Discuss topic effects and comment distributions in an EGW meeting.
Topic effects
There is a significant difference in the number of relevant comments produced based upon topic. The following variables are positively correlated with relevant comments and negatively correlated with irrelevant comments.
  1. Knowledge of the topic
  2. Importance of the topic
  3. Influence over topic outcome
  4. Prior thought on topic
  5. Topic controversy

Group consensus is negatively correlated with relevant comments.

Ideally, the group members should have high levels of #1, #2, and #3.
Comment Distributions
EGW relevant comments are significantly skewed left and appear to follow a Poisson distribution. EPW and verbal meeting comments may follow a uniform distribution, however. In an EPW meeting, files must be swapped to read more. In a verbal meeting, communication is serial and there is very little "dead air" time. Therefore, meetings may be terminated earlier in an EGW meeting because most of the relevant comments occur near the beginning.
image002.gif (2559 bytes)
At the beginning of the meeting, there is an initial burst of relevant comments followed by declining rates as more time is spent reading others' comments.  As more people get bored, more irrelevant or non-task comments are written.
The decision when to end the meeting is subjective. The facilitator must balance the need to get as many relevant comments as possible while limiting the irrelevant comments.  One or two people may continue writing even if the rest of the participants are impatiently waiting to move on.