Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Embodied Social Interaction

Abstract: Research in Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) has identified a gap - the, so called, social-technical gap - between the wide range of human social interactions that CSCW ideally should support and what current technology actually does support. At the same time recent work in cognitive science and CSCW has begun to elucidate the multifarious roles that the body plays in cognitive processes as well as many forms of social interaction, e.g. gestures, pointing, eye-contact and bodily mimicry. The aim of this dissertation has been to analyse to what degree different aspects of embodied social interaction are supported by different types of synchronous, remote location CSCW technology, and to develop recommendations for future development concerning aspects of embodiment. For this purpose, a number of crucial aspects of embodied social interaction have been identified and about twenty CSCW systems - both research prototypes and commercial systems - have been analysed with respects to how well they support these different aspects. The analysis shows that most CSCW systems only support a very limited range of aspects of embodied social interaction.