Information Systems Frontiers

, Volume 13, Issue 1, pp 89–100 | Cite as

“Where’s Farah?”: Knowledge silos and information fusion by distributed collaborating teams

  • Stephen C. Hayne
  • Lucy J. Troup
  • Sara A. McComb
Article
First Online:

Abstract

The Cognitively-Based Rapid Assessment Methodology (C-RAM) system manages multiple-user interactions as users work with multiple information sources. Further, it allows users to view, exchange, organize, and combine the information available and it facilitates group decision-making. Three-member teams, randomly assigned in either the (a) view others’ whiteboards or (b) cannot view others’ whiteboards conditions, completed an intelligence analysis and mission planning task. Each team member was given access to a virtual whiteboard populated with decision cards (DCards) containing intelligence information constrained to a specific area of expertise. DCards can be assessed (rated) for decision impact and importance and team members have access to all DCards regardless of experimental condition. Team members who can view their teammates’ whiteboards during collaborative activities achieve significantly higher performance. When compared to teams unable to view others’ whiteboards, they move their own DCards less frequently, add fewer additional DCards to their own whiteboards, and rate others’ DCards less frequently. Additionally, rating one’s own DCards is the only process positively related team performance.

Keywords

Collaboration Knowledge management Shared cognition Decision making 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

This research is partially supported by Dr. Mike Letsky at the Office of Naval Research.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  • Stephen C. Hayne
    • 1
  • Lucy J. Troup
    • 2
  • Sara A. McComb
    • 3
  1. 1.College of BusinessColorado State UniversityFort CollinsUSA
  2. 2.Department of PsychologyColorado State UniversityFort CollinsUSA
  3. 3.Department of Industrial and Systems EngineeringTexas A&M UniversityCollege StationUSA

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