Cooperative writing: achieving coordination together and apart

ABSTRACT

Cooperative writing requires a coordinated, engineered process. Groups must achieve coordination at three levels: a shared contextual motivation that translates into group actions, which operationalize as drafting activities. The arrangement of material resources in face-to-face settings supports those communication events. When efforts at coordination are moved online, however, the material and temporal means of support change. Coordination efforts become distributed over time and media, affecting the quality of coordination achieved.

This paper explores the ways that a group of writers built coordination through while drafting a survey research instrument. Based on this case study, I recommend ways to consider technology purchases to support cooperation.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Computer-supported cooperative work

General Terms:
Documentation, Performance

Keywords:
collaboration, coordination, mediation, tools