ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates how the issues of articulation and impact were evident in an email-based distribution list which was set up as a patient support discussion forum, and run as part of a wider project on the employment experiences of inflammatory bowel disease sufferers. The development of networks of individuals sharing discussions on topics of common interest has in turn spawned the development of patient support networks. Computer networking developed from the US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, who pioneered the first Wide Area Network as a tool for collaborative work in 1969. This origin, together with the scientific characteristics inherited from computing more widely, have contributed to the evolution of computing as a mechanical tool for logical, scientific, work based pursuits. The development of the internet for logical, scientific and practical work applications has gradually melted into the development of more social aspects of collaborative work.
