Subject: FYI: Electronic calendaring dissertation

From: Jim Whitehead <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 15:44:47 -0800

Hi,

I'd like to let you know about a very recent Ph.D. dissertation on the topic
of electronic calendaring systems, which I suspect many on this list would
find interesting, and perhaps relevant to your calendaring product
development efforts.

The dissertation is:

"Calendars on the New Frontier: Challenges of Groupware Technology"
Leysia Palen <[email-masked]>
Ph.D., Information and Computer Science, U.C. Irvine, 1998
http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~palen/hidden/dissertation.html

Dr. Palen is currently putting the final polish on her work, and hence would
not like to have this URL too widely disseminated until this is done
(probably about another month), but she is fine with having people on this
list read it.

The dissertation examines successful adoption of electronic calendars within
organizations, using techniques from the social sciences to collect her
data -- direct observation, interviews, and questionaires.  In my opinion,
some of her more interesting results are the degree to which the default
settings of the calendar tool affect adoption and use, and the importance of
providing visibility indicators for calendar information which is publically
visible.

Enjoy.

- Jim

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From: Leysia Palen <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 10:17:18 -0700

Hi folks--

I'd be happy to discuss anything in my dissertation that you might find
relevant to your work.  Not everything I have observed could make it into
the document, or was central to my thesis. I'd be happy to share what I
have observed, if you have particular questions that expand beyond what's
covered in the dissertation.

I am constantly working to improve and expand upon this reseach, so
comments are  welcome. Also, I anticipate a time in the near-future where
I'd like to begin investigations of inter-organization calendar
communications, that your good work will allow.

Thanks
Leysia