Azeen Chamarbagwala

Steve Kafka

Ian Liu

eD:

is an asynchronous, online decision-making tool organizes unstructured problems facilitates collaboration

targets social groups

The Motivation:

Emails clogging your inbox? Difficulty figuring out group consensus? Someone forced to take charge and make a

command decision?

Now for a real example from the SIMS community…

(names changed to protect the innocent)

Email 1 11:40 a.m.

Adam:

i say we go somewhere different tonight. anyone know if the berkeley art museum has re-opened? becketts? bison brewery? thalasa???

Email 2 12:28 p.m.

Bob:

I like the art museum... someplace a little more somber would be in order.

Is it open? I don't know, but it should be... I'll try to find out.

Email 3 12:29 p.m.

Claire:

my vote is for becketts.

Email 4 12:29 p.m.

Diane:

Thalasa. even henry's. there are a lot of places to sit there.

Email 5 12:54 p.m.

Adam:

the cafe at the museum has not re-opened yet. maybe another month they said.

Email 6 3:47 p.m.

Eloise:Well, I don't see a consensus rapidly emerging, but since I'm not familiar with most of these places, I don't feel particularly qualified to comment. My two cents: Can we pick someplace that has food? I expect to be starving by the time I get there. BTW, I don't know what the planned timing of "that time" is, but I'll be on the late shift again (i.e., not arriving until at least 6:30).

Email 7 4:47 p.m.

Adam:

since no one is stepping up: i'll be at becketts by 5:45. haven't been there, but they do have food.

Needs Assessment

Focus Groups Structured Interviews

Used results to help create requirements for eD

What’s out there now?

Yahoo Groups Evite Literature Review

• Current tools built for professional groups or synchronous communications

• Message board facilitates collaboration

What makes eD different?

Structured decision making process Participants can change their minds and their

votes Emulates face to face interaction Different voting methods

Design of eD PHP with a MySQL database Created for the decision-making needs of social

groups, not business/professional groups Option of anonymity Group can contribute ideas and suggestions Automatically generated vote reminder Decision results sent out to participants Multiple voting methods

Current Voting Methods

Most Votes Wins All Must Agree Rank Order Point Allocation

Most Votes Wins

All Must Agree

Rank Order

Point Allocation

Creating a decision

Thirsty Thursday revisited…

Thirsty Thursday revisited…(cont.)

Email Notification

Future Work: Cancel decision Other voting methods Denote not participating Tie vote to another participant Preview comments Graphical depiction of results Invite others to participate User authentication