Présence connectée » au travail : les usages de la messagerie instantanée, le genre des « questions rapides » et l’économie morale de la « contribution »

Nous analysons le developpement et l'organisation sequentielle d'un genre communicationnel — les "questions rapides" — dans deux entreprises canadiennes, organisations ou l'acces a un systeme interne de messagerie instantanee a ete generalise a tous les membres. A partir d'un corpus de messages, d'entretiens et d'observations video, nous montrons que cette forme d'echange constitue un format interactionnel et sequentiel analytiquement observable et specifiable, et un ‘genre communicationnel' a part entiere, reconnu comme tel par les acteurs. Nous decrivons ensuite comment le developpement du genre "questions rapides" en messagerie instantanee participe du travail d'organisation, et plus particulierement de la constitution d'une forme particuliere d'intelligence collective : les tâches complexes sont accomplies de maniere hautement distribuee, en sollicitant au fur et a mesure des personnes qui "savent", qui peuvent repondre rapidement, et qui peuvent etre mobilisees au fil des reseaux d'interconnaissance en tant qu'"experts". Ceci suppose chez les membres une forme supplementaire de competence organisationnelle leur permettant de resoudre le probleme de la connaissance mutuelle, particulierement saillant dans les organisations distribuees : savoir qui sait, trouver rapidement qui sait, pouvoir solliciter la personne qui peut savoir qui sait, etc. Enfin la "question rapide" constitue une forme particuliere de transaction cognitive, que l'on pourrait appeler "contribution", dont la caracteristique principale est qu'elle cree d'autant plus de sens et de lien qu'elle demande peu d'effort aux participants. Ce mode de transaction semble particulierement adapte au travail cognitif accompli en mode connecte.

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