Ghosts in the network: distributed troubleshooting in a shared working environment

The implementation of networking technology in work settings offers numerous opportunities for improving the transmission of information and the sharing of resources within and between organizations. Its success in integrating distributed working activities, however, rests on how well the users of a network can coordinate their activities with respect to each other. This paper examines the communicative and interactive processes that take place when a typical breakdown occurs in a networked environment. A detailed analysis is presented which interprets the events that unfold in relation to the sociocognitive issues of shared understanding, the transmission of knowledge and distributed problem-solving.

[1]  Andrew Herbert,et al.  Editorial: Distributed Systems , 1991 .

[2]  Kari Kuutti,et al.  The Concept of Activity as a Basic Unit of Analysis for CSCW Research , 1991, ECSCW.

[3]  Wang Xu,et al.  The Design of a System for Distributing Shared Objects , 1991, Comput. J..

[4]  Deborah Estrin,et al.  Computer integration: a co-requirement for effective inter-organization computer network implementation , 1990, CSCW '90.

[5]  Lucy Suchman,et al.  Understanding practice: video as a medium for reflection and design (excerpt) , 1992 .

[6]  Edwin Hutchins,et al.  The technology of team navigation , 1990 .

[7]  Liam J. Bannon,et al.  Questioning Representations , 1991, ECSCW.

[8]  Bonnie A. Nardi,et al.  An ethnographic study of distributed problem solving in spreadsheet development , 1990, CSCW '90.

[9]  Herbert H. Clark,et al.  Grounding in communication , 1991, Perspectives on socially shared cognition.

[10]  H. H. Clark,et al.  Concealing one's meaning from overhearers , 1987 .

[11]  John M. Levine,et al.  Culture and socialization in work groups , 1991, Perspectives on socially shared cognition.

[12]  Susan R. Fussell,et al.  Constructing shared communicative environments , 1991, Perspectives on socially shared cognition.

[13]  Christian Heath,et al.  Collaborative Activity and Technological Design: Task Coordination in London Underground Control Rooms , 1991, ECSCW.

[14]  J. Lave.  Cognition in practice , 1988 .

[15]  Thomas P. Moran,et al.  Reaching through analogy: a Design Rationale perspective on roles of analogy , 1991, CHI.

[16]  Kjeld Schmidt,et al.  Riding a Tiger, or Computer Supported Cooperative Work , 1991, ECSCW.

[17]  Edwin Hutchins,et al.  Organizing Work by Adaptation , 1991 .

[18]  B. Chandrasekaran,et al.  Natural and Social System Metaphors for Distributed Problem Solving: Introduction to the Issue , 1981, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

[19]  J. Orr.  Sharing knowledge, celebrating identity: Community memory in a service culture. , 1990 .