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Documentscape: intertextuality, sequentiality, & autonomy at work

Published: 26 April 2014 Publication History

Abstract

On the basis of an ethnographic field study, this article introduces the concept of documentscape to the analysis of document-centric work practices. The concept of documentscape refers to the entire ensemble of documents in their mutual intertextual interlocking. Providing empirical data from a global software development case, we show how hierarchical structures and sequentiality across the interlocked documents are critical to how actors make sense of the work of others and what to do next in a geographically distributed setting. Furthermore, we found that while each document is created as part of a quasi-sequential order, this characteristic does not make the document, as a single entity, into a stable object. Instead, we found that the documents were malleable and dynamic while suspended in intertextual structures. Our concept of documentscape points to how the hierarchical structure, sequentiality, and authorless nature of documents serve as a constitutive platform for the development of iterative and emergent work practices, making it possible for highly distributed actors to collaborate with limited communication, as the documentscape serves as a vehicle of coordination.

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    April 2014
    4206 pages
    ISBN:9781450324731
    DOI:10.1145/2556288
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    Published: 26 April 2014

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    Author Tags

    1. "documents
    2. documentscape
    3. global interaction"
    4. global software development

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    • (2020)Officers Never Type: Examining the Persistence of Paper in e-GovernanceProceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3313831.3376216(1-13)Online publication date: 21-Apr-2020
    • (2018)Krishi KonthoProceedings of the 10th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3240167.3240225(203-214)Online publication date: 29-Sep-2018
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    • (2016)In Due Time: Decision-Making in Architectural Design of HospitalsCOOP 2016: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems, 23-27 May 2016, Trento, Italy10.1007/978-3-319-33464-6_12(191-206)Online publication date: 8-Sep-2016
    • (2015)Why Replacing Legacy Systems Is So Hard in Global Software DevelopmentProceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing10.1145/2675133.2675232(876-890)Online publication date: 28-Feb-2015
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