This conceptual paper suggests how Politeness Theory [6] – well known in anthropological and linguistic literatures – can contribute to the study of role relations in computer-mediated communication. Politeness, phrasing things so as to show respect and esteem for the face of others, occurs throughout social interchange. The paper reviews politeness theory and enumerates specific linguistic ind...

The focus of education has shifted towards working actively, constructively and collaboratively, as this is believed to enhance learning. The studies discussed here deals with the influence of different CMC (Computer Mediated Communication) tools on argumentation processes during collaboration. The purpose of our research is to investigate the effect of computer supported environments and its t...

Synchronous communication techniques allow participants to contribute from different locations at the same time. The tools available include chat, desktop videoconferencing (DVC) and GroupWare. Although these online techniques are probably the most similar to face-to-face teaching, it cannot be assumed that traditional teaching skills will necessarily transfer successfully or easily. This paper...

The integration of communication protocols into transport systems is a much adored research area today. Much of seminal work has been reported on the topic of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) in the recent years. Many advanced techniques have been garnered to improve online communication and to promote the security, comfort, and efficiency of ITS. Of primary importance to the effective ...

This paper investigates the impact of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) in distributed teams on real or perceived Information Overload (IO). Typically, these organizations rely on CMC for communication because teams working on joint projects are spatially dispersed and have to communicate across space and time zones. Many of the problems observed in virtual teams seem to be related to commu...

A mentoring relationship is one in which an experienced person or mentor supports a less experienced person or mentee. E-mentoring is an alternative to traditional face-to-face mentoring incorporating the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC). Currently, e-mentoring is not commonly practiced by New Zealand midwives; however there is some interest in its potential especially as it may ove...

SkypeTM has become a prominent and successful example of a new genre of computer-mediated communication environments called Real Time Communication (RTC). A limited set of integrated features enable instantaneous text, voice and video communication across the globe for free. However, an analysis of the features or affordances of the technology does not reveal the wealth and creativity of forms ...

This article discusses how groups of student teachers use the wiki to collaborate cross-institutionally in order to design tasks for English language learners. Participants in this case study involved student teachers at a private graduate institution on the East Coast in the U.S. and students at a public graduate institution in Luxembourg. In this action research approach, data triangulation i...

This paper concerns potential impacts that characteristics of communication media in computer-mediated problem solving in groups have on group-members’ innovative thinking. Different processes involved in effective idea generation and problem solving are presented, and we discuss how three characteristics of communication media relevant for group collaboration aiming at producing innovative ide...

Social media is an area where users often experience censorship through a variety of means such as the restriction of search terms or active and retroactive deletion of messages. In this paper we examine the feasibility of automatically detecting censorship of microblogs. We use a network growing model to simulate discussion over a microblog follow network and compare two censorship strategies ...