Why do we need to share information?: analysis of collaborative task management meetings
In order to study collaborative information behavior in the work environment, it is important that we take into consideration its embedded nature in collaborative work, but it has not been easy to conduct studies by actually taking it into consideration. In conducting fieldwork, we came to study group task management in the work of IT product hardware designers. The study shows how understanding the details of information activities embedded in task management allowed us to generate some ideas for transforming task management into a more collaborative activity, and for re-embedding task management into their work practices together with the practitioners. The paper discusses how taking an ethnomethodological approach can be fruitful for researchers who want to gain a close understanding of actual collaborative information activities and its embedded nature in work, and how understandings of this kind can be important for developing ideas for transforming practice both with or without the introduction of technology.
Ikeya, N.; Awamura, N.; Sakai, S. Why do we need to share information?: analysis of collaborative task management meetings. In Collaborative Information Behavior: User Engagement and Communication Sharing, edited by Jonathan Foster. To be published by IGI Global in 2010.