Disruption of meetings by laptop use: is there a 10-second solution?

We have conducted a study of meetings to gain an understanding of the sources of disruption when laptops are present. We videotaped five workplace meetings in which over 600 information tasks were performed by participants using paper or laptops. We saw evidence that people preferred task durations not to exceed approximately 10 seconds. Tasks performed by laptop users were more likely to exceed this limit, and this could contribute to disruptions. We suggest that laptop software may need to assist users in keeping tasks within 10 seconds' duration. Keywords Meetings, laptop, conversation, disruption, affordances. ACM Classification Keywords H5.m. Information interfaces (e.g., HCI):

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: CHI
• Authors: William Newman, Ethan L. Smith
• Keywords: ACM Classification Keywords, CHI 2006, Human Computer Interaction, Keywords Meetings, Laptop Users