Thomas W. Malone
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"Tom Malone"
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Publications by Thomas W. Malone (bibliography)
» 2001 «
Olson, Gary M., Malone, Thomas W. and Smith, John B. (eds.) (2001): Coordination Theory and Collaboration Technology. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
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» 1997 «
Malone, Thomas W. (1997): Free on the Range (Interview). In IEEE Internet Computing, 1 (3) pp. 8-20
» 1995 «
Malone, Thomas W., Lai, Kum-Yew and Fry, Christopher (1995): Experiments with Oval: A Radically Tailorable Tool for Cooperative Work. In ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 13 (2) pp. 177-205
“This article describes a series of tests of the generality of a "radically tailorable" tool for cooperative work. Users of this system can create applications by combining and modifying four kinds of building blocks: objects, views, agents, and links. We found that user-level tailoring of these primitives can provide most of the functionality found in well-known cooperative work systems such as gIBIS, Coordinator, Lotus Notes, and Information Lens. These primitives, therefore, appear to provide an elementary "tailoring language" out of which a wide variety of integrated information management and collaboration applications can be constructed by end users.”
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» 1994 «
Smith, John B., Smith, F. Don and Malone, Thomas W. (eds.) Proceedings of the 1994 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work October 22 - 26, 1994, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States.
» 1993 «
Olson, Judith S., Card, Stuart K., Landauer, Thomas K., Olson, Gary M., Malone, Thomas W. and Leggett, John (1993): Computer-Supported Co-Operative Work: Research Issues for the 90s. In Behaviour and Information Technology, 12 (2) pp. 115-129
Malone, Thomas W. and Streitz, Norbert A. (1993): Guest Editorial. In ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 11 (4) p. 319
Malone, Thomas W. (1993): How Will Information Technology Change the Ways We Work Together?. In: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 1993. .
» 1992 «
Malone, Thomas W., Lai, Kum-Yew and Fry, Christopher (1992): Experiments with Oval: A Radically Tailorable Tool for Cooperative Work. In: Mantel, Marilyn and Baecker, Ronald M. (eds.) Proceedings of the 1992 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work November 01 - 04, 1992, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. pp. 289-297. Available online
“This paper describes a series of tests of the generality of a "radically tailorable" tool for cooperative work. Users of this system can create applications by combining and modifying four kinds of building blocks: objects, views, agents, and links. We found that user-level tailoring of these primitives can provide most of the functionality found in well-known cooperative work systems such as gIBIS, Coordinator, Lotus Notes, and Information Lens. These primitives, therefore, appear to provide an elementary "tailoring language" out of which a wide variety of integrated information management and collaboration applications can be constructed by end users.”
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» 1991 «
Lai, Kum-Yew and Malone, Thomas W. (1991): Object Lens: Letting End-Users Create Cooperative Work Applications. In: Robertson, Scott P., Olson, Gary M. and Olson, Judith S. (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 91 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference April 28 - June 5, 1991, New Orleans, Louisiana. pp. 425-426. Available online
Streitz, Norbert A., Halasz, Frank, Ishii, Hiroshi, Malone, Thomas W., Neuwirth, Chris and Olson, Gary M. (1991): The Role of Hypertext for CSCW Applications. In: Walker, Jan (ed.) Proceedings of ACM Hypertext 91 Conference December 15-18, 1991, San Antonio, Texas. pp. 369-377. Available online
» 1990 «
Malone, Thomas W. and Crowston, Kevin (1990): What is Coordination Theory and How Can It Help Design Cooperative Work Systems?. In: Halasz, Frank (ed.) Proceedings of the 1990 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work October 07 - 10, 1990, Los Angeles, California, United States. pp. 357-370.
Lee, Jintae and Malone, Thomas W. (1990): Partially Shared Views: A Scheme for Communicating among Groups that Use Different Type Hierarchies. In ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 8 (1) pp. 1-26
“Many computer systems are based on various types of messages, forms, or other objects. When users of such systems need to communicate with people who use different object types, some kind of translation is necessary. In this paper, we explore the space of general solutions to this translation problem and propose a scheme that synthesizes these solutions. After first illustrating the problem in the Object Lens system, we identify two partly conflicting objectives that any translation scheme should satisfy: preservation of meaning and autonomous evolution of group languages. Then we partition the space of possible solutions to this problem in terms of the set theoretic relations between group languages and a common language. This leads to five primary solution classes and we illustrate and evaluate each one. Finally, we describe a composite scheme, called Partially Shared Views, that combines many of the best features of the other schemes. A key insight of the analysis is that partially shared type hierarchies allow "foreign" object types to be automatically translated into their nearest common "ancestor" types. The partial interoperability attained in this way makes possible flexible standards from which people can benefit from whatever agreements they do have without having to agree on everything. Even though our examples deal primarily with extensions to the Object Lens system, the analysis also suggests how other kinds of systems, such as EDI applications, might exploit specialization hierarchies of object types to simplify the translation problem.”
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Ackerman, Mark S. and Malone, Thomas W. (1990): Answer Garden: A Tool for Growing Organizational Memory. In: Lochovsky, Frederick H. and Allen, Robert (eds.) Proceedings of the Conference on Office Information Systems 1990 April 25-27, 1990, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. pp. 31-39.
“Answer Garden allows organizations to develop databases of commonly asked questions that grow "organically" as new questions arise and are answered. It is designed to help in situations (such as field service organizations and customer "hot lines") where there is a continuing stream of questions, many of which occur over and over, but some of which the organization has never seen before. The system includes a branching network of diagnostic questions that helps users find the answers they want. If the answer is not present, the system automatically sends the question to the appropriate expert, and the answer is returned to the user as well as inserted into branching network. Experts can also modify this network in response to users' problems. Our initial Answer Garden database contains questions and answers about how to use the X Window System.”
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Croft, Bruce, Belkin, Nicholas J., Bikson, Tora, Malone, Thomas W. and Marchionini, Gary (1990): Evaluating Computer-Based Tools in Organizations. In: Lochovsky, Frederick H. and Allen, Robert (eds.) Proceedings of the Conference on Office Information Systems 1990 April 25-27, 1990, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. p. 193.
“Most of the computer systems that are proposed and implemented in the OIS area are very difficult to evaluate, both in terms of the effectiveness of the functions they perform and their impact on organizations. The time and space efficiency of a tool is readily measured, but this may be only a small part of a tool's "performance". Researchers in areas such as CSCW, Information Retrieval, Hypertext, and User Interfaces have been forced to confront the issue of evaluation in order to compare systems and determine when progress has been made. There is, however, still much debate about the correct methodologies for evaluating such complex, interactive systems. System developers are also concerned with measuring the "usability" of their systems and designing systems iteratively based on user feedback. It is not clear whether these approaches compete with, or are complementary to more traditional experimental approaches. The panelists come from a variety of backgrounds and have each had experience evaluating complex systems. By comparing their experiences and the techniques used in their areas, we hope to be able to make some progress on the issue of how systems can be evaluated and compared.”
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» 1989 «
Malone, Thomas W. (1989): Center for Coordination Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In: Bice, Ken and Lewis, Clayton H. (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 89 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference April 30 - June 4, 1989, Austin, Texas. pp. 145-146.
Mackay, Wendy E., Malone, Thomas W., Crowston, Kevin, Rao, Ramana, Rosenblitt, David and Card, Stuart K. (1989): How Do Experienced Information Lens Users Use Rules?. In: Bice, Ken and Lewis, Clayton H. (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 89 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference April 30 - June 4, 1989, Austin, Texas. pp. 211-216.
“The Information Lens provides electronic mail users with the ability to write rules that automatically sort, select, and filter their messages. This paper describes preliminary results from an eighteen-month investigation of the use of this system at a corporate test site. We report the experiences of 13 voluntary users who have each had at least three months experience with the most recent version of the system. We found that: 1. People without significant computer experience are able to create and use rules effectively. 2. Useful rules can be created based on the fields present in all messages (e.g., searching for distribution lists or one's own name in the address fields or for character strings in the subject field), even without any special message templates. 3. People use rules both to prioritize messages before reading them and to sort messages into folders for storage after reading them. 4. People use delete rules primarily to filter out messages from low-priority distribution lists, not to delete personal messages to themselves.”
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» 1988 «
Lai, Kum-Yew and Malone, Thomas W. (1988): Object Lens: A "Spreadsheet" for Cooperative Work. In: Greif, Irene (ed.) Proceedings of the 1988 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work September 26 - 28, 1988, Portland, Oregon, United States. pp. 115-124.
“Object Lens allows unsophisticated computer users to create their own cooperative work applications using a set of simple, but powerful, building blocks. By defining and modifying templates for various semistructured objects, users represent many different kinds of information. By creating semiautonomous agents, users specify rules for automatically processing this information in different situations. The combination of these primitives provides a single consistent interface that integrates facilities for object-oriented databases, hypertext, electronic messaging, and rule-based intelligent agents. To illustrate the power of this combined approach, we describe several simple examples of applications (such as task tracking, intelligent message routing, and database retrieval) that we have developed in this framework.”
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Greif, Irene, Brown, John Seely, Dyson, Esther, Kapor, Mitch and Malone, Thomas W. (1988): Computer-Supported Cooperative Work: Breakthroughs for User Acceptance. In: Soloway, Elliot, Frye, Douglas and Sheppard, Sylvia B. (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 88 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference June 15-19, 1988, Washington, DC, USA. pp. 113-114.
Lai, Kum-Yew, Malone, Thomas W. and Yu, Keh-Chiang (1988): Object Lens: A "Spreadsheet" for Cooperative Work. In ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 6 (4) pp. 332-353
“Object Lens allows unsophisticated computer users to create their own cooperative work applications using a set of simple, but powerful, building blocks. By defining and modifying templates for various semistructured objects, users can represent information about people, tasks, products, messages, and many other kinds of information in a form that can be processed intelligently by both people and their computers. By collecting these objects in customizable folders, users can create their own displays which summarize selected information from the objects in table or tree formats. Finally, by creating semiautonomous agents, users can specify rules for automatically processing this information in different ways at different times. The combination of these primitives provides a single consistent interface that integrates facilities for object-oriented databases, hypertext, electronic messaging, and rule-based intelligent agents. To illustrate the power of this combined approach, we describe several simple examples of applications (such as task tracking, intelligent message routing, and database retrieval that we have developed in this framework.”
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Lee, Jintae and Malone, Thomas W. (1988): How Can Groups Communicate When They Use Different Languages? Translating between Partially Shared Type Hierarchies. In: Allen, Robert (ed.) Proceedings of the Conference on Office Information Systems 1988 March 23-25, 1988, Palo Alto, California, USA. pp. 22-29.
“Many office systems are based on various types of messages, forms, or other documents. When users of such systems need to communicate with people who use different document types, some kind of translation is necessary. In this paper, we explore the space of general solutions to this translation problem and propose several specific solutions to it. After first illustrating the problem in the Information Lens electronic messaging system, we identify two partly conflicting objectives that any translation scheme should satisfy: preservation of meaning and autonomous evolution of group languages. Then we partition the space of possible solutions to this problem in terms of the set theoretic relations between group languages and a common language. This leads to four primary solution classes and we illustrate and evaluate each one. Finally, we describe a composite scheme that combines many of the best features of the other schemes. Even though our examples deal primarily with extensions to the Information Lens system, the analysis also suggests how other kinds of office systems might exploit specialization hierarchies of document types to simplify the translation problem.”
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» 1987 «
Curtis, Bill and Malone, Thomas W. (1987): Introduction to this Special Issue on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. In Human-Computer Interaction, 3 (1) pp. 1-2
Crowston, Kevin, Malone, Thomas W. and Lin, Felix (1987): Cognitive Science and Organizational Design: A Case Study of Computer Conferencing. In Human-Computer Interaction, 3 (1) pp. 59-85
“Many researchers have investigated and speculated about the link between information technology and organizational structure with very mixed results. This article suggests that part of the reason for these mixed results is the coarseness of previous analyses of both technology and structure. It describes a new and much more detailed perspective for investigating this link. Using concepts of object-oriented programming from artificial intelligence, the information processing that occurs in organizations is characterized in terms of the kinds of messages people exchange and the ways they process those messages. The utility of this approach is demonstrated through the analysis of a case in which a reduction in levels of management is coupled with the introduction of a computer conferencing system. The detailed model developed for this case helps explain both macro-level data about the changes in the organizational structure, and micro-level data about individuals' use of the system.”
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Malone, Thomas W., Grant, Kenneth R., Lai, Kum-Yew, Rao, Ramana and Rosenblitt, David (1987): Semistructured Messages Are Surprisingly Useful for Computer-Supported Coordination. In ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 5 (2) pp. 115-131
“This paper argues that using a set of semistructured message templates is surprisingly helpful in designing a variety of computer-based communication and coordination systems. Semistructured messages can help provide automatic aids for (1) composing messages to be sent, (2) selecting, sorting, and prioritizing messages that are received, (3) responding automatically to some messages, and (4) suggesting likely responses to other messages. The use of these capabilities is illustrated in a range of applications including electronic mail, computer conferencing, calendar management, and task tracking. The applications show how ideas from artificial intelligence (such as inheritance and production rules) and ideas from user interface design (such as interactive graphical editors) can be combined in novel ways for dealing with semistructured messages. The final part of the paper discusses how communities can evolve a useful set of message type definitions.”
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Greif, Irene, Curtis, Bill, Krasner, Herb, Malone, Thomas W. and Shneiderman, Ben (1987): Computer--supported cooperative work: Is this REALLY a new field of research?. In: Graphics Interface 87 (CHI+GI 87) April 5-9, 1987, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. pp. 227-228.
Neches, Robert, Brown, John Seely, Malone, Thomas W., Sondheimer, Norman K. and Williams, Mike (1987): Intelligence in interfaces. In: Graphics Interface 87 (CHI+GI 87) April 5-9, 1987, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. pp. 267-269.
Malone, Thomas W., Grant, Kenneth R., Turbak, Franklyn A., Brobst, Stephen A. and Cohen, Michael D. (1987): Intelligent Information-Sharing Systems. In Communications of the ACM, 30 (5) pp. 390-402
Malone, Thomas W., Yates, JoAnne and Benjamin, Robert I. (1987): Electronic Markets and Electronic Hierarchies. In Communications of the ACM, 30 (6) pp. 484-497
» 1986 «
Malone, Thomas W., Grant, Kenneth R. and Turbak, Franklyn A. (1986): The Information Lens: An Intelligent System for Information Sharing in Organizations. In: Mantei, Marilyn and Orbeton, Peter (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 86 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference April 13-17, 1986, Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 1-8.
“This paper describes an intelligent system to help people share and filter information communicated by computer-based messaging systems. The system exploits concepts from artificial intelligence such as frames, production rules, and inheritance networks, but it avoids the unsolved problems of natural language understanding by providing users with a rich set of semi-structured message templates. A consistent set of "direct manipulation" editors simplifies the use of the system by individuals, and an incremental enhancement path simplifies the adoption of the system by groups.”
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Thomas, John C., Brown, John Seely, Buxton, William, Curtis, Bill, Landauer, Thomas K., Malone, Thomas W. and Shneiderman, Ben (1986): Human Computer Interaction in the Year 2000. In: Mantei, Marilyn and Orbeton, Peter (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 86 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference April 13-17, 1986, Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 253-255.
“Much of the work in the field of computer human interaction consists of finding out what is wrong with existing interfaces or which of several existing alternatives is better. Over the next few decades, the possibilities for computer human interaction will explode. This will be due to: 1) continued decrease in the costs of processing and memory, 2) new technologies being invented and existing technologies (e.g., handwriting recognition, speech synthesis) being extended, 3) new applications and 4) new ideas about how people can interact with computers. While changes along these lines are bound to occur, we need not take the view that investigators in human-computer interaction are to be passive observers of some uncontrolled and uncontrollable evolution. Indeed, we can help steer this process by visions of what the future of human computer interaction could and should be like.”
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» 1985 «
Greif, Irene, Brown, John Seely, Cashman, Paul M. and Malone, Thomas W. (1985): Interfaces in Organizations: Supporting Group Work. In: Borman, Lorraine and Curtis, Bill (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 85 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference April 14-18, 1985, San Francisco, California. p. 65.
“Research on human factors in computer systems has emphasized supporting individuals. This panel will discuss new issues that emerge when computer systems support groups of people and whole organizations. Malone (see following paper) will suggest a broadening of the definition of user interfaces to include "organizational interfaces" and will indicate how a theoretical base for such an endeavor might be developed. Then Cashman will describe a "coordinator tool" in use at DEC for tracking the assignment of tasks to people in activities such as software maintenance. Finally, Brown will suggest how computer systems can be designed to radically increase the bandwidth of cooperation in groups by, for example, exploiting linguistic notions of context.”
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Malone, Thomas W. (1985): Designing Organizational Interfaces. In: Borman, Lorraine and Curtis, Bill (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 85 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference April 14-18, 1985, San Francisco, California. pp. 66-71.
“This paper argues that it will become increasingly important to extend our concept of user interfaces for individual users of computers to include organizational interfaces for groups of users. A number of suggestions are given for how to develop a theoretical base for designing such interfaces. For instance, examples are used to illustrate how traditional cognitive points of view can be extended to include information processing by multiple agents in organizations. Examples of design implications from other perspectives such as motivational, economic, and political are also included.”
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» 1983 «
Malone, Thomas W. (1983): How Do People Organize Their Desks? Implications for the Design of Office Information Systems. In ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 1 (1) pp. 99-112
“This paper describes a series of interviews focusing on the way professional and clerical office workers organize the information in their desks and offices. A number of implications for designing "natural" and convenient computer-based information systems are discussed. Two principal claims are made: (1) A very important function of desk organization is to remind the user of things to do, not just to help the user find desired information. Failing to support this function may seriously impair the usefulness of electronic office systems, and explicitly facilitating it may provide an important advantage for automated office systems over their nonautomated predecessors. (2) The cognitive difficulty of categorizing information is an important factor in explaining how people organize their desks. Computer-based systems may help with this difficulty by (a) doing as much automatic classification as possible (e.g., based on access dates), and (b) including untitled "piles" of information arranged by physical location as well as explicitly titled and logically arranged "files." Several other implications for the design of electronic office systems are discussed, and some differences in how people organize their desks are described.”
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» 1982 «
Malone, Thomas W. (1982): Heuristics for Designing Enjoyable User Interface: Lessons from Computer Games. In: Nichols, Jean A. and Schneider, Michael L. (eds.) Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems March 15-17, 1982, Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States. pp. 63-68.
“In this paper, I will discuss two questions: (1) Why are computer games so captivating? and (2) How can the features that make computer games captivating be used to make other user interfaces interesting and enjoyable to use? After briefly summarizing several studies of what makes computer games fun, I will discuss some guidelines for designing enjoyable user interfaces. Even though I will focus primarily on what makes systems enjoyable, I will suggest how some of the same features that make systems enjoyable can also make them easier to learn and to use.”
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Malone, Thomas W. (1982): How Do People Organized Their Desks? Implications for the Design of Office Information Systems. In: Limb, John O. (ed.) Proceedings of the SIGOA Conference on Office Information Systems 1982 June 21-23, 1982, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. pp. 47-49.
“In this paper, I described a series of case studies of how professional and clerical office workers organize the information in their desks and offices. Then I discuss a number of implications of these results for designing natural and convenient office information systems. Two principal claims are made: (1) A very important function of desk organization is to remind the user of things to do, not just to help the user find desired information. Failing to support this function can seriously impair the usefulness of electronic office systems, and explicitly facilitating it can provide an important advantage for automated office systems over their non-automated predecessors. (2) The cognitive difficulty of categorizing information is an important factor in explaining how people organize their desks. Computer-based systems can help with this difficulty by: (a) doing as much automatic classification as possible (e.g., based on access dates), and by (b) including untitled "piles" of information arranged by physical location as well as explicitly titled and logically arranged "files."”
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Mar 20th, 2010
Changes to this page (author)
21 Feb 2010: Enabled abstracts to be shown on Thomas W. Malone's author page.05 Feb 2010: Author was edited (approved by an editor)17 Aug 2009: Author was edited
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28 Apr 2003: Added the author to the bibliography
28 Apr 2003: Added the author to the bibliography
