Session 9 Workshop

PART A

PART B :

After group discussion ,we considered the aspect “Objective”is the most important one . The reason is that the other aspects such as “Subjective”and “Radical ”are based on “Objective ”.

Since for a company , the initial aim is to gain profit .In order to achieve this , making the customersatisfied,reducing the cost and increasing the volume of transactions should be put into the first place .

Evaluation plan

Cost:

Review a selection of expenditure categories to identify potential year-on-year cost benefits. Following their in-depth analysis and detailed report, we implement some of their recommendations by fine-tuning our purchasing practices in those areas that are already delivering significant cost savings.

Costomer :

Knowing what your customers think. By examini ng your customer base using focus groups, consumer surveys and internet on-line studies -- finding out exactly what thecustomers think of the products and services;

offering a customized on-line newsletter development service. To keep in contact with customers, then build brand recognition and customer loyalty.

PART C :

The questions to ask the other company :

What your customers think of your product or services.

How loyal your customers are to your brand.

Do you have brand recognition with your customers.

How your product measures up to your competition .

What are the advantages of your products over than other company’s .

Our group insights:

We prefer participative approaches to evaluate.Because this evaluation methord stress the importance of involving different groups of stakeholders in defining, carrying out and assessing the outcomes of evaluation. This can also help to motivate people, to empower them in taking control of the tasks of the evaluation process, and ensure their commitment. Participation is seen as a way of establishing open dialogue with those involved and affected in a situation. Using participative approaches can help identify these issues, and treat them.

Evaluation should provide insights because of the need of information systems to deliver value to organisations by correcting the course of actions in projects .This indeed is setting an agenda influences the purposes of evaluation. But this can cause a risk ,and the risk is that, without a deeper degree of reflection, some inequalities in power could be reinforced and perpetuated some of which might even be contributing to the failure of projects despite an apparent success in the short-term.

Furthermore, the treatment of a wider variety of issues in evaluation could contribute to the delivery of benefits that match and enhance organisational capabilities and constraints.This can be seen as finding or developing ways in which the processes related to the implementation of information systems integrate into the relationsbetween people, and contribute to achieve collective benefits .

Notes for Session 8 (by Red)

Group 1
One side of this group gives some suggestion of making conference more effectively. Firstly, making an attendance list and deciding the speaker in advance is essential. Secondly, during the conference, everyone should concern about the style (accent & speed & professional language) of presenting themselves. Finally, time limitation and time differences both need to be considered before the conference take place.

Group 2
During the conference of this group, the way of using technology flexible has been shown. That is, one side of them use camera to show the slide to people from other side, which is not the original design of the camera; In other words, user make this!
Another point is to consider the inter-meeting which should take place during the conference or not, because the main aim is to interact with the people from other side.

Group 3
The conference between them is very detailed and smooth, because one side of this group introduces the content of discussion at the beginning. Moreover, they are well prepared by listing all the considerations (which they are going to discuss in the conference) in advance. But on the other hand, the conference seems to become a dialogue between two particular people.

Notes for Session 8 (by Asem)

Setting up a video conference

As per our today's discussion about having a conference with the company that we are going to buy next month I would like to share with you the information that I have recorded from that discussion and you can proceed with your ideas and feedbacks.

We have discussed the preparations, content and the closing of that expected meeting and we came up with the following ( By assuming the other side has at least the basics requirements for suitable video conferencing:

Preparation: We have to assure having the following: Room size is suitable, full camera, microphone and speakers coverage, good lighting, either having a screen in front of everyone or having one large screen positioned in a suitable place.

Content: the Agenda will be shared with other side on the email and se if any further topics have to added or removed, and we will send them the required information, reports, links.. etc. A notification of the required equipments and facilities that required from their side to have a good video conference and to run that meeting successfully without any technical failure.

Closing: We expect that we will reach an agreement and at the end of that meeting we will just repeat the points that we agreed on and the points that needs more investigations or approvals and if there is any kind of disagreement, then we will try to find a solution to meet have way. And then we will make another video conference when we feel that we are ready. If we think that the disagreement happened because of the video conference ( Suspicious facial reactions or any kind of an un-understandable reaction) ) then we will try to set another meeting to be on site.

Notes for Session 8 (by Ali)

Notes on video conferencing Date: 19/11/08

First Groups
Started by setting up a video conference between two groups, it began with some expected flaws due to lack of experience in conferencing and using the technology. Eventually one of the parties took lead which helped a lot with moving the conference along. There were still some communication breakdowns due to language barriers or perhaps more importantly speaking out of turn, this occurred mainly because most likely neither group had ever been in a conference before therefore they weren’t aware how it should be organised to ensure a smooth conversation with the other party. This caused each group to speak out of turn, even amongst their own group members, which caused major problems for both groups to get their points across and come to a proper agreement. Finally at the end of the meeting it came to a rushed agreement that most probably left both parties somewhat unsatisfied with the end result of the conference.

Second Groups
Main topic was learning more about the other company. There were some positive points from this group; to start with each group member for both groups introduced themselves stating their names and role in the company, this could be really useful when one party has a technical question for the other party, so they would know who to ask the question from. That was the only real improvement with this group, their main issue came up when one of the group tried to upload a presentation for the group, it was well organised however due to the lack of experience using the technology they weren’t able to successfully upload it. The cameras were focused on the presentation screen which was highly inefficient and waste of the technologies capabilities.

Third Groups
Finally the third group did really well. They learnt a lot from previous meetings and used the information well. To begin with a leader was chosen for each group to take control of the meeting then everyone was properly introduced and the meeting was well on its way. Both were more passive therefore less disagreements which helped them to come to more agreements, which made it a more successful meeting. Very little confusions occurred in terms of which group member turn is it to speak, and all these factors combined allowed for a more fluent conversation and some conclusions were reached. However one of the issues with this meeting was the lack of involvement from the other group members, it was mainly between the two leaders of the groups, and in a conference input from party members is essential to show a level unity.

Session 6 workshop

Part B
Common ground:
In a conversation, the participants may have different backgrounds or bring different knowledge and experiences. During the conversation, they would like to obtain a common ground (which is a shared understanding sufficient for the task in hand) rather than unify their background and knowledge. The process is called ‘grounding’.

Affordance:
A fact of the environment and a fact of behaviour, that allows an individual to perform an action. The term is used in a variety of fields: perceptual psychology, cognitive psychology, environmental psychology, industrial design, human–computer interaction (HCI), interaction design and artificial intelligence.
In 1979, Gibson defined affordances as all "action possibilities" latent in the environment, objectively measurable and independent of the individual's ability to recognize them, but always in relation to the actor and therefore dependent on their capabilities.
In 1988, Donald Norman appropriated the term affordances in the context of human–machine interaction to refer to just those action possibilities which are readily perceivable by an actor. (Wikipedia)

Space:
Environment

Deictic reference:
Use different words from human language to define where, who or when does the information come from. For example, ‘I say something here’, that is from my view; but from others’ views, it should be ‘You say something there’. In addition, there is another situation when someone else describes this to others later. In this case, it should be ‘She/He says something there before’.

Design
1.There should be someone to taking control of the technology (voice, how to open and ending the conversation).
2.Proceed on what we agreed on last meeting.
3.Mention the time consuming.
4.Need their support.

Story 2 Meeting in the cave

Place: A cave in an island

Members: Asem, Ali, Don, Red, Alisha

Purpose: Planning the hunting

Story: It has been almost one week the whole tribe did not find sufficient food, that's why the five most respectful elders gathered today to plan a whole tribe hunting.
They communicate by drawing on the ground with a stick. What they need to solve is as follows:

• Groups
• Strategies
• Tools.

Groups: Divide the tribe into 3 or 4 groups. Every group include men, women, children, old men.

Strategies: Set a specific area.ll the 4 groups come from different directions, driving and scaring the animals into one direction, which leads to a cliff. Then, three ways to get the trophies:

• Catching them with cane-net.
• Shoot them with arrows.
• Put woods, dry grasses in advance, light the fire around the animals to scare and fire sthem.

Tools/ material: cane- nets,arrows, woods, dry grasses.


Similarities:

• Thinking process is the same, no technology involved.
• In the two scenarios, wherever the people are,whenever the things happen, all the smembers need to learn from each other.
• Both of the two groups of people have limitation of lifetime.
• The instinct of surviving. Such as organic food.
• In both scenarios they use body language, emotions.
• The realization of the values of physical presence and attendance: getting together face to face talking, not just making all the communication using a computer.

Differences:

Dressing:
Ancient time: wear leather clothing, no shoes
Modern time: Fibres, computer designed and manufactured clothes

The mediums of communication:
Ancient time: pigeon, shouting, human messengers, riding horses and elephants, smoke signals
Modern time: phone, email, fax, mobile phone, traditional mail, Voice over IP (VoIP)

The time of initiation:
Ancient times: initiate a month ago
Modern times: five or 10 minutes before schedule

Facilities:
Ancient times: fire, stones used as chairs, eating using bare hands
Modern times: chairs, tables, light, forks, spoons etc

Food preparation:
Ancient times: uncooked food or wood fire used to cook
Modern times: electrical devices such as ovens, microwaves, heaters etc

Conveying message:
Ancient times: drawing pictures
Modern times: texting, emailing, voice messaging

hi-tech restaurant

I just found a special restaurant in London
it is a hi-tech restaurant
can you imagine ordering meal in a restaurant without waiter or waitress?
INAMO is such a restaurant that can order meal through a hi-tech table
as the following information
-------------------------------------------------
introduction:
here

video about showing the system:
here

London's hi-tech dining revolution:
here