Rich Collaboration on the Move: Talk to Your Mobile Audio Wiki

Wikis are proven to be simple yet efficient tools for asynchronous collaboration where multiple users can collaboratively edit shared web documents. While desktop users are comfortable with text-based wikis, the latest developments of 3G networks and smart phones begs the question what is the appropriate model for wiki collaboration on mobile devices which can accommodate mobile user behavior? The properties of mobile collaborative work practices and mobile computing technical constraints require a different model for interacting with wikis. In this paper, we introduced a new wiki model which utilizes speech, rather than text, as the medium for collaboration. Thus users listen or talk to contribute to a shared, marked up audio clip, with their existing mobile devices. An evaluation of system usability and user acceptance of such speech-based wiki-style collaboration has been conducted. The evaluation identified that our approach does indeed help mobile users to effectively participate in collaborative tasks.