Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER
3
What?
In this chapter, we explore the motivations behind group searches. We first look at what the common
shared search tasks that motivate collaboration are. We then explore what specific aspects of a shared
search task lend themselves to collaboration.
3.1
COLLABORATIVE SEARCH TASKS
Researchers have tried to identify common collaborative search tasks via surveys and via the analysis
and classification of the tasks collaborative search tools are used for. Table 3.1 shows the common
tasks identified by
Morris, M.R.
(
2008
) in a survey she conducted of information workers' collabo-
rative search habits, and Table 3.2 shows the common self-generated tasks among groups using the
WeSearch system (
Morris et al.
,
2010b
).
Table 3.1:
109 information workers who reported
cooperating on search using status quo tools de-
scribed the tasks they had collaborated on, which
were then classified into categories of related tasks
(
Morris et al.
,
2008
).
Task
% of Respondents
Travel planning
27.5%
General shopping tasks
25.7%
Literature search
20.2%
Technical information
16.5%
Fact finding
16.5%
Social planning
12.8%
Medical information
6.4%
Real estate
6.4%
Travel planning was the most common task identified by both, followed by shopping (par-
ticularly common among spouses shopping for expensive items such as cars, furniture, real estate,
or electronics). Fact-finding (such as in support of a conversation or debate), social planning (e.g.,
planning large events like weddings and parties, or planning more informal events such as choosing
a location for dinner or selecting a movie to view), and finding medical information (e.g., Martha's
searches with her family members about her asthma) were also common. Occupation-specific tasks,
Search WWH ::
Custom Search