Understanding the differences in collaborative system use through appropriation analysis

One way of understanding the impacts of collaborative systems is to examine the nature of the structures they provide. Another approach is to examine the differences in how groups respond to these structures as they work with them. This paper follows the second approach, on the presumption that groups differ dramatically in how they incorporate technology-based structures into their work We draw on the concept of appropriation, the process by which group members provide meaning to structures and act on them, and identify nine general types of group responses to technology-based structures. These nine types are then refined into 31 categories of appropriation. We illustrate how these categories of appropriation can be observed in groups and show how they can be synthesized to yield general patterns of group responses to the technology.