Vygotsky in a TeamRoom: an exploratory study on collective concept formation in electronic environments

The effective use of distributed collaboration environments requires shared mental models that guide users in sense-making and categorization. In Lotus Notes-based collaboration systems, such shared models are usually implemented as views and document types. TeamRoom, developed at Lotus Institute, implements in its design a theory of effective social process that creates a set of team-specific categories, which can then be used as a basis for knowledge sharing collaboration, and team memory. The paper reports an exploratory study in collective concept formation in the TeamRoom environment. The study was run in an ecological setting, while the team members used the system for their everyday work. The author applies theory developed by Lev Vygotsky, and use a modified version of an experiment on concept formation, devised by Lev Sakharov, and discussed by Vygotsky (1986). Vygotsky emphasized the role of language, cognitive artifacts, and historical and social sources in the development of thought processes. Within the Vygotskian framework it becomes clear that development of thinking does not end in adolescence. In teams of adults, learning and knowledge creation are continuous processes. New concepts are created shared, and developed into systems. The question, then, becomes how spontaneous concepts are collectively generated in teams, how they become integrated as systems, and how computer mediated collaboration environments affect these processes.