Taming Technology: The narrative anchor reconciling time, territory and technology in geoinformation infrastructures

It is often assumed that innovative technology is an essential resource for the establishment of an information infrastructure. This study on geoinformation infrastructures convincingly demonstrates that technology is an important and far more complex factor than much geoinformation practitioners want us to believe. Three Dutch cases were studied, of which two were intended to develop an infrastructure deliberately applying innovative technology. Due to a constant stream of innovations these cases failed to bring about a working infrastructure. The third case was aimed at establishing a system of large-scale basemaps. These maps acted as a 'narrative anchor', a non-tangible interface between innovating technology and the infrastructure to be developed. Through the narrative anchor, this infrastructure has already existed for over 35 years and is likely to continue. Its success can be attributed to the ability of the narrative anchor to reconcile different types of technology through time, both innovative and conservative. The conclusion of this book is that lasting and reliable future (geo)information infrastructures need to have a narrative anchor that will act as an interface between ever-innovating technology and infrastructure itself.Geo-Information & Land DevelopmentOTB Research Institut

Brengen basisregistraties bestendigheid? Of maakt internet alles anders?

Het nut van basisregistraties voor de burge

The narrative anchor as the decisive element of geoinformation infrastructures

Efforts to build a geoinformation infrastructure using technological innovations have not always been succesful, at times they even can be problematic. In this paper three Spatial Data Infrastructure- (SDI-initiatives are being compared, trying to explain succes and failure by giving an ethnography of everyday practice regarding creation, development and fate. Using the method of narrative analysis, these cases are analysed. It turns out that the way technology is linked to the goals of an SDI is an indication for success. This research reveals that where technology is directly linked up to an infrastructure it is eventually bound to fail. However, where technology and infrastructure share a narrative achor as a mediating non-tangible element, an SDI can be successful and sustainable.OTB onderzoekOTB Research Institute for the Built Environmen

Building geoinformation-infrastructures: Utopian and Myoptian storyboards regulating the narrative anchor

Implementation processes of geoinformation-infrastructures are generally seen as problematic and unsuccessful. Implementers are inclined to value organisational aspects of NGII development using design rules, borrowed from political science, economics and management science. A big gap exists between on the one hand the wish to implement SDIs using fashionable management models, and on the other hand the inability to accomplish that. This article wants to shed light on implementation processes of geoinformationinfrastructures using a narratively inspired ethnographic method. Within the Dutch geoinformation sector two ethnographies are presented and analysed. It leads to the conclusion that a narrative anchor is a non-technological and non-tangible decisive element in a geoinformation infrastructure.OTB OnderzoekOTB Research Institute for the Built Environmen

The social construction of public infrastructure

Disclosure of governmental map related information is increasingly being conceptualised as management of inter-organisational National Spatial Data Infrastructures (NSDIs). Until now, studies have been published on how NSDI projects should be designed, set up and monitored. While these approaches have gained some recognition when applied in practice, little is known about what happens when design rules are translated into daily project routines. Social scientific research into how NSDIs are defined, and how they develop and mature is scarce. This paper focuses on how infrastructure is conceptualised in NSDI projects. We present and analyse an ethnography of the development of the Dutch National Geo-information Clearinghouse (NCGI). A narrative approach is used to find out how the NCGI was conceptualised, how it emerged, developed, and changed, and how it was appraised. The research finds that actors held storyboards consisting of predefined scripts, which guided their behaviour and defined the project outcomes.OTB ResearchOTB Research Institute for the Built Environmen

Building a NGII: Balancing between infrastructure and innovation

A multitude of studies has been published on how National Geo Information Infrastructures (NGII), also known as Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI), should be designed, set up and monitored. Scientific research on day-to-day experiences, on what is really happening in NGIIprojects is hard to find. We propose a narrative approach to elicit sensemaking processes in order to get a better understanding of NGII projects. An in-depth description and analysis on the development of the Dutch Geoportal project is given, which was funded by the Space for Geoinformation Program (SGI), meant to be part of the Dutch NGII. Intensive research was carried out through observing project meetings and conferences, and interviewing key persons, both within and outside the project environment. Out of the research data we identified different kinds of narratives, representing thinking patterns among project participants. Our ethnographic research elicits day-to-day struggles with project goals, technology, and infrastructure. We found that project participants find it hard to distinguish between requirements for infrastructure and innovation. While infrastructures need stable environments with harsh standardization that will last, innovation challenges that with new developments, reaching for something new, the uncontested terrain. We believe that this discrepancy is a cause for serious redefinitions of SDI project goals, assessment rules and results.OTB Research Institut

Balancing Infrastructure and Innovation in Geoinformation-infrastructure projects

Spatial information is increasingly exchanged between organizations within a National Geo Information Infrastructure (NGII). While a lot has been written on implementation strategies, yet little is known what really goes on in concrete projects. In this paper an ethnography is presented based on a narrative approach of a Dutch project, in which innovative technology impedes the establishment of such an infrastructure. In this project, the initial goal of building an infrastructure shifted towards applying a stream of innovative technologies, which did not help to bring about an infrastructure.OTB onderzoekOTB Research Institut

Thinking in circles: How national geo-information infrastructures cannot escape from the temptation of technology

OTB ResearchOTB Research Institute for the Built Environmen

GeoPortalNetwork: More process catalyst than project

OTB Research Institut