Talk Among 50,000+: Designing for Presence and evaluating connections

Christine A. Halverson
Social Computing Group
IBM T.J. Watson and Almaden Research Centers
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7:00pm
Thursday, November 20, 2003
411 West Hall (Ehrlicher Room) directions...

Over the last few years IBM has been experimenting with ways to get people to talk and share solutions within the Company by having massive online events called Jams. Like a cross between a giant bulletin board with the intensity of a chat. The later is due to the fact that these are limited time events (48-72 hours). How do you design to foster connections and awareness between people? I'll present a number of options from a large social proxy to human facilitated connections.

About the Speaker

Christine Halverson is a Research Staff Member in the Social Computing Group at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center. Her current work involves studying online systems to understand how they support social and community processes in groups and organizations. She holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from the University of California, San Diego and is the author of a number of papers in the fields of HCI and CSCW.