Welcome to Mårten Pettersson´s dissertation defence!

Mårten Pettersson, doctoral student in Computer Science, defends his thesis “Getting Engaged in Cooperation: Design, Distance and Distributed Work”.

Abstract

Cooperative work may look different depending on different contexts and tasks, whether co-located, synchronous or distributed in time and space. New technology allows new opportunities to support cooperation. A central aspect of cooperation is the relation to individual work; when co-located, people enter and exit cooperation seamlessly.

The dissertation aims to increase the knowledge of how technology, situation and context interact in different forms of cooperation. Understanding how different technology support is used and learning more about how technology is used as a collaborative tool is essential in designing technology support that supports critical aspects of collaboration at a distance.

The first research question is, How do people get engaged in cooperative work? In order to investigate engagement, the research documented and analysed co-located and distributed cooperation across five different domains. The second research question explores, How can engagement in distributed cooperative work be supported? From the knowledge gained through the first research question, the work uses design explorations to support the design of computer-supported collaborative work and collaboration.

The dissertation is based on ethnographic empirical studies of technology used for cooperation in different situations and contexts to enhance understanding of the actual problems and solutions experienced. Analysis of interaction between man and technology, as well as human and human, has enabled the identification of new designs enriching the design area. Workplace studies have been conducted in four different domains. Workplace studies imply that field studies are conducted to document and analyse how people use technology and how this use goes. Common to all studies is that the work being studied is about activities that are distributed in time and space.

Opponent:

Professor Teresa Cerratto-Pargman, Stockholm University

Examining committee:

Professor Alexandra Weilenmann, University of Gothenburg
Professor Vaike Fors, Halmstad University
Professor Barry Allan Brown, University of Copenhagen

Attendance:

No registration is required. The event is held at Orkanen and will be livestreamed on this page. Questions to the respondent can be sent to daniel.spikol@mau.se.