學術會議在研究者交換資訊上扮演相當重要的角色，並且，在會議中的互動常常是經由發問問題開始的。然而，對於一個會議來說，增加互動品質是非常重要的。本研究旨在設計一個會議輔助系統，透過無線行動設備在國際會議上增加發問數以及提升互動品質。
本研究設計一個名為「Ask the Author」的會議輔助系統，利用無線行動設備讓作者與聽眾在會議中促進互動。本系統整合會議前、會議中、會議後的討論，並且協助主持人在報告中整理發問的順序，讓整個會議更順暢，另外，透過本系統讓報告者容易收集聽眾的問題。本系統曾在電腦輔助合作學習 (Computer Supported Collaborated Learning，簡稱為CSCL 2005)和第八屆智慧型家教系統(Intelligent Tutor Systems，簡稱ITS)國際會議上進行實驗並作觀察與探討。從主持人與聽眾的訪談中指出「Ask the Author」可以增加更多互動方式，並且有助於這些害怕在公共場合上發言的人們發表他們的問題與想法；從聽眾的問卷中發現有些人喜歡但有些人反對，喜歡的人覺得本系統可以記錄他們的問題，但反對的人覺得系統會打擾他聽報告。大多數的人都希望作者可以在會議後繼續回應他的問題。

Academic conferences play an important role in exchanging researchers’ ideas. Conversations are often triggered by asking questions. However, to increase the quality of the interaction is important to a conference. In this study, the objective is to design a conference supporting system and conduct an experiment to examine whether the amount of questions and the quality of interaction can be enhanced using the system in an international conference with wireless and mobile devices.
A system named “Ask the Author” was designed to facilitate interactions between the authors and the audiences in a conference by wireless and mobile devices. The “Ask the Author” system is used to integrate discussions before conference, during the conference and after conference and to assist moderators in arranging the sequence of the queries at the presentation session for controlling the session well. Moreover, the system can facilitate presenters to gather audiences’ questions. The experiments were conducted at the Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL ‘05) conference and the 8th international conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems. Some useful and elaborative observations were discussed further. The moderators and audiences indicated that “Ask the Author” can improve the bandwidth of the interaction with mobile technology and help the people, who is awkward to speak out in public, present their own questions and opinions. From the questionnaire, some audiences liked using the system while the others don’t. Those who liked the system feel that the system can record their questions while those who didn’t like the system complained that it disturbed the presenter. But most of them hoped that the authors would reply to their questions after the conference.

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