RESEARCH ARTICLE DIALECTICS OF COLLECTIVE MINDING: CONTRADICTORY APPROPRIATIONS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN A HIGH-RISK PROJECT Jessica Luo Carlo Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1212 U.S.A. {carloj@msu.edu} Kalle Lyytinen and Richard J. Boland, Jr. Department of Information Systems, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106 U.S.A. {kalle@case.edu} {boland@case.edu} Appendix A Capabilities of CATIA Computer-aided three-dimensional interactive application (CATIA) was originally developed by Dassault Systems to design and manufacture complex geometries for jet fighters. Lately, it has been adopted as a multi-platform 3-D product life cycle management solution and is used widely as a design platform in several industries, including the automobile, aerospace, ship-building, and consumer electronics industries. It supports multiple phases of product development, including design (i.e., computer-aided design—CAD), analysis (computer-aided engineering —CAE), and manufacturing (computer-aided manufacturing—CAM). It includes, among others, the following capabilities. 3-D Modeling CATIA uses three methods to create 3-D objects: (1) Wireframe modeling uses parametric/mathematical data to produce visual presentations of physical objects. For instance, CATIA can draw a circle by specifying the location of the center in space and the length of its diameter, or specify the edge of an object by connecting its constituent vertices using straight lines or curves. As shown in Figure A1, wireframe modeling allows visualization of the underlying design “structure” of a 3-D model. The wireframe format is widely used in programming tool paths for direct numerical control (DNC) machine tools. (2) Surface modeling describes freeform surfaces of a 3-D object. Since freeform surfaces do not have rigid radial dimensions, CATIA describes the shape using non-uniform rational basis splines (NURBS) and Bézier splines. As shown in Figure A2, the freeform surfaces are defined by manipulating the surface control points, degree, and number of segments of curves. As a result, free forms, such as building exterior skins, can be reproduced with extreme mathematical accuracy. (3) Solid modeling conveys information about the solid attributes of a 3-D object (e.g., mass, volume, density, etc). Instead of storing product information in separate text attachments, CATIA helps encapsulate rich and discrete design product data directly with 3-D objects. As shown in Figure A3, 3-D objects in CATIA can thus mirror the solid parts of “real-world objects”(Yap et al. 2003). MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 3–Appendix/December 2012 A1