Cognitive science normally takes the individual agent as its unit of analysis. In many human endeavors, however, the outcomes of interest are not determined entirely by the information processing properties of individuals. Nor can they be inferred from the properties of the individual agents, alone, no matter how detailed the knowledge of the properties of those individuals may be. In com-mercial aviation, for example, the successful completion of a flight is produced by a system that typically includes two or more pilots interacting with each other and with a suite of technological devices. This article presents a theoretical framework that tokes a distributed, socio-technical system rather than an indi-vidual mind as its primary unit of analysis. This framework is explicitly cognitive in that it is concerned with how information is represented and how representa-tions are transformed and propagated in the performance of tasks. An analysis of a memory task in the cockpit of a commercial airliner shows how the cognitive properties of such distributed systems can differ radically from the cognitive properties of the individuals who inhabit them. Thirty years of research in cognitive psychology and other areas of cognitive science have given us powerful models of the information processing prop-erties of individual human agents. The cognitive science approach provides a very useful frame for thinking about thinking. When this frame is applied to the individual human agent, one asks a set of questions about the mental An initial analysis of speed bugs as cognitive artifacts was completed in November of 1988. Since then, my knowledge of the actual uses of speed bugs and my understanding of their role in cockpit cognition has changed dramatically. Some of the ideas in this paper were presented

Recent research suggests that people obtain useful knowledge from others with whom they work closely and frequently (i.e., strong ties). Yet there has been limited empirical work examining why this is so. Moreover, other research suggests that weak ties provide useful knowledge. To help integrate these multiple findings, we propose and test a model of two-party (dyadic) knowledge exchange, with strong support in each of the three companies surveyed. First, the link between strong ties and receipt of useful knowledge (as reported by the knowledge seeker) was mediated by competence- and benevolence-based trust. Second, once we controlled for these two trust dimensions, the structural benefit of weak ties became visible. This latter finding is consistent with prior research suggesting that weak ties provide access to non-redundant information. Third, we found that competence-based trust was especially important for the receipt of tacit knowledge. We discuss implications for theory and practice. 2

Research in organizational learning has demonstrated processes and occasionally performance implications of acquisition of declarative (know-what) and procedural (know-how) knowledge. However, considerably less attention has been paid to learned characteristics of relationships that affect the decision to seek information from other people. Based on a review of the social network, information processing, and organizational learning literatures, along with the results of a previous qualitative study, we propose a formal model of information seeking in which the probability of seeking information from another person is a function of (1) knowing what that person knows; (2) valuing what that person knows; (3) being able to gain timely access to that person’s thinking; and (4) perceiving that seeking information from that person would not be too costly. We also hypothesize that the knowing, access, and cost variables mediate the relationship between physical proximity and information seeking. The model is tested using two separate research sites to provide replication. The results indicate strong support for the model and the mediation hypothesis (with the exception of the cost variable). Implications are drawn for the study of both transactive memory and organizational learning, as well as for management practice.

This essay compares activity theory (AT) with distributed cognition theory (DCOG), asking what each can do for CSCW. It approaches this task by proposing that theories – when viewed as conceptual tools for making sense of a domain – have four important attributes: descriptive power; rhetorical power; inferential power; and application power. It observes that AT and DCOG are not so different: both emphasize cognition; both include the social and cultural context of cognition; both share a commitment to ethnographically collected data. Starting with a description of the distributed cognition approach, it uses an example of a DCOG analysis to ground a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of AT and DCOG as an approach to issues in CSCW. Finally, the essay considers what theoretical work is being done by the attributes of the respective theories, and whether AT, DCOG, or any theory developed outside the context of group work, will work for CSCW.

We present a detailed model of collaboration in communities of practice and we examine its dynamical consequences for the group as a whole. We establish the existence of a novel mechanism that allows the community to naturally adapt to growth, specialization, or changes in the environment without the need for central controls. This mechanism relies on the appearance of a dynamical instability that initates an exploration of novel interactions, eventually leading to higher performance for the community as a whole. 1

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Gibson developed an interactionist view of perception and action that focused on information that is available in the environment. He thereby rejected the still-prevalent framing assumption of factoring external-physical and internal-mental processes. The interactionist alternative, which focuses on processes of agent-situation interactions, is taken in ecological psychology as well as in recent research on conversational communication, research on complex, socially organized activity, and philosophical situation theory. The concepts of qffordance and ability are key ideas in an interactionist account. In situation theory, abilities in activity depend on attunements to constraints, and affordances for an agent can be understood as conditions in the environment for constraints to which the agent is attuned. This broad view of affordances includes affordances that are recognized as well as affordances that are perceived directly. In his 1954 article on visual perception of motion and movement, Gibson discussed several ways in which perceptions of motion and movement have to be understood relationally. As he remarked, citing Kofflca (1935), "Just as a motion for the physicist can be specified only in relation to a chosen coordinate

This paper examines the way in which a knowledge management system (KMS)—by which we mean the people, processes and software—came into being and evolved in response to a variety of shifting social, technical and organizational pressures. We draw upon data from a two year ethnographic study of a sophisticated help desk to trace the KMS from its initial conception as a “Common Problems ” database for help desk personnel, to its current instantiation as a set of Frequently Asked Questions published on an intranet for help desk clients. We note how shifts in management, organizational structure, incentives, software technologies, and other factors affected the development of the system. This study sheds light on some of the difficulties that accompany the implementation of CSCW systems, and provides an analysis of how such systems are often designed by bricolage. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.5.3 [Group and organizational interfaces]: Computer supported cooperative work

(This is the corrected version) Co-operative systems are combinations of technology, people and organisations that facilitate the communication and co-ordination necessary for a group to work together effectively. The technology involved is often, but not necessarily, groupware / computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). The evaluation of such systems is highly difficult, especially because of the widely differing views and disciplines involved. This thesis suggests that this difficulty has partly been caused by attempts to find a single measure of ‘right ’ or ‘wrong ’ in evaluating these systems. Instead, it advocates evaluation as the facilitation of an organisational learning process, with learning outcomes for all stakeholders arising during the evaluation as much as from the evaluation report. Such evaluation cannot be confined to a single perspective and means of analysis – concerning technology, organisational structure or culture – as to do so ignores the inter-dependencies of the issues involved. To solve these problems, I have developed the Systemic Evaluation for Stakeholder Learning (SESL) methodology. The principles and practice of this methodology are presented here. It

In this paper we examine the adaptability of the Japanese style lean organization system and the traditional American style mass organization system under changing environments. From an organizational design perspective, key structural aspects of the two organizations are modeled in a problem solving context using computational methods. Organizational-level performance in terms of decision making accuracy and severity of errors is measured as an indicator of organizational adaptability under conditions where the task environment shifts between predictable to unpredictable or vise versa. Our study shows that both organizations have their respective advantages under different task environments and that they adapt to environmental shifts in different forms. Specifically, when the time pressure is high the lean organization system’s performance is virtually identical to the mass organization system, even though the lean organization system’s members are more proactive. When the time pressure is low, the mass organization system shows a much faster adaptability when the environment shifts to a predictable one but it is also more vulnerable when the environment shifts to an unpredictable one. In contrast, the lean organization system’s response to the changing environment is characterized by its slower adaptability. When the environment shifts to an unpredictable one, the lean organization system shows a gradual improvement till reaching a high level. When the environment shifts to a predictable one, however, the lean organization system shows a gradual