Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 1 Office Automation & Intranets BUSS 909 Lecture 3 Computer Supported...
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Transcript of Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 1 Office Automation & Intranets BUSS 909 Lecture 3 Computer Supported...
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 1
Office Automation & Intranets
BUSS 909
Lecture 3Computer Supported
Cooperative Work (CSCW) & Groupware
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 2
Notices 1
New Tut Monday 3:30-4:30 MicroLabs 2effective next week- those who are not yet in
a tutorial need to fill in the tutorial sheet being circulated
notes will be on the Intranet so that you can see what this tutorial is about
use your assignment topic as a means for improving your search skills
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 3
Notices 3
Must provide me with your topic for Assignment 1- nowa list is being circulated- duplicate
topics will be changedin this tutorial we will consider research
techniques using search engines and also describe how they work
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 4
Agenda
Define CSCW; distinguishing it from traditional OA; Identifying some metaphors which drive the researchBannon et al (1988) Reading #15;Nunamaker et al (1991) reading #17
Distinction between CSCW in Europe and Groupware in the USAGrudin (1991) Reading #16
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 6
CSCW Rationale & Definition Defining Cooperative Work
cooperative workintra- and inter-organisational, or even
outside of formal organisationsmay even include non-hierarchical, non-
specialist, relatively autonomous worknot really a separate field in IS, more a shift
in IS theoretical perspective or worldview (Weltanschauuung) away from automation (as in OA) and towards group support
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 7
CSCW Rationale & Definition Theoretical Reasons
deficiencies and errors in the rational model of organisationsthe rational model of organisations is
the theoretical foundation of most Management Information Systems (MIS) and Decision Support Systems (DSS)
contributes to the large number of IS failures
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 8
CSCW Rationale & Definition Critique of Rational Orgs. Model
realisation that the creation and use of IS technologies in organisations is political in nature (not exclusively technical):sharing of information via DB involves
negotiation between parties with entrenched interests (social emphasis)
awareness of non-objective issues in systems analysis, design, implemention and use (not physical science but design practice)
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 9
CSCW Rationale & DefinitionWrong Emphasis in OA (1)
using rational model of organisations, IS developers see the office as:a well-structured environmentworkers carry out tasks using clearly
defined procedures
IS developers the attempt to ‘automate the office’ by recreating existing or new procedures
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 10
CSCW Rationale & Definition Wrong Emphasis in OA (2)
IS designers model office work by using information-flow diagrams
unfortunately these techniques do not capture much of what goes on in offices
replacing people with systems does not work as intended- need to shift to supporting office work
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 11
CSCW Rationale & Definition Understanding Office Environments (1)
new view is that offices are social communities where work is accomplished through social interactions of office members
the social nature of office work, previously overlooked and misunderstood, has been revealed using ethnographic studies of office environments
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 12
CSCW Rationale & Definition Understanding Office Environments (2)
these new studies show the central role of human communication:especially in synchronising work activitiesjointly determining exemptionson-going, sustaining mutual interaction to
enable behaviour of workers to be mutually understandable
new studies employ sociology, anthropology and ethnography
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 13
CSCW Rationale & Definition Improved Coordination in Offices
close coupling of what were separate systems requires good computerized cooperation and control systems
management has become very interested in extending computer coordination into non-traditional types of systems (eg. e-mail etc)
this entails some risks- eg. The Coordinator, and gIBIS systems
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 14
CSCW Rationale & Definition Technological Advances
leverage off new technologies (eg. PC based workstations and networks)
provision of better application softwareextension of ‘shrinkwrapped software’
with powerful, although often proprietary, scripting langauges eg. Visual Basic for Applications or VBA
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 15
CSCW Rationale & Definition Human/Computer Interaction
significant increase in HCI activityattempts made to extend beyond the
human-machine dyad to look at human-computer-human interactions
new, but still undeveloped, theoretical extensions to group interfaces, organisational interfaces, software ergonomics, social ergonomics
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 16
Defining Cooperative WorkSome Doubts (1)
CSCW and Group work sounds so reasonable- but a number of researchers have expressed doubts about the concept
Bannon et al (1988) believe that uneasiness with this concept is due to the assumption that:groups have shared goalsdoes not recognise the socio-political nature of
workplaces
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 17
Defining Cooperative WorkSome Doubts (2)
even if we accept the need for socio-political approaches to organisation- how can this theory be developed
IS researchers don’t have the background in these areas, and social scientists don’t have the background in IS- need hybrid researchers
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 19
CSCW -vs- Groupware
some of the difficulties IS academics have in being able to accept CSCW, are based on the fact that the North American version of it- Groupware- looks similar to what is going on at the moment
historically CSCW predates Groupware
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 20
CSCW -vs- Groupware
CSCW is based research into organisational and social aspects of IT/IS
the difference is that Europe has developed theorised approaches to work in organisations
North American researchers are much more interested in technical fetish to ask why should these ideas be developed
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 21
CSCW -vs- Groupware
CSCW has its roots historically in the socio-technical movements of the 1960s and 1970s and the Scandinavian work redesign projects of the 1970s and 1980s
much of this work started being more widely known in North America during the 1980s by Rob Kling (a well respected North American IS researcher)
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 22
CSCW -vs- Groupware
European research was interested in internal, in-house developments- systems to address organisational needs
North American research should also be interested in this- as most IS development is done in that part of the world
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 23
CSCW -vs- Groupware
instead the development of Groupware in USA, has been geared around off-the-shelf software products, shrinkwrap software:collaborative authorship systemsmeeting management systemselectronic mail
much research motivated and funded by big software houses!
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 24
CSCW -vs- Groupware
North American researchers view the Groupware push as incremental development of existing software products - supporting groups
European researchers view CSCW as a way of developing entirely new approaches to explain how work is performed by groups of people in organisations
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 26
Groupware Applications
“Almost every time there is a genuinely important decsison to be made in an organisation, a group is assigned to make it- or at least counsel and advise the individual who must make it”
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 27
Groupware Applications
Nunamacker et al paper is rather typical of North American interest in CSCW/Groupware specifically and IS research in generalemploys quantitatively informed research
modelsresearch modesl are confused with theoretical
foundationsthe general approach emphasises managerial
uses
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 28
Groupware Applications
whilst representing itself as being interested in organisations- you would expect sociological approaches- the tradition being drawn from is profoundly asocial- ie. organisational behaviour- psychological
attributes of individuals are being mapped uncritically onto organisations- eg. group memory
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 30
Groupware Applications
where group processes are elluded to, psychological justifications are used to explain them
eg. domination becomes an individual (managers) attribute
folk psychological categories are elevated to the level of theoretical categories- information overload
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 31
Groupware Applications
not surprising that in emphasising the kinds of technologies that they do
weakly justifications are used to argue that this is Groupware- in fact one of these systems was used to talk about Group Decision Support Systems (gDSS)
in North American IS there is little difference between these!
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 35
CSCW Development MetaphorsTools, Medium & Panopticon
Bannon et al (1988) assert that there are three types of metaphors which influence the theory of CSCW:computers as toolscomputers as mediumcomputer as panopticon
we will describe each in turn- but we should be careful in using them...
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 36
CSCW Development MetaphorsProblematic Categories
in principle these are dubious or problematic categories- as some research spans all three metaphors
even traditional approaches may employ one or more of these metaphors (eg. Bjorn-Andersen has used the panopticon metaphor to explain traditional IS development practices)
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 37
CSCW Development MetaphorsTool Metaphor (Ehn and Colleagues)
Bannon et al (1988) assert that the so-called tool metaphor has been and is important in forming assumptions concerning CSCW
developed by Pelle Ehn (1987) and others from Denmark
based on considerable work redesign studies of changes to the print industry
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 38
CSCW Development MetaphorsTool Metaphor (Ehn and Colleagues)
make systems that make the user in control of work processesleads to the creation of systems that are
like toolboxesdifficulty of this metaphor is that most
tools are developed for single users!the challenge is to make systems that are
useful to groups of related users rather than single users
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 39
CSCW Development MetaphorsCommunication Medium (Flores; Goldkuhl)
launguage as action perspectives view the computer as a communications mediumthis has created interesting language
centred approaches like ActionWorkflow and DEMO
focuses on how computers are used as a communications channel to support group interaction
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 40
CSCW Development MetaphorsCommunication Medium (Flores; Goldkuhl)
this metaphor does not, help us understand how the computer distorts and changes our understanding of the world
despite the fact that it should- the problematic issue with the approach is that it is not a reflexive or critical one!
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 41
CSCW Development MetaphorsComputers as Media (Andersen; Holmqvist)
related to the computers as communication media, is an approach which considers the computer as media
unlike the former approach this one does not use or suffer from the adoption of a transmission model of telecommunication (Shannon & Weaver)
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 42
CSCW Development MetaphorsComputers as Media (Andersen; Holmqvist)
Traditional Media images/paintings video (linear) photography print media
:
Computer Media raster & vector graphics digital video (linear & non-linear) virtual reality hypertext
:
this related metaphor sees computer applications as new kinds of media just like other kinds of media we are familiar with:
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 43
CSCW Development MetaphorsPanopticon (Foucault; Bentham)
19th C. British architect Jeremy Bentham developed the design for a jail called the panopticon
the panopticon consisted of a ring of prison cells which had only one window which looked toward the centre of the structure
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 44
CSCW Development MetaphorsPanopticon (Foucault; Bentham)
prisoners could not see each other, their view obstructed by the observation turret
the observation turret was covered with one-way mirrors so that while the prison guard could see the prisoner, the prsioner could not see the guard
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 45
CSCW Development MetaphorsPanopticon (Foucault; Bentham)
The Central Turret is clad using one way mirrorsThe prison Guard can see prisoners, but prisoners can never see the guardAll a prisoner sees is theire own reflection!
Central Turret, where the prison guard can watch each of the prison cells
Prison cells
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 46
CSCW Development MetaphorsPanopticon (Foucault; Bentham)
the clever(!) aspect of the design of Benthams prison is that a prisoner can never be sure if they are being observed by the prison guard
they cannot even be sure if the guard is present,
so the prisoner must assume that they are being observed every moment
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 47
CSCW Development MetaphorsPanopticon (Foucault; Bentham)
Michel Foucault (French philosopher) used Bentham’s prison as a model of surveillence in western society
the enactment of discipline upon people is most successful when they are forced to do it to themselves!
Bjorn-Andersen extended this idea of surveillence to understand IS in organisations
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 48
CSCW Development MetaphorsPanopticon (Foucault; Bentham)
the organisation of work is increasingly interdependent on IS
the performance of each individual in an organisation becomes more ‘transparent’
when one workers tasks depend on others, a great peer pressure can be exerted to accomplish the task- the same as the panopticon!
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 49
CSCW Development MetaphorsPanopticon (Foucault; Bentham)
the result may be that the IS increases the transparency of work to the level where nothing much gets done
ironically the very systems designed to facilitate work, may do the exact opposite users will be adverse to risk taking or refuse
to experiment with learning different ways of performing workpractices
Clarke, R. J (2001) L909-03: 50
CSCW Development MetaphorsPanopticon (Foucault; Bentham)
because CSCW systems are about group cooperation, they along with OA systems, may increase the risk of creating panopticons for workers in organisations
may also risk worker-managers relationships (prisoner-jailers)
this metaphor may be typical of many IS, not just CSCW systems