Collaborative information seeking: From 'What?' and 'Why?' to 'How?' and 'So What?'

Abstract

Working in collaboration is one of the fundamental behaviors of human kind.We do so for various reasons - solving complex problems, learning a skill, and even for simply propagating social connections. It is this behavior that has not only made many of the human achievements possible, but the very survival of the human race feasible. Given that many problems in today's world require dealing with information, it is no surprise that we find the need to collaborate on complex problems that involve seeking, using, and evaluating information. What are these complex problems? They range from travel planning and health-related information seeking to patent search and preparing legal cases. This chapter describes an interview study done on a small sample to elicit why would anyone collaborate for information seeking, what support they will need, and what does one can gain through collaborative information seeking (CIS). It then attempts to explain this CIS behavior using Shah's C5 model of collaboration. Finally, the chapter asks and at least partially addresses so what and now what questions. In doing so, the current chapter lays out the groundwork, helping the reader put other chapters in this book in perspective.