The Activity Circle: A Social Proxy Interface to Improve Attitudes towards Workflow Technology

The paper proposes the Activity circle, a Social Visualization mechanism based on the concept of Social proxy, a minimalist graphical representation that portrays socially salient aspects of users' interactions. The Activity circle aims at facilitating users in socializing how they perceive the accomplishment of their work activities when these latter are regulated by a workflow management technology. In particular, the social information visualized by the Activity circle should primarily facilitate people in sharing their attitudes toward the used workflow technology; secondly, this information should aim at the creation and maintenance of a common identity among coworkers. Third, it should facilitate the implementation of informal modes of control, i.e., attempts that workers locally make to regulate informally their behaviors in order to reach the organization's goals. Finally, this information could also be used by the management to sound out how much the regulation of work imposed by technology is accepted. The Activity circle is to be integrated into novel forms of Workflow Management Systems, i.e. Workflow Management Social Systems; these systems are designed in order to enhance current workflow management technology by taking into account socio psychological findings on the way people usually interact, in particular by focusing on interactions mediated by Social Visualization approaches.