A framework for studying the use of wikis in knowledge work using client-side access data

Abstract

While measurements of wiki usage typically focus on the active contribution of content, information on the passive use of existing content can be valuable for a range of commercial and research purposes. In particular, such data is necessary for reconstructing the context or tracing the flow of information in settings where wikis are used as collaboration platforms in knowledge work that relies on specialized tools, such as software development.Meeting these needs requires detailed knowledge of user behavior, such as the duration for which a page was read and the sections visible at each point. This data cannot be collected by present wiki implementations and must be collected from the client-side, which presents a range of technical and privacy problems. In addition, this data must be correlated with traces of interaction with other tools.In this paper we present an approach for solving these problems in which scripts embedded by the wiki server are executed by the client browser, and report on the user's interaction with that document along with relevant structural information. These reports are relayed to a comprehensive framework for storing and accessing interaction and context data from the wiki and from additional tools used in knowledge work. This framework can be used to correlate these traces to obtain a complete view of the user's work across tools, or to approximate his context at specific points in time.

An effective method for keeping design artifacts up-to-date

“…Design documents that are too long become practically impossible to fully read and review [4]. Future work could use existing measurement techniques [8] to measure if reviewers actually do review the whole artifact, and the effect the length of the artifact has on the parts of it being viewed and reviewed.…”

LogUI: Contemporary Logging Infrastructure for Web-Based Experiments

“…Some of these solutions required additional software to be installed (such as browser toolbars), while others made use of an intermediatary proxy server to inject logging code, as used in subsequent studies [2,6,7,15]. Despite advancements, these approaches were less than ideal [8]. A second browser war led to a rise in prominence for client-side scripting (i.e., EC-MAScript, or JavaScript), and in turn increased the capabilities of browsers.…”

Wikis para suporte à documentação de processo de software livre

“…Segundo Dekel (2007), as wikis ganharam um espaço nos projetos como uma plataforma para a discussão de idéias, comunicação, documentação e as vezes até substituindo as tradicionais ferramentas de suporte para projetos. Na pesquisa descrita por Munson (2008), foi observado que usuários da wiki gostavam quando podiam identificar os autores envolvidos na edição de um tópico, pois isto permitia que posteriormente tais autores pudessem ser consultados para maior aprofundamento sobre o assunto, ou então, para a solução de dúvidas acerca de determinado conteúdo.…”

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