Glossary - Collaborative Web Search: Who, What, Where, When, and Why - page 73

Glossary
asymmetric collaboration A collaboration in which the collaborators fulfill different roles.This may
arise as a result of a division of a search task into roles based on familiarity with technology, job
hierarchy, or specific expertise. It also can arise as a result of asymmetric information needs,
where one collaborator enlists the assistance of others. Examples of this include receiving
assistance from a reference librarian, participating in a guided search experience, or querying
a social network. (See also symmetric collaboration .)
asynchronous collaboration Collaborations in which group members' efforts do not necessarily
overlap temporally. (See also synchronous collaboration .)
awareness Real-time awareness of collaborators' current focus of attention is sometimes important
for collaboration, and many collaborative search tools have features designed to support such
awareness. (See also division of labor and persistence .)
brute force The brute force approach to collaborative search reflects a lack of explicit division of
labor. Group members avoid the overhead of coordinating on their search strategies ahead
of time but risk realizing they have gathered redundant information when they share their
findings. (See also divide-and-conquer .)
collaborative search The subset of social search where several users share an information need, and
actively work together to fulfill that need.
co-located collaboration A collaboration where collaborators are physically co-present. (See also
remote collaboration and mixed-presence collaboration .)
division of labor The division of the effort involved in a collaborative search among collaborators
is sometimes an important feature of collaboration, and many collaborative search tools have
features designed to support such division. (See also awareness and persistence .)
divide-and-conquer Group members explicitly divide up a task, either according to sub-tasks (e.g.,
one spouse searches for information on asthma treatments and another for information on
asthma irritants) or according to aspects of the search process, such as the search sources used
(e.g., one spouse searches for contractors to remove mold via a yellow pages search engine and
another searches on a review site). (See also brute force .)
exploratory search A search carried out by searchers who are unfamiliar with the domain of their
goal, unsure of how to achieve their goal, or unsure of what their goal is. It includes a broad