What is Consequential Communication

Early field studies in collaborative work have shown that actors are capable of aligning and integrating their activities with those of others in an apparently seamless way (e.g., Heath & Luff, 1991). This is accomplished through the use of information gathered by overhearing others’ conversations or surreptitiously monitoring their ongoing activities. To represent these practices of paying attention to what is going on in the environment, the term awareness was subsequently adopted (Schmidt, 2002). Researchers have dedicated much time to the study of how e-collaboration technologies might create some level of awareness between workers. Systems have been designed to enhance collaboration through the provision of information to create or maintain awareness of the working group. Even though different approaches have been introduced to address awareness, its creation and maintenance, researchers agree that most collaboration demands knowledge of others’ activities (Dourish & Bellotti, 1992), and many have argued extensively that awareness is crucial for groups when performing their joint activities (Gutwin & Greenberg, 2004).