Socio-Technical Self-Descriptions as a Means for Appropriation

Processes of appropriation of groupware systems in organizations are social processes that are strongly intertwined with processes of reflection and communication. We suggest facilitating these processes by supporting the creation of socio-technical self-descriptions. Self-description is an important element of social systems such as organizations and can be extended to include descriptions of an organization’s usage and adaptation of technology. In the following we discuss the concept of self-description; how support for selfdescription can effect appropriation of groupware systems; how the analysis of self-descriptions could be a measure for the degree of appropriation that has already taken place in an organization; methods for supporting self-description in the context of groupware; empirical experience with facilitating self-descriptions in projects.