Introduction

Abstract

A few decades ago, cooperation between individuals in work as well as private contexts were technically supported typically mainly by insular information and communication technologies (ICT), that tried to facilitate cooperative work, e.g. by providing the individuals with access to a shared digital representation and “thus with the ability to interact by inducing changes to the state of that representation” (Schmidt, 2011). As Monteiro et al. (2013) reflect, early designs of those insular information systems, such as reservation systems or accounting systems, were mainly oriented at the formalized representations of organizational processes. But technological enhancements, such as the World Wide Web and e-mail as well as their appropriation in different contexts, fostered the support of more complex communication as well as cooperation contexts within, but also across, organizations that gave rise to “studies of their use and possible impact” (Schmidt & Bannon, 2013).