35. Ability to facilitate spontaneous communication

Whenever natural work interaction is replaced by a new automated groupware system pathways of spontaneous communication can get cut because it doesn't seem productive to the managers that groupware designers have to sell to. For example, people telecommuting and working distributively won't see each other in the lunchroom or hallway letting each other know what they're working on and discovering new ways they might be able to leverage off each other and collaborate.
Example(s): The zephyrsystem Mark Ackerman studied (discussion at CHI), Hallways, Lunchrooms, Shared offices, MUDS / graphical on-line chat communities


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