Category: CSCW
Abstract: The act of customizing software is generally
        viewed as a solitary activity that allows users to
        express individual preferences. In this study, users
        were found to actively share their customization
        files with each other, which allowed members of each
        organization to establish and perpetuate
        informally-defined norms of behaviour.  A small
        percentage of people were responsible for most of
        the sharing: highly skilled software engineers who
        were the first to experiment with and to customize
        any new software; and 'translators' who interpreted
        the needs of the rest of the organization and
        created customization files tailored to those needs
        (usually founded upon the customization files of the
        highly-skilled). Implications of the results are
        offered.
Bibtype: InProceedings
Booktitle: Proceedings of the Conference on Computer
        Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW '90)
Author: W.E. Mackay
Month: October 7-10
Title: Patterns of sharing customizable software
Note: data sharing, organizational concerns, evaluation
Year: 1990
Address: Los Angeles, California
Publisher: ACM Press