Social Amelioration of Bridged Communication Delay William D. Tucker University of Cape Town South Africa ECSCW’03 Doctoral Colloquium

South African Research Context Internet users PCs Phone/cell Literacy5499 Per 100 people Sources: unstats.un.org/unsd/databases.htm guesstimate

TTS ASR Deaf Telephony Bridging Deaf Users Hearing UsersSophisticated IT-literate Unsophisticated IT-illiterate Sign language grammar and work usage can be confusing to non-Deaf users: me come see u tonight Speech recognition can produce garbage. start again And K. [OK] what k? Conversation Repair

Research Question How do we deal with all these delays in bridged communications? What factors contribute to overcoming poor Quality of Service, especially of delay? How can those factors be incorporated into software systems? How can we measure the efficacy of such systems? Can bridging systems become viable in the workplace?

Main Theoretical Concept Social dynamics of using a semi- synchronous messaging system can overcome delays Instant messaging usage and etiquette rubberizes toleration of delay in communication volley In bridged situations, the social need for connectivity engenders tolerance, e.g. Deaf User can now get “connected” However, toleration of delay taxes the “sophisticated” user more, hence the need to pull in all users into the social dynamics of the communication

Instant Messaging and Chat Social dynamics allow exchange to be temporarily or even extensively interrupted IM appears synchronous when connectivity is good and participants are active More participants provide a social milieu that allows participants to drop in and out Delays tolerated in IM/chat conversation exchange

Overall Research Strategy Instant Messaging in literature Deaf Telephony trials Rural telehealth trials Study social and temporal dynamics in Instant Messaging literature Build & test experimental bridged scenarios where delay and QoS are extremely poor

Rural Telehealth Scheduling issues IT-literacy issues: typing, everyday use of PC Intermittent power Bandwidth Language barriers

Methodology-Qualitative Action Research vs Participatory Design –Community members do not yet know what IT can do for them –Education is a part of the process –Researcher & user reflection Our take on Action Research –Human Access Point (HAP) jump-starts the process –Iterative cycles within cycles: HAP & community –Learn how to adapt the software to social dynamics –Document process in revision control of software

Methodology-Quantitative Base approach on ITU measures –P.800, P.920 objective/subjective –Physical network propagation metrics –Questionnaires measure users’ tolerance of delay Likert scale How much did you like... ? Relate objective to subjective data –QoS metrics –Message exchange dynamics –SoftBridge overhead –Software feature usage

Objective Measures Subjective Measures Sophisticated IT-literate Users Unsophisticated IT-illiterate Users within between Deaf Telephony Rural Telehealth between Data Analysis

Status of Ongoing Activities Deaf Telephony PSTN breakout Cellphones & PDAs Literate user trials on campus with SoftBridge Move user trials to Bastion Centre for the Deaf (2 PCs) Proposal for “Internet literacy” training facility (20 PCs) Rural Telehealth Visited 2 sites: Tsilitwa and Tombo Basic VoIP and webcam over WiFi Workshops to identify clinical applications Proposal to provide VSAT connectivity

Contact Details and Sponsors William D. Tucker (Bill) University of Cape Town South Africa University of the Western Cape