Measuring effects of private and shared displays in small-group knowledge sharing processes

Knowledge sharing is important in every team or organization. Various tools are frequently used in meetings to support knowledge sharing, ranging from pen-and-paper to whiteboards and other shared workspaces. This paper reports on a user study that investigated how private and shared displays affect knowledge sharing processes in co-located meetings. Three setups were compared in a hidden-profile experiment: a distributed system providing a shared display and laptops (Note&Share), a regular whiteboard and pen-and-paper. The results show several advantages of the distributed system. For example, the group was more confident in the solution when using Note&Share. Furthermore the number of shared arguments was significantly closer to the correct number, which suggests that misunderstandings occurred less frequently. Finally some interesting effects were observed, which we claim to be connected to the availability of pen-and-paper in all conditions. Therefore, we discuss the observed effects as well as general lessons learned from this experiment.