Abstract.A study of email responsiveness was conducted to understand how the timing of email responses conveys important information. Interviews and observations explored users' perceptions of how they responded to email and formed expectations of others' responses to them. We identified ways in which users maintain and cultivate a responsiveness image for projecting expectations about their email response. We also discuss other contextual cues people use to discover email responsiveness, which include using other tools such as the calendar and phone, accounting for the amount of work time overlap available, and establishing a pacing between email correspondents. These cues help users develop a sense of when to expect a response and when breakdown has occurred, requiring further action.
People use their awareness of others' temporal patterns to plan work activities and communication. This paper presents algorithms for programatically detecting and modeling temporal patterns from a record of online presence data. We describe analytic and end-user visualizations of rhythmic patterns and the tradeoffs between them. We conducted a design study that explored the accuracy of the derived rhythm models compared to user perceptions, user preference among the visualization alternatives, and users' privacy preferences. We also present a prototype application based on the rhythm model that detects when a person is "away" for an extended period and predicts their return. We discuss the implications of this technology on the design of computer-mediated communication.
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