PDAs and shared public displays: Making personal information public, and public information personal

We are investigating how people move from individual to group work through the use of both personal digital assistants (PDAs) and a shared public display. Our scenario of this work covers the following activities. First, mobile individuals can create "personal" notes on their PDAs. Second, when individuals meet in real time, they can selectively "publicise" notes by moving them to a shared public display. Third, the group can manipulate personal and public items in real time through both PDAs and the shared public display, where the notes contained on both PDAs and public display are automatically synchronised. Finally, people leave a meeting with a common record of their activity. We describe our SharedNotes system that illustrates how people move through this scenario. We also highlight a variety of problematic design issues that result from having different devices and from having the system enforce a rigid distinction between personal and public information.