Contextualizing Conviviality

Everybody I know has a cell phone, a PDA, a laptop, or a combination of devices that seems to be part of their personal tool kit.

I've been wondering for while now just how convivial their tools are, and how they actually optimize their tools for personal productivity.

During the summer of 2004, I conducted a pilot phenomenographic study with a small number of senior managers from the business and academic worlds in order to test a qualitative methodology for gaining insights into the habits and practices of knowledge workers when using computer-based knowledge support systems - such as the web.

Specifically, I wanted to know how and when the study participants used computer-based tools to further their knowledge of trends and practices in their areas of interest.

The findings of the pilot study were illuminating and offered insights into how better tools for knowledge support might be designed. From a preliminary analysis of the data, four major themes emerged:   

• Client-driven or customer-driven concerns brought a focus to information and knowledge acquisition
   
• The importance of colleagues, people, mentors, and communication networks as knowledge acquisition tools
   
• The importance of human-mediated knowledge (mediated by reputation, authority, credibility) as key content sources
   
• The importance of the web and web-based research tools as knowledge acquisition methods – but primarily to gain access to human-mediated content in the form of email, blogs, wikis, network forums

Although the subjects of this pilot study were a very small subset of knowledge workers, the data indicated a desire for knowledge acquisition that was human-mediated and that included colleagues, co-workers, and mentors as trusted sources.

The questions I was left with and continue to ponder are from a macro-level design perspective:   

• What are the configuration and customization requirements for computer-based tools to support knowledge work?
   
• How are convivial tools defined in the context of knowledge work?