Showing papers in "The Information Society in 2002"
TL;DR: Overall, the article shows how model and theory help understand IS cases in developing countries, and equally, how those cases provide valuable data to help develop IS models and theories.
Abstract: This article presents evidence that--alongside the successes-- many information systems in developing countries can be categorized as failing either totally or partially. It then develops a new model that seeks to explain the high rates of failure. The model draws on contingency theory in order to advance the notion of design-actuality gaps: the match or mismatch between IS designs and local user actuality. This helps identify two high-risk archetypes that affect IS in developing countries: country context gaps and hard-soft gaps. The model is also of value in explaining the constraints that exist to local IS improvisations in developing countries. Overall, the article shows how model and theory help understand IS cases in developing countries, and equally, how those cases provide valuable data to help develop IS models and theories.
1,380 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that consideration of the strength of ties between communicators can help reconcile disparate results on the impact of new media on social relations.
Abstract: This article argues that consideration of the strength of ties between communicators can help reconcile disparate results on the impact of new media on social relations. It is argued from the research literature and studies by the author that where ties are strong, communicators can influence each other to adapt and expand their use of media to support the exchanges important to their tie, but where ties are weak, communicators are dependent on common, organizationally established means of communication and protocols established by others. Due to this differential use of media, a new medium that adds means and opportunities for previously unconnected others to communicate will have positive effects on weak ties and weak-tie networks, in particular by laying an infrastructure of latent ties (ones that exist technically but have not yet been activated), and providing an opportunity for weak ties to develop and strengthen. A new medium may also have positive effects on strongly tied pairs where it adds anoth...
721 citations
TL;DR: The analysis suggests that feminist and other nonmainstream online forums are especially vulnerable, in that they must balance inclusive ideals against the need for protection and safety, a tension that can be exploited by disruptive elements to generate intragroup conflict.
Abstract: A common phenomenon in online discussion groups is the individual who baits and provokes other group members, often with the result of drawing them into fruitless argument and diverting attention from the stated purposes of the group. This study documents a case in which the members of an online community--a feminist web-based discussion forum--are targeted by a "troll" attempting to disrupt their discussion space. We analyze the strategies that make the troller successful and the targeted group largely ineffectual in responding to his attack, as a means to understand how such behavior might be minimized and managed in general. The analysis further suggests that feminist and other nonmainstream online forums are especially vulnerable, in that they must balance inclusive ideals against the need for protection and safety, a tension that can be exploited by disruptive elements to generate intragroup conflict.
422 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that while these mobile temporalities are emerging, and offer new ways of acting in and perceiving time and space, the practical construction of mobile time in everyday life remains firmly connected to well-established time-based social practices, whether these be institutional, work time, or subjective.
Abstract: The current explosion in mobile computing and telecommunications technologies holds the potential to transform "everyday" time and space, as well as changes to the rhythms of social institutions. Sociologists are only just beginning to explore what the notion of "mobility" might mean when mediated through computing and communications technologies, and so far, the sociological treatment has been largely theoretical. This article seeks instead to explore how a number of dimensions of time and space are being newly reconstructed through the use of mobile communications technologies in everyday life. The article draws on long-term ethnographic research entitled "The Socio-Technical Shaping of Mobile Multimedia Personal Communications," conducted at the University of Surrey. This research has involved ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a variety of locales and with a number of groups. This research is used here as a resource to explore how mobile communications technologies mediate time in relation to mobile ...
377 citations
TL;DR: Results indicate that the vast majority of online users are pragmatic when it comes to privacy, and analysis of the data suggested that online users can be segmented into four distinct groups, representing differing levels of privacy concern.
Abstract: Traditional typologies of consumer privacy concern suggest that consumers fall intro three distinct groups: One-fourth of consumers are not concerned about privacy, one-fourth are highly concerned, and half are pragmatic, in that their concerns about privacy depend on the situation presented. This study examines online users to determine whether types of privacy concern online mirror the offline environment. An e-mail survey of online users examined perceived privacy concerns of 15 different situations involving collection and usage of personally identifiable information. Results indicate that the vast majority of online users are pragmatic when it comes to privacy. Further analysis of the data suggested that online users can be segmented into four distinct groups, representing differing levels of privacy concern. Distinct demographic differences were seen. Persons with higher levels of education are more concerned about their privacy online than persons with less education. Additionally, persons over the age of 45 years tended to be either not at all concerned about privacy or highly concerned about privacy. Younger persons tended to be more pragmatic. Content and policy implications are provided.
342 citations
TL;DR: This article describes the initial period (1994-2001) of an ongoing action research project to develop health information systems to support district management in South Africa and develops a modular hierarchy of global and local datasets as a framework within which the tensions between standardization and localization may be understood and addressed.
Abstract: This article describes the initial period (1994-2001) of an ongoing action research project to develop health information systems to support district management in South Africa. The reconstruction of the health sector in postapartheid South Africa striving for equity in health service delivery and building of a decentralized structure based on health districts. In terms of information systems (IS) development, this reform process translates into standardization of health data in ways that inscribe the goals of the new South Africa by enhancing local control and integration of information handling. We describe our approach to action research and use concepts from actor-network and structuration theories in analyzing the case material. In the detailed description and analysis of the process of IS development provided, we focus on the need to balance standardization and local flexibility (localization); standardization is thus seen as bottom-up alignment of an array of heterogeneous actors. Building on a soc...
301 citations
TL;DR: This article illustrates how the amplification model might be applied to concrete problems, including the development of social networks and ways that technology is used to bind people together into a polity.
Abstract: Research on the Internet's role in politics has struggled to transcend technological determinism--the assumption, often inadvertent, that the technology simply imprints its own logic on social relationships. An alternative approach traces the ways, often numerous, in which an institution's participants appropriate the technology in the service of goals, strategies, and relationships that the institution has already organized. This amplification model can be applied in analyzing the Internet's role in politics. After critically surveying a list of widely held views on the matter, this article illustrates how the amplification model might be applied to concrete problems. These include the development of social networks and ways that technology is used to bind people together into a polity.
285 citations
TL;DR: A threefold descriptive framework is introduced that identifies and characterizes the main elements of KM phenomena and their relationships and introduces elemental knowledge manipulation activities an organization performs in dealing with those resources.
Abstract: It is widely claimed by a number of business and academic gurus that in order for organizations to have a lasting competitive advantage they will have to be knowledge driven. If knowledge is viewed as a resource that is critical to an organization's survival and success in the global market, then like any other resource it demands good management. However, the bulk of organizations still have not approached knowledge management (KM) activity formally or deliberately. The cause for this inattention could be that most organizations are still struggling to comprehend the KM concept. To ease the struggle, the fundamental issue of identifying salient characteristics of KM phenomena needs to be addressed. This article helps address this need by introducing a threefold descriptive framework that identifies and characterizes the main elements of KM phenomena and their relationships. The first component provides a generic description of an organization's knowledge resources. A second component introduces elemental...
273 citations
TL;DR: This paper offers a set of alternative understandings of change and innovation that underwrite a practice-based design approach that includes a view of innovation as indigenous to technologies in-use, an emphasis on the investments needed to create sustainable change, and an orientation to artful integration as an objective for information systems design.
Abstract: This paper offers reflections on information systems design based in everyday practices. Drawing on experience in what I name the hyperdeveloped world of industrial research and development in the United States, I outline a series of concerns, organized under the themes of information flows, local improvisations and work practices. I then offer a set of alternative understandings of change and innovation that underwrite a practice-based design approach. These include a view of innovation as indigenous to technologiesin-use, an emphasis on the investments needed to create sustainable change, and an orientation to artful integration as an objective for information systems design.
215 citations
TL;DR: This work analyzes the attempts of a maritime classification company with 5500 employees located in 300 sites in 100 countries to develop an infrastructural information system to support the surveying of ships globally.
Abstract: A considerable body of literature has demonstrated-- empirically as well as analytically--that information systems need to be situated to the local context of use. Yet for infrastructural information systems that span numerous contexts spread out globally, this is literally prohibitive. For these systems to work, it is necessary to strike a balance between sensitiveness to local contexts and a need to standardize across contexts. We analyze a key element in this, namely, spelling out the (largely invisible) "costs" that the different actors pay to achieve working solutions. Empirically, we draw from an ongoing case study. We analyze the attempts of a maritime classification company with 5500 employees located in 300 sites in 100 countries to develop an infrastructural information system to support the surveying of ships globally. We elaborate design implications and concepts relevant to developing information infrastructures that also apply to the context of developing countries.
213 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine three domains in which social policy has explicitly recognized the importance of social forgetfulness: bankruptcy law, juvenile crime records, and credit reports, and frame the issue in terms of the social benefits of forgetfulness.
Abstract: Modern information systems not only capture a seemingly endless amount of transactional data, but also tend to retain it for indefinite periods of time. We argue that privacy policies must address not only collection and access to transactional information, but also its timely disposal. One unintended side effect of data retention is the disappearance of social forgetfulness, which allows individuals a second chance, the opportunity for a fresh start in life. We examine three domains in which social policy has explicitly recognized the importance of such a principle: bankruptcy law, juvenile crime records, and credit reports. In each case, we frame the issue in terms of the social benefits of forgetfulness, rather than in terms of individual privacy protection. We examine how different policy approaches to privacy might handle the retention of data and propose a comprehensive policy that includes a variety of strategies. The broad conclusion of the article is that data retention and disposal should be add...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors introduce the special issue on Information and Communication Technologies in Developing Countries (ICAET), which is a collection of articles from the Information Society's 2002 special issue.
Abstract: (2002). Introducing the Special Issue on Information and Communication Technologies in Developing Countries. The Information Society: Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 73-76.
TL;DR: This study compares a subset of equivalent individual-level web-site data for the 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001 web surveys to assess whether organizations post online privacy disclosures and whether these disclosures represent the U.S. definition of fair information practices.
Abstract: In the United States, Congress has had a long-standing interest in consumer privacy and the extent to which company practices are based on fair information practices. Previously, public policy was largely informed by anecdotal evidence about the effectiveness of industry self-regulatory programs. However, the Internet has made it possible to unobtrusively sample web sites and their privacy disclosures in a way that is not feasible in the offline world. Beginning in 1998, the Federal Trade Commission relied upon a series of three surveys of web sites to assess whether organizations post online privacy disclosures and whether these disclosures represent the U.S. definition of fair information practices. While each year's survey has provided an important snapshot of U.S. web-site practices, there has been no longitudinal analysis of the multiyear trends. This study compares a subset of equivalent individual-level web-site data for the 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001 web surveys. Implications for using this type o...
Journal Article•
TL;DR: This paper uses data from four national surveys to document how personal computers and the Internet have become increasingly domesticated since 1995 and to explore the mechanisms for this shift.
Abstract: The people who use computers and the ways they use them have changed substantially over the past 25 years. In the beginning highly educated people, mostly men, in technical professions used computers for work, but over time a much broader range of people are using computers for personal and domestic purposes. This trend is still continuing, and over a shorter time scale has been replicated with the use of the Internet. This paper uses data from four national surveys to document how personal computers and the Internet have become increasingly domesticated since 1995 and to explore the mechanisms for this shift. Now people log on more often from home than from places of employment and do so for pleasure and for personal purposes rather than for their jobs. Analyses comparing veteran Internet users to novices in 1998 and 2000 and analyses comparing the change in use within a single sample between 1995 and 1996 support two complementary explanations for how these technologies have become domesticated. Women, ...
TL;DR: The literature on forms of intermediation by NGOs and other organizations working for citizen groups is reviewed and a case study of Jana Sahayog, an NGO operating in the slums of Bangalore, which employs an information-based model of NGO-mediated intervention.
Abstract: With the rapid increase in population coupled with the seemingly irreversible flow of people from rural to urban areas, cities in the developing world are acquiring unplanned and uncontrolled squatter settlements at their peripheries. The provision of urban services and infrastructure in these cities is hampered by the failure of formal bureaucratic government institutions to collect appropriate information for planning, especially in areas that fall outside the remit of the formal networks. A growing number of grass-roots nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have sought to rectify the situation by acting as intermediaries between urban slum dwellers and the government. In this article, we review the literature on forms of intermediation by NGOs and other organizations working for citizen groups. We then present a case study of Jana Sahayog, an NGO operating in the slums of Bangalore, which employs an information-based model of NGO-mediated intervention. The article describes the various information-based...
TL;DR: This study examines the ways in which newly enfranchised language users in the past have balanced externally generated prescriptions for linguistic style with user-generated coping strategies in constructing spoken and written messages.
Abstract: Stylistic practices in e-mail reflect an amalgam of social presuppositions about usage conventions and individual strategies for handling a new language medium. To understand how contemporary e-mail patterns have been forged and where they might be heading, this study examines the ways in which newly enfranchised language users in the past have balanced externally generated prescriptions for linguistic style with user-generated coping strategies in constructing spoken and written messages. Popular letter writing, the early telegraph, and early telephone behavior offer useful precedents for thinking about both e-mail messages themselves and the potential effects of language technology on broader language change.
TL;DR: It is shown that conflicting answers to the central question of the present theoretical debate--Is community possible on computer networks?--generalize from particular features of systems and software prevalent at different stages in the development of computer networking.
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to explore questions of human agency and democratic process in the technical sphere through the example of "virtual community." The formation of relatively stable long-term group associations--community in the broad sense of the term--is the scene on which a large share of human development occurs. As such it is a fundamental human value mobilizing diverse ideologies and sensitivities. The promise of realizing this value in a new domain naturally stirs up much excitement among optimistic observers of the Internet. At the same time, the eagerness to place hopes for community in a technical system flies in the face of an influential intellectual tradition of technology criticism. This eagerness seems even more naive in the light of the recent commercialization of so much Internet activity. Despite the widespread skepticism, we believe the growth of virtual community is significant for an inquiry into the democratization of technology.We show that conflicting answers to the cen...
TL;DR: Suggestions are made for how to incorporate a temporally reflective perspective into analysis of technology-enabled organizational change and how a temporal perspective provides insight into both the social and technical aspects of the sociotechnical nature of enterprise systems.
Abstract: In this article we highlight temporal effects in information and communication technology-enabled organizational change. Examples of temporal effects are explored in the context of one organization's efforts to implement an enterprise-wide information system. Temporality is presented as having two aspects, with the first being the well-recognized, linear and measured clock time. The second aspect of time is that which is perceived--often as nonlinear--and socially defined. We find that temporal effects arise both in changes to the structure of work and in differences among groups in how time is perceived. Evidence suggests that both specific characteristics of the implementation and of the enterprise systems' technologies further exacerbate these temporal effects. We conclude with suggestions for how to incorporate a temporally reflective perspective into analysis of technology-enabled organizational change and how a temporal perspective provides insight into both the social and technical aspects of the s...
TL;DR: How a Nigerian bank implemented and adapted a global IT-based technique, the factors that influence such adaptations, and what results are achieved are explored.
Abstract: The working assumption of this research is that the utilization of information technology (IT) and IT-based practices in any part of the world currently is taking place within the globalization trends. In recent times, studies in information systems (IS) are beginning to examine whether the globalization process portends homogeneity for developing countries' organizations or whether these organizations can utilize IT and IT-based management techniques according to the sociocultural requirements of their contexts. These studies show the importance of the local context and, more specifically, the importance of adapting global IT-based practices when implementing them in developing countries. However, the precise nature of these adaptations and the factors that shape them are still poorly understood--leaving this a fruitful area for research. In line with this view, this article explores how a Nigerian bank implemented and adapted a global IT-based technique, the factors that influence such adaptations, and ...
TL;DR: Recognition of ICANN's governance mechanisms allows us to better understand the Internet's emerging regulatory regime.
Abstract: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was created in 1998 to perform technical coordination of the Internet. ICANN also lays the foundations for governance, creating capabilities for promulgating and enforcing global regulations on Internet use. ICANN leverages the capabilities in the Internet domain name system (DNS) to implement four mechanisms of governance: authority, law, sanctions, and jurisdictions. These governance-related features are embodied in seemingly technical features of ICANN's institutional design. Recognition of ICANN's governance mechanisms allows us to better understand the Internet's emerging regulatory regime.
TL;DR: Modern information technology is compared with the mechanical clocks of the 17th and 18th centuries and temporal impacts of information technology at three levels (individual, organizational, social) as well as broader, theoretical issues.
Abstract: and society. In so doing, we draw on Bolter’s (1984) concept of “dee ning technology” and compare modern information technology with the mechanical clocks of the 17th and 18th centuries. Then, we present temporal impacts of information technology at three levels (individual, organizational,and social), as well as broader, theoretical issues. These four areas will be used as a framework onto which the e ve papers included in this special issue will be positioned. Finally we suggest areas for future research in the study of time and information technology.
TL;DR: Drawing on time geography, this article discusses a social perspective of time and social dynamics of time management in IS development project teams and outlines its implications for formal approaches to time management.
Abstract: This article reports an ethnographic study that investigates the ways in which time was experienced and managed in an information systems (IS) development project. The study is based on 6 months of intensive overt participant observation of the development of Executive Information Systems in a large multinational company. Drawing on time geography, this article discusses a social perspective of time and social dynamics of time management in IS development project teams and outlines its implications for formal approaches to time management.
TL;DR: It is argued that the effectiveness of an act of improvisation is greatly influenced by political factors, and the relationship between power and improvisations is identified.
Abstract: This article discusses how political factors influence the outcome of improvisations. Improvisations are unexpected actions rooted on intuition and aimed at solving particular crisis. It is argued ...
TL;DR: It is argued that U.S. industry adopted a new industrial paradigm called "Wintelism" in response to competitive pressures from western Europe and East Asia, and found it easier to adopt this new paradigm than countries that pursued the developmental state approach.
Abstract: What explains the resurgence of U.S. international competitiveness in the 1990s? The previous decade can be characterized as one of intense U.S. concern about its declining international competitiveness. In this article, we argue that U.S. industry adopted a new industrial paradigm called "Wintelism" in response to competitive pressures from western Europe and East Asia. The essence of Wintelism is a reliance on open but owned technical standards and extensive outsourcing of component production to enable industrial structures to become less vertically and more horizontally integrated. Countries like the United States that pursued a modified regulatory state approach to structuring state-societal relationships found it easier to adopt this new paradigm than countries that pursued the developmental state approach.
TL;DR: These controversies were created from the difficulties of fitting electronic cash, a new sociotechnical system, into the complex setting of the existing payment system and suggest the need to rethink the dichotomy of success and failure.
Abstract: Between 1997 and 2001, two mid-sized communities in Canada hosted North America's most comprehensive experiment to introduce electronic cash and, in the process, replace physical cash for casual, low-value payments. The technology used was Mondex, and its implementation was supported by all the country's major banks. It was launched with an extensive publicity campaign to promote Mondex not only in the domestic but also in the global market, for which the Canadian implementation was to serve as a "showcase." However, soon after the start of the first field test it became apparent that the new technology did not work smoothly. On the contrary, it created a host of controversies, in areas as varied as computer security, consumer privacy, and monetary policy. In the following years, few of these controversies could be resolved and Mondex could not be established as a widely used payment mechanism. In 2001, the experiment was finally terminated. Using the concepts developed in recent science and technology st...
TL;DR: This article tries to show that local cultures find the medium an appropriate and effective one in putting forward their agenda and different conceptions of time can coexist at the same time.
Abstract: Time is affected significantly by the spread of the Internet throughout the world. On the one hand, the new communication technologies provide for "round-the-clock" operation, threatening to oblite...
TL;DR: In this paper, what's the matter with the Internet? The Information Society: Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 309-310, with a focus on the role of social media.
Abstract: (2002). What's the Matter With the Internet? The Information Society: Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 309-310.
TL;DR: The empirical analysis--based on survey data from 1988, 1994, and 2000--yields a somewhat more critical picture of the Finnish information society than what usually comes across in the mainstream media.
Abstract: Along with the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs), work processes are becoming ever more knowledge intensive. In keeping with this trend, the number of informational (or knowledge) workers in Finland has more than tripled from 12% in 1988 to 39% in 2000. What makes the Finnish case unique and interesting is the exceptional speed with which the information sector of the economy has grown. A few years after facing the most severe economic recession in its history in the early 1990s, Finland is now considered to have an advanced information economy. However, our empirical analysis--based on survey data from 1988, 1994, and 2000--yields a somewhat more critical picture of the Finnish information society than what usually comes across in the mainstream media. The opportunities for social equality offered by the growth of informational work are far more limited than was the case with the transition from agricultural to industrial production.
TL;DR: An interpretation of Blake's works helps one to understand that cyberspace is not a purely spatial entity; it also involves time, but not in the sense of Einstein's special relativity theory.
Abstract: Various spatial metaphors related to cyberspace suffer from two major deficiencies. First, they do not take into account that cyberspace is not a preexistent territory, but an entity that emerges in the process of its development. Second, cyberspace is not a metric space, so that most of the ready-made constructs, like the topologic spaces, cannot be of much use. An interpretation of Blake's works helps one to understand that cyberspace is not a purely spatial entity; it also involves time, but not in the sense of Einstein's special relativity theory. The cyber space-time continuum is not a void waiting to be filled, but an aggregation of places (sites) that, similarly to Blake's plates, are multimedia architectures resulting from the blend of space and time.