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Relation Work in Collocated and Distributed Collaboration

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COOP 2014 - Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems, 27-30 May 2014, Nice (France)

Abstract

Creating social ties are important for collaborative work; however, in geographically distributed organizations e.g. global software development, making social ties requires extra work: Relation work. We find that characteristics of relation work as based upon shared history and experiences, emergent in personal and often humorous situations. Relation work is intertwined with other activities such as articulation work and it is rhythmic by following the work patterns of the participants. By comparing how relation work is conducted in collocated and geographically distributed settings we in this paper identify basic differences in relation work. Whereas collocated relation work is spontaneous, place-centric, and yet mobile, relation work in a distributed setting is semi-spontaneous, technology-mediated, and requires extra efforts.

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Acknowledgements

This research has been funded by the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation under the project “Next Generation Technology for Global Software Development”, #10-092313.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Lars Rune Christensen

  2. IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Rasmus Eskild Jensen & Pernille Bjørn

  3. University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Pernille Bjørn

Authors
  1. Lars Rune Christensen
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  2. Rasmus Eskild Jensen
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  3. Pernille Bjørn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pernille Bjørn .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University, Kista, Sweden

    Chiara Rossitto

  2. Sheffield Hallam University C3RI, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Luigina Ciolfi

  3. Xerox Research Centre Europe, Meylan, France

    David Martin

  4. Sociology and Ethnology, Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France

    Bernard Conein

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© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Christensen, L.R., Jensen, R.E., Bjørn, P. (2014). Relation Work in Collocated and Distributed Collaboration. In: Rossitto, C., Ciolfi, L., Martin, D., Conein, B. (eds) COOP 2014 - Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems, 27-30 May 2014, Nice (France). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06498-7_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06498-7_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-06497-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-06498-7

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