TY - BOOK T1 - Resources, co-evolution and artifacts: Theory in CSCW Y1 - 2007 A1 - Mark S. Ackerman A1 - Christine A Halverson A1 - Erickson, Thomas A1 - Kellogg, Wendy A KW - co-evolution KW - CSCW theory KW - resource AB -

How do software and other technical systems come to be adopted and used?

People use software and other technical systems in many ways, and a considerable amount of time and energy may be spent integrating the functionality of the system with the everyday activities it is intended to support. Understanding how this comes about, and understanding how to design systems so that it happens more easily, is a topic of great interest to the CSCW, IT and IS communities.

Resources, Co-Evolution and Artifacts: Theory in CSCW approaches this problem by looking at resources - artifacts that have come to be used in a particular manner in a given situation - and examining how they get created, adopted, modified, and abandoned. The theoretical and empirical studies in this volume examine issues such as:

- how resources are tailored or otherwise changed as situations change;

- how a resource is maintained and reused within an organization;

- the ways in which the value of a resource comes to be understood;

- the ways in which an artifact is transformed to function more effectively;

- how one might approach the problem of designing a resource de novo.

PB - Springer CY - New York UR - NoFile ER - TY - CONF T1 - Behind the Help Desk: Evolution of a Knowledge Management System in a Large Organization T2 - Proceedings of the 2004 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW'04) Y1 - 2004 A1 - Christine A Halverson A1 - Erickson, Thomas A1 - Mark S. Ackerman KW - design approaches KW - distributed cognition KW - ethnography KW - FAQ KW - frequently asked questions KW - help desk AB -

This paper examines the way in which a knowledge management system (KMS)-by which we mean the people, processes and software-came into being and evolved in response to a variety of shifting social, technical and organizational pressures. We draw upon data from a two year ethnographic study of a sophisticated help desk to trace the KMS from its initial conception as a "Common Problems" database for help desk personnel, to its current instantiation as a set of Frequently Asked Questions published on an intranet for help desk clients. We note how shifts in management, organizational structure, incentives, software technologies, and other factors affected the development of the system. This study sheds light on some of the difficulties that accompany the implementation of CSCW systems, and provides an analysis of how such systems are often designed by bricolage.
 

JF - Proceedings of the 2004 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW'04) UR - Complete ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Organizational memory as objects, processes, and trajectories: An examination of organizational memory in use JF - Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) Journal Y1 - 2004 A1 - Mark S. Ackerman A1 - Christine A Halverson KW - boundary objects KW - collective memory KW - contextualization KW - corporate memory KW - distributed cognition KW - information reuse KW - knowledge management KW - memory reuse KW - organizational memory KW - trajectories of information AB -

For proper knowledge management, organizations must consider how knowledge is kept and reused. The term organizational memory is due for an overhaul. Memory appears to be everywhere in organizations; yet, the term has been limited to only a few uses. Based on an ethnographic study of a telephone hotline group, this paper presents a micro-level, distributed cognition analysis of two hotline calls, the work activity surrounding the calls, and the memory used in the work activity. Drawing on the work of Star, Hutchins, and Strauss, the paper focuses on issues of applying past information for current use. Our work extends Strauss' and Hutchins' trajectories to get at the understanding of potential future use by participants and its role in current information storage. We also note the simultaneously shared provenance and governance of multiple memories – human and technical. This analysis and the theoretical framework we construct should be to be useful in further efforts in describing and analyzing organizational memory within the context of knowledge management efforts.

VL - 13 UR - Complete ER - TY - CONF T1 - "Yeah, the Rush Ain'T Here Yet " Take a Break": Creation and Use of an Artifact As Organizational Memory T2 - Proceedings of the 36th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'03) Y1 - 2003 A1 - Christine A Halverson A1 - Mark S. Ackerman KW - dcog KW - distributed cognition KW - expertise sharing KW - information maintenance KW - information reuse KW - knowledge artifacts KW - resource evolution KW - socio-technical resources KW - trajectories of use AB -

important to understand how things become adopted as memory resources in organizations. In this paper, we describe the genesis and use of an artifact that became a memory resource for a wide range of activities. We discuss how the creation and use of the rush cheat sheet (RCS) and its associated representations at Dallas Ft. Worth TRACON brought together information and expert knowledge across organizational boundaries. Multiorganizational information became synthesized in a composite that could be used as a resource by the contributing organizations, acting as a boundary object. However, it is multiple representations of the same data that enable it to be so used. Using distributed cognition theory, we examined the conditions under which data transforms from an internal resource to a boundary object; speculating about domain generalization.

JF - Proceedings of the 36th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'03) UR - Complete ER - TY - CONF T1 - Organizational memory: processes, boundary objects, and trajectories T2 - Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences (HICSS-32) Y1 - 1999 A1 - Mark S. Ackerman A1 - Christine A Halverson KW - expertise sharing KW - hotlines KW - information reuse KW - information trajectories KW - organizational memory AB -

The term organizational memory is due for an overhaul. Memory appears to be everywhere in organizations; yet, the term has been limited to only a few uses. Based on an ethnographic study of a telephone hotline group, this paper presents a micro-level, distributed cognition analysis of two hotline calls, the work activity surrounding the calls, and the memory used in the work activity. We find a number of interesting theoretical concepts that are useful in further describing and analyzing organizational memory.

JF - Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences (HICSS-32) UR - Complete ER - TY - CONF T1 - Considering an Organization's Memory T2 - Proceedings of the 1998 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW'98) Y1 - 1998 A1 - Mark S. Ackerman A1 - Christine A Halverson KW - collective memory KW - computer-supported cooperative work KW - distributed cognition KW - expertise sharing KW - group memory KW - information sharing KW - knowledge management KW - knowledge sharing KW - organizational memory AB -

The term organizational memory is due for an overhaul. Memory appears to be everywhere in organizations; yet, the term has been limited to a few uses. In this paper we examine what memory in an organization really is. Based on an ethnographic study of a telephone hotline group, this paper presents a micro-level analysis of a hotline call, the work activity surrounding the call, and the memory used in the work activity. We do this analysis from the viewpoint of distributed cognition theory, finding it fruitful for an understanding of an organization’s memory.

JF - Proceedings of the 1998 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW'98) UR - Complete ER -