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Issue 7: The development of coordinative practices

• Development of coordinative practices as a distributed cooperative process.

• Amendment and adaptation

• Combination and recombination

• Aggregation and segmentation.

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Issue 3: The concept of protocol

• The concept of coordinative protocols i.e. members’ rules for regulating their interaction: the concept of protocol as an analytic concept

Material Artifacts and the Negotiation of Boundaries in the Design of a Museum Exhibition

California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology – Cal(IT)2

University of California, Irvine, Californiacplee@uci.edu

Ordering Systems Workshop – December 7, 2006

Charlotte P. Lee, PhD

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Boundary Objects (BO)

Boundary objects are those objects that both inhabit several communities of practice and satisfy the informational requirements of each of them. Boundary objects are thus both plastic enough to adapt to local needs and constraints of the several parties employing them, yet robust enough to maintain a common identity across sites. They are weakly structured in common use and become strongly structured in individual-site use. These objects may be abstract or concrete (Bowker and Star 1999).

Origins

Definition

Two major factors: boundary objects and methods standardization

Methods standardization less glamourous sibling

Almost all examples in the original text include standardization

Standardization is integral to boundary objects

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Case Study

Ethnographic study of a group of designers creating an exhibition about dogs at a large natural history museum

Research Questions

– What communities of practice are involved in the design of this exhibition?

– How do members of a design group comprised of people from different communities of practice collaborate?

– How are artifacts used by the design group?

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The Design Group as an Intersection Between Communities of Practice

Functional units Education, Fabrication, Design, Curation

Professional organizations Industrial Design, (Museum) Visitor Studies

Other affiliations Previous employment (e.g. working in a

particular museum genre), professional training, educational background (e.g. major area of study at university)

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Boundary Negotiating Artifacts

Boundary negotiating artifacts are artifacts that test and establish boundaries, practices, and standards. The artifacts I describe are distinct from boundary objects because rather than cleanly crossing boundaries they cross roughly, if at all, and are sometimes used to negotiate the boundaries themselves.

Individual Exhibit

For Self Use

Conceptual Design

Whole Exhibition

For Other

Physical Design

Exhibition Artifacts

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Boundary Negotiating Artifacts

Five Types:• Inclusion Artifacts• Self-explanation Artifacts• Compilation Artifacts• Structuring Artifacts• Borrowed Artifacts

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Inclusion Artifact Example: Object Theater

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Self-explanation Artifact Example:Martin’s Journals

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Self-explanation Artifact Example:Dogs Images and Artifacts Table

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Compilation Artifact Example: Kiosk Sketch

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Structuring Artifact Example: Curator’s Narrative

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Structuring Artifact Example: Design Criteria Diagram

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Structuring Artifact Example: Concept Map

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Borrowed Artifacts: Self-explanation Artifact Composed of Clippings From Borrowed Artifacts

Old Narrative

New Narrative

Concept Sketch

Floor Plan

Borrowed Artifacts

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Summary: Boundary Negotiating Artifacts

• Surrounded by sets of practices that may or may not be agreed upon by participants

• Facilitate the crossing of boundaries (transmitting information)

• Facilitate the pushing and establishing of boundaries (dividing labor)

• May seem “effortful” as opposed to effortless• Fluid--often incorporated or transformed into

other artifacts• Can be largely sufficient for collaboration • Possible predecessors of boundary objects

Between Chaos and RoutineBoundary Negotiating Artifacts in Collaboration

California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology – Cal(IT)2

University of California, Irvine, Californiacplee@uci.edu

European Conference on CSCW – September 22, 2005

Charlotte P. Lee, PhD