The 2008 International Symposium on Collaborative Technologies and Systems (CTS 2008)
May 19 - 23, 2008, Irvine, California, USA

KEYNOTE  II

National Culture, Collaboration, & Collaborative Systems

Pamela Hinds
Management Science & Engineering
Stanford University
Stanford, California
USA

ABSTRACT
Increasingly, workers are called upon to collaborate with colleagues distributed around the globe.  As a result, collaborative systems and technologies must reflect an understanding of diverse national cultures as well as the dynamics of intercultural collaboration.   We need to understand how different national groups adopt, use and appropriate collaborative systems.  We also must understand the complex dynamics of collaboration across different national groups, including the challenges of collaborating across different cultures, languages and contexts.  In this talk, I will discuss some of the challenges of conducting research on culture and collaboration, share preliminary research in this space, and discuss opportunities for advancing this field of inquiry.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY
Pamela J. Hinds is an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Center on Work, Technology, & Organization in the Department of Management Science & Engineering, Stanford University.  She studies the effect of technology on groups.  Prof. Hinds has conducted extensive research on the dynamics of geographically distributed work teams, particularly those spanning national boundaries.  She explores issues of culture, language, shared identity, conflict, and the role of face-to-face meetings in promoting knowledge sharing and collaboration.  Prof. Hinds also conducts research on professional service robots in the work environment, examining how people make sense of them, how they affect work practices, and how these responses differ across national boundaries.

She is co-editor with Sara Kiesler of the book Distributed Work (MIT Press).  Her research has appeared in journals such as Organization Science, Research in Organizational Behavior, Human-Computer Interaction, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.  She is a regular contributor to and holds leadership positions in the Academy of Management, the Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, the Conference on Human Robot Interaction, and the International Workshop on Intercultural Collaboration.  Prof. Hinds is on the editorial boards of Organization Science and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.  She holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Science and Management from Carnegie Mellon University.