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The article focuses on the substitution of paper diaries by electronic diaries, used by the employees. Papermills are gigantic and complex machines, incorporating state-of-the-art technology. As part of a larger project a papermill in Finland was used to provide support for factory floor workers in process industries. Paper diaries were substituted with electronic diaries on one production line employing 35 workers. Entries constitute dialogues within and between work shifts, and partially with other organizational levels. The e-diary design was a cooperative effort between workers in an oil refinery a superintendent and foreman from the papermill, and the research group. It was piloted in the oil refinery, and a refined prototype was used in the papermill. All 35 production line staff workers received about four hours training on the diary including its underlying Microsoft Windows and Lotus Notes applications. E-diary entries are a text version of talking-out-loud-with extended spatial and temporal scope. INSET: An Example of Extended Dialogue Reject Carrier Problems in.....

The article focuses on the rapid rise of Finland as one of the most networked nations in the world. Finland was the first country where the income from wireless communications exceeded that from land lines. Telephone costs are among the world's lowest and phone services are fully digitized. The number of Internet hosts per capita is the world's highest, as is the per capita volume of Internet use. Finland has evolved from a peripheral European country producing paper and timber into a nation with per capita information technology (IT) production and use ranking among the highest in the world. Finnish educational system has actively promoted IT skills. By 1999 all Finnish schools will have the Internet connections. The prominent features of Finnish World War II military organization were organic forms, improvisation, individual reliability and responsibility, and fast reaction. Many of these features are still visible in Finnish high-tech firms.

As of January 1997, 16.1 million Internet hosts worldwide served 57 million people, not including 14 million with email only, according to Matrix Information Directory Services (MIDS) in Austin, Texas. Other MIDS information: during the same period, there were 70,000 networks in 194 countries worldwide. Of the countries with a population of a million or more, only 17 were not wired to the Internet. The leading country in terms of hosts per 1,000 population was Finland, with a rate of 63. The U.S. accounted for 58% of all Internet hosts, with New Mexico ranking highest. The host rate in France tallied low because of the government's sponsorship of the Minitel system, which is not directly connected to the Internet.