According to Clark, participants solve the coordination problems inherent in a joint activity by using conversational turns to display their understanding, an understanding that other participants may, in subsequent conversational turns, either ratify or correct. The virtual object is a specialized representation of the current state of activity. The presence of this virtual object is signaled in oral conversation by references to aspects of the object and in electronic conversation by cursor pointing and active modification of representations on the screen. A virtual object represents the current state of the team's progress toward a final product, in this case a floorplan. We expect a virtual object to have a description, requirements and issues.
All components evolve as the team works.
When all requirements can be said to be met and all issues resolved, then the team may have a ratified floorplan. In general, virtual objects may have component objects, and a formal model may include requirement and issue classes among others. These are then used to assemble a shared floorplan for further evolution. Changes in a virtual object may represent changes of state for the object. In a team endeavor with a shared goal to achieve, meaningful states surely include an initial state and a final state as well as possibly significant intermediate states signaled by ratifications by the team of key features or major changes in perspective or strategy for its evolution.