A System for Interleaving Discussion and Summarization in Online Collaboration
Sunny Tian, Amy X. Zhang, David Karger

TL;DR
This paper introduces Wikum+, a tool that interleaves discussion and summarization to improve online collaboration, making final documents more connected, inclusive, and adaptable through iterative, integrated processes.
Contribution
It presents a novel interleaved discussion and summarization process implemented in Wikum+ that enhances organization and inclusiveness in collaborative document creation.
Findings
Wikum+ improves organization and coordination in small group collaboration.
Wikum+ increases inclusiveness and comprehensiveness in larger groups.
Users find Wikum+ facilitates iterative and adaptive collaboration.
Abstract
In many instances of online collaboration, ideation and deliberation about what to write happen separately from the synthesis of the deliberation into a cohesive document. However, this may result in a final document that has little connection to the discussion that came before. In this work, we present interleaved discussion and summarization, a process where discussion and summarization are woven together in a single space, and collaborators can switch back and forth between discussing ideas and summarizing discussion until it results in a final document that incorporates and references all discussion points. We implement this process into a tool called Wikum+ that allows groups working together on a project to create living summaries-artifacts that can grow as new collaborators, ideas, and feedback arise and shrink as collaborators come to consensus. We conducted studies where groups…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
