Libby Hemphill » Collaboration

New lab, new labsite

libbyh — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:17:13 +0000

I’m just getting my lab at IIT up and running. We are now the CaSM Lab (Collaboration and Social Media), and I invite you to learn more about us on our website. In just the first two months, I’ve been joined by two master’s students and one undergraduate. Many of our efforts will focus on Overherd this term, but we have other projects related to social media and collaboration in the works.

Simple Data Sharing

libbyh — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:30:19 +0000

All of my research is collaborative. Even on my “own” projects, I rely on others to help me polish drafts of publications and usually to talk about my data. Getting my colleagues that data is harder than it ought to be. Usually, my data consist of interview transcripts, interview audio recordings, video recordings, and spreadsheets of survey results. I write primarily in Word and LaTeX. So, that leaves me with text data, numerical data, and media (audio/video) data that I need to share with my colleagues. I just checked, and all together, my data, as exists on my hard drive today, measures ~4 GB. I have 12 hours of video yet to rip, so let’s call it ~ 15 GB. How should I share it with my colleagues? I’ve made a table of options, and none is perfect. My favorite, though, is Dropbox because it’s so simple.

I have not included any institutional storage systems or sharing options such as Blackboard or CTools. I have also not included Google Groups or Google Docs. Instead, I’ve focused just on services that let you share data, not collaboration suites or whatever the other stuff calls itself. I’ve found those to be useless when it comes to sharing video and annoying when it comes to sharing anything else. Annoying means it takes too many steps to upload or download (e.g., Blackboard, CTools) or it ruins my formatting (e.g., Google Docs). Dropbox wins because it works just like a local folder but automatically syncs elsewhere.Â I’m currently using it for 3 projects and sharing LaTeX, BibTex, Word, Excel, plain text, AVI, MOV, and MP4 files.

Note: I’mÂ ambidextrousÂ and use these services on both Mac and Windows machines. I don’t use other platforms.

Data Sharing

Service	Space	Price	Transfer	Version Control	Comments
Dropbox	2GB 50GB 100GB	Free $9.99mo $19.99mo	App Browser	Yes	Win! Dropbox syncs files across your computers and with people you grant access. Doesn't care what type of file and allows you to create folders, etc. Interaction is much like Finder or Windows Explorer.
Windows Live Skydrive	25GB	Free	Browser	No	Lots of free space, but you have to manage files through the browser, bad for working at home or on any slower connection
Adrive	50GB - 1TB	Free - ?	Browser (free) FTP (paid)	No	Tons of space, browser management interface is a pain for free users, sharing limited for free users
Box.net	1GB 10GB 15GB/user	Free $9.99 $15/mo/user	Brower, email, other	No	Personal use is about the same price as sharing is on other services. More bang for your buck elsewhere.
Amazon S3	Unlimited	<$0.15/GB	Complicated	Yes	If you have developer chops and lots of data, may be a good route

Post Doc survey now open

libbyh — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 01:04:29 +0000

Dr. Libby Hemphill and Dr. Stephanie Teasley of the University of Michigan, School of Information invite you to be a part of a research study that examines the experiences and preferences of post doctoral researchers (postdocs). The purpose of the study is to understand the kinds of experiences postdocs have and to design better support and training programs for postdocs and their advisors. We are asking you to participate because you are currently a postdoc.

If you agree to be part of the research study, you will be asked to complete a web-based survey about your experiences as a postdoc.Â We expect this survey to take 15 to 20 minutes to complete.

At the end of the survey, you will have the opportunity to enter a drawing for one of three $50 Amazon gift certificates. Researchers will not be able to link your survey responses to you, but you will be asked to enter your name and email if you wish to be included in the drawing for Amazon gift certificates. The survey software keeps your identifying information separate from the answers you provide to the survey.

We plan to publish the results of this study but will not include any information that would identify you. We will share anonymous, aggregated data with colleagues at the Arizona State University School of Public Affairs (ASU); Dr. Erik Johnston at ASU will use the aggregated data to inform agent-based models of research labs. These models will also help us understand and improve postdoc experiences.

Participating in this study is completely voluntary. Even if you decide to participate now, you may change your mind and stop at any time. You may choose to not answer an individual question or you may skip any section of the survey.Â Simply click â€œNextâ€ at the bottom of the survey page to move to the next set of questions.

If you have questions about this research study, you can contact Libby Hemphill, Ph.D., University of Michigan, School of Information, 1075 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, (734) 678-9748,libbyh@umich.edu.

If you have questions about your rights as a research participant, please contact the University of Michigan Institutional Review Board Health Sciences and Behavioral Sciences, 540 E. Liberty, Ste. 202, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2210, (866) 936-0933 (toll-free),Â irbhsbs@umich.edu.

By clicking on the link below, you are consenting to participate in this research survey.

Take me to the survey

If you do not wish to participate, click the â€œx” in the top corner of your browser to exit.

Pedestrian Tools and Character-driven Science: How Bones Helped Me Rethink My Research

libbyh — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:42:38 +0000

I wrote a memo for myself in which I develop analogies between television shows that involve collaborative science work and my own research on geographically distributed science teams. My goal is to use popularized science to get us to think differently about our own research. I use examples from the forensics drama Bones and data from my current study of post doctoral researchers and their labs to examine how we make sense of scientific collaboration and the tools used to accomplish science. I argue that we should focus more on the pedestrian tools scientists use to accomplish their work and to carefully study the scientists themselves and not just their tasks.

Download the full paper (3.5 pages)

Building Bridges: A Study of Coordination in Projects

libbyh — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:58:22 +0000

On August 13, I successfully defended my dissertation. Today, I submitted my final, approved version to University of Michigan’s institutional repository. That version won’t be available until after I receive my degree in December, but you’re welcome to read a nearly identical version of my complete dissertation.

Dissertation Abstract
In our efforts to understand how collaborative work can be accomplished, we often turn to discussions of â€œcoordinationâ€ for help. However, the concept of coordination is inadequate for explaining the many interdependent processes at work within successful collaborations. In this dissertation, I examined a collaborative construction project â€“ the Woods Avenue Bridge (WAB) Project â€“ with many coordination demands. I used data from this project to develop the concept of adaptive capacity â€“ the set of capabilities a team develops that enable them to adjust to internal and external stresses.

Through analyzing meeting minutes, interview transcripts, and documents the project team developed, I was able to identify behaviors and approaches the team took that may have enabled them to better respond to changes in their environment. I use a specific example of a time when the team successfully redesigned the structure they were building in the field to illustrate the kind of coordination work adaptive capacity enables.

From data about the WAB Project, I identified components of adaptive capacity including perspective taking, multimembership, affect, and social capital. Understanding these components and the adaptive capacity they can develop helps us understand what about a team enables them to accomplish coordination work. Without adaptive capacity, we lack an integrated explanation of the ways in which different components interact and how those components address coordination.

This dissertation contributes to our understanding of how collaborative teams accomplish coordination by refining the concept of adaptive capacity and integrating earlier literatures on coordination, collaboration, and adaptation. The concept of adaptive capacity helps us understand the resources collaborative teams develop that make it possible for them to find flexible and creative solutions to their coordination problems.