Coordinating Constant Invention: Social Media's Role in Distributed Work

Abstract

Cultural shifts in technology and organizational structure are affecting the embodied practice of symbolic-analytic work, creating the need for more fine-grained tracings of everyday activity. Drawing on interviews and observations, this article explores how one freelance professional communicator's social media use is intertwined with inventive social coordination. Networked writing environments help symbolic analysts gain access to communities of practice, maintain a presence within them, and leverage social norms to circulate texts through them.

Keywords:

• digital technologies
• distributed work
• knowledge management
• social media
• workplace studies

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the research participant for his time and willingness to share, Amy Koerber and two anonymous reviewers for their excellent feedback, Jim Ridolfo and Jeff Grabill for responding to early drafts, and my colleagues and writing group at the University of Central Florida for their support.

Notes

Dave's name has been changed in this article to comply with IRB guidelines. His case example presented is taken from a larger IRB-approved study conducted in 2009 and 2010.

The particular social software of focus in this study was Yammer, an informal microblogging application. Working together on projects necessitates not only exchange of official information but also “noncritical” information like ongoing updates of project status or developing feelings or thoughts that may change dynamically during the work process.

With data collection taking place in 2009, this study predates the widespread use of tablet PCs like the iPad as mobile writing devices.

In this research study, I opted not to use video screen capture (see Geisler & Slattery, 2007), because I felt that it would be too intrusive to ask individuals working in a public space to install software on their computers as well as because I wanted to capture both on-screen and off-screen movement at once.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stacey Pigg

Stacey Pigg is an assistant professor of writing and rhetoric at the University of Central Florida. Her research exploring invention with networked technologies has appeared in Computers and Composition, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, and other journals.