Making it work: A field study of a “CSCW Network”

Abstract

This article presents a field study of the procurement, implementation, and use of a local area network devoted to running computer‐supported cooperative work (CSCW) related applications in a U.K. central government organization. In this particular case, the network ran into a number of difficulties, was resisted by its potential users for a variety of reasons, was faced with being withdrawn from service on a number of occasions, and remains only partly used. The study points to the kinds of problems that a project to introduce computer support for cooperative work to an actual organization is likely to face, and a series of concepts is offered to help manage the complexity of these problems. In so doing, this article adds to and extends previous studies of CSCW tools in action but also argues that experience form the field should be used to reorganize the research agenda of CSCW.

Keywords:

• case study
• CSCW
• ethnography
• groupware
• networks
• organizations
• use studies