Jakob Weber Schjørring: From context-adaptive applications to context-aware actors: Context-aware computing in a CSCW perspective, IT University of Copenhagen, 2004.
This thesis takes its point of departure in a discussion of how context-aware technologies can be utilised as computer support for cooperative work (CSCW). The thesis argues that instead of merely using context-aware technologies to enable applications to adapt to the discovered context, contextaware applications should be designed to discover and present contextual information that serves as resources for cooperative actors handling particular activities by making these actors context-aware. Based on this approach to the utilisation of context-aware technologies, a methodological framework that aids the design of context-aware applications that advance context-awareness for cooperative actors is put forward and discussed. The framework consists of an analytical model distinguishing between three different levels of abstraction that context information might serve as resources for cooperative actors, and a computational architecture that enables applications to provide context-information on the three levels of abstraction if certain characteristics are present in the cooperative work setting. The usefulness of this methodological framework is tested in an empirical study of how context information is gathered and used in the handling of activities related to workflow logistics in a building project. Based on the findings of this empirical study, it is argued that due to certain characteristics of the cooperative work setting, it is questionable that context-aware applications are able to provide even some of the context information that has any relevance for the cooperative actors handling the activities related to workflow logistics. And that even if the applications discussed in the thesis can be developed, the advantages of those applications for the handling of workflow logistics are limited.