Technologies Making Space Visible

Studies of information technologies in workplaces are of growing significance to people in a broad range of professions and organizations, particularly those involved in the development of new technologies. The authors examine two kinds of information technologies for the support of service technicians, which have been developed in a copier customer service and support company. One is a mobile self-dispatch system with which service technicians monitor a list of customers' requests to repair machines in their service area. The other is a knowledge system. Particular attention is paid to investigating how these systems are embedded in a specific sociotechnological organization and work in service technicians' daily activities. Through the analysis of service technicians' activities, and interviews, the authors show that service technicians organize and make their workspace and activities visible with these technologies.