Smart artefacts as affordances for awareness in distributed teams

This book examines how the computer, as we currently know it, will be replaced by a new generation of technologies, moving computing off the desktop and ultimately integrating it with real world objects and everyday environments. Computing thus becomes an inseparable part of our everyday activities while simultaneously disappearing into the background. It becomes a ubiquitous utility taking on a role similar to electricity: an enabling but invisible and pervasive medium revealing its functionality on request in an unobtrusive way and supporting people’s everyday activities. The chapters, written by members of the Steering Group of the EU-funded Disappearing Computer research initiative, address the issues and challenges in this area.