Organizational activity support systems

摘要

Planning, performing and evaluating group processes in all kinds of organizations are challenging new applications of information and communication technologies (IT). Institutionalized group processes, called activities, are the subject of inquiry with the aim of creating IT-based support. Activities are defined in a social context: they are performed as conversations between human beings. By performing activities participants affect and change the social context. Therefore they heavily rely on means of communication and the availability of relevant organizational knowledge. This paper introduces the concept of the Organizational Activity Support System (OASS) as a new means for knowledge communication and conversation between participants in activities. The language for computer-mediated interaction and the formal model of activity, provided by OASS, are presented, illustrated by the example of a meeting of a governmental body.