  This paper examines coordination in transparent work environments -
environments where the content of work artifacts, and the actions taken on
these artifacts, are fully visible to organizational members. Our qualitative
study of a community of open source software developers revealed a coordination
system characterized by interest-based, asynchronous interaction and knowledge
transfer. At the core of asynchronous knowledge transfer, lies the concept of
quasi-codification, which occurs when rich process knowledge is implicitly
encoded in work artifacts. Our findings suggest that members are able to more
selectively form dependencies, monitor the trajectory of projects, and make
their work understandable to others which facilitates coordination. We discuss
two important characteristics that enable coordination activities in a
transparent environment: the presence of an imagined audience that dictates the
way artifacts are crafted, and experience within the environment, that allows
individuals to derive knowledge from these artifacts. By showing how
transparency influences coordination, this research challenges previous
conceptions of coordination for complex, collaborative work.
