Ethnographically informed agent based computational model for collaborative systems

This paper presents an agent based computational model in order to address the long acknowledged problem of translating ethnographic findings into system design. This model is based on an ethnographic framework consisting of three dimensions, distributed coordination, awareness of work and plans and procedures; and the BDI (belief, desire and intention) model of intelligent agents. The ethnographic framework is used to organise ethnographically derived information into the three dimensions; whereas the BDI model allows the information to be mapped onto the concepts of multi-agent systems. Focusing on a case study, the usefulness of the proposed model is demonstrated by showing that ethnographic accounts can systematically inform system design and development. Evaluation and generalisability of the model is discussed in the paper.