User-centred approaches to information systems development presume a particular division of labour between `users' and `designers' and an organisation of the development process in discrete projects. We present material from a case study that shows how development takes place during the day-to-day operation of a system and how the social relations in this setting differ from the ones often assumed by both traditional and radical approaches to systems development. We discuss the prospects and limitations of continuous user involvement and the possibility of establishing user-led development processes that take advantage of social learning - processes of domestication and innovation taking place in the context of daily work activities.
In the discussion we would like to discuss the prospects of applying methods from artificial intelligence to the problem of managing social learning processes. If we organise systems development as an ongoing process, how can we define and enforce policy issues? How can we address the question of `who may change what and when' ?