Some things I tend to overlap even if not necessary. A discussion on PIM artifacts between researcher and research agent

Abstract

The spread of mobile communications and IT artifacts in general, gives rise to a pervasive number of mobile working modalities, inducing transformations in social practices and organizational environments in a networked society. In order to design information systems we need to understand how information artifacts are used to get work done, and how these support work, inside and outside the organizations. By drawing on personal information management studies, information needs, and information-related myths, we built a qualitative study to uncover artifacts used to cross different information spaces, by different individuals, in different working contexts, over three years. The present case follows an approach built by researcher and research agent, across different information spaces, where we confronted the existing body of knowledge with empirical data collected. The first results show that permanent reconfigurations of working spaces beyond organizational boundaries are supported by deliberate mixes of information artifacts, that seem to be determined by familiarity with place, anticipation of needs, type of transportation used, distance and time covered, and access issues.