Evolution of ICT cultures: Chemical factory operators´ changing perceptions and interpretations of social media and collaborative work

Information and communication technologies (ICT) play a major role in our lives. Almost all of our daily tasks involve ICT either directly or indirectly. In addition, ICT is a phenomenon around which new subcultures are constantly emerging, e.g., net culture, SMS culture, and blogosphere. In order to develop new technologies and technical solutions that fit into people´s tasks and needs, i.e., that are usable and provide a good user experience, the designers need to comprehend how people´s perceptions and understandings of technology take form and evolve. This paper presents an analysis of the introduction of social media-based collaboration and communication tools to chemical factory operators, and the cultural changes that followed. The acceptance of social media technologies by the chemical factory organization was a complex process during which workers´ perceptions of both social media technologies and collaborative work changed.