Foreign objects? Web content management systems, journalistic cultures and the ontology of software

Research on ‘digital’ journalism has focused largely on online news, with comparatively less interest in the longer-term implications of software and computational technologies. Drawing upon a six-year study of the Toronto Star, this paper provides an account of TOPS, an in-house web content management system (CMS) which served as the backbone of thestar.com for six years. For some, TOPS was a successful software innovation, while for others, a strategic digital ‘property’. But for most journalists, it was slow, deficient in functionality, aesthetically unappealing and cumbersome. Although several organizational factors can explain TOPS’ obstinacy, I argue for particular attention to the complex ontology of software. Based on an outline of this ontology, I suggest software be taken seriously as an object of journalism, which implies: acknowledging its partial autonomy from human use or authorization; accounting for its ability to mutate indefinitely; and analyzing its capacity to encourage forms of ‘computational thinking

Palimpsests of Immaterial Assemblages Taken out of Context: Tracing Pompeians from the Void into the Digital

This paper explores some ontological aspects of archaeological voids and enclosures together with their translations and substitutions, and considers the nature of spaces within material archaeological deposits and artefacts. The dematerialized and rematerialized bodies of the victims of Vesuvius in CE 79 are reappraised as a case study. By problematizing the voids we are able to think critically about the ontological status of the victims’ persistent traces and residues. Specifically, using Gavin Lucas’ grid of forces models, we explore how these traces and residues have been transformed into different kinds of objects, including, most recently, rematerializations in the digital, through their ongoing intra-actions within the domains of archaeology, museology, and additive manufacturing. Through this analysis the ambivalent nature of these traces and residues becomes more sensibl

Unfolding practices with unfolding objects: standardization work in global branding

Although significant efforts have focused on the question how the standardization of global branding works, very little research concerns standardization work i.e. how actors, objects and practices come together in the development and control of standards (see Chabowski et al. 2013). Yet, the development and control of standards involves power relations, negotiation and conflicts between competing visions and outcomes (Lyytinen and King 2006; Nickerson and Muehlen 2006). The complex standardization practice revolves around objects (D'Adderio 2011). Surprisingly, tools and are technologies of standardization are also absent from marketing literature. The current study focuses on the entanglement of global branding and digital artifacts. The project explores how digital objects are co-instituted and co-implicated in the generation, stabilization and control of international marketing practice. Our specific focus is on brand standards; we examine how digital affordances mesh with practices to enable and constrain standardization work

Epistemic Mirroring: How firms’ governance of internal relations shapes the interpretation of a digital ecosystem architecture

The mirroring hypothesis asserts a symmetry between how a firm organizes its activities and tasks internally (division of labour) and how technologies are logically partitioned into subcomponents and modules. Yet digital artifacts can violate fundamental properties of physical modular systems, such as the impossibility to univocally allocate functionalities to the various modules, due to their agnostic and generative nature. Although an increasing amount of works is starting to question the usefulness of classic modularity theory to understand how firms take decisions and organize their activities internally, there is still a scant literature on the topic. In this work we draw upon the mirror hypothesis, and complement it with the insight provided by the IT governance literature. By doing so, we suggest that a company’s epistemic interpretation of the modular nature of a digital system depends on the dynamics of its internal decision-making process, reflecting formal and informal patterns of authority among its actors. Our study is evidenced by an extensive case study of the roll-out of an advanced technology by a large global multinational. In this was we study whether, and how, is it possible to establish interdependence between the way in which a firm makes sense of, and resolves, the conflicting goals and objectives of its internal actors and the way in which it interprets and conceives of the architecture of the digital ecosystem it is part of. We term this epistemic mirroring

Study on a conceptual model for campus transformation of classical universities in the digital era

This article presents a conceptual management model of campus space 4.0 (CS4.0), in which CS4.0 is viewed as a condition for the transformation of classical universities in the digital era. To create this model, we used the systems approach as well as complexity theory, focusing on the ontological, spatial, axiological, social, psychological, and management aspects. The model not only defines the systems status of CS4.0 and describes the three types of properties inherent in CS4.0. This model also explains why, in the digital era, CS4.0 can become the agent of change for a classical university that has had a long history. This model of CS4.0 will not destroy the university’s cultural identity and academic values; rather, it will serve the interests of all groups within the university community. This conceptual model can be the key to understanding one of the possible management strategies for the development of the classical university in the digital network society at the beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Epistemic Mirroring: understanding the interdependence between a firm’s governance of internal relations and its interpretation of the digital ecosystem architecture

The mirroring hypothesis asserts a symmetry between how a firm organizes its activities and tasks internally (division of labour) and how technologies are logically partitioned into subcomponents and modules. Yet digital artifacts can violate fundamental properties of physical modular systems, such as the impossibility to univocally allocate functionalities to the various modules, due to their agnostic and generative nature. Although an increasing amount of works is starting to question the usefulness of classic modularity theory to understand how firms take decisions and organize their activities internally, there is still a scant literature on the topic. In this work we draw upon the mirror hypothesis, and complement it with the insight provided by the IT governance literature. By doing so, we suggest that a company’s epistemic interpretation of the modular nature of a digital system depends on the dynamics of its internal decision-making process, reflecting formal and informal patterns of authority among its actors. Our study is evidenced by an extensive case study of the roll-out of an advanced technology by a large global multinational. In this was we study whether, and how, is it possible to establish interdependence between the way in which a firm makes sense of, and resolves, the conflicting goals and objectives of its internal actors and the way in which it interprets and conceives of the architecture of the digital ecosystem it is part of. We term this epistemic mirroring

Interactive Digital Artifacts Embedded in Information Systems: a case study applied to Teledentistry

This paper aims to study how to embed interactive digital artifacts (such as blogs, wikis, videos, images, etc.) in information systems. These artifacts are unstable and in constant change challenging the traditional approaches to the management of information systems to which they are integrated. Institutions can no longer be seen as closed systems, but shall be construed as environments that expand in information networks and interaction and collaboration spaces for groups and society. Consequently, they become subject to interference from their cultural, behavioral, social and political environment. This research will focus on a case of a nation-wide information system for education, sharing of knowledge and assistance to dental professionals within government health teams. The expected contribution is a better understanding of the changes brought about in organizations and in information systems management processes resulting from the incorporation of interactive digital artifacts to those systems

Ambivalent animal

The Ambivalent Animal project explores the interactions of animals, culture and technology. The project employs both artistic practice and critical theory, each in ways that inspire the other. My creative practice centers around two projects that focus on domestic pets. These projects highlight the animal's uncertain status as they explore the overlapping ontologies of animal, human and machine. They provide concrete artifacts that engage with theoretical issues of anthropocentrism, animality and alterity. My theoretical work navigates between the fields of animal studies, art and design, media and culture studies, and philosophy. My dissertation explores animality through four real and imagined animal roles: cyborg, clone, chimera and shapeshifter. Each animal role is considered in relation to three dialectics: irreducibility and procedurality, autonomy and integration, aura and abjection. These dialectics do not seek full synthesis but instead embrace the oscillations of irresolvable debates and desires. The dialectics bring into focus issues of epistemology, ontology, corporeality and subjectivity. When the four animal roles engage the three dialectics, connected yet varied themes emerge. The cyborgian animal is simultaneously liberated and regulated, assisted and restricted, integrated and isolated. The cloned animal is an emblem of renewal and loss; she is both idealized code and material flesh and finds herself caught in the battles of nature and nurture. The chimera is both rebel and conformist; his unusual juxtapositions pioneer radical corporeal transgressions but also conform to the mechanisms of global capital. And the shapeshifter explores the thrill and anxiety of an altered phenomenology; she gains new perceptions though unstable subjectivity. These roles reveal corporeal adjustments and unfamiliar subjectivities that inspire the creative practice. Both my writing and making employ an ambivalent aesthetic--an aesthetic approach that evokes two or more incompatible sensibilities. The animal's uncertain status contributes to this aesthetic: some animals enjoy remarkable care and attention, while others are routinely exploited, abused and discarded. Ambivalence acknowledges the complexity of lived experience, philosophical and political debate, and academic inquiry. My approach recognizes the light and dark of these complex ambivalences--it privileges paradox and embraces the confusion and wonder of creative research. Rather than erase, conceal or resolve ambiguity, an ambivalent aesthetic foregrounds the limits of language and representation and highlights contradiction and irresolution.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Bolter, Jay; Committee Member: DiSalvo, Carl; Committee Member: Do, Ellen; Committee Member: Prophet, Jane; Committee Member: Thacker, Eugen

Towards a digital money structure for illiterate users

In developing countries, although money is becoming digital in the form of mobile money, it is not easily used by millions of illiterate users in their everyday transactions. Digitization of material money thus poses a challenge to many users. Existing mobile money systems and platforms represent money in terms of simple numbers, like 13, 50, 0.78, 23.64, 80 etc. This way of money representation is almost unusable by illiterate users, unless they depend on others' help. The literature has overlooked the different metadata inscribed on material money (like icons or images, colour, security means, and serial numbers etc). However, these metadata enable illiterate users to identify different currency notes. The material properties of money bills also enable illiterates do simple maths like addition, subtraction, division, and counting. However, current mobile money solutions have not considered money bill's metadata. Such absence of metadata made money bill identification and transactions difficult for illiterates. The work described in this paper uses the theory of digital objects and theory of non-material technological objects and presents a theoretical presentation for the structure of digital money, to be used in digital ecosystem