Mediating technical platforms to support the development of shared work practices

This paper discusses two examples of how shared technical support platforms are adapted and developed in organizations. One is support for object oriented design and programming, the other, production of documents in an office. These two cases represent longitudinal studies of the use, the adaptation and the development of these platforms. This development involved active mediation of platform coordinators, who were users of the shared environment, at the same time as they possessed, and developed further, skills and procedures to undertake its continued development. The paper applies a developmental perspective in that its concern is how the technical platform and the work practices surrounding it, are developing over time, and how the technical and organizational conditions have been in support of or a hindrance to this development.