Masters Theses

Keywords and Phrases

Collaboration in information technology

Abstract

"Collaboration plays an important role in the information seeking and retrieval activities within a team setting. However, there is little explicit support of collaboration in most present-day information retrieval tools. The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of designing features in an information retrieval tool that explicitly supports collaboration. The research was done in two phases. First; I designed and developed a collaborative information seeking and retrieval prototype - MUSE (MultiUser Search Engine). Second, I evaluated the prototype using ten two-member teams to explore how well it supported collaboration during the information seeking and retrieval activities.

Through the evaluation, I found that the collaborative features in MUSE especially the chat function played an important role in enhancing the information seeking and retrieval process for the teams. I also identified unexpected challenges (for instance, trust among the team members) that arose as team members used MUSE during these activities. These challenges were both technical and social in nature.

This research highlights the importance of supporting collaboration during information seeking and retrieval activities. It also starts to identify ways that we can better support these activities through technology"--Abstract, page iii.

Advisor(s)

Reddy, Madhu

Committee Member(s)

Hall, Richard
Agarwal, Sanjeev

Department(s)

Business and Information Technology

Degree Name

M.S. in Information Science and Technology

Publisher

University of Missouri--Rolla

Publication Date

Summer 2005

Pagination

ix, 66 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 63-65)

Rights

© 2005 Rashmi Krishnappa, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Thesis - Restricted Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Subject Headings

Information retrievalInformation resources management -- EvaluationCommunication in information science

Thesis Number

T 8746

Print OCLC #

62859848

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