A Comparison of Collaborative Information Retrieval (CIR) Behaviors of Two Design Teams

Harry Bruce; Raya Fidel; Annelise Mark Pejtersen; Susan Dumais; Jonathan Grudin; Steven Poltrock

A Comparison of Collaborative Information Retrieval (CIR) Behaviors of Two Design Teams

Harry Bruce ,
Raya Fidel ,
Annelise Mark Pejtersen ,
Susan Dumais ,
Jonathan Grudin ,
Steven Poltrock

Information Seeking in Context (ISIC 2002) | September 2002

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The goal of the Collaborative Information Retrieval (CIR) Project is to study situations where members of a work-team are seeking, searching, and using information collaboratively. A field study of two design teams (one at Microsoft and the other at the Boeing Company), guided by the Cognitive Work Analysis has provided preliminary results. These show that: (a) the concept of CIR is illusive and does not easily lend itself to an operational definition; (b) work context has a strong effect on CIR behavior; and (c) not all activities relating to CIR are carried out collaboratively.