Towards an Appropriation Infrastructure: Supporting User Creativity in IT Adoption

Research on the adoption of information systems (IS) often stated technology as a fixed entity. Following the ’practical turn’ in IS we argue that information technology artefacts are mainly ’cultural artefacts’, which are shaped in a social process of appropriation where software usage is accompanied by processes of interpretation, negotiation or change in organizations. We elaborate on a (neo-)Marxian interpretation of appropriation from a design-oriented perspective in order to investigate the possibilities of technological support of activities of appropriation work. To capture the different facets of appropriation, we combine theoretical concepts of social capital and activity-based learning. With the help of this theoretical orientation, we systemize empirical evidence from several research projects in order to detect recurring patterns. We use these patterns to develop a generic architecture for actively supporting the social activity of appropriating the cultural artefact in context of its usage

Design, Appropriation, and Unanticipated Users: A Series of Studies to Address the Design, Implementation, and Use of Collaboration Technologies in Workplace Settings.

As information technology proliferates all aspects of life, “user experience” and human-centered design approaches become more important. The design process requires the specification of users, their needs, and how technology will support them. Yet, there is evidence that once IT has been released, that there is no control over how it can be used. This research uses the lens of appropriation, a term invoked to describe unexpected or evolving technology use resulting from user adaptation. Literature in the fields of HCI and IS focus mainly on appropriation as an outcome or as a kind of work to be supported, but always within the scope of target users. I argue that the users we specify may not reflect actual end-users. This dissertation investigates the issue surrounding unanticipated users of IT and what they can mean for theories of design, information systems, and computer-supported cooperative work. This work investigates the problem of unanticipated users through a series of studies that investigate how staff members at the University of Michigan have adopted a course management system called CTools and thereafter adapted it to their work practices. A survey study and a user log study examine why and how they generally used the toolkit, often referring from data about faculty and students for comparison. Overall, these two studies ways in which staff differed from faculty and students in terms of what they value the system for and in how they use its tools. The final study uses interview to inform why and how staff appropriated Project Sites into their work lives at a time when there was a large shift in the sociotechnical ecosystem of the university. Findings showed that staff depended on a single narrative of use, when others were possible, highlighting the importance of knowledge and leadership in the process of appropriating IT into practice. I use these findings to show that understanding unanticipated users can help to improve design and can also add value to theory.PHDInformationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102354/1/pabloq_1.pd

ECSCW 2013 Adjunct Proceedings The 13th European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work 21 - 25. September 2013, Paphos, Cyprus

This volume presents the adjunct proceedings of ECSCW 2013.While the proceedings published by Springer Verlag contains the core of the technical program, namely the full papers, the adjunct proceedings includes contributions on work in progress, workshops and master classes, demos and videos, the doctoral colloquium, and keynotes, thus indicating what our field may become in the future

Are you there? : Presence in collaborative distance work

doi linkki ei toimi 31.1.2022, ilmoitettu lehteen/USAlready before the pandemic, digitally mediated collaborative work and communication were perceived as challenging. We investigate the attitudes towards emerging technologies and for transforming practises in workplaces. The focus lies on understanding the readiness for appropriating emotional tracking on presence and support for collaboration. The research-based design framework allowed to combine the various perspectives of the transdisciplinary team. Methods included participatory design, design thinking, contextual inquiry and prototype testing for enhancing presence while working with shared objects in video conferencing to explore the appropriation of tools. The findings revealed four indications: 1) awareness of interlocutors’ presence during synchronous communication is crucial. 2) Emotion and behaviour tracking raises concerns about privacy and personal control over what is displayed to others, and technology could be simpler non-distracting the work at hand. 3) The prototype was found to enhance the feeling of presence without disturbing work at hand, and 4) appropriation requires a step-by-step approach.Peer reviewe

The appropriation of a software ecosystem : a practice take on the usage, maintenance and modification of the eclipse IDE

This thesis was written in order to gain a deeper understanding of the appropriation of software in groups and organizations. In doing so, it focuses on software created under the modern software engineering trend software ecosystems. Software ecosystems have a major influence on software development, as they rely on massive usage of distributed software development, open source models and modularization. It is unclear if existing models to explain appropriation still hold good. Furthermore, it has to be explored whether current appropriation support is still appropriate and beneficial or if we need new ideas to help users cope with these developments. In order to achieve these objectives, this work is mainly based on an empirical field study, which investigates workgroups at seven German organizations that use the Eclipse IDE, an extremely modularized and adaptable software system, developed by a globally active ecosystem of large corporations, small businesses and even hobbyists. Using the qualitative analysis approach of the grounded theory method and appropriation as a lens for this research endeavor, observations and interviews as well as artifacts were analyzed, uncovering practices that are part of Eclipse usage and appropriation. They are identified and discussed from the backdrop of software ecosystems – viewed from a users perspective. Examples are the sheer amount of appropriation activities at the shop floor, the dilemma of software maintenance, that comes with continuously developed but sometimes unstable technology, practices as learning or tailoring, influences on practices stemming from the software ecosystem, the organization and the group. Grounded in these results, suggestions for the design of appropriation support are given and prototypically implemented, which reflect the embeddedness of individuals and groups in the software ecosystem. They provide a fresh perspective, based on peer-to-peer technology and awareness mechanisms.Diese Arbeit wurde erstellt, um ein tieferes Verständnis über die Aneignung von Software in Gruppen und Organisationen zu erlangen. Dabei fokussiert sie auf eine Software die unter den Bedingungen eines modernen Trends im Software Engineering entstanden ist: Der Software Ökosystem Bewegung. Software Ökosysteme beeinflussen die Entwicklung von moderner Software maßgeblich, da sie verstärkt auf örtlich verteilte Entwicklung, Open Source Modelle und Modularisierung setzen. Bisher ist ungeklärt, ob existierende Ansätze zum Verständnis von Aneignung unter diesen Gegebenheiten ihre Gültigkeit behalten. Weitergehend ist zu untersuchen ob existierende Maßnahmen der Aneignungsunterstützung auch in diesem Kontext angemessen und vorteilhaft wirken, oder ob neue Ansätze entwickelt werden müssen um Nutzer heute sinnvoll zu unterstützen. Um diese Ziele zu erreichen, basiert diese Arbeit hauptsächlich auf einer qualitativ-empirischen Feldstudie in Arbeitsgruppen sieben Deutscher Organisationen, die alle die Eclipse IDE einsetzen – ein extrem modularisiertes und anpassbares Software System das durch ein global agierendes Software Ökosystem aus großen Konzernen, KMU und sogar Hobbyisten hergestellt wird. Mit Hilfe des qualitativen Analyseansatzes in Form der Grounded Theory Method und Aneignung als Linse für dieses Forschungsvorhaben wurden die Daten aus Beobachtungen, Interviews und bei Arbeitsplatzbesuchen gesammelter Artefakte analysiert. Dabei wurden Praktiken die Teil der Eclipse Nutzung und Aneignung sind, erfasst näher definiert und vor dem Hintergrund von Software Ökosystemen und aus Perspektive der Nutzer diskutiert. Die Ergebnisse umfassen unter anderem eine Reihe verschiedener Aneignungsaktivitäten, das Dilemma der Wartung komplexer Software Systeme welche durch die kontinuierliche Entwicklung und teilweise instabile Komponenten entsteht, Praktiken wie Lernen oder Anpassen, sowie Einflüsse auf die Arbeitspraktiken die aus dem Software Ökosystem, der Gruppe oder der Organisation stammen. Begründet auf den Ergebnissen dieser Forschung, werden Vorschläge für das Design von Aneignungsunterstützung gegeben und prototypisch realisiert. Diese spiegeln wider wie Individuen und Gruppen in das Software Ökosystem eingebettet sind und präsentieren durch den Einsatz von Peer-to-Peer Technik und Awareness Mechanismen eine neue Perspektive auf Aneignungsunterstützung

Design revolutions: IASDR 2019 Conference Proceedings. Volume 1: Change, Voices, Open

In September 2019 Manchester School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University was honoured to host the bi-annual conference of the International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR) under the unifying theme of DESIGN REVOLUTIONS. This was the first time the conference had been held in the UK. Through key research themes across nine conference tracks – Change, Learning, Living, Making, People, Technology, Thinking, Value and Voices – the conference opened up compelling, meaningful and radical dialogue of the role of design in addressing societal and organisational challenges. This Volume 1 includes papers from Change, Voices and Open tracks of the conference

Understanding organisational digital transformation: towards a theory of search

As new forms of digital technologies continue to proliferate, Information Systems (IS) scholars argue that we are witnessing a paradigmatic shift in the nature of technologies and their potential in profoundly changing organisations and ways of working. These technologies and changes have implications across the information technology and marketing functions. Scholars have only thus far developed a rather partial understanding of these technologies and changes, adopting either a single disciplinary lens (IS or Marketing). To throw light on the nature of these transformations, this thesis produces an interdisciplinary study that draws insights from not just IS but also Marketing. The thesis studies the emergence of an exemplary digital organisation which appears to be heralding in a new form of data manipulation. Drawing on qualitative data and through developing a practice-oriented approach, this research shows how: i) the technology is remaking the organisation internally, leading to ii) the development of new roles and expertise outside Information Technology (IT) departments, and iii) recreating the organisations’ relationship with its customers. Whilst existing discussions have primarily looked at the implications of such technologies for organisations and their interactions with customers, they have not studied ‘how’ customers have been made more central within organisations. This study develops the idea of the ‘extended user’ and shows how these users (or data about these customers) are leading to the reconfiguration of work practices. The main contribution of the thesis is to articulate how there is a new ‘search’ logic emerging. This logic contains three elements: (i) the work organisations do to foster and facilitate the ways customers are accessing and searching their offerings (remaking the organisation customer relationship); (ii) how they handle this search processes through building new internal knowledge and expertise (adapting and changing, disrupting routines); (iii) how this new expertise within the organisation is responding to platform developments (elastic reactions to platforms). The more theoretical contribution of this thesis is to extend practice-oriented studies of technology and organisation by proposing a new analytical approach to study the digital transformation of work and organisation. In responding to recent calls (e.g. Orlikowski and Scott 2016) for the development of approaches to understand how “algorithmic phenomena” have the potential to transform how work is done, the thesis proposes a multi-level analysis of the ‘search’ logic mentioned above