This paper derives from a study undertaken at an emergencyservice centre in Sweden. The studies have focused on fea-tures of work familiar to the CSCW community, includingthe documenting and analysing current work practices, un-derstanding the properties of the technology in question,and perhaps most importantly how the technology func-tions in and through use. Our focus in this paper exempli-fies these themes through the analysis of two cases. In thefirst, the issue in question is the way in which an emer-gency is identified and dealt with, it being the case that atypical problem to be dealt with by operators, and morecommonly in the days of mobile telephony, is that of mul-tiple reporting of a single case. Of particular interest here islistening-in, which is a function in the Computer AidedDispatch (CAD) system and by contrast that of ‘overhear-ing’, which is not. The second case focus on the relevanceof wall maps, given the existence of computerized maps inthese centres. Based on two cases from emergency servicecentres, we will show that the concept of awareness needscareful unpacking if we are to understand associated designissues.

The field of our study takes place in the Swedish emergency service centre. The operators receiveemergency calls and are responsible for the coordination and dispatch of ambulances and rescue services.Emergency literature has treated its materials in the mode of catastrophe. Operators’ mundane work and technologicalenvironment for handling the unexpected changes have been often addressed in terms of error, mistakes, mishandling andother misunderstandings. Our paper wants to show that operator’s work practice sustained a comprehensive approach oftechnology use such as to keep full ability to handle unexpected change. This point is crucial to understand technology in action.It is precisely the good handling of technology that allows taking into account the most unexpected change with great success.Our paper shows how story eliciting is bounded to technological possibilities and as such is part of everyday professionalconduct of call taker and dispatchers. The challenge of this paper is to show that technology is a crucial part of their mode ofaction. As such, it cannot be separated from the on-going course of case handling. Our particular case is a story where a callerrequests an ambulance on behalf of an unconscious friend. The operator decides to proceed to the dispatch of an ambulance.In the sustained conversation with the caller, it turns out that the friend in question recovered her consciousness. We show inthis paper that the story elicitation, remote conversation and scenic background information, are working tools that keep accesswith the reality of the caller. The main point is that emergency can turn out to be health care advice without any major problems.We will show that all key access to the scenic feature of the caller are monitored through and through by technological artefactsthat will be examined

In this paper we present results from a research and development project focusing on the use of mobile phones at a music festival. Our aim is to explore how the festival experience can be enhanced with the introduction of mobile services. Two questions are addressed: Are there any design-openings for new services supporting groups at large-scale events? If so, what design challenges can be identified as important to consider in order to enhance the festival experience? Our conclusion is that there are several design-openings for new services supporting groups at large-scale events. We identify two different design challenges to address when designing new services; Supporting ad-hoc re-planning and shareability. The study contributes to better suited designs of services and technology in mobile settings as this music festival as well as for other large-scale events.