What? - Collaborative Web Search: Who, What, Where, When, and Why - page 23

Table 3.7: Evans and Chi ( 2008 ) identified tactics information workers used to collaborate with
others before, during, and after search.
Search

Tactic Stage Description

Context Framing Before

Search

This opportunity for social interaction refers to the context
motivating the information seeking task, which may be self-
generated but also may be externally generated, such as due
to a request from a manager, client, or friend.

Requirement
Refinement

Before
Search

This stage involves understanding the task in detail, which
may involve iterating on the task description with others (such
as if the search was due to an external request).

Foraging During

Search

When foraging, searchers assimilate information they have
found and use it to iterate on their search, such as by using
new keywords they discover in initial results; opportunities for
social interaction include brainstorming keyword refinements
with others.

Sensemaking During

Search

Sensemaking involves evaluating information as it is
found and assessing whether the search goal has been
achieved ( Russell et al. , 1993 ). Some researchers have ex-
plored more specifically the role that collaboration might play
in sensemaking during the search process, developing spe-
cialized tools such as CoSense ( Paul and Morris , 2009 )to
support such interactions (see Figure 3.2).

Organizing
and Distributing
Information

After
Search

This tactic involves organizing found information, such as
by collecting a list of links or creating a summary document
or webpage. This often was a step toward sharing this orga-
nized content with others, either face-to-face, by telephone,
or through electronic means of distribution.

a good contractor to remove the mold from their house. Generally, search strategies that involve
sharing the product of a search rather than the process involve many individual actions. Thus, many
collaborative search tools are designed to support a collaborator's individual actions as well as the
more group-oriented aspects of collaborative search.

3.3 WHAT: CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Understanding users' motivating tasks and the specific aspects of these tasks that provide collabora-
tion opportunities is key to developing appropriate collaborative search tools. Much of our knowledge
of popular collaborative tasks comes from the information-worker population (e.g., ( Morris, M.R. ,