Resources, Co-Evolution and Artifacts: Theory in CSCW

335 Pages·2008·4.66 MB·English

by  Mark S. Ackerman

Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Serieseditor
RichardHarper
Socio-DigitalSystems,MicrosoftResearchCambridge,Cambridge,
UnitedKingdom
SeriesAssociateEditors
DanDiaper
DDDSystems,Bournemouth,UnitedKingdom
ColstonSanger
LondonSouthBankUniversity,UnitedKingdom
SeriesEditorialBoard
FrancesAldrich,UniversityofSussex,UnitedKingdom
LiamBannon,UniversityofLimerick,Ireland
MosesBoudourides,UniversityofPatras,Greece
GrahamButton,UniversityofHallam,Sheffield,UnitedKingdom
PrasunDewan,UniversityofNorthCarolina,ChapelHill,USA
JonathanGrudin,MicrosoftResearch,Redmond,Washington,USA
BoHelgeson,BlekingeInstituteofTechnology,Sweden
JohnHughes,LancasterUniversity,UnitedKingdom
KeiichiNakata,UniversityofReading,UnitedKingdom
LeysiaPalen,UniversityofColorado,Boulder,USA
DavidRandall,ManchesterMetropolitanUniversity,UnitedKingdom
KjeldSchmidt,ITUniversityofCopenhagen,Denmark
AbigailSellen,MicrosoftResearch,Cambridge,UnitedKingdom
YvonneRogers,UniversityofSussex,UnitedKingdom
ComputerSupportedCooperativeWork’ssynergisticcombinationofcomputingscience/softwareengi-
neeringwitharangeoftheoretical andapplied humansciences hasmadeitoneofthemostexciting
areasofeverydaycomputeruse.TheComputerSupportedCooperativeWork(CSCW)seriesprovides
anoverviewofcurrentknowledge,researchanddebatefordesigners,usersandstudents.Eachvolume
intheseriesprovidesdetailedcoverageofaspecifictopicwithinCSCWandgroupware.
Alsointhisseries
Damodaran,L.,Olphert,W. Höök,K.,Benyon,D.,Munro,A.J.(Eds)
InformingDigitalFutures·StrategiesforCitizen DesigningInformationSpaces:TheSocial
Engagement NavigationApproach
Vol.37,ISBN978-1-4020-4640-7,2006 ISBN978-1-85233-661-5,2003
Clarke,K.,Hardstone,G., Kirschner,P.A.,Buckingham-Shum,S.J.,
Rouncefield,M.etal(Eds) Carr,C.S.(Eds)
TrustinTechnology:ASocio-Technical VisualizingArgumentation:SoftwareToolsfor
Perspective CollaborativeandInformationalSense-making
Vol.36,ISBN978-1-4020-4257-7,2006 ISBN978-1-85233-664-6,2003
O’Hara,K.,Brown,B.(Eds) Lueg,C.,Fisher,D.(Eds)
ConsumingMusicTogether:Socialand FromUsenettoCoWebs:InteractingwithSocial
CollaborativeAspectsofMusicConsumption InformationSpaces
Vol.35,ISBN978-1-4020-4031-3,2006 ISBN978-1-85233-532-8,2003
Schroeder,R.,Axelsson,A.-S.(Eds) Munkvold,B.E.
AvatarsatWorkandPlay:Collaborationand ImplementingCollaborationTechnologiesin
InteractioninSharedVirtualEnvironments Industry
Vol.34,ISBN978-1-4020-3883-9,2006 ISBN978-1-85233-418-5,2003
Ching,H.S.,Poon,P.W.T.,McNaught,C.(Eds) Coakes,E.,Willis,D.,Clarke,S.(Eds)
eLearningandDigitalPublishing KnowledgeManagementintheSocioTechnical
Vol.33,ISBN978-1-4020-3640-8,2006 World
ISBN978-1-85233-441-3,2002
Haddon,L.,Mante,E.,Sapio,B.etal(Eds)
EverydayInnovators:ResearchingtheRoleof Hazemi,R.,Hailes,S.(Eds)
UsersinShapingICTs TheDigitalUniversity-BuildingaLearning
Vol.32,ISBN978-1-4020-3510-4,2005 Community
ISBN978-1-85233-478-9,2002
Ling,R.,Pedersen,P.E.(Eds)
MobileCommunications:Re-negotiationofthe Steeples,C.,Jones,C.(Eds)
SocialSphere NetworkedLearning:PerspectivesandIssues
Vol.31,ISBN978-1-85233-931-9,2005 ISBN978-1-85233-471-0,2002
Hamill,L.,Lasen,A.(Eds) Schroeder,R.(Ed.)
MobileWorld·Past,PresentandFuture TheSocialLifeofAvatars:Presenceand
ISBN978-1-85233-825-1,2005 InteractioninSharedVirtualEnvironments
ISBN978-1-85233-461-1,2001
Snowdon,D.N.,Churchill,E.F.,Frécon,E.(Eds)
InhabitedInformationSpaces:Livingwithyour Coakes,E.,Willis,D.,Lloyd-Jones,R.(Eds)
Data TheNewSocioTech:GraffitiontheLongWall
ISBN978-1-85233-728-5,2004 ISBN978-1-85233-040-8,2000
Andriessen,J.H.E. Romm,C.T.,Sudweeks,F.(Eds.)
WorkingwithGroupware:Understandingand DoingBusinessElectronically:AGlobal
EvaluatingCollaborationTechnology PerspectiveofElectronicCommerce
ISBN978-1-85233-603-5,2003 ISBN978-3-540-76159-4,1999
Crabtree,A. Riempp,G.
DesigningCollaborativeSystems: WideAreaWorkflowManagement:Creating
APracticalGuidetoEthnography Partnershipsforthe21stCentury
ISBN978-1-85233-718-6,2003 ISBN978-3-540-76243-0,1998
·
Mark S. Ackerman Christine A. Halverson
·
Thomas Erickson Wendy A. Kellogg
Editors
Resources, Co-Evolution
and Artifacts
Theory in CSCW
MarkS.Ackerman ChristineA. Halverson
UniversityofMichigan IBMResearch
MI,USA CA,USA
ThomasErickson WendyA.Kellogg
IBMResearch IBMResearch
MN,USA NY,USA
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2007930196
ComputerSupportedCooperativeWorkISSN1431-1496
ISBN:978-1-84628-900-2 e-ISBN:978-1-84628-901-9
Printedonacid-freepaper
(cid:2)c Springer-VerlagLondonLimited2008
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as
permittedundertheCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,thispublicationmayonlybereproduced,
storedortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withthepriorpermissioninwritingofthepublishers,
or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the
CopyrightLicensingAgency.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethosetermsshouldbesentto
thepublishers.
Theuseofregisterednames,trademarks,etc.,inthispublicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceof
aspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromtherelevantlawsandregulations andtherefore
freeforgeneraluse.
Thepublishermakesnorepresentation,expressorimplied,withregardtotheaccuracyoftheinformation
containedinthisbookandcannotacceptanylegalresponsibilityorliabilityforanyerrorsoromissions
thatmaybemade.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
SpringerScience+BusinessMedia
springer.com
Table of Contents
List of Authors vii
Introduction 1
Section 1 – Artifacts and Their Development
1. The Birth of an Organizational Resource: The Surprising 9
Life of a Cheat Sheet
Christine A. Halverson and Mark S. Ackerman
2. The Zephyr Help Instance as a CSCW Resource 37
Mark S. Ackerman and Leysia Palen
3. Co-Realization: Toward a Principled Synthesis of 59
Ethnomethodology and Participatory Design
Mark Hartswood, Rob Procter, Roger Slack, Alex Voß,
Monika Büscher, Mark Rouncefield, and Philippe Rouchy
4. Figuring Out How to Figure Out: Supporting Expertise 95
Sharing in Online Systems
Thomas Erickson, Christine A. Halverson, and
Wendy A. Kellogg
Section 2 – Contextualizing Influences―Language, Trust, and Time
5. Representational Gestures as Cognitive Artifacts for 117
Developing Theories in a Scientific Laboratory
Amaya Becvar, James Hollan, and Edwin Hutchins
6. Distributed Cognition and Joint Activity in Computer 145
System Administration
Paul P. Maglio, Eser Kandogan, and Eben Haber
7. Representation, Coordination, and Information Artifacts 167
in Medical Work
Madhu Reddy and Paul Dourish
vi Table of Contents
Section 3 – Theorizing: Coordination, Co-realization, and Structuration
8. Reach, Bracket, and the Limits of Rationalized Coordination: 193
Some Challenges for CSCW
Elihu M. Gerson
9. Down in the (Data)base(ment): Supporting Configuration in 221
Organizational Information Systems
Stuart Anderson, Gillian Hardstone, Rob Procter, and Robin
Williams
10. Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice 255
Lens for Studying Technology in Organization
Wanda J. Orlikowski
11. Reflections and Conclusions: Toward a Theory of Resources 307
Index 325
List of Authors
Mark S. Ackerman is an associate professor in the School of Information
and in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at
the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His major research areas are
computer-supported cooperative work, human-computer interaction,
pervasive computing, collaborative and organizational memory, privacy,
and the sociology of information. E-mail: [email protected]; Web:
http://www.umich.edu/~ackerm.
Stuart Anderson is a senior lecturer in the School of Informatics at
Edinburgh University. His main research interest is the dependability of
socio-technical systems. He was co-investigator for the UK Engineering
and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Dependability
Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration at Edinburgh (DIRC).
E-mail: [email protected]; Web: http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/people/staff/
Stuart_Anderson.html.
L. Amaya Becvar is a Ph.D. candidate in Cognitive Science at the
University of California at San Diego. Her research interests are human-
computer interaction, ethnography-for-design, and embodied cognition. E-
mail: [email protected].
Monika Buscher is a research fellow in the Sociology Department at
Lancaster University. Her research interests include ethnomethodology,
epistemic sociology, ethnographic studies of work practice, computer-
supported cooperative work (CSCW), cooperative analysis and system
design, and theories of information society. She is currently working
together with colleagues at Århus University in Denmark on an EU Long
Research Project called WorkSPACE. E-mail: [email protected];
Web: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fss/sociology/staff/buscher/buscher.htm.
Paul Dourish is a professor of informatics in the Donald Bren School of
Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California at
Irvine, with courtesy appointments in computer science and anthropology.
His research lies at the intersection of computer science and social science,
particularly in HCI, CSCW, and ubiquitous computing. Before UCI, he
was a senior member of the research staff in Xerox PARC’s Computer
Science Laboratory and held research positions at Apple Computer and at
Rank Xerox EuroPARC.
viii List of Authors
Thomas Erickson is an interaction designer and researcher at the IBM
T.J. Watson Research Center. He studies and designs systems that enable
distributed groups to interact coherently and productively over networks.
Erickson’s approach to systems design is shaped by methods developed in
HCI, theories and representational techniques from architecture and urban
design, and theoretical and analytical approaches from rhetoric and
sociology. Other research interests include virtual communities, game-like
interactions, and pattern languages. Contact: [email protected];
http://www.visi.com/~snowfall.
Elihu M. Gerson is director of the Tremont Research Institute in San
Francisco. He studies the sociology of distributed technical work,
especially the history and organization of comparative biology, and the
social organization of information systems. He also wonders about the
methodological problems associated with this research. He blogs
occasionally at http://tremont.typepad.com/ technical_work, and he can be
reached at [email protected].
Eben Haber works on human-computer interaction at IBM Almaden
Research Center. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-
Madison, where he worked on improving user interfaces for database
systems. His interests include databases, user interfaces, and the
visualization of structured information. He has worked in industry on data
mining and visualization as well as user interface design and is currently
studying human interaction with complex systems in the USER group at
IBM Almaden.
Christine A. Halverson is a researcher at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research
Center in the Social Computing Group. Her major research interests are
computer-supported cooperative work, distributed cognition, organizational
memory, persistent conversation, programmers and their support, the quest
for theory, and generally observing people. Her field sites have spanned car
dealers, air traffic control, banks, and high-performance programming.
E-mail: [email protected]; Web: http://www.research.ibm.com/
SocialComputing/ChristineHalverson.htm.
Gillian Hardstone was a research fellow in the School of Informatics,
University of Edinburgh, from 2001 to 2006, working on Dependability
Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (DIRC). She is a co-editor of
Trust in Technology: A Socio-Technical Perspective, Springer-Verlag,
published in 2006. E-mail: [email protected].
Mark Hartswood is a research associate in the School of Informatics, at
the University of Edinburgh. His research interests concern the
interdisciplinary study of user-designer relations in technology production
List of Authors ix
and the impact of technologies on work practice, particularly in healthcare
contexts. His work draws upon the traditions of participatory design,
computer-supported cooperative work, and workplace studies in exploring
trust, ethics, and collaboration in IT system production and use.
E-mail: [email protected]; Web: http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/people/staff/
Mark_Hartswood.html.
James Hollan is a professor at the University of California at San Diego.
His research interests include human-computer interaction and information
visualization. E-mail: [email protected].
Edwin Hutchins is a professor at the University of California at San
Diego. His research interests include distributed cognition and multi-
modal interaction. E-mail: [email protected].
Eser Kandogan is a research staff member at IBM Almaden Research
Center. He holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Maryland, College
Park, where he studied computer science with a specialization on
human-computer interaction. His interests include semantic search,
information extraction, human interaction with complex systems, policy-
based system management, ethnographic studies of system administrators,
information visualization, and end-user programming.
Wendy A. Kellogg is manager of the Social Computing Group at IBM’s
T.J. Watson Research Center focusing on computer-mediated
communication and “Enterprise 2.0.” She publishes in HCI and CSCW and
serves on the ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction editorial
board. Wendy chaired CHI 2005 Papers, DIS 2000’s Technical Program,
and the CSCW’00 and CHI’94 conferences. She has served on the NAS
Computer Science and Telecommunications Board and is an ACM fellow.
E-mail: [email protected]. Web: http://www.research.ibm.com/
SocialComputing/WendyKellogg.htm.
Paul Maglio is senior manager of Service Systems Research at the IBM
Almaden Research Center. His group encompasses social, cognitive,
computer, and business sciences and aims at understanding how people work
and create value. Since joining IBM, Maglio has worked on programmable
Web intermediaries, attentive user interfaces, multimodal human-computer
interaction, and human aspects of autonomic computing. He holds a PhD in
cognitive science from the University of California at San Diego.
E-mail: [email protected]; Web: http://www.almaden.ibm.com/
u/pmaglio.
Wanda J. Orlikowski is the Eaton-Peabody Professor of Communication
Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a professor of
x List of Authors
information technologies and organization studies at MIT’s Sloan School
of Management. Her primary research interest focuses on the dynamic
relationship between organizations and information technologies, with
particular emphases on organizing structures, cultural norms,
communication genres, and work practices. E-mail: [email protected].
Leysia Palen is an assistant professor of computer science at the
University of Colorado, Boulder, and a faculty fellow with the Institute for
the Alliance of Technology, Learning and Society (ATLAS) and the
Institute of Cognitive Science (ICS). Her research is socio-technical, with
a focus on ethnographic studies of work practice that inform technology
design, implementation, and policy. Her major areas of research are
computer-supported cooperative work, human-computer interaction,
ICT in disaster settings, and mobile communication. E-mail:
[email protected]; Web: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~palen/.
Rob Procter is professor and research director of the National Centre for
e-Social Science at the University of Manchester. His research interests lie
within the field of socio-technical issues in the design, implementation,
and use of computer systems, with an emphasis on ethnomethodologically
informed ethnographic studies of work practices, CSCW, and participatory
design. He is a co-editor of the special issue of the CSCW Journal
on Collaboration and e-Research published in 2006. E-mail:
[email protected]; Web: http://www.ncess.ac.uk/about/
people/Rob/.
Madhu Reddy is an assistant professor in the College of Information
Sciences and Technology at the Pennsylvania State University. His research
lies at the intersections of medical informatics, computer-supported
cooperative work, and human-computer interaction. He is particularly
interested in people’s information-seeking practices in collaborative settings
and the role that information technologies play in these activities. E-mail:
[email protected]; Web: http://faculty.ist.psu.edu/reddy/.
Philippe Rouchy is a lecturer in the School of Management at the
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden. His major research areas are
science and technology studies in computing, industrial and organizational
sociology, with an emphasis on computer-supported cooperative work and
ordinary language Philosophy applied at the interface between
technology/common sense. E-mail: [email protected]; Web: http://
www.bth.se/sts.
Mark Rouncefield is currently a Microsoft European Research Fellow
and Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Computing, Lancaster