Social Mechanisms of Interaction

The present report documents the research activities undertaken in Task 3.1 of the COMIC project. The objective of the three years of research of Strand 3 is to develop a conceptual foundation for designing computational mechanisms of interaction for CSCW applications that can support the complex task of articulating distributed cooperative activities. The present deliverable presents analyses of a number of realworld mechanisms of interaction. In doing that, the deliverable focuses on the features of these mechanisms that enable them to provide efficient and flexible support of coordination of distributed activities and the way these mechanisms are managed cooperatively. On the other hand, based on these and other studies, the deliverable presents and discusses a conceptual framework for analysis of mechanisms of interaction and derives a set of requirements for a notation for constructing computational mechanisms of interaction Document ID COMIC-D3.2 Status Final Type Deliverable Version 1.4 Date September, 1994 Editors K. Schmidt (Risø) Task 3.1  The COMIC Project, Esprit Basic Research Action 6225 Project coordinator: Tom Rodden Computing Department University of Lancaster Lancaster LA1 4YR United Kingdom Phone: (+44) 1524 593 823 Fax: (+44) 1524 593 608 Email: [email protected] The COMIC project comprises the following institutions: Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung (GMD), Bonn, Germany Risø National Laboratory, Roskilde, Denmark Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden Swedish Institute for Computer Science (SICS), Stockholm, Sweden Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands University of Lancaster, Lancaster, United Kingdom (Coordinating Partner) University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom University of Milano, Milano, Italy University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland Editor of this report: Kjeld Schmidt Cognitive Systems Group Risoe National Laboratory P.O. Box 49 DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark Phone: (+45) 4677 5146 Fax: (+45) 4675 5170 Email: [email protected] ISBN 0 901800 55 4 Lancaster University, 1994 This report is available via anonymous FTP from ftp.comp.lancs.ac.uk. Further information on COMIC is available from http://www.lancs.ac.uk/computing/research/cseg/comic/ COMIC Social Mechanisms of Interaction September 1994 3 Table of contents Introduction .......................................................................................................... 5 Part 1. Mechanisms of interaction — Conceptual framework .................. 13 1.1. Mechanisms of interaction reconsidered........................................ 15 1.2. Mechanisms of interaction and technologies of representation — Examining a case study ................................... 123 1.3. Two comments on MOIs.............................................................. 149 Part 2. Mechanisms of interaction — Case studies ................................. 159 2.1. The construction note ................................................................... 161 2.2. The bug report form ..................................................................... 187 2.3. The augmented bill of materials................................................... 221 2.4. The CEDAC board ....................................................................... 237 2.5. The product classification scheme ............................................... 247 2.6. The fault report form — Mechanisms of interaction in design and development project work......................................... 257 Appendix. The Foss cases.............................................................................. 295