An ethnographic study of distributed problem solving in spreadsheet development | Zendy

Bonnie Nardi | Zendy; James R. Miller | Zendy

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An ethnographic study of distributed problem solving in spreadsheet development

Author(s) -

Bonnie Nardi,

James R. Miller

Publication year - 1990

Publication title -

citeseer x (the pennsylvania state university)

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Conference proceedings

ISBN - 0-89791-402-3

DOI - 10.1145/99332.99355

Subject(s) - casual , computer science , ethnography , variety (cybernetics) , domain (mathematical analysis) , computer supported cooperative work , work (physics) , human–computer interaction , world wide web , knowledge management , artificial intelligence , sociology , engineering , mechanical engineering , mathematical analysis , materials science , mathematics , anthropology , composite material

In contrast to the common view of spreadsheets as “single-user” programs, we have found that spreadsheets offer surprisingly strong support for cooperative development of a wide variety of applications. Ethnographic interviews with spreadsheet users showed that nearly all of the spreadsheets used in the work environments studied were the result of collaborative work by people with different levels of programming and domain expertise. Cooperation among spreadsheet users was spontaneous and casual; users activated existing informal social networks to initiate collaboration.

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