Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Computer Support for Social Awareness in Flexible Work

  • Published:
Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

How do we conceptualize social awareness, and what support is needed to develop and maintain social awareness in flexible work settings? The paper begins by arguing the relevance of designing for social awareness in flexible work. It points out how social awareness is suspended in the field of tension that exists between the ephemerality and continuity of social encounters, exploring ways to construct identity through relationships by means of social encounters – notably those that are accidental and unforced. We probe into this issue through design research: In particular, we present three exploratory prototyping processes in an open office setting (examining the concepts of a shared calendar, personal panels, and ambient awareness cues). Field studies, conducted in parallel, have contributed to a conceptual deconstruction of CSCW concepts, resulting in a focus on cues to relatedness, to belonging, and to care. Analyzing these three prototypes in their microcosmic usage setting results in specific recommendations for the three types of applications with respect to social awareness. The experiences indicate that the metaphors a ‘shared mirror’ and ‘breadcrumbs’ are promising foundations on which to base further design. We present these analyses and suggest that the metaphors work because of their ability to map experiences from the physical space into conceptual experiences. We conclude that social awareness in flexible work must be constructed indirectly, presenting itself as an option, rather than as a consequence of being able to overhear and oversee.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aaløkke, S. and E. Bjerrum (2005): The Office as a Strategic Artifact for Knowledge Sharing? OLKOS Trento.

  • Aaløkke, S., E. Bjerrum, S. Bødker and A. Bechmann Petersen (2005): Gate Keeping or Bridge Building? – Cooperation, Learning and Boundary Working in a Cross-media Workplace. OLKOS Trento.

  • Begole, J.B., J.C. Tang, R.B. Smith and N. Yankelovich (2002): Work Rhythms: Analyzing Visualizations of Awareness Histories of Distributed Groups, Proceedings of CSCW 2002, pp. 334–343, ACM.

  • Bell G., Blythe M., Sengers P., (2005). Making by Making Strange: Defamiliarization and the Design of Domestic Technologies. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) 12(2):149–173

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bertelsen O., Bødker S. (2002). Interaction Through Multi-artifacts. In: Bagnara S., Pozzi S., Rizzo A., Wright P. (eds) ECCE 11 – Cognition, Culture and Design Eleventh European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics. Instituto di scienze e technologie della cognizione consiglio nazionale delle ricerche, Rome, pp 103–111

    Google Scholar 

  • Bjerrum, E. and S. Bødker (2003): Knowledge Sharing in the “new office” – Possibility or Problem? K. Kuutti, E. Karsten G., Fitzpatrick, P. Dourish and K. Schmidt (eds): Proceedings of the Eighth European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 14–18 September 2003, Helsinki, Finland, pp. 199–218.

  • Bjerrum, E. and A.B. Fangel (2004): Ny kontorindretning – et videndelingværktøj eller bare smart? Børsens Ledelseshåndbøger Knowledge Management, no. 5.

  • Bly S., Harrison S., Irwin S. (1993). Media Spaces: Bringing People Together in a Video, Audio, and Computing Environment. Communications of the ACM 36(1):28–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bødker S., Christiansen E. (1997). Scenarios as Springboards in Design. In: Bowker G., Gasser L., Star S.L., Turner W. (eds). Social Science Research, Technical Systems and Cooperative Work. Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 217–234

    Google Scholar 

  • Bødker, S. and E. Christiansen (2004): Designing for Ephemarality and Prototypicality. Proceedings of the 2004 conference on Designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques, ACM, pp. 255–260.

  • Bødker S. (1991). Through the Interface – a Human Activity Approach to User Interface Design. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Bødker, S., P. Ehn, J.L Knudsen, M. Kyng and K.H. Madsen (1988): Computer Support for Cooperative Design. In Proceedings of Conference on CSCW, Portland, Oregon, September 1988, New York: ACM, pp. 377–394.

  • Brown, J. Seely and P. Duguid (1994): Borderline Issues: Social and Material Aspects of Design in: Human–Computer Interaction, vol. 9, pp. 3–36.

  • Christiansen, E. (2001): Knowledge Management in a Thinking System. IRIS24 2001, Ulvik, Norway, August 11–14, pp. 691–704.

  • Clark, H. (1996): Arranging to Do Things With Others Plenary Session. Proceedings of ACM CHI 96 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, vol. 2, pp. 165–167.

  • Denning P. (2003). The Profession of IT: Accomplishment. Communications of the ACM 46(7):19–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dourish, P. and S. Bly (1992): Portholes: Supporting Awareness in a Distributed Work Group. Proceedings of ACM CHI’92 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 541–547.

  • Dourish. P. and L. Palen (2003): Unpacking “privacy” for a Networked World. In V. Bellotti, T. Erickson, G. Cockton and P. Korhonen (eds.): Proceedings of the 2003 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’03), pp. 129–136.

  • Engeström Y. (1987). Learning by Expanding. Orienta-Konsultit, Helsinki

    Google Scholar 

  • Erickson T., Kellogg W. (2002). Social Translucence: An Approach to Designing Systems That Support Social Processes. In Carroll J. (eds). Human-Computer Interaction in the New Millennium. Addison-Wesley, New York, NY, pp. 324–346

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzpatrick, G., W. Tolone and S. Kaplan (1995): Work, Locales and Distributed Social Worlds Distributed Social Worlds. Proceedings of the Fourth European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, pp. 1–16.

  • Grudin J. (2002). Group Dynamics and Ubiquitous Computing. Communications of The ACM 45(12):74–78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kovalainen, M., M. Robinson and E. Auramaki (1998): Diaries at Work Organizational Culture: Memory and Change. Proceedings of ACM CSCW’98 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, pp. 49–58.

  • Lakoff, J. (1987): Woman, Fire and Dangerous Things, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

  • Lave J., Wenger E. (1991). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy J., Wright P. (2004). Technology as Experience. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, J. (2003): Promoting a Sense of Community with Ubiquitous Displays. In K. O’Hara, M. Perry, E. Churchill and D. Russell (eds.): Public and Situated Displays Social and Interactional Aspects of Shared Display Technologies. The Kluwer International Series on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, vol. 2, pp. 283–308.

  • Moran, T.P. and B. Anderson (2000): The workaday world as a paradigm for CSCW design. Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Proceedings of the 1990 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work, pp. 381–393.

  • Nardi, B., S. Whittaker and H. Schwartz (2000a): It’s not What You Know. It’s Who You Know: Work in the Information Age. First Monday 5(5).

  • Nardi, B., S. Whittaker and E. Bradner (2000b): Interaction and Outeraction – Instant Messaging in Action. Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Proceedings of the 2000 ACM Conference on Computer-supported Cooperative Work. ACM, pp. 79–88.

  • Robertson T. (2002). The Public Availability of Actions and Artefacts. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) 11(3): 299–316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, M. (1993): Design for Unanticipated Use. In G. deMichaelis and C. Simone (eds.): Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW ’93). Dordrecht, Boston, London: Kluwer, pp. 187–202.

  • Schön D. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Schutz, A. (1962): Collected Papers, vol. I. The Problem of Social Reality. Martinus Nijhoff/The Hague.

  • Sennett, R. (1998): The Corrosion of Character. The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism. New York, London : W.W.Norton and Co.

  • Strauss A. (1993). Continual Permutations of Action. Aldine De Gruyter, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Tillich P. (1987). On Art and Architecture. Crossroads, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Tollmar, K., O. Sandor and A. Schomer (1996): Supporting Social Awareness @ Work, Design, and Experience Setting up Encounters. Proceedings of ACM CSCW’96 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work 1996, pp. 298–307.

Download references

Acknowledgements

The Center for New Ways of Working has been financed through the Alexandra Institute and through CIT/CfPC grant #223. We thank all our collaborators, most notably Eva Bjerrum, Claus Bossen, Christina Brodersen, Jannie Friis Kristensen, Kaj Grønbæk, Ole Iversen, Peter Krogh, Rune Nielsen, and Werner Sperschneider. Thanks are also due, for inspiring comments, to Peter Carstensen, Anne Bøgh Fangel, Marianne Dammand Iversen, Anne-Marie Kanstrup, Lene Kjelsteen, Leysia Palen, and Thomas Risgaard, as well as several anonymous, and very patient, reviewers of earlier versions of this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for New Ways of Working, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark

    Susanne Bødker

  2. Department of Communication, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Ellen Christiansen

Authors
  1. Susanne Bødker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ellen Christiansen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Susanne Bødker.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bødker, S., Christiansen, E. Computer Support for Social Awareness in Flexible Work. Comput Supported Coop Work 15, 1–28 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-005-9011-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-005-9011-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation