Grounding on Communication
Summary:
A high-level overview of this paper defines a new term for communication in which the authors call grounding. There are two main factors in determining a common ground: purpose and medium. The authors define a common ground as mandatory for any form of communication. Their goal is to establish a criteria for analyzing and understanding grounding. They examine and define many techniques in which to not only establish grounding but also keeping that established communication on track.
Reflection:
I was very unclear about the author’s approach and research methodologies. The paper gave very interesting key points on how a communication is established and perceived by two people. I am very interested to see if their approach is generalizable to other forms of communications such as group messaging, instant messaging, emails, and video game online collaborations. I believe there are more barriers in which the authors must considered in defining a common ground in communication. I found the constraints of grounding to be very interesting section. They described 8 constraints in which they measured ways a medium could impose upon communication between two people. The constraint of visibility was well defined by the author and made excellent points on face to face communications, especially when relating to video conferencing conversations.
“Once we have formulated a message, we must do more than just send it off. We need to assure ourselves that it has been understood as we intended it to be.”