Articulation work isn't just a cool research paper from 1992 (even though it kind of is)

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After hearing briefly from Jason, who seems to be making progress
on his digital detox, Inger is joined by Dr Ben Kraal. Ben used
to be an academic, but escaped into the wilds of UX consulting
where he makes a very nice living - but still runs an excellent
academic-ish newsletter on the side which is called '1992'.

Ben tells Inger about the inspiration for 1992, particularly the
concept of Articulation work. This is a concept which comes from
an early book on the Social organisation of Medical work by
Straus, Fagerhaugh, Suczek and Weiner. 

Articulation work is a fancy way of talking about:


Putting tasks in an order (to complete some arc or work)

Doing tasks sequentially or simultaneously (to complete some
arc of work)

Assigning people to do tasks (to complete some arc of work)



Basically all the stuff Inger and Jason do in their #Bujos or
Omni or whatever else.

Ben explains to Inger that Kjeld Schmidt and Liam Bannon applied
the ideas from articulation work to computers and invented Google
Docs and Zoom in 1992 - or rather, imagined them in a paper
called 'Taking CSCW seriously: Supporting Articulation
Work'.  This paper is pretty amazing when you consider at
the time you had to use a physical phone hand set to access the
internet through a phone line.

This short history lesson on human computer interaction
(naturally?) leads into a discussion of what meetings are really
FOR and how Cal Newport has discovered the principles of Agile
Project Management, not a whole new way to email. The nerd is
very strong in this discussion, but Inger came away from it very
enlightened and now understands why all those books that promise
to solve your project management problems, never will (and why
everyone hates Jira).

In our reading section, Ben recommends a book on forest
management (that is very relevant for understanding public health
in pandemics - just trust us) and Inger shares an article on the
importance of 'cooling off' before saying 'yes' to a new idea. In
the 2 minute tips section, Inger shares some writing planning
secrets and Ben changes your life with the Highlighted App.

Links
Social organisation of Medical work by Straus, Fagerhaugh, Suczek
and Weiner.
Taking CSCW seriously: Supporting Articulation Work' Schmidt and
Bannon
The


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