These are my slides from the SENSE09 workshop, held in conjunction with the Software Engineering conference at Kaiserslautern.

1. COMMUNICATION
IS THE KEY
Support Durable Knowledge
Sharing in Software
Engineering by Microblogging
Wolfgang Reinhardt, wolle@upb.de,
http://twitter.com/wollepb
03.03.2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009

2. WORKSHOP: #SENSE09
Tuesday, March 3, 2009

3. Background Communication Microblogging
AGENDA
Microblogging in
Demo What‘s next?
SE
Tuesday, March 3, 2009

4. CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND
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5. SOFTWARE ENGINEERING IS...
•a social activity
• knowledge work of individuals in organisations
• production of artefacts by people for people
•a highly communicative process
• dependent on individual and organisational knowledge
• based on information sharing
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6. KNOWLEDGE CHARACTERISTICS
• knowledge is a rational capacity, hold and applied by individuals
• knowledge cannot be transferred, placed or distributed easily
• need to distinguish between tacit and explicit knowledge
knowledge: embodied knowledge of a person
• tacit
knowledge: artefacts using codified symbols can serve
• explicit
as explicit knowledge based on implicit knowledge of the
subject
• knowledge management is somewhat misleading
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7. KNOWLEDGE SHARING
tacit knowledge tacit knowledge
• SECI modell of Tonaka and
Socialisation Externalisation
Takeushi (1995)
explicit knowledge
tacit knowledge
• continuous cycle of
transforming tacit in explicit
knowledge
• sharing information, creating
explicit knowledge
tacit knowledge
artefacts, discussing and
transferring, absorbing of
artefacts
Internalisation Combination
explicit knowledge explicit knowledge
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8. ARTEFACTS IN SE
• artefacts serve as external memories (Keil-Slawik, 1992)
• SE is not a solely technical process of creating artefacts
• people, people, people
Artefacts
• creation of artefacts depends on
cognitive and social aspects
Inf
tion
ere
De
• artefacts generate new knowledge
a
n
gul
si
nce
sig
Software
gn
Re
De
Development
and necessitate reflection of
Project
Creation of
socio-facts Technology
Socio-facts Knowledge
Regulation
Inference
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9. COMMUNICATION IN SE
Tuesday, March 3, 2009

10. COMMUNICATION IS...
• is essential for successful software engineering
• an important factor for co-located and distributed teams
• an activity that is needed to manage dependencies between
actors (Malone and Crowston, 1994)
• affecting coordination as well as control World
activities
Organisation
• taking place in all domains of knowledge
work within a software project Project
Indi-
vidual
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11. FORMAL VS. INFORMAL
COMMUNICATION
• informal communication
• explicit communication via phone, video or audio
conference or other verbal conversations
• formal communication
• explicit communication via documents, reports, status
meetings, e-mail or source code
• need for informal communication if developers are to carry
out their tasks adequately (Seaman, 1996)
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12. AD HOC COMMUNICATION
• spontaneous interruption of team-mate with question or
unsolicited information
• most often analogue, verbal communication
• can take up to 41% of the developers time (Robillard and
Robillard, 2000)
• bolsters information sharing and indivdual learning
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13. COMMUNICATION AND
KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION
tacit knowledge tacit knowledge
Socialisation Externalisation
explicit knowledge
tacit knowledge
• written artefacts (source code, documents, wiki
pages ...) are important sources for individual
knowledge acqusition
explicit knowledge
tacit knowledge
• spoken communications are very good problem
Internalisation Combination
explicit knowledge explicit knowledge
solvers in intra- and inter-project settings
• information is fleeting
• need to be externalised to serve as artefact in other
settings, projects or by other people
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14. WHAT IS MICROBLOGGING?
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15. WHAT IS MICROBLOGGING?
• Templeton (2008):
• „small scale form of blogging, generally made up of short,
succinct messages, used by consumers and businesses to share
news, post status updates and carry on conversations“
• micro-messages can be sent exclusively to specific contact or
made public
• Twitter is the most well-known service for microblogging
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16. TWITTER IN REALITY
icon username user infos
latest friends
message
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17. TAGGING MESSAGES
• tagging messages via the # symbol
• proves useful when sharing information in groups or
contributing to specific topic, event or project
• simple way of aggregating multiple messages via search
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18. ADVANTAGES OF
MICROBLOGGING
• fast exchange of thoughts, ideas and information sharing
(Ebner and Schiefner, 2008)
• persistent storage of all messages sent
• powerful component in personal networking activity
• relevant part in one‘s informal learning
• Open Source Frameworks available
• easy to integrate in own applications via API
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19. MICROBLOGGING IN SE
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20. WHY NOT USE INSTANT
MESSAGING?
• many SE teams use IM for exchange of thoughts, information
or shouts for help
• messages are fleeting
• not usable in a downstream information search
• need for tool switching
• no RSS or simple API
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21. Tuesday, March 3, 2009

22. ADDED VALUE OF THE
APPROACH ?
• virtual ad hoc communication where it takes place
• liberation from writing formal mails to inform team about stuff
• integration into the IDE
• communication where knowledge work takes place
• easy integration into own applications
• persistent storage of all messages
• easy use for downstream searches and aggregations
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23. ADDED VALUE OF THE
APPROACH ?
World
Organisation
• intra- AND inter-project Class Main
ready
exchange of ideas Project B
• get help from members outside Project A
Take a
How does
look at
it work?
Project A
own project Need
I come
some help
around
here!
Project D
Project C
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24. SO NO MORE SPOKEN WORDS?
• NO
• Face-to-Face is the optimal communication method
• facilitate the anyway happening virtual communication with a
durable channel
• provide a flexible communication channel usable for many
purposes
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25. DEMO
a short one
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26. WHAT‘S NEXT?
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27. WHAT‘S NEXT?
• Usage of the presented prototype in classes next summer
• Ethnografic study (acceptance, usage, enhancements)
• integration of microblogging as essential part of social software
engineering platform
• maybe enhancement of Trac, maybe own development
• analysis of communication networks and emerging patterns
• SNA like seen in Talk of Tommi Kramer at SENSE09
• Artefact Network Analysis 27
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28. LAST PAGE
• THIS IS JUST THE DESCRIPTION OF AN IDEA
• FROM THE REVIEWS
• provide evidence that the approach works
• later ;)
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29. Wolfgang Reinhardt
http://twitter.com/wollepb
THANK YOU
Tuesday, March 3, 2009

30. USED GRAPHICS
Hand with key: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1066202
•
Hand with business card: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/627728
•
Bag icon: http://www.iconspedia.com/pack/email-me-1786/
•
Mail icon: http://vande-mataram.deviantart.com/art/Windows-Outlook-akkasone-82408022
•
Twitter icon: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/09/23/practika-a-free-icon-set/
•
Demo icon: http://www.everaldo.com/crystal/
•
Calendar icon: http://wilsoninc.deviantart.com/art/Green-and-blue-104029981
•
Microblogging icon: http://www.afmnet.ca/research/researcher.html?pid=297
•
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