Riding a Tiger, or Computer Supported Cooperative Work

The idea of supporting cooperative work by means of computer systems raises, inter alia, the problem of how to model cooperative work and incorporate such models in computer systems as an infrastructure of the work organization. Cooperative work arrangements should be conceived of as emerging formations that change dynamically and involves distributed decision making. Thus. modelling cooperative work and incorporating such models in CSCW systems is a precarious undertaking. The paper explores the dynamic and distributed nature of cooperative work and discusses the implications for CSCW systems design. The idea of supporting cooperative work by means of computer systems the very idea! can be compared with riding a tiger. Cooperative work may seem familiar and tame. And in fact, a plethora of languages and schemes has been furnished that confidently claim to provide reliable models of organizational roles and patterns of communication. The innocence and familiarity of cooperative work is deceptive, however. Cooperative work is difficult to bridle and coerce into a dependable model. And anyone trying to incorporate a model of a social world in a computer system as an infrastructure for that world is as reckless as a daredevil mounting a Bengal tiger. The apparent stability of organizational roles and patterns of communication is a superficial hide beneath which a capricious beast is hidden. Cooperative work arrangements should rather be conceived as emerging formations that change dynamically in accordance with the requirements of the situation, and cooperative work involves, inescapably, the vicissitudes of distributed decision making. These characteristics have important implications for CSCW systems design.