HICSS 2008 Minitrack: Supporting Distributed Cognition in Knowledge Management Systems

HICSS 2008 - Minitrack Session

The Minitrack explores how we may support knowledge management systems and processes that involve distributed cognition across multiple actors, agents, groups, and communities. We especially invite submission that explore:
1) Methods and approaches for KM process-management or KMS design that incorporate support for distributed cognition;
2) KMS design issues that facilitate or constrain collaboration in situations involving distributed cognition;
3) empirical studies of knowledge-representation or translation using boundary-objects (cognitive artifacts) as a means for supporting distributed cognition.

Situations involving distributed cognition (knowledge that is ‘stretched across’ organizational actors, rather than possessed by an individual or shared across members of a workgroup or community (Lave, 1991) . Hutchins’ (1991) theory of distributed cognition proposed that this type of distributed knowledge was mediated through the use of “cognitive artifacts” – artifacts that had computational interpretations embedded in their use – and organizational roles based on boundary-spanning expertise. Theories of distributed cognition also encompass Star’s (1989) theory of boundary-objects as mediating mechanisms in an “information ecology”. Individuals operate within distinct communities of practice: local workgroups possessing their own social norms, expectations and specific genres of communication (Lave and Wenger, 1991) . So the various literatures have queried the degree to which consensus around system requirements actually indicates a shared understanding of the organizational system context. It is now accepted that “shared” knowledge may be more distributed across communities of practice than shared between stakeholders in system design or organizational collaborations – this requires translations at the boundaries of various knowledge domains (Carlile, 2002) and active mediation by bridging artifacts or appropriately-designed boundary objects (Gasson and Elrod, 2006) . Participants in emergent, knowledge processes (Markus et al., 2002) require knowledge and expertise that is distributed, often tacit, and articulated through argumentation rather than consensus (Waters and Gasson, 2006) . So theories of distributed cognition have been applied to understand distributed organizational coordination through the use of “heedful interrelating” as a dynamic form of distributed group memory (Weick and Roberts, 1993) , systems to deploy distributed transactive memory (Levine and Moreland, 1999; Moreland, 1999) , and processes that support distributed mental models of organizational processes in the design of information and knowledge management systems (Cannon-Bowers and Salas, 2001; Mohammed and Dumville, 2001) .

• Distributed knowledge-representation and/or use of transactive memory in distributed knowledge management
• Empirical studies of distributed cognition in group, organizational, or community knowledge management collaborations (including communities of inquiry)
• Translations of expertise across distributed knowledge domains
• Use of cognitive artifacts and/or boundary objects to mediate distributed knowledge management.
• Leveraging and accessing distributed group and organizational expertise
• Access to group memory and/or shared mental models of organizational knowledge
• Benefits/drawbacks of distributed cognition as a theoretical approach to understanding knowledge management.

These topics fit with the investigation, definition, design, and use of knowledge-based systems and emergent knowledge processes in situations involving distributed cognition (knowledge that is ‘stretched across’ organizational actors, rather than possessed by an individual or shared across members of a workgroup or community). The topics addressed above investigate and define this unique way of viewing knowledge-based systems and processes when this knowledge is held partially by the various parties to a distributed collaborative effort.

References