The Augmented Conversation application solves this problem:
Persons in face-to-face groups typically organize their conversation without centralized control. However, when group size increases, a chairperson is often selected in order to ensure that only one person speaks at a time. Formal management is more common in teleconferencing environments, because the back channel “body language” is reduced or absent. The problem we aim to solve is the loss of free discussion that typically occurs as groups increase in size or when they have remote members.
Our solution aims to maintain the natural flow of conversation even when discussion is electronically mediated and when members can't see each other. This requires automatically resolving conflicts over speaking order and isolation of users from environmental noise. Ideally, users wearing headphones will move smoothly from a face-to-face small group communication situation to one in which there are a large number of users that can't see each other.
The most groundbreaking things about the application:
The Stanford University experiments showed that teams working in the telecommunication settings made better decisions, enjoyed themselves more, experienced less frustration, and viewed their teams' decisions more favorably as compared to face-to-face groups. All previous research had found that teleconferencing yields either inferior performance or less satisfaction with meetings.
This solution is one element of a comprehensive meeting management framework. The solution ensures that meetings proceed in a mutually acceptable manner. That is, it makes sure that individuals do not speak out of turn or try to dominate a discussion. We plan to add a contractual element to the framework by using code for arranging meetings that was made open source at our request:
One reason for using this meeting arrangement software is to ensure that people agree in advance to structure the dialogue process with MyTurn - the conflict resolving system. Another is to ensure that noncooperative individuals - those tending to speak out of turn - will be identifiable prior to a potential meeting.
History and status:
A laboratory proven rule system for allocating turns to speakers yields superior emotional tone, better learning, and improved performance compared to standard facilitation methods. The experiments were performed at the University of California, Irvine and at Stanford University:
A web application for computers:
For cellphones and other devices capable of producing vibration:
David Stodolsky, PhD Institute for Social Informatics
Tornskadestien 2, st. th., DK-2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark
dss@... Tel./Viber: +45 3095 4070
David Stodolsky