Resumen
The article focuses on integrating communication and information through ContactMap. People invest considerable effort in maintaining links with networks of colleagues, acquaintances and friends and that these networks are a significant organizing principle for work and information. The article analyzes a study of workplace communication that informs development efforts, describing evolving software prototype, ContactMap, as well as recent user experiments with the system. The new economy is characterized by unrelenting technical and organizational change. Workers acquire more and more new technology. Organizations experience a constant flux of downsizing, merging, splitting, partnering, reorganizing and outsourcing. An increased focus on business relationships between companies leads to new kinds of alliances among them and with their suppliers and customers. Relationships outside the organization, including those with government agencies and the press, are increasingly critical to many businesses. One consequence is that many organizations operate in an increasingly distributed manner, with workers, contractors, consultants and important contacts located not only in different parts of their home countries but around the world as well.