Page 234 - Culture Technology Communication

Preserving Communication Context 217

ject of work can always be delineated in practice, whatever the con-
tributions of the different participants. The focus of computer sup-
ported cooperative work, then, is less on working with computers
than on working with each other through computers. This changing
orientation opens the door to a real contribution from social scien-
tists to understanding the complex relationship between technology
and its context of emergence and implementation.
A quick survey of the CSCW literature points to an amazing va-
riety of “solutions” or approaches to similar problems. What is more,
these solutions seem to follow certain patterns. Not only are there
very real differences between the various communities of practice in-
3
volved in CSCW , the field also demonstrates marked regional dif-
ferences in emphasis and perspective. American CSCW has tended
to take an empirical approach and to focus on product development
and small-group applications, while Europeans are generally more
theoretical or philosophical in orientation and tend to focus on the
user organizations and organization systems. In Japan, considera-
tions have generally been pragmatic and there is considerable inter-
est in formal workflow management systems and the software
factory concept.
A systematic review of the CSCW and European CSCW confer-
ence proceedings over the past decade (Heaton 1997) documents a
number of general patterns in how CSCW researchers present their
work to the international academic community of their peers. Pre-
sentations coming out of Japan illustrate a considerable homogene-
ity in research interests. All the research presented at international
CSCW conferences has centered on the exploration of the possibili-
ties of video, multimedia, and large screen displays. Gesture has a
major importance, as does shared view of workspaces. Japanese
work tends to present solutions which are technically innovative and
which require major investments of technical resources (high band-
width communication channels, large flat screen displays, a number
of video cameras, etc.) Finally, the Japanese groupware scene is
much more technically oriented than European or American con-
texts. Japanese researchers readily admit to their technical focus
and product orientation. In fact, one of the prime criteria for evalu-
ating a research project appears to be whether or not it is up and
running, and it is inconceivable for the researchers interviewed that
research not lead to a working system.
In contrast, video-mediated communication is completely absent
in Scandinavian work, which focuses on organizational issues and is
typically presented in the form of cases in which designers have been