Where did the term come from? Who uses it and how?

The concept of ecology from science is used by Design theorists as an analogy to understand the artificial. Both Manzini and Krippendorff note the influence of Bateson in the construction of their concept of the Ecology of the Artificial. Krippendorff’s analogy aims to understand the artifact (‘of product semantics’) where as Manzini’s analogy aims to understand the role of design. Both link an ecological concept to designs responsibility and ethics. ‘Designers should be especially aware of and responsible for the global effects of their creative efforts’ (Krippendorff, 1989, p.33).

‘For Bateson, then, the artificial environment may be read with an ecological model, viewing it as the place of competition among the self-maximizing entities and as the sedimentation of the artefacts produced as the outcome of the activities of these entities. We can understand by the expression "ecology of the artificial" the dynamic equilibrium that is determined among these entities from moment to moment. Coherent with this definition is the view that the search for new environmental qualities can be regarded as the search for a new equilibrium, for a "new ecology of the artificial environment." ‘ (Manzini, 1992, p.12)

Manzini and others have used this context for design (of the ecology of the artificial) to develop projects such as:
Sustainable Everyday: Scenarios of Urban Life http://www.triennale.it/triennale/sito_html/quotidiano/eng/home_.html
Sushouse http://www.sushouse.tudelft.nl/not/frames.htm
HICS http://www.sustainable-everyday.net/lolacases/
Sustainable Everyday Project http://www.sustainable-everyday.net/SEPhome/home.html#scenarios

A Timeline of References:

Baudrillard, J., 1968, The System of Objects (reprinted in english in 1996 by Verso, London)
Bateson G.,1972, Steps to an Ecology of mind, Ballantine Books, New York.
Manzini E., 1986, The Material of Invention: Materials and Design, Arcadia Edizioni, Milan.
Branzi A.,1988, Learning from Milan: Design and the Second modernity, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Krippendorff, K., 1989, On the Essential Contexts of Artifacts or on the Proposition That "Design Is Making Sense (Of Things), Design Issues, vol. 5., No.2. (Spring) pp. 9-39
Doordan D., Ed.,1991, The Munich Design Charter, Design Issues, vol.8, no.1, Autumn, pp.74-77
Manzini, E.,1992, Prometheus of the Everyday: The Ecology of the Artificial and the Designer’s Responsibility, Design Issues, vol.9, no.1, Autumn, pp.5-20.
Manzini, E., 1994, Physis and Design. Interaction between nature and Culture, http://www.raco.cat/index.php/Temes/article/viewFile/29402/42200 [accessed 31/07/07]
Pantzar, M., 1999, Do Commodities Reproduce themselves through human beings? Man vs. nature vs. technology: problems and new conceptualisations, In: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fss/sociology/esf/commodities.htm [accessed 30/07/07]
Manzini, E. and Jégou, F., 2003, Sustainable Everyday: Scenarios of Urban Life, Edizione Ambiente, Milan.