Scholarly Impact: a Bibliometric and Altmetric study of the Journal of Community Informatics

Demonstrating scholarly impact is a matter of growing importance. This paper reports on a bibliometric and altmetric analysis conducted on the Journal of Community Informatics (JOCI). Besides the bibliometric analysis the study also looked into JOCI article-level metrics by comparing usage metrics (article views), alternative metrics (Mendeley readership), and traditional citation metrics (Google Scholar citations). The main contribution is to provide more insight into the metrics that could influence the citation impact in Community Informatics research. Furthermore, the study used article-level metrics data to identify, compare and rank the most impactful papers published in JOCI over a 12-year period

Small Business Strategies for Information Technology Implementation in Developing Countries

Leaders of small businesses need dynamic capabilities created through careful implementation of information technologies (ITs) to enhance efficiency, performance, and output. The purpose of this multicase study was to explore strategies leaders of small businesses used in developing countries to implement ITs for improved business performance. The framework for this study was the technology, organization, and environment model. The sample population consisted of 10 leaders of small businesses located in the Accra region of Ghana. The study participants had at least 5 years of experience working with small businesses that implemented IT. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and review of companies\u27 strategic and project plans. The data analysis process included methodological triangulation, coding, the identification and congregation of themes, and the interpretation of inferences. Five themes emerged: top management support for IT implementation, investment in appropriate IT infrastructures, engaging in appropriate IT knowledge and skills training, creating an organizational culture of IT acceptance, and embracing legal and regulatory frameworks for IT. Findings from this study might assist leaders of small businesses in gaining insights into key IT strategies required for improving small business survivability. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential to facilitate employment generation and reduce poverty in developing countries by improving small business performance

Community informatics as innovation in sociotechnical infrastructures

One trajectory for community informatics is sociotechnical innovation: integrated innovations in the information and technology infrastructures of communities that enable innovation in communities themselves as social systems. We describe community informatics research emphasizing technology affordances of mobility and hyperlocality, aggregation and suprathresholding, information analytics, local digital currencies, reputation management systems, and crowd-based coordination. We present an envisionment scenario for a community innovation infrastructure incorporating and leveraging these technologies

Participatory design and free and open source software in the not for profit sector – the Hublink Project.

This industry-based thesis undertakes a multifaceted and longitudinal exploration of the design and implementation of a Free and Open Source Software (FLOSS) based information system in a consortium of small-scale community organisations. The research is centred on the design, production and implementation of a case management system with and for a group of nine not-for-profit organisations in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets who work as a consortium. The system, called Hublink, is based on the FLOSS framework Drupal. The system was designed during 2013 and has been in everyday use by those organisations since January 2014, acting as the consortium's primary information infrastructure. This research therefore encompasses both design and use. The design process was based on Participatory Design (PD) principles and methods. Because of the project's long-term nature, Hublink has been an exceptional opportunity to focus on the legacy of a PD process into the later stages of the software development life-cycle. This research has therefore been able to draw on themes that have emerged through real-world use and an extended collaboration and engagement. In this thesis I place the Hublink project description within literature covering Participatory Design, Community Informatics and Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS), extending into infrastructuring, appropriation and end user development. Through a literature review and presentation of evidence collected during this research project, a clear argument emerges that relates the mutual learning outcomes of Participatory Design, with sustainability through infrastructuring activities, while also showing how the communities of practice of FLOSS projects create an infrastructure for not-for-profit organisations, enabling them to build sustainable systems that can meet their needs and accord with their values. The thesis argues that while Participatory Design strengthens the human element of infrastructure, FLOSS provides a complementary element of technical support, via the characteristics of generativity and extensibility, and their communities of practice. This research provides a deeply descriptive study that bridges design and use, centred on the core values of Participatory Design, contributing to the understanding and development of practices around sustainability and Participatory Design in the not-for- profit sector. The research offers a conceptual pathway to link FLOSS and Participatory Design, suggesting directions for future research and practice that enhance the connections between these two important areas of participatory production