Enabling collaborative work across different communities of practice through boundary objects: Field studies in air traffic management

A recently developed decision support tool provides a common information space to share information directly across numerous air traffic control facilities. This tool is unusual in that its displays can be used as boundary objects, which are entities in which decontextualized information is presented in the same form to all participants in the collaboration. Through an analysis of the results of 2 years of field tests, this article discusses the benefits of this arrangement, particularly in comparison to alternative concepts for collaborative work displays, and identifies key aspects for the design of boundary object displays.