Allison Lacker
CS 498 KK
Critiques:
Visualizing Conversation,
Medium Effects: Turn-Taking and Back Channels
Managing the Virtual Commons: Cooperation and Conflict in Computer Communities
In Visualizing Conversation by Donath, Karahalios, and Viegas the authors describe different
ways to explore the interactions between participants in a text-based environment. I found Chat Circles
to be a good way to show the different groups and conversation threads that can occur in one message
board or chat room. It removes the confusion of many different topics running concurrently. Also, the
circles changing in size allows a sense of time to be imbued to a more persistent form of conversation. I
found the analysis of a reason for vacuous conversations to be interesting, although it is stated more as
fact then supposition. “Chat systems are often criticized for the inanity of the conversations, one cause
of which is this need to maintain presence by constant speech, even when one has nothing to say (pg
2).” I also feel that this issue of creating presence would still apply in an environment where people
who are not speaking are displayed smaller than those who are currently talking. As a user however, it
would be very beneficial to be able to see the “pulse” of the conversation, and to be able to visualize
circles of conversation. I feel that a way of differentiating between users other than color would be
more beneficial for multiple reasons. As stated, color affects the perceived emotions of the person
talking, and there are not enough colors for each user to have a uniquely identifiable color. This is
especially the case where people are unlikely to choose colors that they do not like, such as brown or
puce. Common colors can lead to confusion between people. Unique names are the usual method of
identification. In Chat Circles, this is maintained, however the names are displayed in a small size. This
could make it hard to find a specific person you want to talk to, if you are not in the same conversation
circle as they are. I like the visualization of the textual history in Chat Circles, however I find the
mapping between the actual conversations and the line diagrams of the history confusing. The lines
relate better to a traditional linear conversation, rather than a conversation between potentially many
