CSCW ‘90 Proceedings THE TEMPORAL STRUCTURE OF COOPERATIVE ACTIVITY1

iNTRODUCTlON Developers of group-support technology often base their designs on tacit assumptions about the nature of group work. At the same time, social scientists, tell us that cooperative work involves complex social and linguistic interactions among team members [Krau90]. The research reported here considers one important facet of these interactions: what is the nature of the relationship between individual work and group work activity? In particular, how is the characteristic temporal and spatial patterning of behavior in the work environment related to the modes of cooperative behavior? We are attempting to develop a theoretical framework which addresses such questions in an empirically verifiable way. The framework begins with the observation that individuals in office settings must routinely resolve conflicts between (1) having uninterrupted periods of time in which to get their own work done and (2) being accessible for communication with others with whom they work. Our approach to the study of these issues has several sources. The first source is the work of technology developers and impresarios. Bullen and Johansen [Bu1188], in a review of emerging commercial trends in groupware technology, point out that evolving commercia