A study was conducted to determine the preferences for the design of distributed meeting rooms used for video enhanced electronic meeting systems (VEMS). Although there is a significant body of literature in the group communication domain, the research in this multidisciplinary area has paid minimal attention to users' environmental preferences in the design of a meeting space. A basic science approach through three studies was used to explore the variables that defined the design of a distributed meeting space from the user's perspective. Twenty-five inexperienced college-enrolled participants and twenty-five experienced Naval professionals used foam-core pieces to create a design of their ideal distributed meeting space. Thirty-seven variables were used to categorize qualitative attributes of the designs. Three types of designs emerged from the sample population: v-shaped, conference (u-shaped or oval), and theater (auditorium) style. A nonexperimental design was used to measure the impact of the heuristics on the users' physical design of their distributed meeting spaces. Post-meeting evaluation results were promising and indicated that the heuristics were usable and that participating in the design could have a positive impact on user's subjective rating of their meeting experience. Overall, inexperienced users did not believe that the heuristics were necessary to determine the best room design for their team's needs. In the third study, six experts conducted an expert evaluation of a distributed meeting room site. Most experts were not able to identify context-specific design issues such as camera angle and lighting with the static information that they were provided. The experts subjective ratings indicated that the heuristics were usable and were useful for room designers. The overall findings indicated that experience level had a significant impact on user's perception of important equipment in a distributed meeting room. Naïve users were more concerned with visual communication and assigned more importance to public displays (p=.035). Experienced users were more concerned with audio communication and assigned more importance to microphone control (p=.024). In addition, general findings from this research include a new methodology for generating participatory ergonomic tools. / Ph. D.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many companies have been forced to make their employees work from home, fully distributed. One of the work aspects affected by this change is meetings. The purpose of this study is to investigate what effects the fully distributed context have on meetings, meeting participants, and meeting leaders. To achieve this purpose, a qualitative single-case study was conducted. The empirical data were gathered from 15 interviews with employees at a large information and communications technology company in Linköping, Sweden. The theoretical framework including the fully distributed context, leadership, motivation, and attitudes, behaviors, and norms is the foundation for the analytical model used to analyze the empirical data. For meetings, it was found that the number of meetings has increased, meetings without fixed end times get longer, meetings need clear agendas and structures, and that meetings are booked in a tighter sequence without room for breaks. Using cameras during meetings increases participation but not if there are many meeting participants or when someone starts sharing their screen. It was found that inter-office meetings work better in the fully distributed context. Discussions are fewer and less lively in fully distributed meetings, but virtual fika1 is a kind of informal meeting that can help employees feel more connected and maintain interpersonal relations. For meeting participants, it was found that the fully distributed context has enabled participants to not be seen during meetings, to multitask more, to go on walks during meetings, and to attend more meetings. Fully distributed meetings offer participants more flexibility in meeting attendance but are also more difficult for participants to stay focused during. The perceived social pressure from the surrounding often determines how participants behave in meetings, for example if participants turn on their cameras or not. For meeting leaders, it was found that, contrary to the literature, meeting participants’ behavior affect the motivation of the meeting leader. Meeting participants' multitasking during meetings is considered positive for productivity but makes meeting leaders feel insecure as participants seem to listen less. Cameras can offer supportive feedback as the meeting leader can see the participants reactions, but it only works in smaller meetings. Fully distributed meetings demand more of meeting leaders who need to work harder to structure the meetings, force discussions, aim questions, and keep participants active. The results implicate that meeting leaders should set agendas for and structure meetings, implement breaks between meetings, and start meetings with some informal conversations. Moreover, meeting leaders should turn on their cameras in smaller meetings without screen sharing and aim questions at specific participants instead of posing open questions. At the end of this report, a number of suggestions for future studies on the topic of fully distributed meetings are proposed. 1Fika is Swedish for taking a break and sharing a cup of coffee or tea with friends or colleagues possibly, but not necessarily, with a little something to eat.

A literatura apresenta muitos sistemas que foram desenvolvidos a fim de automatizar o processo de geração de hiperdocumentos multimídia a partir de experiências ao vivo; ambientes educacionais e de reunião são os domínios de aplicação mais comuns. Conforme reportados, os sistemas não contemplam características importantes relativas à evolução de hiperdocumentos Web, tais como a possibilidade de atualizações constantes de conteúdo e de layout, e a independência de plataforma. Este trabalho visa a implementação do sistema eMeet/SERVE, que realiza a geração automática de hiperdocumentos multimídia a partir de informações capturadas em ambientes de reuniões distribuídas na Web. O eMeet/SERVE foi implementado com a utilização da arquitetura LAIAc – proposta neste trabalho – habilitada a suportar a evolução dos hiperdocumentos gerados. As interfaces dos hiperdocumentos gerados pelo eMeet/SERVE foram desenvolvidas a partir de padrões e regras propostas na literatura. Além disso, um mecanismo de sincronização foi implementado nos hiperdocumentos a fim de permitir uma reprodução adequada dos elementos multimídia. A arquitetura LAIAc pode ser utilizada por outros sistemas associados à geração automática de hiperdocumentos. Com a realização deste trabalho, o eMeet/SERVE está preparado para integração com outros serviços implementados no contexto do projeto maior em que se insere, o Projeto InCA-SERVE, visando a evolução contínua dos hiperdocumentos gerados automaticamente. / The literature discusses many software systems developed to automate the process of generating multimedia hyperdocuments from live experiences; educational and meeting environments are the most common application domains. As reported, those systems do not present features considered important towards the evolution of hyperdocuments associated to live experiences, such as support to constant updates of contents or changes in layout as well as independence of platform. The work reported in this document aims at developing the eMeet/SERVE application, a system that allows the automatic generation of multimedia hyperdocuments by means of captured information from distributed meetings environments on the Web. The eMeet/SERVE system is implemented on top of the LAIAc architecture – also proposed in this work – an architecture enabled to support the evolution of the hyperdocuments. The presentation interfaces of the hyperdocuments have been developed according to state of the art heuristics and guidelines. Moreover, a synchronization mechanism has been embedded in the hyperdocuments to allow the appropriate playback of multimedia objects. The LAIAc architecture itself can be used by other applications associated to the automatic generation of hyperdocuments. The eMeet/SERVE is part of the InCA-SERVE Project and, as implemented, it is ready to be integrated with other services implemented in the context of that project; the overall goal is the support to the evolution of the hyperdocuments generated automatically.

A literatura apresenta muitos sistemas que foram desenvolvidos a fim de automatizar o processo de geração de hiperdocumentos multimídia a partir de experiências ao vivo; ambientes educacionais e de reunião são os domínios de aplicação mais comuns. Conforme reportados, os sistemas não contemplam características importantes relativas à evolução de hiperdocumentos Web, tais como a possibilidade de atualizações constantes de conteúdo e de layout, e a independência de plataforma. Este trabalho visa a implementação do sistema eMeet/SERVE, que realiza a geração automática de hiperdocumentos multimídia a partir de informações capturadas em ambientes de reuniões distribuídas na Web. O eMeet/SERVE foi implementado com a utilização da arquitetura LAIAc – proposta neste trabalho – habilitada a suportar a evolução dos hiperdocumentos gerados. As interfaces dos hiperdocumentos gerados pelo eMeet/SERVE foram desenvolvidas a partir de padrões e regras propostas na literatura. Além disso, um mecanismo de sincronização foi implementado nos hiperdocumentos a fim de permitir uma reprodução adequada dos elementos multimídia. A arquitetura LAIAc pode ser utilizada por outros sistemas associados à geração automática de hiperdocumentos. Com a realização deste trabalho, o eMeet/SERVE está preparado para integração com outros serviços implementados no contexto do projeto maior em que se insere, o Projeto InCA-SERVE, visando a evolução contínua dos hiperdocumentos gerados automaticamente. / The literature discusses many software systems developed to automate the process of generating multimedia hyperdocuments from live experiences; educational and meeting environments are the most common application domains. As reported, those systems do not present features considered important towards the evolution of hyperdocuments associated to live experiences, such as support to constant updates of contents or changes in layout as well as independence of platform. The work reported in this document aims at developing the eMeet/SERVE application, a system that allows the automatic generation of multimedia hyperdocuments by means of captured information from distributed meetings environments on the Web. The eMeet/SERVE system is implemented on top of the LAIAc architecture – also proposed in this work – an architecture enabled to support the evolution of the hyperdocuments. The presentation interfaces of the hyperdocuments have been developed according to state of the art heuristics and guidelines. Moreover, a synchronization mechanism has been embedded in the hyperdocuments to allow the appropriate playback of multimedia objects. The LAIAc architecture itself can be used by other applications associated to the automatic generation of hyperdocuments. The eMeet/SERVE is part of the InCA-SERVE Project and, as implemented, it is ready to be integrated with other services implemented in the context of that project; the overall goal is the support to the evolution of the hyperdocuments generated automatically.