Article Summary Of:

Richardson, S. (2003). Knowledge Management and the Design of Distributed Cognition Systems. Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2003.  Available:  (insert URL here)

Primary Topic(s) Addressed:  Distributed Cognition

Secondary Topic(s) Addressed:  Organizational Knowledge Systems; hermeneutics

How this might be used on my dissertation:

description of distributed cognition, hermeneutics, Habermas' theory of communicative action

Questions Raised (potential topic for me):

none- didn't raise questions for me that pertained to my topic...

This paper was a bit out of my domain- but interesting because of the definitions and application of distributed cognition. 

Summary of Paper:

Paper talks a lot about organizations, and knowledge management

Distributed cognition is described as a way we assess our situation along with others' situations, then make decisions / act according to that situation / environment (takes social / cultural variables into consideration:  such as workplace (environment) and language (culture), etc.)

DCog is a collaborative activity, distributed across people, artifacts / tools, etc

Key components of distributed cognition:  Actors; Interpretations; Action; Communication (added by author)

Discusses hermeneutics:  "individuals operating in a social context, reflecting upon their experiences and creating interpretations." (p. 7) - which is then shared with others in the organization to gain a deeper understanding (relates to DCog)

Terms / Definitions defined:

1. hermeneutics:  "individuals operating in a social context, reflecting upon their experiences and creating interpretations." (p. 7)
2. distributed cognition:  "Distributed cognition is defined as the process whereby individuals make interpretations of their situation and exchange them with others with whom they have interdependencies so that each may act with an understanding of their own situation as well as that of others." (p. 1)

Good Quotes:

see paper (circled)

"Distributed cognition is defined as the process whereby individuals make interpretations of their situation and exchange them with others with whom they have interdependencies so that each may act with an understanding of their own situation as well as that of others." (p. 1)

hermeneutics:  "individuals operating in a social context, reflecting upon their experiences and creating interpretations." (p. 7)