Always Articulating: Theorizing on Mobile and Wireless Technologies

Through this article we theorize on the nature and effects of articulation work relative to the take-up and use of information and communications technologies (ICT). Articulation work is “work that enables other work”: that which links people, processes, and technologies within organizations. Articulation work in organizations is both common and too often invisible from a managerial or budgetary perspective. Drawing on data from a study of the introduction and implementation of mobile computing technologies into criminal justice organizations, we highlight two findings: (1) There exist ongoing but unmet articulation needs present in any organization or work system. (2) Articulation is cumulative. We find, that as work becomes more complex (such as adding new work tasks and using new technologies), there is more articulation needed. These findings raise issues with assessing the costs of articulation on individuals, and making arrangements to accommodate explicit and implicit articulation in organizational work, particularly around the take-up and ongoing use of ICT-based systems.     

Fostering Multidisciplinary Engagement: Communication Challenges for Social Research on Emerging Digital Technologies 1

Abstract

There is wide agreement on the value of multidisciplinary social research related to information and communication technologies. This paper provides insights into the dynamics at play in these studies, drawing on an in‐depth analysis of exchanges among an international group of experts from many relevant disciplines who participated in a workshop on research into the social implications of emerging digital technologies. In addition to identifying some distinctive new challenges facing this field, the paper suggests how understanding ways to foster productive engagement in discussing and developing issues and joint work could lead to more useful multidisciplinary partnerships.     

Making Sense of Research: The Dynamics of Management Research in France 1

Privacy is universal value. But according to The Economist in 1999 it is finished - killed off by the remarkable capacity of information technology to analyse, trace and re-assemble personal data: affording an unprecedented insight into individual attitudes and activities. Based on the progress made in implementing the OECD Guidelines on Privacy (1980), the author, who chaired the OECD group that devised those Guidelines, reviews their impact, the need to update them and contemporary proposals for new privacy protections suitable to the current technologies. He concludes that the capacity to uphold human values in the context of new technologies, such as informatics and genomics, presents one of the largest ethical questions for the 21st century.     

Business teams in an information age

Abstract

A critical success factor for businesses in the twenty‐first century will be their ability to meet the environmental demands for complex coordination of action and rapid adjustments to volatile markets and global competition. Business teams are effective mechanisms for addressing the need for dynamic, flexible organizations that can effectively cope with complexity and turbulence.

Business teams are not a new phenomenon, but there is a new element in the equation: the use of information technologies (IT) to leverage team effort. Information technologies can enhance team performance through support of interaction processes by providing two types of functionality: coordination support and task execution support.

An agenda for action for moving forward a team‐based organization and use of information technologies for support of business teams is provided.     

Barriers to Networked Governments: Evidence from Europe 1

Abstract

Progress towards realizing the full potential of ‘e‐government’—using digital technologies to improve public services and government–citizen engagements—has been slower and less effective than the technologies’ take‐up in spheres such as e‐commerce. Evidence from across Europe reported here, including an online survey and case studies, indicates a significant reason has been an overly narrow focus on substituting electronic for traditional services. Theoretical and empirical perspectives on barriers to e‐government identified (e.g. poor coordination; workplace and organizational inflexibility) suggest greater attention should be given to supporting organization innovations to achieve maximum benefits from networking in the public sector.     

A Socio‐cognitive Perspective of Industry Innovation Initiatives

Abstract

This article contributes to the emerging theory of industry belief systems and the social construction of innovation by examining how industry actors conceptualise and negotiate industry transformation through the development and diffusion of new technologies. In a qualitative study of innovation in the Australian wool industry, we found that the social construction of industry belief systems and new technologies was an evolutionary process of social sensemaking in which there was reciprocity between individual and collective meaning‐making that reflected conflict, consensus and compliance between industry actors about new technologies and industry beliefs.     

Technology and Globalisation: An Overview

Globalisation is a term too easily used without reference to the basic enabling role of technology. It is the interplay between available technology and the prevailing social processes, especially dominant institutional forms, which has essentially determined the long process of globalisation. This process has gone through phases exhibiting varying core characteristics as production, transport and communications technologies especially have interrelated with the institutional structures of nation states, military forces and firms especially. However, a general trend to geographical and tendentially global expansion has been constant, along with an intensification of information processing and communications capacity. The role of technology has been to enable this physical expansion culminating in globalisation, including the techno-industrial capacity that increasingly drove it through the construction of better and cheaper artefacts.     

An International Perspective on I&C Policies: Recent Developments and Future Prospects

The last few years have seen unprecedented growth in information and communication technologies (I&C) and products, which has led to a robust growth in the whole world, and especially in the United States. Euphoria was such that the term 'New Economy' was coined about 4 years ago, and was taken to mean almost the same as 'New Technologies', mostly information and communication technologies. These technologies are truly global. They are important instruments for further globalisation, and for reducing the international digital divide; they offer important opportunities for further world economic growth. There is increasing competition in their operation, which brings great benefits to customers in the form of reduced prices and new applications. International co-ordination of standards, trade and regulatory frameworks is increasingly necessary. PTOs and other operators need to keep constantly abreast of developments in various international fora, especially the ITU, the WTO and the OECD.     

The impact of the transfer of information technology on development

Abstract

Like other technical changes, the new information technologies have inspired hopes and fears. The optimists celebrate the “technologies of freedom” and their potential for growth and autonomy, the enhancement of skills and culture, the elimination of unpleasant and boring tasks (Pool 1984). On the other hand, the pessimists fear dehumanized work, growing unemployment, and bureaucracy, with unavoidable threats to privacy (Mosco 1987; Robins and Webster 1983).

In the communication and development debate, similar polarized attitudes are to be found. The technological optimists of the so‐called “modernization paradigm” claim that the transfer of information technologies to the developing world will spectacularly enhance the process of development. Commentators arguing from within this paradigm point out that the transfer of appropriate information technology can contribute to the creation of new social structures that will adequately respond to the needs of the developing world. At the other extreme, however, we have the technological pessimists, “the Luddites of the Information Revolution” (Tehranian 1985, 21). Proponents of this perspective perceive the transfer of information technology as necessarily reinforcing existing structures and thus exacerbating politico‐economic dependency and the loss of cultural identity.

In our opinion, both positions possess partial truths. However, both are based on inadequate theoretical foundations—erroneous conceptions of the nature of technology and its relationship vis‐à‐vis society, and a misunderstanding of the concept of development. Consequently, the policy implications of each approach are less than helpful. Building on what we consider to be a more apt conceptual framework, the central argument of this paper is that the transfer of information technology can play a role, albeit limited, in the development process.     

The Quality of Online and Offline Relationships: The Role of Multiplexity and Duration of Social Relationships

Recent studies have shown that adolescents use the Internet not only to maintain social relationships with distant relatives and friends but also to create new relationships online; some of these friendships become integrated into their social circle. Research has focused mainly on the effect of the Internet on existing relationships or the nature of online-only ties, so studies comparing the quality of online and face-to-face relationships are missing. The goal of this study is to bridge this gap. In keeping with previous studies on social association, we argue that the quality of social relationships is dependent on duration and diversity of topics and activities carried together. Time is important, as it facilitates the development of a collective shared history and identity. Intimacy develops through the participation in shared activities and discussion of diverse issues of personal concern. Using a representative sample of the adolescent population in Israel, we find that closeness to a friend is a function of social similarity, content and activity multiplexity, and duration of the relationships. Friendships originated in the Internet are perceived as less close and supportive because they are relatively new and online friends are involved in less joint activities and less topics of discussion. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

New Products of the 1980s and 1990s: The Diffusion of Household Technology in the Decade 1985-1995

The management of our households and the way we spend our leisure time has been greatly influenced by the introduction of various household technologies in the 1980s and 1990s. This paper compares the extent and rate of adoption of selected household products in Australian households. The diffusion of colour television sets, video cassette recorders, compact disc players, microwave ovens and personal computers into various types of households during the 1980s and 1990s was examined. This study found that different types of Australian households adopted new technology at different rates. The levels of ownership of various household technologies were highest for households with children. In general, one-adult households were slower to adopt new household technology when compared to other types of households. This paper speculates as to why one-person households are slower to purchase the latest in cooking and entertainment technology.     

When Nightingales Break the Law: Silence and the Construction of Reality

Strikingly, theorizing about digital technologies has led us to recognize many habitual subjects of research as figures against fields that are also worthy of study. Communication, for example, becomes visible only against the field of silence. Silence is critically important for the construction of reality – and the social construction of reality has a complement, the also necessary contemplative construction of reality. Silence is so sensitive and fragile that an inability to achieve it, or to get rid of it, or to correct the wrong kind of silence often provides early indicators of individual, group, communal, and society-wide stresses from information technologies. Indeed, we might treat difficulties with silence as miners treated canaries in coal mines, as early warning signals. The story has already been told that nightingales in London now have to sing so loudly in order to be heard above the ambient noise that the birds are in danger of breaking the noise ordinance law. Surely something has gone awry if nightingales break the law when they sing. Finding ways to protect silence as an arena of personal and social choice is a particularly poignant, evocative, and instructive ethical and policy horizon at this frontier moment for the human species. This article introduces the theory of the contemplative construction of reality, explores what the study of silence tells us about reality construction processes, and outlines a research agenda.     

Chinese Media,Global Contexts,edited by Chin-Chuan Lee. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. xii + 275 pp. $95.00 cloth. ISBN 0-415-30334-6

Abstract

Several information processing technologies which are capable of augmenting human performance in handling a range of emergency situations are featured in this discussion. Among the more sophisticated systems which have proven useful in enhancing information collection, transmission, and selective processing are packet radio networks, “expert planning systems,” multiple‐satellite technology, and such related emerging developments as “internetting” and “machine intelligence.”     

Incorporating affordability,efficiency, and quality in the ICT development index: Implications for index building and ICT policymaking

Abstract

International Telecommunication Union’s ICT Development Index and related measures of a country’s ICT development maturity suffer from several limitations, including subjective estimation of the weights of individual indicators and sub-indices, use of inappropriate quantitative models, specification bias arising from the exclusion of potential predictors from the estimation models, and a failure to capture the disparities among different groups of countries. To overcome these problems and provide a more reliable measure of ICT development, this study develops the Modified ICT Maturity Level Index using the 2015 data of 166 countries. This index adds affordability, efficiency, and quality to the existing sub-indices of access, use, and skills. Sub-index and indicator weights are determined in an outcome-orientated way using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. We find that affordability, quality, and efficiency significantly explain the variation in the level of maturity of ICT development in addition to the previously used dimensions of International Telecommunication Union’s ICT Development Index and modified ICT Development Index (mIDI) developed by Gerpott and Ahmadi, and that their explanatory power differ by a country’s level of economic development. The new index produces significantly different country rankings. This has important implications for ICT policy priorities and provides a measure of ICT development maturity less prone to the innocent or intentional distortion of such policy priorities.     

The adoption and social impacts of information technology in U.S. agriculture

Abstract

By 1986 (a decade after their invention) microprocessors had diffused to about 18 percent of all U.S. households and 6 percent of U.S. farmers. In addition to general consumer uses, farm households in the United States utilize microcomputers for such small business applications as record keeping, word‐processing, payroll handling, etc. A special application of microprocessor technology occurred in 1980–1981 when 200 Kentucky farmers participated in a trial of the Green Thumb Box, a video‐text system providing market, weather, and technological information. The nature of the information needs of U.S. farm people seems to fit well with the new information technologies built around the microprocessor, although little of this potential has yet been realized. Since that experiment, videotex has shown itself to have doubtful value as a channel for the distribution of agricultural information, leaving open the question of what might be the best technological vehicle for this audience. Research is needed on two issues: (1) the adoption and use of the new communication technologies, and (2) their social impacts on rural society.     

The impact of virtual technologies on knowledge-based processes: An empirical study

This study examines the organizational knowledge creation processes in two highly virtual teams involved in new product development projects in the automotive industry. Using Nonaka's model of knowledge creation, we explore how the virtualization of knowledge-based processes, i.e. the intensive exploitation of information and communication technologies (ICTs), has led to new forms of knowledge creation at both the individual and organizational levels. In contrast to previous studies that identify knowledge codification as the main contribution of ICTs, this study provides detailed micro-level evidence about the ability of virtual technologies to support the transfer and the creation of new knowledge – both explicit and tacit – and offers some implications for scholars and practitioners.     

Designing information communities: Ethical issues in the information age

Abstract

The worldwide use of computers, telecommunications, and other information technologies is giving rise to the formation of new communities called “information communities.” In the United States, for example, more people are employed as information givers, takers, or orchestrators in these communities than in any other occupation class. With so many social resources going into the conduct of these communities, it is essential that they are designed to be ethical. This requires that we identify the parties involved in each community, that we be empathetic and sympathetic to their needs and that we follow Kant's dictum by always treating them as “ends in themselves.”     

BIOTECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPAN: COMMENTS ON SAXONHOUSE'S PERSPECTIVE

The model form of macro-economic policy integration and the tripartite implementation mechanism put forward in Australia Reconstructed, a report of the ACTU/TDC mission to Western Europe, are examined. The form of evidence presented is found not to provide a test of the model's validity, nor is the format consistent with its message content. The model aside, the underlying premise that tripartite participation leads to commitment is questioned. An alternative rationale supporting the use of tripartite-like mechanisms in Australia, that of maximisation of strategic advantages now associated with new information technologies is presented. The implications for management, shareholders and union stakeholders are highlighted.     

The Role of Learning-by-Using in the Design of Health Care Technologies: A Case Study

New technologies typically go through significant improvements during their early diffusion. Literature suggests that these modifications follow from learning-by-using. However, the micro-level processes by which learning-by-using is actually achieved remain understudied. This article examines these processes through an in-depth case study of the design and use of a new health-care device. It identifies several learning processes and preconditions for learning that constituted learning-by-using. The results question the dominant image of learning-by-using as a harmonious flow of user feedback.