A qualitative study of stakeholders' perspectives on the social network service environment

Over two billion people are using the Internet at present, assisted by the mediating activities of software agents which deal with the diversity and complexity of information. There are, however, ethical issues due to the monitoring-and-surveillance, data mining and autonomous nature of software agents. Considering the context, this study aims to comprehend stakeholders' perspectives on the social network service environment in order to identify the main considerations for the design of software agents in social network services in the near future. Twenty-one stakeholders, belonging to three key stakeholder groups, were recruited using a purposive sampling strategy for unstandardised semi-structured e-mail interviews. The interview data were analysed using a qualitative content analysis method. It was possible to identify three main considerations for the design of software agents in social network services, which were classified into the following categories: comprehensive understanding of users' perception of privacy, user type recognition algorithms for software agent development and existing software agents enhancement

Machines and machinations: The integrated care record service in the UK national health service

This paper examines the use of Actor Network Theory (ANT) as a lens to get a better understanding of the implementation of the Integrated Care Record Service (ICRS) in the UK National Health Service (NHS). Actor Network Theory has been deployed in various environments to achieve a better understanding of the roles of not only the humans but also the artifacts that constitute, in this case, healthcare networks of services and organisations. The theory is used as a means of supporting real world interventions, providing a richer understanding of complexities involved and thereby helps management to make better decisions. This study also explores Latour’s concept of machines as machinations, whose role is to translate other actors into the network. We propose ICRS as a fruitful empirical context for the use of ANT to support decision making for actors in health care provision. Actor Network Theory (ANT) is well-suited for use in the socio-technical evaluation of IS into the ICRS project because this approach treats human and non-human actors symmetrically. This approach facilitates a more thorough examination of the ways in which information technology is enabled or restricted in social processes