Human-Computer Interaction -- INTERACT'03 M. Rauterberg et al. (Eds.) Published by IOS Press, (c) IFIP, 2003, pp.559-566 Engaging in Email Discussion: Conversational Context and Social Identity in Computer-Mediated Communication Leon A. Watts 1 , Yanuar Nugroho 2 & Martin Lea 3 1 Department of Computation, UMIST, Manchester M60 1QD, UK 2 Sahid University of Surakarta, Surakarta 57144, INDONESIA 3 Department of Psychology, University of Manchester, M13 9PL, UK leon.watts@co.umist.ac.uk Abstract: For millions of people, text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) is a convenient and engaging way to exchange information and opinion. Research shows that the social ambiguity of text-based CMC, such as email, can both promote participation and group cohesion and lead to misunderstanding, offence and social division. We report a field experiment that attempted to expose some of the social influences at work in email exchange. GNU Mailman was configured to promote either individual or group perspectives during email discussions. It was used for political debate by two groups of Indonesian NGO members during the Indonesian constitutional crisis of 2001. We assessed changes in their perceptions of their groups and in their political attitudes. Our findings suggest that CMC for socially loaded topics relies upon two complementary factors: the ability of the medium to underwrite participants’ Social Identity and its support for expression of the group’s conversational aims. Keywords: CMC, email, anonymity, Common Ground, Social Identity Theory, GNU Mailman 1 Email, Separation and Sociability Indonesia is a vast archipelago. Many of its islands are difficult to reach and suffer from poor infra- structure. For many Indonesians, email has been something of a revelation in terms of connection to the outside world and communicating within Indonesia. It is easy to assume that the future of CMC lies in “rich media” technologies, such as 3G videophones or collaborative virtual environments. Yet the simplicity, ubiquity and modest technological requirements of email have thrust it into a very contemporary role as a major coordination tool (Ducheneaut & Bellotti, 2001). Email is a tried-and-trusted technology, used daily by millions of people as an easy way to over- come the barriers of time and space. It is easily the most successful kind of groupware application and its popularity shows no sign of abating. HCI and CSCW research on email has for the main part con- centrated on interface and coordination issues that relate to information management (Gwizdka, 2002). However, CMC interfaces should also be considered in terms of their ability to convey social information (Erickson et al., 2002). As the messages people ex- change become more socially loaded, so much more complex are the social problems posed by the use of this medium. It supports more than work-focused communication in the workplace; it is used to sup- port an extended social network within and beyond (Preece, 2000). There have been several recent at- tempts to represent information about social groups in “lean media”, thereby facilitating social processes. Instant messaging systems commonly use ‘buddy lists’ as groupings and show who is available to take part in conversation (Herbsleb et al., 2002). BABBLE augments text communication with simple graphical representations of collective communica- tive activity (Erickson et al., 2002). The richer-but- still-lean audio-based ChatCircles encodes social distance into animated representations of individuals in a chat space (Viegas & Donath, 1999). We wish to expose some of the factors that govern the effec- tiveness of lean media in supporting socially loaded communication. Email cannot simply be viewed as a substitute for physical contact. All CMC technologies bring changes to the way people interact with one another