John C. Tang

I work in the USER group in the Computer Science division of IBM Research at the Almaden Research Center. My research interests are focused on understanding the needs of users to shape the design of technology to support collaboration. I apply a mix of qualitative (video-based observation, interviews, surveys to collect user perceptions) and quantitative (usage logs) methods to understand how people currently use technology and to design new technology to improve their work. I have a special interest in interfaces for distributed groups to enable sharing awareness information and social networking to encourage coordinating contact. The Recent Shortcuts project demonstrates how an empirical study led to the design of a working prototype to support group work around shared activities.

Selected Publications

• Recent Shortcuts: Using Recent Interactions to Support Shared Activities
  John C. Tang, James Lin, Jeffrey S. Pierce, Steve Whittaker, and Clemens Drews, Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI) 2007, San Jose, CA, May 2007, pp. 1263-1272. ACM Digital Library
• Exploring Patterns of Social Commonality Among File Directories at Work
  John C. Tang, Clemens Drews, Mark Smith, Fei Wu, Alison Sue, and Tessa Lau,Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI) 2007, San Jose, CA, May 2007, pp. 951-960. ACM Digital Library
• Approaching and Leave-Taking: Negotiating Contact in Computer-Mediated Communication
  John C. Tang, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, Vol. 14, No. 1, May 2007, Article 5. ACM Digital Library
• Unobtrusive But Invasive: Using Screen Recording to Collect Field Data on Computer-Mediated Interaction
  John C. Tang, Sophia B. Liu, Michael Muller, James Lin, and Clemens Drews, Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) 2006, Banff, Canada, November 2006, pp. 479-482. ACM Digital Library
• Beyond Instant Messaging
  John C. Tang and James "Bo" Begole, ACM Queue, Vol. 1, No. 8, November 2003, pp. 28-37.ACM Queue online
• When Can I Expect an Email Response? A Study of Rhythms in Email Usage
  Joshua R. Tyler and John C. Tang, Proceedings of the Eighth European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW) 2003, Helsinki, September 2003, pp. 239-258. ECSCW online (PDF)
• Work Rhythms: Analyzing Visualizations of Awareness Histories of Distributed Groups
  James "Bo" Begole, John Tang, Randall Smith, and Nicole Yankelovich, Proceedings of the 2002 ACM conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work(CSCW 2002), New Orleans, LA, USA, Nov 16-20, 2002, ACM Press, NY, pp. 334-343. ACM Digital Library
• Exploring web browser history comparisons
  Mark Bilezikjian, John C. Tang, James Bo Begole, Nicole Yankelovich, CHI '02 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, Minneapolis, April 2002, pp. 828-829. ACM Digital Library
• ConNexus to Awarenex: Extending awareness to mobile users
  John Tang, Nicole Yankelovich, James "Bo" Begole, Max Van Kleek, Francis Li, and Janak Bhalodia, Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) 2001, April 2001, Seattle, WA, ACM Press, NY, pp. 221-228. ACM Digital Library
• Piazza: A Desktop Environment Supporting Impromptu and Planned Interactions
  Ellen A. Isaacs, John C. Tang, and Trevor Morris, Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) `96, Boston, November 1996, pp. 315-324. ACM Digital Library

  Video-based communication: Montage and desktop video conferencing

  • Supporting Distributed Groups with a Montage of Lightweight Interactions
    John C. Tang, Ellen A. Isaacs, and Monica Rua, Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) `94, Chapel Hill, NC, October 1994, pp. 23-34. ACM Digital Library
  • Montage: Providing Teleproximity for Distributed Groups
    John C. Tang and Monica Rua, Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI) `94, Boston, MA, April 1994, pp. 37-43. ACM Digital Library
  • Why Do Users Like Video? Studies of Multimedia-Supported Collaboration
    John C. Tang and Ellen A. Isaacs, Computer Supported Cooperative Work: An International Journal, Vol. 1, Issue 3, 1993, pp. 163-196. SpringerLink
  • What Video Can and Cannot Do for Collaboration: A Case Study
    Ellen A. Isaacs and John C. Tang, Multimedia Systems Vol.2, 1994, pp. 63-73. SpringerLink Previously published as "What Video Can and Can't Do for Collaboration: A Case Study", Proceedings ACM Multimedia `93, August 1993, Anaheim, CA, pp. 199-206. ACM Digital Library

  Shared Drawing Prototypes and Studies

  • VideoDraw: A Video Interface for Collaborative Drawing
    John C. Tang and Scott L. Minneman, ACM Transactions on Information Systems, Vol. 9, No. 2, April 1991, pp. 170-184. ACM Digital Library,
  • VideoWhiteboard: Video Shadows to Support Remote Collaboration
    John C. Tang and Scott L. Minneman, Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI) `91, New Orleans, LA, April/May 1991, pp. 315-322. ACM Digital Library
  • VideoDraw: A Video Interface for Collaborative Drawing
    John C. Tang and Scott L. Minneman, Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI) `90, Seattle, WA, April 1990, pp. 313-320. ACM Digital Library
  • Findings from Observational Studies of Collaborative Work
    John C. Tang, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, Vol. 34, No. 2, February 1991, pp. 143-160. Reprinted: Computer-supported Cooperative Work and Groupware, Saul Greenberg (Ed.), London: Academic Press, 1991, pp. 11-28.

  Background

  I joined IBM Research in 2004. Prior to IBM, I was at Sun Microsystems, Inc. for 13 years, and worked in a variety of groups there. I started in the COCO group (which stood variously for Conferencing and Collaboration or Collaborative Computing). When the COCO group was part of Sun Labs, I studied and helped design a desktop video conferencing prototype, which informed the design of the SunSolutions product ShowMe^TM Whiteboard^TM. ShowMe Whiteboard isn't available any more, but much of the functionality can be found in the current SunForum^TM product. After the COCO group moved into SunSoft, I worked on the Montage project, which provided a novel interface to desktop audio-video glances, and integrated computer-mediated communication tools into one interface. The design of Montage was informed by our experience using the desktop video conferencing prototype, and once we designed and built Montage, we deployed and studied how it was used in a distributed team at Sun. Then, the group worked on the Piazza project, which didn't get fully implemented before we got re-organized into JavaSoft.

  At JavaSoft, I worked on the HotJava^TM Views product--Java^TM-based clients for e-mail, calendar, address book, and web browsing. My main interest was collecting end user and customer requirements to shape the design of future versions of Views. I also worked on a web-based interface for the administration package of Views.

  In 1998, I returned to Sun Labs on the Network Communities project, working with Nicole Yankelovich and Bo Begole. We're interested in applying technology to support distributed work groups. One project we worked on, SharedShell, recently became integrated into a Sun Services product.

  Before joining Sun, I worked at Xerox PARC on a variety of tools to support shared drawing activity (VideoDraw, VideoWhiteboard, VideoCom, Liveboard). In 1998, I was also a guest researcher at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), working on the Manufacturing Collaboratory project. I'm active in the research community, and have contributed papers and served on ACM conference committees for CHI and CSCW. I received my B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in the Design Division of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Stanford University.

  For more details, my CV is available.

  Personal Interests

  I enjoy playing the piano and acoustic guitar. I also enjoy playing ultimate frisbee, and participate in a weekly informal game for those in the Palo Alto area.

  Contact Information

  john.tang "at" us.ibm.com (408)927-3551

  IBM Research 650 Harry Road, NWE-B2 San Jose, CA 95120 USA

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  Last updated 28 Jan 2008