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124 Chapter 4 Design for collaboration and communication

Why are whiteboards so useful for coordinating projects? How might electronic whiteboards
be designed to extend this practice?
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Comment Physical whiteboards are very good as coordinating tools as they display information that is
external and public, making it highly visible for everyone to see. Furthermore, the informa-
tion can be easily annotated to show up-to-date modifications to a schedule. Whiteboards
also have a gravitational force, drawing people to them. They provide a meeting place for
people to discuss and catch up with latest developments.
Electronic whiteboards have the added advantage that important information can be ani-
mated to make it stand out. Important information can also be displayed on multiple dis-
plays throughout a building and can be extracted from existing databases and software,
thereby making the project coordinator's work much easier. The boards could also be used
to support on-the-fly meetings in which individuals could use electronic pens to sketch out
ideas-that could then be stored electronically. In such settings they could also be interacted
with via wireless handheld computers, allowing information to be "scraped" off or
"squirted onto the whiteboard.

4.2.5 Awareness mechanisms
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Awareness involves knowing who is around, what is happening, and who is talk-
ing with whom (Dourish and Bly, 1992). For example, when we are at a party, we
move around the physical space, observing what is going on and who is talking to
whom, eavesdropping on others' conversations and passing on gossip to others. A
specific kind of awareness is peripheral awareness. This refers to a person's abil-
ity to maintain and constantly update a sense of what is going on in the physical
and social context, through keeping an eye on what is happening in the periphery
of their vision. This might include noting whether people are in a good or bad
mood by the way they are talking, how fast the drink and food is being consumed,
who has entered or left the room, how long someone has been absent, and
whether the lonely guy in the corner is finally talking to someone-all while we
are having a conversation with someone else. The combination of direct observa-
tions and peripheral monitoring keeps people informed and updated of what is
happening in the world.
Similar ways of becoming aware and keeping aware take place in other con-
texts, such as a place of study or work. Importantly, this requires fathoming
when is an appropriate time to interact with others to get and pass information
on. Seeing a professor slam the office door signals to students that this is defi-
nitely not a good time to ask for an extension on an assignment deadline. Con-
versely, seeing teachers with beaming faces, chatting openly to other students
suggests they are in a good mood and therefore this would be a good time to ask
them if it would be all right to miss next week's seminar because of an important
family engagement. The knowledge that someone is amenable or not rapidly
spreads through a company, school, or other institution. People are very eager to
pass on both good and bad news to others and will go out of their way to gossip,
loitering in corridors, hanging around at the photocopier and coffee machine
"spreading the word."