Novel Hybrid Collaboration Tools in the Wild: A Living Lab in the Making

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Abstract
Hybrid work enables knowledge workers to collaborate across distance and time zones, yet often fails to support interactions that sustain collaboration and team cohesion over time. These challenges are particularly pronounced in cross-continental collaboration, where initiating contact, maintaining awareness, and negotiating interruptibility become difficult. In this work, we report on the early stages of setting up a cross-location living lab for studying distributed collaboration longitudinally. As two research labs collaborating across continents, we aim to establish a research environment where our own hybrid practices provide a situated context for introducing and exploring novel technologies, paving the way for in-the-wild studies with external stakeholders. We present a work-in-progress reflective account on setting up this living lab, drawing on past, present and future insights from our own collaboration. Overall, we scaffold an emerging research agenda that encourages sustained engagement with researchers’ own tools and practices, using lived collaboration to generate situated insight.
Funding Information
  • European Research Council (ERC) (101222719)
  • Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) (4286-00295B)