Configuring a Co-operative Information System - Theoretical and Methodological Issues

The focus of the study is on the generation and use of common information spaces, and how the computer system acts as an informative artefact for the users of the system; its implications are discussed as to the role of multimedia in communication, and the representation of information in teamwork. The domain examined was the construction industry: construction teams are temporary structures, and their members are frequently geographically dispersed. This has implications for the design of appropriate technology to support the collaborative aspects of teamwork. An experimental web-based multimedia application has been developed to study the potential of multimedia for enabling novel patterns of communication and cooperation in these construction teams. This technology provides a valuable elicitation tool that has helped us to discover how people learn about one another and to explicate what social knowledge they bring to a collaboration. The paper uses ethnographic methods to study the..