Exploring ‘events’ as an information systems research methodology

This paper builds upon existing research and commentary from a variety of disciplinary sources including Information Systems, Organisational and Management Studies, and the Social Sciences that focus upon the meaning, significance and impact of ‘events’ in both an organisational and a social sense. The aim of this paper is to define how the examination of the event is an appropriate, viable and useful Information Systems methodology. Our argument is that focusing on the ‘event’ enables the researcher to more clearly observe and capture the complexity, multiplicity and mundaneity of everyday lived experience. The use and notion of ‘event’ has the potential to reduce the methodological dilemmas associated with the micromanagement of the research process – an inherent danger of traditional and ‘virtual' ethnographic approaches. Similarly, this paper addresses the over-emphasis upon managerialist, structured and time-fixated praxis that is currently symptomatic of Information Systems research. All of these concerns are pivotal points of critique found within eventoriented literature. An examination of event-related theory within interpretative disciplines directs the focus of this paper towards the more specific realm of the ‘event scene’. The notion of the ‘event scene’ originated in the action based (and anti-academy) imperatives of the Situationists and emerged in an academic sense as critical situational analysis. Event scenes are a focus for contemporary critical theory where they are utilised as a means of representing theoried inquiry in order to loosen the restrictions that historical and temporally bound analysis imposes upon most interpretative approaches. The use of event scenes as the framework for critiquing established conceptual assumptions is exemplified by their use in CTheory. In this journal's version and articulation of the event scene poetry, commentary, multi-vocal narrative and other techniques are legitimated as academic forms. These various forms of multi-dimensional expression are drawn upon to enrich the understandings of the ‘event’, to extricate its meaning and to provide a sense of the moment from which the point of analysis stems. The objective of this paper is to advocate how Information Systems research can (or should) utilize an event scene oriented methodology

Classification of information systems research revisited: A keyword analysis approach

A number of studies have previously been conducted on keyword analysis in order to provide a comprehensive scheme to classify information systems (IS) research. However, these studies appeared prior to 1994, and IS research has clearly developed substantially since then with the emergence of areas such as electronic commerce, electronic government, electronic health and numerous others. Furthermore, the majority of European IS outlets - such as the European Journal of Information Systems and Information Systems Journal - were founded in the early 1990s, and keywords from these journals were not included in any previous work. Given that a number of studies have raised the issue of differences in European and North American IS research topics and approaches, it is arguable that any such analysis must consider sources from both locations to provide a representative and balanced view of IS classification. Moreover, it has also been argued that there is a need for further work in order to create a comprehensive keyword classification scheme reflecting the current state of the art. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to present the results of a keyword analysis utilizing keywords appearing in major peer-reviewed IS publications after the year 1990 through to 2007. This aim is realized by means of the two following objectives: (1) collect all keywords appearing in 24 peer reviewed IS journals after 1990; and (2) identify keywords not included in the previous IS keyword classification scheme. This paper also describes further research required in order to place new keywords in appropriate IS research categories. The paper makes an incremental contribution toward a contemporary means of classifying IS research. This work is important and useful for researchers in understanding the area and evolution of the IS field and also has implications for improving information search and retrieval activities

Information Systems Research and Relevance

This article highlights important issues about IS/IT relevance and its impact on academic publication impact. The author presents his strong opinion about the lack of an identity within IS and harps on the requirement to focus more on core strengths that IS can leverage. Throughout the article, the author also stresses on the fact that today there is even more need to work closely with industry to better understand and solve critical commercial problems

Relevance in Information Systems Research

Information Systems as an academic discipline makes two contributions to society. The first, knowledge exploration, is the creation of new knowledge that is not -- and should not be -- relevant to today\u27s practitioner. The goal of knowledge exploration is to change the future, not improve the present. The second, knowledge exploitation, is the dissemination of knowledge to serve current practice (and to train future practitioners, our students). While I believe we have done a good job of knowledge exploration, I believe we need develop new vehicles to promote, nurture, and validate knowledge exploitation much like our academic cousins in Medicine, Engineering, and Computer Science

Spatial practices in digital work : calling for a spatial turn in information systems research

The growing use of digital media in the workplace is shifting work to digital platforms, this study explores the role of the physical office space in modern organisations where digital work is the norm. We capture the way in which digital media modulates the production of space by tracing the physical and digital interactions of a software development team in a global IT company. Taking a performative and ontogenetic view of space we conceptualise two types of spatial practices that form distinct modulations and assemblages of features of the physical and digital environment. The first spatial practice modulates space to support recurrent work activities, while the second spatial practice modulates space to support ephemeral and focused work activities. This study contributes to the IS literature with a conceptual basis to study the interconnected nature of physical space in digital work in modern workplace settings. It calls for greater attention to space as a performative and constitutive element of digital work in information systems research

The reality of information systems research

The examination of a practical issue with a web site has led, in this paper, directly to the consideration of the need for, and an assessment of the impact of, an approach based on fundamental theories of &lsquo;what is&rsquo;, to examine what information systems research is and the relations of its component areas of endeavour. The paper presents an examination of the use of the philosophical field of ontologies, and specifically the use of the ontological approaches upon which to base categories of information systems research activities. This theoretical analysis is intended to be used as the basis from which to develop a methodology to undertake the development of the categorial scheme for the web site that initiated the research.<br /