Fully Mobile City Government (mCity)

Summary: The goal of the project is to obtain a better understanding of the impacts and use of wireless applications in government. The researchers will develop a model that can guide other governmental organizations in their implementation of wireless, mobile technologies. The UW researchers will study Seattle city government fieldwork in which fully mobile, wirelessly connected applications are already being used or will be used. Seattle's Public Utilities drainage and wastewater operations will serve as the site for investigation. The study is geared at uncovering the choices, potential uses, constraints, and opportunities of mobile applications.

Expected outcome: A formative model representing the constraints, interactions, and interdependencies of the studied fieldwork domains and their contexts. Based on this work- and task-anchored model, we will develop the requirements and characteristics of FMWC devices and applications. Finally, we will analyze and specify the organizational, social, individual, and technological impacts of FMWC applications for various fieldwork types.

Investigators: Jochen Scholl and Raya Fidel

Research Assistants: Kris Unsworth and Monica Liu

Project Manager: Monica Liu

Period: 2006-2008

Sponsor: National Science Foundation (www.nsf.gov)

More information on the project's website: http://projects.ischool.washington.edu/chii/mcity

Access grant proposal: mCity NSF Grant Proposal

Title: Collaborative Information Retrieval (CIR)

Summary: The goal of this study is to obtain a better understanding of social aspects of information retrieval in a variety of workplace settings. Information retrieval has been viewed as an individual activity, and tools to support it can benefit from a more complete understanding of why and how it is carried out. CIR is defined as any activity that collectively resolves an information problem taken by members of a work-team regardless of the nature of the actual retrieval of information. To accomplish this goal, the study will investigate the manifestations of CIR in work settings when it occurs, and teamwork situations in which CIR does not occur. For this investigation, the researchers will use a work-centered conceptual framework that has been used in similar studies of individual information behavior. In this study, the framework will be extended to include collaborative information behavior.

Expected outcome: A conceptual framework to guide research, design, and organizational behavior in the area of Collaborative Information Retrieval

Principal Investigators: Raya Fidel, Harry Bruce

Investigators: Annelise Mark Pejtersen, Jonathan Grudin, Sue Dumais, Steve Poltrock

Period: 1999-2003

Sponsor: National Science Foundation (www.nsf.gov)

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