Collaborative Decision Making

We have been working toward understanding the role of different shared media (e.g., text, drawing, audio, video) relative to different modes of interaction (e.g., collocated/distributed, synchronous/asynchronous) toward achieving different types of goals (e.g., decision-making, problem solving, negotiation, coordination). Data on the effects of different technologies on collaborative scientific discovery will be collected during surface operation on Mars from early to mid 2004.

This work will feed forward into the design of next-generation mission ground-systems tools as well as into our investigation of Anomaly Resolution processes. Our team worked with nine individuals who supported the use of the Investigation Organizer tool during the Columbia Accident Investigation Board‚s (CAIB) work. Through a set of structured interviews, the role of the tool in the investigation process was characterized and fed back into the continuing design and development effort. This effort will continue in the form of an analysis of anomaly resolution reports across NASA and outside NASA, in-depth interviews with individuals who have been involved in successful and unsuccessful anomaly resolution processes, and in-situ anomaly resolution observation toward the goal of establishing process models for anomaly resolution and requirements for tools that support those processes.