| A Web on the Wind: The Structure of Invisible Work | | BIB | 1-8 | |
| Bonnie A. Nardi; Yrjo ENgestrom | |||
| Layers of Silence, Arenas of Voice: The Ecology of Visible and Invisible Work | | BIBAK | 9-30 | |
| Susan Leigh Star; Anselm Strauss | |||
| No work is inherently either visible or invisible. We always "see" work
through a selection of indicators: straining muscles, finished artifacts, a
changed state of affairs. The indicators change with context, and that context
becomes a negotiation about the relationship between visible and invisible
work. With shifts in industrial practice these negotiations require longer
chains of inference and representation, and may become solely abstract. This
article provides a framework for analyzing invisible work in CSCW systems. We
sample across a variety of kinds of work to enrich the understanding of how
invisibility and visibility operate. Processes examined include creating a
"non-person" in domestic work; disembedding background work; and going
backstage. Understanding these processes may inform the design of CSCW systems
and the development of related social theory. Keywords: cooperative work, articulation work, invisible work, social informatics,
requirements analysis, feminism | |||
| Invisible Work of Telephone Operators: An Ethnocritical Analysis | | BIBAK | 31-61 | |
| Michael J. Muller | |||
| This paper applies principles derived from ethnocriticism to help explain
differential outcomes with different methods used to analyze the work of
Directory Assistance telephone operators in a large US telecommunications
company. The work of Directory Assistance operators provides a subtle case of
computer-supported cooperative work. Collaborative work between operator and
customer is supported and shaped by digitized-voice and database technologies.
Our work also involved the introduction of additional voice-recognition
technologies to this human-to-human collaboration. In a previous paper, we used
methods from participatory design to show that knowledge work is a major
component of the operators' conversations with customers. By contrast, other
research using formal cognitive task analyses had described operators' work as
routine and as involving no active problem solving. How had evidence that we
had found so compelling been invisible to other analysts? I analyze the concept
of "invisible work" as an attribute not of the work, but rather of the
perspectives from which that work appeared to be invisible. Ethnocritical
heuristics help us to contrast the analytical methods and their outcomes. Keywords: work analysis, task analysis, participatory analysis, knowledge work, GOMS,
CARD, ethnocriticism, ethnocritical heuristics, telephone operators, invisible
work | |||
| Expansive Visibilization of Work: An Activity-Theoretical Perspective | | BIBAK | 63-93 | |
| Yrjo Engestrom | |||
| Work is commonly made visible along two dimensions: the linear and the
socio-spatial. Both are limited to depicting work in terms of relatively
discrete actions. Activity theory introduces the crucial distinction between
collective activity systems and individual actions. Expansive visibilization of
collective activity systems offers a powerful intervention methodology for
dealing with major transformations of work. The linear and the socio-spatial
dimensions of work actions are seen in the broader perspective of a third,
developmental dimension of work activity. Four steps are identified in a cycle
of expansive visibilization, combining activity-level visions and action-level
concretizations. The cycle is examined in detail as it unfolded in an
intervention study at a children's hospital in Finland. It is concluded that
expansive visibilization, driven by contradictions and seeking to
reconceptualize the object and motive of work, is not a straightforward process
which can be neatly controlled from above. Coherent analytical explanation and
goal-setting may come only after the creation and practical implementation of
innovative solutions. Keywords: activity theory, action, transformation, expansive learning, intervention,
visibilization, health care, medical records | |||
| Collaborative Networks Among Female Middle Managers in a Hierarchical Organization | | BIBAK | 95-114 | |
| Kristina Westerberg | |||
| I present empirical findings from an observational study of female municipal
middle managers who are home help assistants in elder care. The observations
showed that the home help assistants' sphere of activity was influenced by two
distinct patterns: the official line organization and the invisible horizontal
social network. I first give a brief description to the immediate background of
the present study. Then I describe the line organization and give two empirical
examples of information exchange where the practical implication of the line
organization at different levels is visible. However, the study also revealed
another pattern opposed to the line organization, called the horizontal
network. I will give an empirical example of an incident that illustrates how
the home help assistants use a social network to solve problems and to make
judgments. The study showed that these networks are not persistent -- they are
rebuilt depending upon context. Members of the network can be people both
within and outside the municipal organization. Decisions and problem solving
are thus conducted in a process of interaction and negotiations with other
people. The social networks are not visible in the official organizational
description. Still they form the foundation for the home help assistants' work
and influence their ideas of how the work should be conducted. Finally I
discuss some implications of the line organization and the social network and
the possible consequences when introducing new technology, i.e., computers in
work. In this case the computers were planned to support the line organization
but not the work practice of social networks. Keywords: female leaders, middle managers, elder care, hierarchy, social network | |||
| Visible and Invisible Work: The Emerging Post-Industrial Employment Relation | | BIB | 115-126 | |
| Libby Bishop | |||
| "It's Just a Matter of Common Sense": Ethnography as Invisible Work | | BIBAK | 127-145 | |
| Diana E. Forsythe | |||
| Anthropologists have been using ethnographic methods since the 1970s to
support the design and evaluation of software. While early use of such skills
in the design world was viewed as experimental, at least by computer scientists
and engineers, ethnography has now become established as a useful skill in
technology design. Not only are corporations and research laboratories
employing anthropologists to take part in the development process, but growing
numbers of non-anthropologists are attempting to borrow ethnographic
techniques. The results of this appropriation have brought out into the open a
kind of paradox: while ethnography looks and sounds straightforward, this is
not really the case. The work of untrained ethnographers tends to overlook
things that anthropologists see as important parts of the research process. The
consistency of this pattern suggests that some aspects of ethnographic
fieldwork are invisible to the untrained eye. In short, ethnography would
appear to constitute an example of invisible work. Drawing on my own decade of
experience as an anthropologist working in design, I attempt to clarify the
nature of ethnographic expertise, describe six misconceptions about ethnography
that I have encountered among scientists, and present real-life examples to
illustrate why quasi-ethnographic work based on these misconceptions is likely
to be superficial and unreliable. Keywords: ethnography, anthropology, medical informatics, computers and medicine,
qualitative methods, user studies, evaluation | |||
| The Invisible World of Intermediaries: A Cautionary Tale | | BIBAK | 147-167 | |
| Kate Ehrlich; Debra Cash | |||
| Many observers consider traditional intermediaries such as brokers, lenders
and salespersons anachronisms in a world where consumers can communicate
directly with providers of products and services over computer networks. Under
the same rubric, information mediators such as journalists, editors, librarians
and customer support representatives are being targeted for elimination.
Drawing on our ethnographically-informed studies of customer support analysts
and librarians, we demonstrate that the expertise and experience of
intermediaries is often invisible -- to the consumer, to the organization in
which these intermediaries work, and even to the intermediaries' managers. The
valuable services provided by intermediaries are not made unnecessary by
end-user access. We argue for a richer understanding of intermediation, and a
reallocation of functions and roles in which "new intermediaries" -- people,
software or a combination of the two -- aggregate, personalize and assure the
quality of information. Keywords: CSCW, electronic commerce, intermediary, digital library, electronic
community, customer support, librarians, notes, trust | |||
| Meetings of the Board: The Impact of Scheduling Medium on Long Term Group Coordination in Software Development | | BIBAK | 175-205 | |
| Steve Whittaker; Heinrich Schwarz | |||
| Despite a wealth of electronic group tools for coordinating the software
development process, instead we find technologically adept groups preferring to
use what seem to be outmoded "material" tools in critical projects. The current
ethnographic study investigates this apparent paradox. We begin by building up
a detailed picture of the overall software development process and identify
critical general problems in achieving coordination. Coordination problems
arise in software development not only because of the complex dependencies that
hold among the work of different individuals, but also for social and
motivational reasons. We identify the central role of the schedule as a
coordination device, but find that its value can be undermined because the
schedule is often neither accurate, current nor credible. As a result, the
schedule is not used as a resource for individual or group planning. We then
compare coordination in two development groups, one using electronic and the
other material scheduling tools. We found that the medium of the schedule has a
major impact on coordination problems. The size, public location and physical
qualities of material tools engender certain crucial group processes that
current electronic technologies fail to support. A large wallboard located in a
public area encouraged greater responsibility, commitment and updating and its
material properties served to encourage more reflective planning. As a result
the wallboard schedule was both accurate and current. Furthermore, the public
nature of the wallboard promoted group interaction around the board, it enabled
collaborative problem solving, as well as informing individuals about the local
and global progress of the project. Despite these benefits, however, the
material tool fell short on several other dimensions such as distribution,
complex dependency tracking, and versioning. We make design recommendations
about how the benefits of material tools could be incorporated into electronic
groupware systems and discuss the theoretical implications of this work. Keywords: commitment, communication, group coordination, group memory, long-term
coordination, media, paper, scheduling, social factors, software development | |||
| Visualizing Common Artefacts to Support Awareness in Computer-Mediated Cooperation | | BIBAK | 207-238 | |
| Thomas Berlage; Markus Sohlenkamp | |||
| The idea of a "common artefact" is a useful metaphor for the design of CSCW
systems. Our ACCT model of a common artefact describes structural elements that
provide awareness about the work of others. The ACCT model identifies actors,
contents, conversations, and tools as the central components of a common
artefact, arranged on a shared background. The elements of a common artefact
provide both a background visualization of the activity, but also permit
dynamic notification of particular events. We explore this process of
notification, which is composed of a selection and a presentation stage. We
identify the critical factors of the process, in particular we highlight
techniques related to temporal and spatial distortion. The framework helps to
prepare design decisions of multi-user systems more consciously. Keywords: awareness, common artefact, CSCW, distortion, notification, state
presentation | |||
| Integrating Contexts to Support Coordination: The CHAOS Project | | BIBAK | 239-283 | |
| Carla Simone; Monica Divitini | |||
| The paper reports on the outcomes of the CHAOS project whose aim was the
development of a computer-based tool for coordinating activities not organized
in a structured flow of work. In CHAOS coordination is achieved by negotiating
commitments within conversations. The paper illustrates the conceptual
foundation on which the prototype is based and its main functionalities. The
latter are organized into four logical modules that are responsible of the
management of the information concerning the communication, operation,
organization and linguistic contexts, respectively, in which the communication
occurs. The paper presents achievements and limits of the project and positions
its aims and outcomes in relation to the recent debate about the Coordinator. Keywords: adaptive systems, communication supports, language/action perspective | |||
| Sharrock and Button ... and Much Ado about Nothing | | BIBAK | 285-293 | |
| Kalle Lyytinen; Ojelanki Ngwenyama | |||
| The paper discusses Sharrock's and Button's criticism of our attempt to use
Habermas' communicative action theory to analyze group work platforms. We
demonstrate that they misconstrue our goals of the paper, misinterpret our
analysis of Habermas' action types, and misunderstand the concept of critical
science. At the end we question the usefulness of these types of debates in
furthering CSCW research. Keywords: CSCW, critical theory, deconstruction, ideal speech situation, social action
theory | |||
| "CSCW Requirements and Evaluation," edited by Thomas, P. J. | | BIB | 295-297 | |
| Richard H. R. Haper | |||
| "Video-Mediated Communication," edited by Kathleen E. Finn, Abigail J. Sellen, Sylvia B. Wilbur | | BIB | 299-301 | |
| Hubert Knoblauch | |||
| Media Production: Towards Creative Collaboration Using Communication Networks | | BIBAK | 303-332 | |
| Ellen Baker; John Geirland; Tom Fisher; Annmarie Chandler | |||
| To examine the diffusion of remote collaboration technologies within the
media production industries, a series of case studies was recently conducted
with early adopters of advanced electronic networks in Sydney, Los Angeles and
London. The studies assessed: 1) user reactions to these collaboration
technologies and types of activities being supported and 2) factors influencing
their adoption decisions. Interviews conducted also provided early indications
of the conditions likely to facilitate remote collaboration and the likely
impacts on work practices in media production organizations. It was established
that electronic delivery, remote access to resources and materials, and remote
creative collaboration were all being carried out, even internationally.
Although most network applications were routine substitutions for
non-electronic equivalents (e.g. couriers or catalogue browsing), some did
involve shared creative activities, thus confirming that remote creative
collaboration is a viable option. Key factors influencing network adoption were
cost considerations and regulatory issues, time savings and productivity, and
security concerns. Certain industry segments -- animation, post-production, and
advertising -- were more likely to be early adopters, as were companies who
found innovative ways to achieve greater benefits. Conditions likely to
facilitate remote collaboration include more sophisticated change-agent
strategies, increasing the perceived control of creative outputs, developing
and maintaining trust, providing more auxiliary support for coordination needs,
and making more effective use of timing and time-zone differences. Likely
impacts of remote collaboration in media production are: more overlap between
pre-production, production, and post-production activities; faster work pace;
enhanced creativity; and improved quality of work life. Keywords: media production, distributed workgroups, emerging technologies, diffusion
of innovations, work practices, electronic networks, creative collaboration | |||
| Formality Considered Harmful: Experiences, Emerging Themes, and Directions on the Use of Formal Representations in Interactive Systems | | BIBAK | 333-352 | |
| Frank M., III Shipman; Catherine C. Marshall | |||
| This paper reflects on experiences designing, developing, and working with
users of a variety of interactive computer systems. The authors propose, based
on these experiences, that the cause of a number of unexpected difficulties in
human-computer interaction lies in users' unwillingness or inability to make
structure, content, or procedures explicit. Besides recounting experiences with
system use, this paper discusses why users reject or circumvent formalisms
which require such explicit expression, and suggests how system designers can
anticipate and compensate for problems users have in making implicit aspects of
their tasks explicit. The authors propose computational approaches that address
this problem, including incremental and system-assisted formalization
mechanisms and methods for recognizing and using undeclared structure; they
also propose non-computational solutions that involve designers and users
reaching a shared understanding of the task situation and the methods that
motivate the formalisms. This paper poses that, while it is impossible to
remove all formalisms from computing systems, system designers need to match
the level of formal expression entailed with the goals and situation of the
users -- a design criteria not commonly mentioned in current interface design. Keywords: formalization, structure, hypermedia, argumentation, design environments,
knowledge-based systems, groupware, knowledge representation, tacit knowledge | |||
| Voice Loops as Coordination Aids in Space Shuttle Mission Control | | BIBAK | 353-371 | |
| Emily S. Patterson; Jennifer Watts-Perotti; David D. Woods | |||
| Voice loops, an auditory groupware technology, are essential coordination
support tools for experienced practitioners in domains such as air traffic
management, aircraft carrier operations and space shuttle mission control. They
support synchronous communication on multiple channels among groups of people
who are spatially distributed. In this paper, we suggest reasons for why the
voice loop system is a successful medium for supporting coordination in space
shuttle mission control based on over 130 hours of direct observation. Voice
loops allow practitioners to listen in on relevant communications without
disrupting their own activities or the activities of others. In addition, the
voice loop system is structured around the mission control organization, and
therefore directly supports the demands of the domain. By understanding how
voice loops meet the particular demands of the mission control environment,
insight can be gained for the design of groupware tools to support cooperative
activity in other event-driven domains. Keywords: attention, broadcasting, common ground, coordination, ethnographic study,
mission control, mutual awareness, overhearing, voice loops | |||
| Accumulating and Coordinating: Occasions for Information Technologies in Medical Work | | BIBAK | 373-401 | |
| Marc Berg | |||
| This paper attempts to provide a relational understanding of the generative
power of information technologies: an understanding that sees information
technologies as embedded in workpractices. This theoretical undertaking,
inspired by actor-network theory and work within CSCW, has a practical and
political aim. The problems it discusses are directly relevant for the aims and
hopes of CSCW: the design of systems that fit workpractices better than
traditionally designed systems, and that enhance worker's competencies and
responsibilities. The paper depicts information technologies as reading and
writing artifacts. Taking parts of the medical record as an example, the paper
argues that those tools -- in relation with the reading and writing activities
of nurses, doctors, laboratory systems -- can be seen to perform two roles in
work practices. They accumulate inscriptions and coordinate activities of other
entities in the work practice, and in that way afford the handling of more
complex worktasks. This focus on the generative power of these artifacts leads
to a reconsideration of the notions of "supporting" work and "transparent"
technologies, and to a series of specific entry-points for a politics of IT. Keywords: actor-network theory, distributed cognition, electronic medical record,
information technology, politics, reading and writing artifacts, workpractice | |||