Virtual collaboration as co-enacting intercorporeality

Figures & data

Table 1. Synthesis of intercorporeality perspective.

Intercorporeal view of the body	Redefinition of the body
More-than-physical	The self is more than the physical body and one’s awareness of self is not from within but from without, therefore one’s experience goes beyond physicality. The body is not limited to its physical location and boundaries.
More-than-individual	The body is porous and open to the other and the world. It is complete with the ‘other’. In fact, only through the other one can gain awareness of self. The shared world is always already embodied and fundamentally intersubjective. The body is the movement between self and other; it is the dynamic in-betweenness.
More-than-stable	The body is continuously in movement – oscillating between awareness of other and self; and mutually adjusting posture and direction with the other. Thus, the body is a self-other becoming, but at the same time is the ‘null point’ of all experimental orientations being an absolute ‘here’ for the self.
More-than-connective	Self and other are constantly in the making. Self, other and their relationships are continuously transformed. This relationship is enactive and is productive of body-subjects, identities and intersubjectivities.
More-than-predictable	Embodied communicative intentionality is about spontaneity and continuity of responses and solicitations. This process of co-responsiveness is emergent and hardly predictable.
More-than-explicit	The workings of the bodies might take different forms of gestures or frozen traces. Bodies operate tacitly and become visible through actions and behaviours.

Table 2. Analytical framework.

Concept	Description	Analytical implications
Body	More than physical and individual. It is a material-semiotic process enacting both body-image (body for other) and body-schema (body for me); both sentient and sensible, open and completed through the ‘other’. As such it provides the fundamental orientation to any meaningful collaboration or relationship.	In co-located settings, the body is usually visible and touchable. Its actions, gestures and behaviours and the way they engage with the ‘other’ are immediate, situated in the present, and spatially proximate.
Reversibility	Suggests that self and other are ontologically related, which means that they are not merely connected but intertwined. It is not either about reciprocity or fusion, but re-enforces both ‘identity in difference’. Relationships are reversible patterns of self-other becoming.	In a shared physical space a lived body can simultaneously see and be seen, touch and be touched, speak and be heard, move and reorient its perspective across different sensory modes. Through this process one gains awareness of self and other and their actions become interlocked into patterns that connect the past with the present and future.
Expression	For Merleau-Ponty all ‘human action is expression’ including movements and gestures that make things public, and connect bodies to each other. The process of mutual displaying might involve co-responding of timing, distance, speed, and position that result into the patterning of the relational armature.	In co-located settings there can be different visual indicators such as changes in body posture, facial expressions, direction and intensity of gaze, as well as, different bodily gestures that constitute intercorporeality. In addition, there can be different oral indicators such as intonation and volume of voice.
Language	It is not just a symbolic system representing thoughts, but instead accomplishes them, having important spontaneous and gestural role.	Language as gestures focuses on the extra-discursive and embodied aspects that emerge in parallel with expressions that rely on the content of words and their semantic meanings.

Table 3. Data collection.

Project participants	Interviewees	Interviews	Inter-team meetings	Correspondence archive
IndiaSoft: Balik Madan Sean Developers	Balik CEO (IndiaSoft)	October 2007 (F2F) November 2007 (Skype) May 2008 (Skype)	2 June & July 2009	Around 500 emails constituting the correspondence over the two projects. Over 40 project documents
	Paul Project manager (Purple)	November 2007 (Skype) February 2008 (Skype) May 2009 (Skype)
Purple Paul Kevin Anthony John Other developers	Sean Chief Marketing Officer (IndiaSoft)	October 2007 (F2F) November 2007 (Skype) February 2007 (Skype) May 2008 (F2F) June 2009 (Skype)
	Madan Project manager (IndiaSoft)	November 2007 (Skype) May 2008 (Skype) July 2009 (Skype)
		TOTAL 15

Table 4. Sample of the data coding process – building themes.

Meaning unit	Concept/Label	Theme
“I can’t ping you because you are offline in Skype” (email quote)“I think we all kept track of their availability in Skype and everyone knew this … ” (interview quote)	Posture, presence, visibility.	Co-presencing – enacting mutual visibility
“He is the kind of phrase ‘a real blow buster’, you are not waiting for him to get back to you he is back to you before you press the ‘send’ button”. (interview quote)“ Thanks for sending this so quickly”. (email quote).	Direction, timing, orientation.	Co-orienting – mutual attunement of readiness to engage.
“We couldn’t get time and commitment from you” (email quote) “Both companies became complacent … ” (interview quote)	Commitment, proximity, investment.	Co-investing – mutual attunement of care and commitment.

Table 5. Coding scheme of bodily gestures and displays.

Empirical example	Descriptive coding	Analytic category
“Thanks for bringing this to us”. “You have to talk even if you don’t have anything to say”	Closing episodes Small talk	Non-propositional linguistic gestures that play a role in the interactive patterning. They have a strategic orientation and display presence and acknowledgement.
“Well done! Our team appreciated the work that has gone in preparing this”.	Digital texts and documents	Textual artefacts as frozen gestures indexing back to the authoring bodies and displaying a particular trajectory.
“I think we all kept track of their availability in Skype and everyone knew this … ”	Skype icon	Using tools for extending and enacting one’s bodily expressivity.
“May be this can be of some help for MySQL clustering support”. “Give us a shout if you need some help with this module”	Giving symbolic gifts Offering help	Actions and behaviours enacted through language. They have a strategic orientation, and display particular orientation to the other.
“Madan is away from his desk until Tuesday … ”	Reversing perspectives	Gestures that help perceive one’s own position through the other; making public certain current or future actions enabling others to organise their actions in relation to ours.

Table 6. Communication patterns.

Empirical example	Indicator	Analytic category
The average response time for the first project was 5h and 17.9h for the second project (Figure 3) The average of exchanged emails per day during the first project were 5.7 vs. 3.2 during the second project.	Speed of responseAmount of time and attention	Behaviours and actions that display a particular attitude towards the other that is interactively accomplished.
75% of the topics were closed within 40 hours during the first project vs. 80 hours during the second project (Figure 1)	Topic closure duration	Disintegration of communication patterns.

Figure 1. Email topic closure duration.

Figure 2. Distribution of topic duration.

Table

Paul: Hi Madan, my number 1 priority is getting the laptop client testing started again. For that we need a stub of the report find action as per previous mails. PLEASE get the laptop report find action deployed on Tuesday - it only has to be a stub. I can’t ping you because you’re offline in Skype …? (Email from Paul to Madan, 21.01.2008) Paul: I need the new action defined and deployed as quickly as possible.. BTW: Madan still seems to be offline in Skype - I hope he is getting emails… (Email from Paul to Balik, 22.01.2008) Balik: Madan, see if Anthony can be agreed to have a quick 10 minutes update every morning with you. This would improve communication level….We really need to make an effort to bring Purple client in comfort zone, I think its red at the minute” (Email from Balik to Madan, 22.01.2008).

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Madan is away from his desk until Tuesday, he will ping on you on Wednesday morning. Please let me know if there is anything urgent and I will handle it with team“(Email from Balik to Paul) Thanks Madan. Can we leave this till tomorrow? Kevin is not in the office today.” (Email from Paul to Madan in a response to an email sent to Kevin) Sean is away from his desk until later afternoon, he will call you to arrange meeting with him tomorrow once he is back on his desk and if needed I can conf you two from here (Balik Paul, Dec 2007)

Figure 3. Response time frequency.

Figure 4. Distribution of Response Frequencies.

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Paul: Hi Madan, are you available to take us and the call centre guys through the new system today? Sorry for the short notice. The call centre guys are only available at 12 Irish time. How does that suit you? Madan: Paul that should not be an issue… I will be available for the call. Let’s do it! (Email exchange between Madan and Paul, 09.12.2007)

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“Thanks for sending this so quickly” (Email from Paul to Madan, 10.08.2007). “Thanks for quick feedback Paul!” (Email from Balik to Paul, 03.12.2007) “Thanks for the update – looks good. Can we go for 10:30 on Monday for a call” (Email from Paul to Madan, 01.11. 2007)

Figure 5. Comparison of email frequencies.

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“Can you guys help us in understanding these classes and their purpose?” (Email fromMadan to Purple, 29.08.2007). “Please feel free to touch base with me in case of issues/concerns/feedbacks” (Email by Madan to the list of developers, 13.09.2007). “Hi Madan – Paul mentioned you might have some questions about the knowledgebase – if that’s the case feel free to give me a call or e-mail if there’s anything I can help with” (Email from Kevin to Madan, 12.11. 2007) “Looking for any ideas/suggestions WRT encryption on the database. A few things come to mind so any feedback would be appreciated - What needs to be encrypted? First thoughts here are anything…Fire suggestions this way: o)” (Dave to the list of developers, 11.09.2007)

Table 7. Towards perspective on virtual intercorporeality.

Concept	Description (Merleau-Ponty)	Theoretical advances: virtual intercorporeality
Body	More than physical and individual. It is a material-semiotic process enacting both body-image (body for other) and body-schema (body for me); both sentient and sensible, open and completed through the ‘other’.	The virtual body is truly material-semiotic and processual, instantiated (not represented) by novel forms of displaying and gesturing. It remains open and porous process enacting an enlarged social fabric. It experiences others and world in new ways and makes itself experienceable in new ways. The virtual body is enlarged through enactment of intercorporeal processes (Proposition No 2).
Reversibility	Suggests that self and other are ontologically related, which means that they are intertwined rather than being merely connected. The outcome is a process characterised by ‘identity in difference’ that is distinct from simple reciprocity or complete fusion.	Virtual reversibility is characterised by a type of disconnect that foregrounds the need for temporal sustenance and connection. Mutual attunement and intertwinement then become more challenging highlighting the importance of temporal alterity and structural fragility of virtual interactions (Proposition No 3).
Expression	For Merleau-Ponty all ‘human action is expression’ including movements and gestures that make things public and attune bodies to each other.	In virtual settings, and particularly supported by leaner media such as email, bodily expressions display through the ways digital texts are produced, organised and shared in the process of co-responding. These might include rhythm, speed, force and direction, as well as, such that might have a more discrete articulation and particular symbolic significance (Proposition 4).
Language	It includes the symbolic system representing thoughts, but also accomplishes them, having important spontaneous and gestural role.	In virtual context, language and specifically digital text, become a multi-layered medium for interactions, which is conducive to different types of gestures and bodily displays. The pragmatic and gestural dimension of language is often taking place through or underneath the denotative use of language (Propositions 4.1 & 4.2).
Digitaltechnology	Merleau-Ponty’s work predates the Digital era and many of his interpreters struggle to explain the relationship between digital technologies and intercorporeal processes.	Technology rematerialises intercorporeality in important ways. It enacts anew the ways body-subjects experience and become experienceable, and transforms both sentient and sensible aspects of intersubjective interactions (Proposition 5).

Table A1. Coding used in the empirical analysis with descriptions, examples, and frequencies.

Intercorporeal processes	Gestures/Displays	Project 1	Project 2
Co-presencing enacting mutual visibility.	Through Skype icon Small talk	Continuous 13	Fragmented 3
Co-orientation displaying readiness to engage.	Speed of response Closing episodes Reversing perspectives	5 hours 23 17	18 hours 4 2
Co-investment displaying care and commitment	Amount of time and attention Offering help Giving symbolic gifts	5.7 emails/day 17 8	3.2 emails/day 4 0