recording to maximize environmental validity for a project on how novices develop familiarity with desktop videoconferencing (DVC). It is also a discussion of how the technical setup, as well as the resulting data, was usefulfor finding usability issues for the company that provided the DVC software.
2004

Practices for reporting and responding to test results during medical consultations: Enacting the roles of paternalism and independent expertise

Anita Pomerantz, Sean Rintel
Discourse Studies, 2004
Author's copy (PDF)

Doctor and patient roles, from paternalism to independent expertise, are negotiated turn by turn. Giving only a verdict on a test reading casts the patient as relying on the doctor, while giving the number invites them to interpret it themselves. Read the brief

Abstract
When physicians take readings of health indices such as temperature or blood pressure, the practices that physicians and patients employ in discussing the readings both reflect and propose a set of expectations regarding the level of technical medical information the patients should acquire and understand. In this article we demonstrate how physicians’ reporting practices reflect and propose the roles of paternalism or independent expertise and how patients’ responding practices either ratify or contest the roles cast by the physicians’ practices. In contrast to the usual assumption that roles are relatively stable for individuals over the course of encounters, we treat role enactments as matters that are negotiated turn by turn in interaction. Physicians’ practices for reporting test results implicate various sets of expectations about the knowledge, interest, and responsibility state of each participant; patients employ responding practices that ratify or contest the expectations implicated by the physicians’ prior report. In each subsequent turn within the information exchange sequence, a speaker indicates (explicitly or implicitly) whether the level and kind of information being exchanged is appropriate/inappropriate and sufficient/insufficient for the participants.
2003

Time Will Tell: Ambiguous Non-Responses on Internet Relay Chat

Sean Rintel, Jeffery Pittam, Joan Mulholland
The Electronic Journal of Communication / La Revue Electronic de Communication, 2003
Free from the publisher

In text chat, silences caused by the system, such as lag, can look just like being ignored. So users trying to get a reply often first rule out technical trouble by reconnecting, greeting again and checking their connection. Read the brief

Abstract
The design of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) affords for, and itself produces, non-response situations that are not possible in FTF or telephone interaction. These system-occasioned non-responses produce almost isomorphic stimuli to participant non-responses. Situations thus arise in which nonresponses are interpersonally accountable despite agentive ambiguity. This study explores four intersections of participant-action and system-occasioned non-responses. An extension to Pomerantz's (1984b) 'pursuing a response' problems/solutions is proposed. The impact of IRC's design on its popularity is discussed in contrast to more recent chat systems. Suggestions are made for active and passive presence and non-response accounting features in future chat systems.
2001

Online Television Forums: Interactivity, Access, and Transactional Space

Susan McKay, Sean Rintel
The Electronic Journal of Communication / La Revue Electronic de Communication, 2001
Free from the publisher

Online TV forums can give viewers more immediate access to programs, celebrities and each other, but inside the network's commercial space. Networks gain cheap content and publicity, and moderators control access, so viewers often queue to question guests. Read the brief

Abstract
In online television forums hosted by Television Network Websites (TNWs), viewers are invited to interact with both those involved with the television network and/or other viewers/users. This paper is a preliminary investigation of the enormous range of new interactive spaces and practices. Current online television forums in US, UK and Australian TNWs are analyzed in terms of their interactivity and access. The forums are found to allow individuals increased and more immediate access to television products and personalities, the ability to determine their own news values, and the possibility of joining with others as transitory online communities rather than remaining an audience of individuals. While those who gain access and participate must agree to both rules and moderation, some users manage to subvert officially designated purposes or rules. Nevertheless, the provision of online television forums ultimately extends the traditional media sphere.

First things first: Internet Relay Chat openings

Sean Rintel, Joan Mulholland, Jeffery Pittam
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 2001
Free from the publisher

Unlike a ringing phone, the automatic notice that someone has joined an online chat channel calls on nobody to answer. So people greet widely and creatively to start talking, and many openings meet silence. Read the brief

Abstract
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was the Internet's first widely popular quasi-synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) system. While research has consistently demonstrated the interpersonal nature of IRC, and is now turning to more structurally-oriented topics, it is argued that IRC research now needs to systematically address links between interaction structures, technological mediation and the instantiation and development of interpersonal relationships within a framework that privileges IRC interaction and social explanations. This exploration of the openings of IRC interactions is positioned as a step in that direction. The openings investigated in the study are those that occur directly following user's entries into public IRC channels, termed the newly-joined users' Channel Entry Phase (CEP). It is found that turn coordination in the CEP is often ambiguous, has the potential to disrupt relationship development, and leads to considerable emphasis on interactive strategies for the clear ordering of opening phases.
1997

Strangers in a Strange Land: Interaction Management on Internet Relay Chat

Sean Rintel, Jeffery Pittam
Human Communication Research, 1997
Author's copy (PDF)

Text chat need not be impersonal. Internet Relay Chat users adapted relationship-building greetings and farewells by typing out gestures like hugs, but strangers, known only by a nickname, struggled to start conversations. Read the brief

Abstract
This article examines a set of interactions (logs) taken from the form of computer-mediated communication known as Internet Relay Chat (IRC). The authors were particularly concerned with the interaction management strategies adopted by the participants in the logs during the opening and closing phases of the interactions to develop interpersonal relationships and communicate socioemotional content, as illustrated by their attempts to initiate and/or close interactions with others using the medium. The article compares these strategies and their structure with those proposed for face-to-face (FTF) interactions and proposes an explanatory framework for the interaction management of opening and closing phases on IRC. It is suggested that interaction management in these phases of IRC logs is similar to that in casual group FTF interaction in terms of the general functions of the strategies used, but that the content, structure, and ordering of the strategies are subject to adaptation.