Abstract:  Social software promises a "grass roots" approach to creating and exploiting knowledge within enterprises. They will also become crucial in supporting and strengthening collaboration and communication in businesses. A major growth opportunity for both new and existing social networking sites and applications is within the workplace.  However, the success of web social applications has not been replicated at enterprise yet. To understand the differences between the Web and the Enterprise, such as the data structure, content, users’ motivation & needs, in this project we are exploring social roles in enterprise to redesign enterprise social software to enabling users to discover the right information by leveraging the knowledge of many, share content and expertise, connect to the right people and help users to manage business information more efficient & improve productivity.

Bio: Chen Zhao is a researcher in Human Computer Interaction group at Microsoft Research Asia. From 2005 through 2008 she was the manager of user experience group at IBM China Research Lab. Her current research interests include Enterprise Social Computing, Cross Culture Design and User Experience.  Chen Zhao, received her B.S. on Psychology from Peking University in 1997 and PhD degree on Human Factors from Chinese Academic Sciences in 2002. Before she joined IBM China Research Lab she was a researcher at Honeywell lab, Minneapolis, U.S. and Singapore. Chen started the User Experience group and built the first usability lab in IBM China.  Chen also is one of the founders and the Vice Chair of ACM SIGCHI China Chapter.