Delphi Structure and Group Size in Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communications

Communication structure is a way of improving the effectiveness of group communications by imposing rules or procedures of communications. Delphi is a communication structure which has been widely used to collect ideas and opinions from temporarily and geographically dispersed experts. A new approach in Delphi implementation using asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) is developed. A 2X2 controlled experiment investigates the effectiveness of Delphi structure on small-sized (5-6 members) and medium-sized (10-12 members) asynchronous CMC groups. The group task is to generate the ideas of potential applications of pervasive devices that can track the location of people and objects. The results indicate that the Delphi structure does result in more unique ideas per person than the unstructured condition and small-sized groups do generate more unique ideas per person than medium-sized groups.