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Google, communication, conversation, idle thoughts, wave | Permalink
Google, communication, conversation, idle thoughts, wave | Permalink Google Wave and Turn-Taking
Monday, November 30, 2009 at 3:16PM Google Wave has been touted as "equal parts conversation and document." And while it certainly shows promise as a collaborative tool, I and others have been struggling with the conversational element of wave. If you have tried to 'talk' to someone on a wave, with its character-by-character updating and ability to edit others' comments, you soon realize that actual conversation is difficult. At first, I thought it was because of my unfamilarity with the platform and the amount of information coming in, especially if there were multiple people working simultaneously on the wave.
Then it occurred that the problem may be one of turn-taking. Turn-taking refers to conversational gambits that indicate to co-participants that one contribution has ended and the next may start. These may be explicit ("So, what do you think?"), related to volume (ceasing talk), or tied to body language (physically shifting to indicate a shift to the next participant). Using google wave, structured as it is, it is difficult to find and react to these markers of turn-taking. Rather than a conversation, a wave becomes confusing as people stop and start, struggling to find a consensual rhythm to the conversation in a new virtual environment.
In previous CMC tools such as IRC and chat programs like AIM, turn-taking was somewhat indicated by the 'silence' and 'talk' simulated by the posting of complete messages. Some programs even had status bars noting with the other participant(s) were typing, creating the illusion of a social cue for turn-taking (like volume). But in a busy wave, the ability to see comments as they are being typed doesn't indicate turn-taking so much as talking-over and other similar strategies of communicative dominance.
Like many other tools for communication, the solution to this difficulty in turn-taking may come about socially rather than through changes in technology and software architecture, as participants figure out consensual markers for turn-taking and develop their own mores for polite wave-based conversation.
Reader Comments (3)
Interesting observations. Having only recently gotten on Google Wave (and having not yet actually participated in any waves) I have not had the opportunity to observe how conversations evolve. It does seem like it will require some kinds of adjustment. For example, in traditional chat the research shows that turn-taking as it is understood in spoken interaction doesn't really occur--instead people post turns when they want and use a variety of (generally linguistic) resources to indicate the turn organization. Conversations in chat don't have the same linear, back-and-forth character that spoken conversation do, because in spoken interaction, only one person can talk at a time. In chat, people can self-select whenever they want, and the reception of the turn does not usually occur until after the whole turn has been typed and posted as one unit (this differs in IM where presence awareness is indicated). Another major difference between speech and chat is that reception of chat is simultaneous--I am monitoring your turn as you are taking it, attuned to cues for the end of the turn.
What it seems Google Wave does is take the ability to self-select at a turn from chat and mix that with the simultaneity that usually only belongs to spoken interaction. It may mean that Google Wave conversations will resemble spoken interaction more, with some overlap, until people get the hang of the system.
Fascinating subject for future research, at any rate!
Turn-taking in different environments is interesting - like you say, turn-taking in chat is different to speech (I remember the shock on a colleagues face when I introduced him to chat, and people were using the @name convention to address comments made much earlier in the conversation). The non-linear aspect of chat no doubt also required a cognitive shift in how people engaged with and exchanged signs (both informational and social). This may happen in Wave too, but the anecdata I've heard so far suggests that this time, the effort curve may be too steep -- it is too much to learn for only a middling return on the investment.
Definitely one for the linguists out there, anyway.
He is a good friend that speaks well of us behind our backs. amphwd amphwd - Chaquetas Hombre Belstaff.