A resource-adaptive mobile navigation system
Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces
A Descriptive Framework of Workspace Awareness for Real-Time Groupware
Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Effects of long-term use of video-communication technologies on the conversational process
Cognition, Technology and Work
Distributed context-aware systems
Human-Computer Interaction
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
An application view of COORDINATORS coordination managers for first responders
IAAI'04 Proceedings of the 16th conference on Innovative applications of artifical intelligence
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An experiment evaluated network-aware support to increase understanding of the factors that are important for successful teamwork in mobile geographically dispersed teams of first responders. Participants performed a simulated search and rescue team task and were equipped with a digitized map and real-time situation updates on the location of other participants in a simulated disaster area. The connection to a server, however, was made deliberately error-prone, leading to occasional losses of network connections. Consequently, participants were not provided with real-time situation updates. To deal with this problem we equipped team members with a network-aware application that signaled network loss to them and adapted the graphical representation of the location of fellow team members accordingly to the quality of location information present. The experiment revealed that presenting complete and reliable geospatial information improves teamwork. Teams connected to a server over a fast and reliable link showed superior performance over teams with no network connection whatsoever to a server. The present study failed, however, to demonstrate the added value of network-aware support when teams had to collaborate in the presence of an unreliable communications infrastructure. Although participants indicated a slight preference for the network-aware application over a condition without support signaling network loss, no differences were observed in team process and outcome measures.