Towards a knowledge communication perspective on designing artefacts supporting knowledge work

The designing of computer-based artefacts to support knowledge work is far from a straightforward rational process. Characteristics of knowledge work have a bearing upon how developers (or designers), together with users, come to approach and capture the rich and tacit knowing of the practice. As all knowledge work is about the production of knowledge, transforming it, so is the design practice for developing artefacts to occupy space within that same practice. There is a need for providing a conceptual language to better reflect the nature of this design work that goes beyond those dressed in the managerial (or rational) language of planned activities and deliverables. Towards this end, a conceptual frame is presented that makes several important aspects of the design practice visible. The frame brings together both nature of design work and characteristics of knowledge work to extend the frame of knowledge in user-developer communication of Kensing and Munk-Madsen. Thereby, providing a means to focus attention and dress debate on what situated designing is. By using explicit concepts, such as types knowledge domains embedded in the design situation, the transitional paths between them, and design engagements, it arms practitioners with specific linguistic constructs to direct attention and efforts in planning and organizing development undertakings. Purpose – the purpose of this work is to present and argue for a perspective on designing of computer-based artefacts supporting knowledge work. This is done to inform practitioners, directing their attention and dressing debate, and providing a conceptual language to better capture design activities in planning and organizing development undertakings. Design/Methodology/Approach – The approach presented in this article is conceptual in so far that a model or frame providing linguistic constructs is constructed and argued, building upon scholarly work of knowledge communication and drawing upon previous findings from empirical encounters. Findings – A conceptual frame is presented that captures the design situation as a situated knowledge communication process. Research limitations/implications – The conceptual frame presented remains yet to be validated in practical application. This may be achieved either using it as a lens to uncover and explain phenomena in similar design work, thereby putting its explanatory power to the test, or using it to direct future development undertakings, thereby putting its predictive power to the test. Practical implications – The practical implications of the design frame lies in its power to provide linguistic constructs to direct one’s effort in planning and organizing development undertakings, and in extension to provide argument for decision-makers allocating resources. Originality/Value – By extending the model of knowledge communication of Kensing and Munk-Madsen, and framing it within a situated design context, it better reflects characteristics of knowledge work, providing practitioners with the means to better organize design activities

Experimental determination of the transient transport and of fluctuations relevant to transport in ASDEX

Particle transport was studied in ASDEZ with modulated puffing of the discharge gas and of impurities. The energy transport is investigated by numerical simulation of the heat pulse after the swatooth crash. Small scale density fluctuations are investigated in the confinement region with far infrared scattering and reflectometry and in the edge plasma with langmuir probes and Ha diagnostic. In addition to a diffuse component of the particle transport, a strong inward drift is observed in all discharges. In ohmic discharges the transport coefficients decrease and saturate like 1/TE with increasing density. They are smaller in deuterium that in hydrogen. In the improved ohmic confinement (IOC)regime mainly D in the outer region is reduced. D increases proportionally to the heating power in L-mode discharges. The improvement of particle confinement in the H-mode is explained by a increase of the inward drift at the edge rather than a decrease of D. The impurity diffusion coefficient is independent of the impurity mass and charge. In ohmic discharges, it varies with ne like the bulk diffusion coefficient, is independent of B or increases weakly with B and increases with Ip. In L-mode discharges, Dimp increases linearly with the heating power. The electron thermal condustivity determined by heat pulse propagation exceeds the stationary value by a factor of 3-4, assuming merely diffusive heat transport. Convection does not significantly reduce this factor. however, non-diagonal terms