Chapter 23 System design for cooperative work in the language action perspective: A case study of The Coordinator

Abstract

This chapter examines the system design for cooperative work in the language action perspective. To characterize human work as cooperation among a group of people interacting with each other, the language/action perspective and its implementation into electronic mail systems is elaborated in the chapter. The language/action perspective can be described in the traditional framework of the linguistic theory, including syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Syntax is the structure of the visible forms of language. The syntactical rules of a language determine the basic element and the ways in which they can be combined. Speech acts exchanged between two partners are not unrelated events, but constitute conversations. The conversation for clarification is those where the participants cope with or anticipate breakdowns concerning the interpretations of the condition of satisfaction for a conversation for action. The structure and status of conversations is the basis for organizing the retrieval and review of messages or conversations in the system. In the main menu under “organize,” the user can define a filter for message retrieval, such as “Missing my response” and “My requests,” in addition to the identification of communication partners, time periods, and keywords associated with messages.