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Steps towards an ecology of infrastructure: complex problems in design and access for large-scale collaborative systems

Authors:

Susan Leigh Star,

Karen RuhlederAuthors Info & Claims

CSCW '94: Proceedings of the 1994 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work

Pages 253 - 264

https://doi.org/10.1145/192844.193021

Published: 22 October 1994 Publication History

Abstract

This paper analyzes the initial phases of a large-scale custom software effort, the Worm Community System (WCS), a collaborative system designed for a geographically dispersed community of geneticists. Despite high user satisfaction with the system and interface, and extensive user feedback and analysis, many users experienced difficulties in signing on and use, ranging from simple lack of resources to complex organizational and intellectual trade-offs. Using Bateson's levels of learning, we characterize these as levels of infrastructural complexity which challenge both users and developers. Usage problems may result from different perceptions of this complexity in different organizational contexts.

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Steps towards an ecology of infrastructure: complex problems in design and access for large-scale collaborative systems

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Published In

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

Chairmen:
John B. Smith
Univ. of North Carolina
,
F. Don Smith
IBM Corporation
,
Thomas W. Malone
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Copyright © 1994 ACM.

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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CSCW94

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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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CSCW '25

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Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing

October 18 - 22, 2025

Bergen , Norway

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Cited By

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https://doi.org/10.3897/mbmg.8.126058
Chaar López I(2024)BibliographyThe Cybernetic Border10.1215/9781478059035-008(199-225)Online publication date: 23-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478059035-008
Chaar López I(2024)NotesThe Cybernetic Border10.1215/9781478059035-007(173-197)Online publication date: 23-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478059035-007
Chaar López I(2024)EpilogueThe Cybernetic Border10.1215/9781478059035-006(164-171)Online publication date: 23-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478059035-006
Chaar López I(2024)Technoaesthetics of Dissent in the age of the Cybernetic BorderThe Cybernetic Border10.1215/9781478059035-005(129-163)Online publication date: 23-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478059035-005
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Barchetta LRaffaetà R(2024)Data as environment, environment as data: One Health in collaborative data-intensive scienceBig Data & Society10.1177/2053951724123427511:2Online publication date: 22-May-2024
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