Social context in HCI: a new framework for mental models, cooperation and communication

This article considers current research in computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), computer-mediated communication (CMC), and distributed artificial intelligence (DAI). These areas need an articulated model of social contexts to bridge the persisting gap between social and technological dimensions in com-puter system design and use. A conceptual model of context is presented to account for both cooperotion-conflict ond communication-negotiation processes. The model conceives of con-texts as including not only physical objects and other people but also social norms which influence both individuals and organizations. It assumes that computer system use occurs in social scenarios in which the features cannot be reduced to any type of input or data in the world that designers and users con process along with other informotion coming from the current task. The model is built on three levels: from social contexts OS normative order (level I), to specific and intrin-sically complex situations (Level 2). to person-computer interactions for the per-formance of particular tasks (Level 3)