Pace and interaction

Channels of communication are presented as an emergent property of cooperative work. During actual interaction channels of communication are typically used in an intermittent fashion. Thus bandwidth is not an appropriate measure. Instead pace, the measure of the rate at which individual communications occur through a channel, is proposed as a primary property. We can relate this to the pace of interaction between participants, and to the pace of the common task. Any mismatch of pace will result either in the participants being forced to adopt coping strategies or in the worst case a complete breakdown in the cooperative work.