John C. Tang

Selected Publications

• Tang, John C. & James "Bo" Begole, "Beyond Instant Messaging: Future awareness features and their technical implications", ACM Queue, Vol. 1. No. 8, Nov, 2003, pp.28-37.
• Work Rhythms: Analyzing Visualizations of Awareness Histories of Distributed Groups (PDF, ACM Digital Library)
  James "Bo" Begole, John Tang, Randall Smith and Nicole Yankelovich, Proceedings of the 2002 ACM conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work(CSCW 2002), New Orleans, LA, USA, Nov 16-20, 2002, ACM Press, NY, pp. 334-343.
  
• ConNexus to Awarenex: Extending awareness to mobile users (PDF)
  John Tang, Nicole Yankelovich, James "Bo" Begole, Max Van Kleek, Francis Li, and Janak Bhalodia, Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) 2001, March 31 - April 5, 2001, Seattle, WA, ACM Press, NY, pp. 221-228.
  (on ACM Digital Library)

Piazza/Encounters -- task-based proximity interfaces

• Isaacs, Ellen A., John C. Tang, and Trevor Morris, Piazza: A Desktop Environment Supporting Impromptu and Planned Interactions", Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) `96, Boston, November 1996, pp. 315-324.

Montage -- interface for desktop video conferencing

• Tang, John C., Ellen A. Isaacs, and Monica Rua, "Supporting Distributed Groups with a Montage of Lightweight Interactions", Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) `94, Chapel Hill, NC, October 1994, pp. 23-34.
• Tang, John C. and Monica Rua, "Montage: Providing Teleproximity for Distributed Groups", Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI) `94, Boston, MA, April 1994, pp. 37-43.

Desktop Video Conferencing

• Tang, John C. and Ellen A. Isaacs, "Why Do Users Like Video? Studies of Multimedia-Supported Collaboration", Computer Supported Cooperative Work: An International Journal, Vol. 1, Issue 3, 1993, pp. 163-196.
• Isaacs, Ellen, A. and John C. Tang, "What Video Can and Cannot Do for Collaboration: A Case Study", Multimedia Systems Vol.2, 1994, pp. 63-73. Previously published as "What Video Can and Can't Do for Collaboration: A Case Study", Proceedings ACM Multimedia `93, August 1993, Anaheim, CA, pp. 199-206.

Shared Drawing Prototypes and Studies

• Tang, John C. and Scott L. Minneman, "VideoDraw: A Video Interface for Collaborative Drawing", Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI) `90, Seattle, WA, April 1990, pp. 313-320.
• Tang, John C. and Scott L. Minneman, "VideoDraw: A Video Interface for Collaborative Drawing", ACM Transactions on Information Systems, Vol. 9, No. 2, April 1991, pp. 170-184.
• Tang, John C. and Scott L. Minneman, "VideoWhiteboard: Video Shadows to Support Remote Collaboration", Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI) `91, New Orleans, LA, April/May 1991, pp. 315-322.
• Tang, John C., "Findings from Observational Studies of Collaborative Work", International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, Vol. 34, No. 2, February 1991, pp. 143-160. Reprinted: Computer-supported Cooperative Work and Groupware, Saul Greenberg (Ed.), London: Academic Press, 1991, pp. 11-28

Background

I joined Sun in 1990, and have worked in a variety of different groups within Sun over the years. I started in the COCO group (which stood variously for Conferencing and Collaboration or Collaborative Computing). When the COCO group was part of Sun Labs, I studied and helped design a desktop video conferencing prototype, which informed the design of the SunSolutions product ShowMe^TM Whiteboard^TM. ShowMe Whiteboard isn't available any more, but much of the functionality can be found in the current SunForum^TM product. After the COCO group moved into SunSoft, I worked on the Montage project, which provided a novel interface to desktop audio-video glances, and integrated computer-mediated communication tools into one interface. The design of Montage was informed by our experience using the desktop video conferencing prototype, and once we designed and built Montage, we deployed and studied how it was used in a distributed team at Sun. Then, the group worked on the Piazza project, which didn't get fully implemented before we got re-organized into JavaSoft.

At JavaSoft, I worked on the HotJava^TM Views product--Java^TM-based clients for e-mail, calendar, address book, and web browsing. My main interest was collecting end user and customer requirements to shape the design of future versions of Views. I also worked on a web-based interface for the administration package of Views.

In 1998, I returned to Sun Labs on the Network Communities project, working with Nicole Yankelovich and Bo Begole. We're interested in applying technology to support distributed work groups.

Before joining Sun, I worked at Xerox PARC on a variety of tools to support shared drawing activity (VideoDraw, VideoWhiteboard, VideoCom, Liveboard). In 1998, I was also a guest researcher at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), working on the Manufacturing Collaboratory project. I'm active in the research community, and have contributed papers and served on ACM conference committees for CHI and CSCW. I received my B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in the Design Division of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Stanford University.

Personal Interests

I enjoy playing the piano and acoustic guitar. I also enjoy playing ultimate frisbee, and organize a weekly informal game for those in the Palo Alto area.

Contact Information

Sun | Sun Labs | John's home page |