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We reviewed 22 papers to identify the most prominently studied factors related to information use in group decision making processes and explore the research gaps in this topic. We identified eight main factors of information use in the process: sense of group identity and group diversity, group heterogeneity or homogeneity, task perception, and personality/individual viewpoints; and access to information, argument analysis, communication medium, and decision rule. Our literature review suggested several research directions: investigations of the members' motivations in sharing information; studies that use mixed research methods to examine a topic; and exploration of various information sharing and use modes besides verbal and written information channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short paper examines social interaction (e.g. asking colleagues for help in the lunchroom) as an informative experience, a way to understand oneself and situation. The process of coming to an understanding is frequently hidden, but may be brought to light by examining the experiences of individuals undergoing a transition – a change that requires them to redefine their sense of self and situation. Using exemplars from previous research and drawing on Lave and Wenger's (1991) theory of situated learning, this paper explores the importance of social interaction to information practices. The role of social interaction will be discussed, including: information seeking to become part of a community, and social interaction as a source of information and as a site for information comparison (a type of information use) to situate oneself in a new environment. The paper proposes making social interaction a focus of study to better understand how individuals use information to change perception about and situate themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper theorizes on the sociotechnical dynamics and underlying dimensions of technology assemblages that emerge from the use of social technologies in organizations. This theorization reflects more precisely the information ecology around knowledge workers, which is more technologically diversified than suggested by prior studies. To that end, this work differs from the few studies of social technologies and many studies of ICT in organizations by focusing on more than one technology and by considering social technologies as an assemblage. In order to advance current theorizing about technology assemblages, this works draws on data from a study of knowledge workers' use of social technologies for knowledge sharing and presents three complementary analytic lenses: Practice, Structural, and Interpretive. Integrating the three lenses, allows us to holistically capture the disparate dimensions of social technology assemblages enacted by knowledge workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer reviews have received much attention both in academia and industry, since it has been found that they have significant effects on people's decision-making behaviors relating to online shopping or choosing services. The readers/visitors on various online communities where such reviews are posted evaluate the helpfulness of a review based on the extent to which the review is helpful in their information seeking and decision-making tasks. However, it is often not clear what makes a review useful to a reader. Several previous works have analyzed textual features relating to reviews to determine their usefulness, but given that most of these reviews are generated and shared through community-based or social media sites, the features that incorporate social features and social engagement could have an important role to play in making a review useful. The work described in this paper uses data available from Yelp, a social review and recommendation site, to build models that examine the impact of various features, including basic, reviewer's engagement, social reputation, and business type, based on the number of votes for helpfulness a review receives. Our findings suggest that reviewer's social contextual information (engagement and reputation) is influential in affecting perceived helpfulness of a review and improves the accuracy of prediction model. The findings also suggest that business type (restaurants vs. transportations) affects the ways in which consumers consider a review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates surrogates' health information sharing behavior through information sources and information evaluation. A lab‐based experiment was conducted. Twenty‐five participants read five scenarios, each with three preselected webpages from a government, a commercial, and an online forum source. Participants had to decide whether to share the information with an imaginary friend of theirs and provide rationales (an indication of information evaluation). Content analysis and mixed effects logistic regression models were performed. Government websites were recommended for sharing the most, followed by commercial and online forum sources. Criteria predicting participants' intention to share information were different for each information source. The content's usefulness and trustworthiness were two criteria predicting participants' intention to share commercial websites. Source's trustworthiness and individual relevant criterion were two significant predictors for government sources. Source's trustworthiness had negative effects on sharing information from online forums. 13.3% of the information evaluation involved using both positive and negative criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a preliminary study of issues pertaining to the information needs, sources and behaviors of Pokemon Go players. Participants were found to be passive in the fulfillment of their information needs and they expressed a willingness to share information with others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information search, quite often, is not an isolated activity, but is accompanied by the use of the located information to generate some outcome. Frequently seen are "complex" tasks that consist of multiple aspects and can be divided into sub-tasks and/or finished in multiple sessions. This paper explores how search systems may help users with their multi-aspect tasks by examining whether, and how user knowledge and task structure play roles in leading to better work task performance. A 3-session lab experiment was conducted with 24 participants, each coming 3 times to work on 3 subtasks of a general task, couched either as the "parallel" or the "dependent" structure type. The overall task was to write a report on the general topic, with interim documents produced for each subtask. Results show that users' previous knowledge of task topics positively correlated with task performance, but the evolving and the exit knowledge did not. Neither task session nor task structure significantly affected session task performance. However, there was a tendency that those users with different levels of task knowledge performed differently in different tasks: higher knowledge users tended to perform better in the parallel task than in the dependent; lower knowledge users tended to perform better in the dependent task than in the parallel. These results can possibly be explained by users' searching and writing behaviors. Our findings help understand factors influencing information use task performance, and have implications on designing personalized systems that support information use task accomplishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss early findings on a study of user generated accessibility information. We utilize data from OpenStreetMap that include tags related to wheelchair accessibility and compare the distribution of these data to other explanatory data collected in the American Community Survey. We perform a linear regression and find that the population of people with disabilities in an area had a stronger relationship with the frequency of data points than household income or the urban status. Future work includes analyzing the accessibility data within the context of other data found in OpenStreetMap, and the use of additional measures associated with the digital divide such as level of education or the number of available access points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open science (OS) is a global issue concerning how researchers work, collaborate, interact, share resources, and disseminate results in the digital age. This panel assembles researchers from various continents to discover their experiences and to address some of the following issues: What is the state of OS policies in the region? Does the region have any international, national, or regional OS collaborations and/or agreements? Does the region have any international, national or regional OS infrastructure and/or systems? Are international, national or regional OS standards being adapted in the region? What is the utilization level of the OS infrastructure and/or systems in the region? Is the region experiencing any progress, barriers and/or challenges in implementing the OS initiatives? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doctoral students rely on their peers as important information sources. However, information behavior studies in academic settings most often describe peers as intermediaries who simply assist individuals' information seeking for academic resources. To address this issue, the authors interviewed six LIS doctoral students at Florida State University in order to explore the types of peer relationships and information sharing between LIS doctoral students. The preliminary findings confirmed the existence of close, social/academic, and other peers that can be categorized as special, collegial, and information peers using Kram and Isabella's continuum of peer relationships. In addition, it was found that work-related and everyday life information is shared in all three types of peer relationships, while relational strength influences the scope and depth of information sharing. Future work will investigate the role of peers as mentors and agents of socialization in academic settings, and will further address the types of information shared as part of such mentoring relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]