Spaces of practice

  • Authors:
  • Monika Büscher;Preben Mogensen;Dan Shapiro

  • Affiliations:
  • Lancaster University;Århus University;Lancaster University

  • Venue:
  • ECSCW'01 Proceedings of the seventh conference on European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work
  • Year:
  • 2001

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Abstract

This paper compares the properties of physical and digital workspaces in the context of a prototype of a collaborative virtual environment that has been developed with reference to work in design professions and concentrates on the organisation of work materials. Spatial properties are analysed tn terms of the sociality of workspace use. Digital spaces can be engineered to mimic or to transcend various constraints and affordances of physical workspaces, and they can be given parallel, folded and tunnelled properties. We examine the consequences these have for the readiness-to-hand, intelligibility, and accountability of the resulting workspaces. We address means of interacting with these extended environments. Using case study scenarios, we demonstrate how ethnographic analysis and participatory design have informed the architecture, features and development of the system.