Wiberg M. - The Interaction Society[c] Practice, Theories and Supportive Technologies (2005)(en)

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role, as it functions as a bridge between the other dimensions of performing and networking.

All assignments are organised and coordinated during morning meetings each day. The static plan that is produced most often needs to be changed and renegotiated, since conditions can change rapidly. Access to information is in these situations important and the workers often discuss and exchange information about how the work is performed, mainly to be aware of each other’s activities. Information about the elderly has always been accessible in paper binders located in the filing cabinets in the office. The information is found in severaldifferentbinders,whichcorrespondtocertainservices,suchasdelivery statistics about lunch boxes and assistance decisions. Information about their own work has long been held in their own private calendars inaccessible for others.

The fragmentation of information is a crucial problem to deal with, especially for newcomers, as one really needs to know where crucial information is to be found, in particular when the unexpected occurs, as when an unplanned house call needs to be dealt with, or an emergency call comes in that requires a direct attention. If such situations occur, the workers need to have quick and easy access to relevant information. Since homecare work until recently has been forced to manage without the aid of computers, the manual information system has been the main resource.

Table 1. The organising dimension of homecare work

Functional level

Hierarchy

Focus

ICT Role

Degree of support

ICT used in

by ICT

practice

Coordination

Group

Division of

Fully

Partly

Main

labor,

coordination

-Articulation

Sub

Group

Articulation

Fully

Yes

-Notification

Sub

Group/

Awareness,

Fully

No

Individual

Backtracking,

coordination

Administration

Main

Group and

Backtracking

Partly

Partly

management

and preparation,

reports

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The use of these traditional resources has evolved a culture of practice maintaining the resources and its interwoven parts. This culture results in the way in which communication and notification are handled, particularly in that asynchronous communication sets the agenda for how communication and messages are managed, as pointed out by Pinell et al. (2003). Today, this culture and its ways of communication are challenged by the employment of information technology and the inner logic of the system.

Toeasethe managementofinformation,the homecareorganisationshave used a computer-based information system. The system consists of a server software application distributed on two interrelated components, a desktop computer and a number of PDAs. The mobile information and communication system has slowly been deployed into both homecare groups and is now, step by step, taking over more and more of those roles traditional repositories have had earlier. Instead of memorizing the content of different files held in the archive cupboard, as before, the workers are now able to carry information about the elderly stored in the PDAs. Before leaving the office, the PDAs are synchronised with the stationary PC.

The management of information is possible both on the PDAs and on the desktop computer. However, the latter is the resource where almost all the changes of information are made. One reason for this is that the interaction styles and the small screen on the PDA provide less support to manage these tasks effectively. Table 1 shows that the application supports all the functional levels of the organising dimension, the only functional level that is partly supportedistheadministrationlevel.Thereasonsforthisisthatsomeimportant files and documents are only found on paper stored in binders, and have not yet been converted to electronic documents. The functional level of notification is also supported, but is in reality not used at all. The following discussion will focus on two functional levels in the organising dimension, namely, the coordination and the notification levels.

The Functional Level of Coordination

The uses of repositories in these functional levels have no connection to an obvious hierarchal structure of power among the workers. Thus, none of the workers is more in charge than any of the others. Homecare work is independent and autonomous, carried out towards a collective goal and where all the

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Figure 1. The wallboard

workers should be capable of handling all tasks. Everyone has a specific area of responsibility. Each person handles the maintenance work of specific files connected to their area of responsibility. Even if all the workers have specific knowledge and interest areas, the workers’ knowledge coincides. This is one of the collective strengths utilised in the organisation of work.

One of the roles the use of the application has taken is assisting the articulation and coordination of work on a daily basis. The organization of basic homecare work is more or less the same throughout the country, and similar tools and ways of handling artefacts have been established over time. In this respect, to use the system is a challenge for the whole branch. One of the artefacts that can be seen as its predecessors is the wallboard concept (see Figure 1). The conceptofthewallboardisoneimportantcognitivetoolthedesignersmanaged to encapsulate, and the software carries several similarities on that account. Currently,thedivisionofworkisexclusivelypreparedbymeansofthesoftware in both organisations, functioning as virtual representation of the wallboard (Orre, 2002).

Articulation Work Assisted by the Software Application

The personnel divide and coordinate their work in concert each morning and the procedure is similar to that of an auction. All the elderly are represented by

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numbers and one of the workers, the application operator, sits by the desktop computer and calls out the numbers to the others. For her eyes only, all the numbers are displayed on an assignment list that automatically lists all the assignments for the particular day.

The assignments pop-up automatically according to service plans scheduled in the system for each elderly person. The assistant, who wants to accept a particular call, does so by saying “I’ll take him or her.” What happens next is that the application operator drags the number from the frame on the screen containing the assignment list, to a button corresponding to the specific name of the worker that has accepted the call. The duties requiring collaboration of two workers are not accepted by the application before two assistants have accepted the call and the application operator has assigned it twice. The application operator only articulates the assignments. She does not do any coordination as to when these tasks are supposed to be carried out more than prioritising assignments that need to be attended to during the morning hours; those it concerns during the meeting negotiate the coordination of activities on their own.

Previously, the tasks were coordinated within three smaller groups of four to five workers. What the system does is to display the information and the tasks on a specific information space that provides an overview that easily can be

Figure 2. The assignment list

Assignment list

Calendar

Assigned

workers

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handled by the application operator. In Alfa, the application has made a considerable difference, and changed both the structure of the work group and the “talk about the elderly” (Orre, 2002). If one follows the importance of war stories,“Talkingaboutmachines,”discussedbyOrr(1996),thisisanimportant dimension that functions as a carrier of knowledge, not only providing an awareness of other workers’ activities but also as an exchange of experiences that can be useful for the future development of one’s own practice. One importantaspecthereistheautomaticdeliverybythesystemofassignmentson the assignment list. The application manager only needs to focus on the tasks that need to be performed during a specific day. During this procedure, no efforts are in to planning actions towards the elderly for a whole week, indicating that the long-term coordination of actions is done through other means. The role of the application is from my observations the repository that is used to determine what is going to be done, and not to keep track of the ongoingactivitiesforthemembersofthegroup,eventhoughsuchactivitiesand actions towards the elderly are recorded after their completion. The use of the system in this respect in is more in line with what to do and what were done questions, rather than questions searching for what is going on, which are more relevant for practice and the activities of micro-coordination and exception handling.

Uses of Tools at the Functional Level of Coordination

The discussion above may give the idea that the software is the only support used during the procedure of coordination. At first glance, these morning meetingsareamessofvoices,telephonesignals,mobilephonesconversations, PDAs, papers and binders, jokes and laughter, and it is difficult to see what is being decided and coordinated. After a while, one can see patterns and roles among the workers, and especially how different artefacts are used during this procedure. The application operator and the computer, as discussed above, play one distinct role. She is the only person doing the articulation tasks while the others can focus on the coordination of tasks and events. However, what about the other tools at hand? The picture below gives an account of tools that are used during the coordination of work, providing a map of the functional system in terms of actors and tools, where the thick black lines drawn between tools and the application manager or the workers as a group indicate a direct use in relation to the accomplishment of the procedure. The grey and spotted

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Figure 3. An illustration of the tools used during the meetings

lines point out uses of tools that are used, but have less or no immediate role in the coordination procedure.

What we can see in the figure is that the computer provides no other assistance than firsthand support for the application operator accomplishing her task, that is articulation work, and later, providing the others after synchronising the PDAs with updated information. The denotation of the application manager is mine, mainly to separate her from the other workers. The complex network of the other tools that are used in order to organise and prepare the work through the procedure of coordination highlights tools functioning as important resources in practice. The application and its connected mobile devices are not alone in this procedure. The stationary computer provides the group during this procedure with a single user interface that will prove important in the following discussionofthefunctionalsystemofnotification.Anotherresourcethatneeds to be mentioned is the use of mobile phones. There are a number of mobiles used to stand guard for the safety and emergency system installed in the homes of the elderly. These phones, three in number, together with the personal mobiles the staff have access to are an important resource for coordination of

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meeting points, etc. During the morning meetings calls not connected to the work at hand are handled, which can be seen as a distraction from the task, but also a natural part of the daily work.

The Functional Sublevel of Notification

The use of notes and messages is one central aspect and can be seen as a continuum of actions taken during the morning meeting. Notes and messages can in this context be discussed in terms of what Sellen & Harper (2001) define as hot and warm files — frequently used documents in the workplace. Hot and warm documents in this case function as a means for coordination and awareness of ongoing activities in the mobile work place. Notification is one important factor in the accomplishment of the collective strategy for the whole group. One repository that plays a leading role in this work is a diary found on the desk in the office.

The diaries have a central role at both sites but the uses of them differ. Different uses of similar tools indicate dissimilarities in how the social organisations of

Figure 4. A page of the diary

Day shift

Evening

shift

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tools and work are structured (Hutchins, 1995). Following this indication, one needs to go further and see where these differences can be identified and why theyoccur, especially in relation tothe use ofthe softwareapplicationandother tools.

A Cultural Transformation of the Diary According to New Circumstances

The diaries are used to memorise and communicate events and actions, initiating follow-up errands from previous house calls, or just informing the others about certain events that it can be useful to have knowledge about. If we go back, tracing the developmental process of diary uses in Alfa, a number of interestinglandmarks canbe identifiedcloselyrelatedto the introductionofthe software application and how the coordination procedure changed the structure of the group. Before the systems were introduced in Alfa, several diaries were in use. The homecare group as whole consisted of three sub-groups. Each of these groups had a certain responsibility for a particular group of elderly, each group also had a diary of their own, and the result was that three separate communication spaces were maintained using the diaries. The boundaries between these groups were tightly drawn and each group solved their own problems and worked autonomously, only caring for those elderly that “belonged” to their own group. One clear indication here is the diary’s role as a commoninformationspace,wherethepracticeofusingthediarywasoneofthe components that isolated information within the group’s boundaries, and consequently, no information was shared over these boundaries. There was one diary though, used by workers who worked the evening shift, which was sharedamongallofthegroups.Itcontainedimportantinformationaboutcertain events and conditions of the elderly that needed attention during the evening or needed a follow-up house call the next morning.

Whenthesoftwareapplicationwasfullyimplemented,thethreegroupsmerged into one. This can be seen as an effect of the particular use the application required. If one follows the earlier discussion of how the coordination during the morning meeting was handled, one can clearly see the consequence if the application were to be used by three groups simultaneously assisted by one desktop computer only. The new order that the software application introduced was negotiated among the actors, which resulted in that the whole structure of the morning meetings is being changed. Consequently, the use of

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the diary went through a similar process. The number of diaries was reduced to two, one for the day shift and one for the evening shift. Information had to be transferred between these diaries and the workers had to decide which information to give and which to consider important depending on task or task content. As this procedure was hard to maintain in the long run, a decision was made to use only one of the diaries. The pages of the diary were divided into an upper section and one latter section for each day; the former was used for day activities and the latter for evening activities. At this moment, the workers only had to view one page in order to see events that had taken place during aparticulardayandthefollowingnight.ThehistoryofeventsinAlfaconnected to the diary show how embedded the diary is in practice. The developmental process of the diary is one where a need for a common information space is negotiated (Reddy et al., 2001). The work with the diary has certain rules as to how it should be used and how the space should be managed in order to function in practice. These rules structure the use of the diary, and are a result of an evolution rather than a design. The process can be seen as an adaptation to altering circumstances in the environment where the practice, that is the collective activity, searches for reasonable ways to solve practical problems (Hutchins, 1996).

Unfortunately, no story is available for Beta regarding this matter. The application had just been up and running for a short while when I conducted my study. But what could be identified was that the procedure of coordination was continuously negotiated and that the disagreements of this process had an impact on how both the diary and the application were used. The following discussionwillillustratedifferentimplicationsthatdiversesocialorganisations have on practice when the diary is used in relation to the application.

Uses of Tools in the Functional Subsystem of

Notification

The tools that are used in the functional subsystem of notification can be extracted from the previous picture of the functional system of coordination. The same relations are found between the workers, the diary and the mobiles, indicating that there exists a certain structure of communication across functional levels of work. These relations concern coordination of other times than during the morning meetings. The computer and the PDA are not used in this functional sublevel. The diaries seem to be the tool that, more than any of the others, mediates human activity and it clearly plays an important role. An

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interesting note here is that mobile phones are part of the functional system of notification.Bothpersonalmobilesandmobilesdedicatedtohandleemergency calls are used in concert by the workers, mainly to micro-coordinate activities outinthefieldthatfunctionasnotificationsandawarenessofactionstoprovide informationaboutdelaysandnewmeetingplaces.Astheapplicationisnotused at all, and if we strive towards an understanding that can assist to inform design of information technologies, we need to compare the diaries with the software application’sfunctionalityhandlingnotification.

Uses of the Diary in Alfa: Collective Mean as a Mnemonic Tool

Information recorded in the diary does not contain regular tasks such as those listed on the assignment list. The nature of this information is added with the intentionofinforming:tellingwhetheranassignmenthasbeenaccomplished,or theoutcomeofaparticularhousecall,oraboutactionsand eventsthataregoing to be dealt with in near future. This information is strongly connected to the condition of the elderly and errands that need to be followed-up on because of aparticularhousecall.Thisalsomeansthatahousecallismoreafluidthanfixed activity, in the sense that it not always correlates to the stipulated time given on the assignment list. Thus, the diary helps to inform the other workers about ongoing activities or to provide an awareness of actions and conditions that otherwise would be difficult to attain.

As the routine during the mornings gives a possibility to structure the activities according to individual interests and strategies, there is a concern among the actors to have all the tasks on the assignment list each morning. What is requested is to have those errands listed in the diary to pop up on the assignment list each morning, an initiative that would provide a bridge between the application and the diary. An indication of the central role of the diary has is foundinthediaryinAlfa.Itcontainscross-referencestoinformationheldinthe system or to paper binders concerning information important for tasks or events.Thefactthatinformationavailableintheapplicationisnotedinthediary as a reference indicates firstly that the diary is one of the main communication tools, but also that the workers have strategies to handle two diverse set of tools thatslowlygetenmeshedtogetherinthelineofpractice.Theirdifferentusesare based on the suitability for their particular function and the need these repositories efficiently support.

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