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Tech Report kmi-00-11 Abstract


Mind the Gap: Activity Theory and Design
Techreport ID: kmi-00-11
Date: 2000
Author(s): Daisy Mwanza
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This paper describes the application of the Activity Theory framework to the analysis of work practices in an organisation, to inform the design of a computer system for supporting collaborative learning in the workplace. A study involving the analysis of an organisation and using Engestrsm's expanded triangle model of human activity [5] is described. A methodology developed during the study for breaking down the extended triangle and applying it is given, together with practical examples. The paper concludes by highlighting strengths and weaknesses of the model, and suggests a number of refinements for its practical application.

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Submitted to CSCW'2000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, December 2 - 6, 2000.
 
KMi Publications Event | SSSW 2013, The 10th Summer School on Ontology Engineering and the Semantic Web Journal | 25 years of knowledge acquisition
 

Social Software is...


Social Software
Social Software can be thought of as "software which extends, or derives added value from, human social behaviour - message boards, musical taste-sharing, photo-sharing, instant messaging, mailing lists, social networking."

Interacting with other people not only forms the core of human social and psychological experience, but also lies at the centre of what makes the internet such a rich, powerful and exciting collection of knowledge media. We are especially interested in what happens when such interactions take place on a very large scale -- not only because we work regularly with tens of thousands of distance learners at the Open University, but also because it is evident that being part of a crowd in real life possesses a certain 'buzz' of its own, and poses a natural challenge. Different nuances emerge in different user contexts, so we choose to investigate the contexts of work, learning and play to better understand the trade-offs involved in designing effective large-scale social software for multiple purposes.