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Helping CSCW applications succeed: the role of mediators in the context of use

Published: 22 October 1994 Publication History

Abstract

This study found that the use of a computer conferencing system in an R&D lab was significantly shaped by a set of intervening actors—mediators—who actively guided and manipulated the technology and its use over time. These mediators adapted the technology to its initial context and shaped user interaction with it; over time, they continued to modify the technology and influence use patterns to respond to changing circumstances. We argue that well-managed mediation may be a useful mechanism for shaping technologies to evolving contexts of use, and that it extends our understanding of the powerful role that intervenors can play in helping CSCW applications succeed.

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cover image ACM Conferences
CSCW '94: Proceedings of the 1994 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work
October 1994
464 pages
ISBN:0897916891
DOI:10.1145/192844
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 22 October 1994

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Author Tags

  1. computer conferencing system
  2. contextualizing technology
  3. intervention
  4. technology use

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CSCW94
CSCW94: Computer-Supported Cooperative Work 94
October 22 - 26, 1994
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA

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CSCW '94 Paper Acceptance Rate 42 of 200 submissions, 21%;
Overall Acceptance Rate 2,235 of 8,521 submissions, 26%

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