Untangling the Web of E-Research: Towards a Sociology of Online Knowledge

e-Research is a rapidly growing research area, both in terms of publications and in terms of funding. In this article we argue that it is necessary to reconceptualize the ways in which we seek to measure and understand e-Research by developing a sociology of knowledge based on our understanding of how science has been transformed historically and shifted into online forms. Next, we report data which allows the examination of e-Research through a variety of traces in order to begin to understand how the knowledge in the realm of e-Research has been and is being constructed. These data indicate that e-Research has had a variable impact in different fields of research. We argue that only an overall account of the scale and scope of e-Research within and between different fields makes it possible to identify the organizational coherence and diffuseness of e-Research in terms of its socio-technical networks, and thus to identify the contributions of e-Research to various research fronts in the online production of knowledge

Reading "all about" computerization: five common genres of social analysis

This paper examines unstated, but critical, social assumptions which underlie analyses of computerization. It focuses on the popular, professional and scholarly literature which claims to describe the actual nature of computerization, the character of computer use, and the social choices and changes that result from computerization. This literature can be usefully segmented five ideal type genres: utopian, anti-utopian, social realism, social theory, and analytical reduction. Each genre is characterized and illustrated. The strengths and weaknesses of each genre are described. In the 1990s, there will be a large market for social analyses of computerization. Utopian analyses are most likely to domínate the popular and professional discourse. The empirically oriented accounts of social realism, social theory and analytical reduction, are likely to be much less common and also less commonly seen and read by computer professionals and policymakers. These genres are relatively subtle, portray a more ambiguous world, and have less rhetorical power to capture the imagination of readers. Even though they are more scientific, these empirically anchored genres don't seem to appeal to many scientists and engineers. It is ironic that computing -- often portrayed as an instrument of knowledge -- is primarily the subject of discourses whose knowledge claims are most suspect. Conversely, the discourses whose claims as valid knowledge are strongest seems to have much less appeal in the mass media and technological communities

PRIMA — Privacy research through the perspective of a multidisciplinary mash up

Based on a summary description of privacy protection research within three fields of inquiry, viz. social sciences, legal science, and computer and systems sciences, we discuss multidisciplinary approaches with regard to the difficulties and the risks that they entail as well as their possible advantages. The latter include the identification of relevant perspectives of privacy, increased expressiveness in the formulation of research goals, opportunities for improved research methods, and a boost in the utility of invested research efforts

Building Information Communication Technology Infrastructures for Economic Development

This paper analyzes the impact of Information Communication Technology (ICT) Infrastructures on economic development through a statistical analysis of data from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and a policy analysis of the Workforce Investment Act and Ben Franklin Technology Partners programs in Pennsylvania. In the analysis of Saint Vincent, significant relationships were found between all aspects of ICT programs and a variety of measures of economic development, with the extent of Internet subscribers showing the greatest impact. The analysis of the Pennsylvania programs found that technology-oriented workforce education programs are only successful when there is a demand for related labor skills in the job market. The overall recommendation of this paper is to continue ICT development initiatives while also developing policies that promote collaboration between the public and private sectors, promote development of new technology-based businesses, and assess technology-oriented labor needs

The institutional character of computerized information systems

We examine how important social and technical choices become part of the history of a computer-based information system (CB/SJ and embedded in the social structure which supports its development and use. These elements of a CBIS can be organized in specific ways to enhance its usability and performance. Paradoxically, they can also constrain future implementations and post-implementations.We argue that CBIS developed from complex, interdependent social and technical choices should be conceptualized in terms of their institutional characteristics, as well as their information-processing characteristics. The social system which supports the development and operation of a CBIS is one major element whose institutional characteristics can effectively support routine activities while impeding substantial innovation. Characterizing CBIS as institutions is important for several reasons: (1) the usability of CBIS is more critical than the abstract information-processing capabilities of the underlying technology; (2) CBIS that are well-used and have stable social structures are more difficult to replace than those with less developed social structures and fewer participants; (3) CBIS vary from one social setting to another according to the ways in which they are organized and embedded in organized social systems. These ideas are illustrated with the case study of a failed attempt to convert a complex inventory control system in a medium-sized manufacturing firm

If ICTs are Laboratories...

The authors argue for a monist view of sociotechnical analysis, and, following Fleck and his colleagues, discuss ICTs as laboratories where knowledge, activities and artefacts emerge across different sites and different stages of development. Researchers at a number of mature research sites (what Gieryn calls ‘truth spots’) have identified distinctive sociotechnical phenomena. These have been objectified and described in a scientific nomenclature that allows research to cumulate and comparisons to be made at a level that transcends the individual agent, the individual artefact and the local context. Five phenomena are discussed in detail: sociotechnical interaction networks; computerization movements; innofusion; configuration; multi-level social learning. The approach outlined in the paper, the authors suggest, may improve the focus of research in the IS domain

Mitigating risk in computerized bureaucracy

This paper presents an important aspect of the pragmatic dimensions of mitigating the risks that stem from computerized bureaucracy, and thereby, preserving the organizational integrity of a firm. A case study is used to provide valuable insights into the mechanics of such mitigation. The case refers to the problematic implementation and use of a computerized reservation system in a large budget hotel in London, United Kingdom. Following the empirical findings, Ciborra’s notions of bricolage, improvisation and tinkering are examined as practical and useful ways of addressing the downsides of computerized bureaucracy

Land Police in Mozambique: Future Perspectives

It's became clear that Land is not only a basic factor of production, it also has a number of specific features. Against this background, it has long been recognized that clarifying property rights to land can enhance economic growth through a number of channels: - The mean macroeconomic view is that the land has to be provided and used by government and non-governmental institutions, local community and the private sector for a wide range of purposes. Enforced property rights and security will also increase incentives for land-demand related to investment and thus overall economic output. In that way, the enforcement of property rights to land will provide incentive for good natural resources management - Efficient mechanisms for enforcing the land access and property rights exchange or transfer, are a precondition to promote the land productivity, increase agriculture output and can be used for credit as collateral in the transaction. - Well-defined land rights are an indispensable basis to increase the tax-payees, important mechanism to increase government revenue.Land Economics/Use,

Revising the Conceptualization of Computerization Movements

One interesting problem arising from Kling and Iacono’s pioneering work on computerization movements (CMs) is the question of empirically determining a movement’s success or failure. This paper questions the question and argues that it is based on two assumptions that upon closer examination seem problematic. The first is that Kling and Iaconco’s concept of a CM is sufficient to cover the range of CMs. Their approach to CMs is explicated, pointing out three ways in which it is limited, concluding that it should be reconceptualized. The second is that CMs are similar enough so that a single set of criteria is sufficient to judge the success or failure of any given CM. Using a heuristic analysis to examine a set of 41 CMs, a typology is introduced demonstrating that there are important differences among CMs. The paper concludes that since a single set of criteria is no longer appropriate, different sets of criteria are needed to evaluate the success or failure of different types of CMs

Predictive policing management: a brief history of patrol automation

Predictive policing has attracted considerably scholarly attention. Extending the promise of being able to interdict crime prior to its commission, it seemingly promised forms of anticipatory policing that had previously existed only in the realms of science fiction. The aesthetic futurism that attended predictive policing did, however, obscure the important historical vectors from which it emerged. The adulation of technology as a tool for achieving efficiencies in policing was evident from the 1920s in the United States, reaching sustained momentum in the 1960s as the methods of Systems Analysis were applied to policing. Underpinning these efforts resided an imaginary of automated patrol facilitated by computerised command and control systems. The desire to automate police work has extended into the present, and is evident in an emergent platform policing – cloud-based technological architectures that increasingly enfold police work. Policing is consequently datafied, commodified and integrated into the circuits of contemporary digital capitalism