Time to work together: temporality, collaboration, and information seeking

Traditional models of information seeking focus on the individual information seeker; they de-emphasize understandings of collaboration and the broader context of work into which information-seeking activities are incorporated. Thus, although information seeking is viewed as an important aspect of collaborative work activities, we have very little empirical knowledge of how individuals actually collaborate to find needed information. I have been investigating collaborative information seeking in the context of hospital care; a hospital is an almost paradigmatic example of an information-rich environment and a natural site for investigation. Using qualitative research techniques, I have conducted a field study of the work practices of nurses, pharmacists, and physicians in a surgical intensive care unit. Through this study, an alternative characterization of collaborative information seeking has emerged; one that shifts the focus away from viewing information seeking in terms of purely “questions and answers”. In the information-rich environment of the surgical intensive care unit, the challenge is not only to find missing information, but also to ensure that information is available when it is needed—an activity that is carried out with an orientation towards the temporal organization of work. When we examine “information work” from this perspective, understanding the temporal features of the work and how people orient to and use these features in the course of their daily work is essential. In this dissertation, I introduce and describe three analytical concepts—temporal trajectories, temporal rhythms, and temporal horizons—that provide insight into people's work and information seeking behavior; this temporal orientation emphasizes that most acts of information seeking are components of temporal sequences. Therefore, collaborative information seeking is part of a process of ensuring the smooth flow of information and preventing information breakdown; information needs can be answered without questions being asked because a smooth, regular, and repeated flow ensures that needed information is available in the environment. This research lays the conceptual groundwork for a better understanding of the role that temporality plays in how people produce, seek, and manage information in their daily work. It also points to ways that temporality can be incorporated into the design of collaborative technologies.