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4.2 Social mechanisms in communication and collaboration 107

4.2.1 Conversational mechanisms
Talking is something that is effortless and comes naturally to most people. And yet
holding a conversation is a highly skilled collaborative achievement, having many
of the qualities of a musical ensemble. Below we examine what makes up a conver-
sation. We begin by examining what happens at the beginning:
A: Hi there.
B: Hi!
C: Hi.
A: All right?
C: Good. How's it going?
A: Fine, how are you?
C: Good.
B: OK. How's life treating you?
Such mutual greetings are typical. A dialog may then ensue in which the partic-
ipants take turns asking questions, giving replies, and making statements. Then
when one or more of the participants wants to draw the conversation to a close,
they do so by using either implicit or explicit cues. An example of an implicit cue is
when a participant looks at his watch, signaling indirectly to the other participants
that he wants the conversation to draw to a close. The other participants may
choose to acknowledge this cue or carry on and ignore it. Either way, the first par-
ticipant may then offer an explicit signal, by saying, "Well, I must be off now. Got
work to do," or, "Oh dear, look at the time. Must dash. Have to meet someone."
Following the acknowledgment by the other participants of such implicit and ex-
plicit signals, the conversation draws to a close, with a farewell ritual. The different
participants take turns saying, "Bye," "Bye then," "See you," repeating themselves
several times, until they finally separate.
Such conversational mechanisms enable people to coordinate their "talk" with
one another, allowing them to know how to start and stop. Throughout a conversa-
tion further "turn-taking" rules are followed, enabling people to know when to lis-
ten, when it is their cue to speak, and when it is time for them to stop again to allow
the others to speak. Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson (1978)-who are famous for
their work on conversation analysis-describe these in terms of three basic rules:
rule 1-the current speaker chooses the next speaker by asking an opinion,
question, or request
rule 2-another person decides to start speaking
rule 3-the current speaker continues talking

The rules are assumed to be applied in the above order, so that whenever there
is an opportunity for a change of speaker to occur (e.g., someone comes to the end
of a sentence), rule 1 is applied. If the listener to whom the question or opinion is
addressed does not accept the offer to take the floor, the second rule is applied and