The role of boundary objects in the co-evolution of design and use: the KMP project experimentation

Nowadays, it is widely recognized that an ICT tool cannot be built without knowing who will use it and what they will do with. In this perspective, Human-Computer Interaction community (Carroll, 1990; Jarke, Tung Bui and Carroll, 1998; Young and Barnard, 1987; Young and al., 1989) developed a scenario-based approach contrasting with the traditional information system design. The scenario describes an existing or envisioned system from the perspective of one or more users and includes a narration of their goals, plans and reactions (Rosson and Carroll, 2002). As a result, design is founded on the use of scenarios as a central representation for the analysis and design of use. The scenario-based design appears to be a first step in the integration of users in the design of ICT tool. However, we would like to underline in this paper a more active role of users in the design process. According to Orlikowski (2000) while a technology can be seen to have been constructed with particular materials and inscribed with developers' assumptions and knowledge about the world at a point in time, it is only when this technology is used in recurrent social practices that it can be said to structure user's action. The use of technology in recurrent social practices must be considered because how technological properties will for the moment be used or appropriate is not inherent or predetermined. Finally, this approach leads us to dissociate the designers' world from the users' world. In this perspective, the design project is the result of the co-evolution and the convergence of both worlds: on the one hand, the world of design and a first integration of users by scenarios; on the other hand, the world of users where innovation is the art of interesting an increasing number of allies who will make the world of design stronger and stronger. The objective of this paper is to understand the mechanisms of interaction between the world of design and that of users i.e. between loops of co-design and loops of uses. Indeed, according to Akrich, Callon and Latour (1988) we adopt a whirlwind model of innovation. In this perspective, “innovation continuously transforms itself according to the trials to which it is submitted i.e. of the “interessements” tried out » (Akrich and al., 2002: 7). We will demonstrate that the key success of an innovation depends on the co-evolution and convergence of design and use around boundary objects developed during this process (see Figure 1). More specifically, we will show the role of boundary objects on the integration and on the involvement of users in the design process. In order to do so, we carried out an empirical research – the Knowledge Management Platform project - located in the scientific park of Sophia Antipolis (Alpes-Maritimes, France), focusing on the Telecom Valley® (TV) association which gathers the main actors of the Sophia Antipolis Telecom cluster. Indeed, the KMP project aims to build a semantic web service of competencies in order to enhance exchange and combination dynamics of knowledge within the Telecom cluster thanks to an interactive mapping of competencies. This paper will comprise three parts: Based on the researches of Akrich, Callon and Latour (1988), Hatchuel and Mollet (1986), Orlikowski (2000), Romme and Endenburg (2006) we will identify and analyse in a first part the process of design. The combination of these approaches leads us to distinguish the design' world from the users' world. In this perspective, the success of an innovation may be explained by the co-evolution and the convergence of these two worlds. In this process, we suggest that boundary objects play a key role in the convergence of these two worlds. We will present in a second part the empirical study of the KMP project within the TV network. The KMP project involved researchers from socio-economic sciences (GREDEG Laboratory, UNSA-CNRS, Rodige and Latapses teams), cognitive sciences and artificial intelligence (INRIA, Acacia team), telecommunications (GET) and users (TV) for a total force of 187 men per month for a two-year period (2003-2005). At this present time this project is being set up in a pre-industrialization phase, supported by TV and the PACA region. Here, we will analyse the specific process of design experimented by KMP. Finally, the third part discusses the role of boundary objects in the KMP experimentation. In this part, we will show the evolution of boundary objects during the loops of design. More specifically, the focus will be on the emergence of compromises between designers and users, their materialisation in boundary objects and finally their evolution during the design' process.boundary objects, IS development, actor network theory

A design theory for collaborative interorganizational knowledge management systems

This paper addresses the design problem of providing IT support to organizational knowledge creation within a geographical cluster. This study is based on a design science approach that serves to successfully introduce and implement a new IT artefact as a tool for interorganizational knowledge management. We draw on a case study of developing a portal for mapping competencies in an IT cluster in France. Abstracting from the experience of building this system, we developed an IS design theory for collaborative interorganizational knowledge management systems

Quelle gestion des incivilités dans les entreprises accueillant du public ?

La notion d’incivilité regroupe un très large éventail de conduites : indifférence, impolitesse, dégradations, agressivité verbale. Les espaces publics de la Société nationale des Chemins de fer (SNCF) comme ceux de La Poste sont des lieux de brassage social, d’attente prolongée, de mélange entre besoins individuels et traitement de masse. La qualité de service y est intimement liée à la qualité du lien social. Les salariés de ces entreprises font remonter régulièrement le poids croissant des incivilités dont ils sont les témoins ou l’objet. Face à ces actes problématiques, la SNCF et La Poste ont engagé des travaux de recherche analysant les facteurs de dégradation et les leviers de régulation de la civilité dans leurs espaces.Incivility covers a wide range of behaviours – indifference, rudeness, insults, verbal aggression. The public spaces of the railways [SNCF] and the post office are places of social encounter, long waits, and a mix of mass treatment and individual needs. The quality of service is intimately linked to the quality of social ties. Employees in these companies must regularly overcome an increasing burden of incivilities of which they are the object or a witness. Faced with such problem behaviours, the railway companies and the postal service are engaged in research to analyse the factors that account for this degradation and the mechanisms for regulating civility in their public spaces

Méthodologie de « Design Collaboratif » : une approche intégrative

CommunicationPlusieurs travaux suggèrent que le « design » peut constituer une forme « idéale-type » de recherche, capable de réconcilier et d'articuler les connaissances théoriques et les connaissances pratiques. Dans cette communication nous proposons une méthodologie de design collective et intégrative : collective parce qu'elle se centre sur l'articulation des savoirs théoriques et pratiques ; intégrative parce qu'elle tente de combiner les aspects clés des deux démarches de design identifiées, celle fondée sur la science des organisations et celle privilégiant la participation et l'engagement des praticiens. Cette méthodologie a été développée pour concevoir une solution TIC innovante, un site web de compétences, visant à renforcer les synergies et l'innovation au sein du cluster Télécoms Sophipolitain. Au-delà du contexte dans lequel elle a été développée, cette méthodologie répond au défi de produire à la fois des connaissances théoriques et pratiques

Defect-induced magnetism in graphite through neutron irradiation

We have investigated the variation in the magnetization of highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) after neutron irradiation, which introduces defects in the bulk sample and consequently gives rise to a large magnetic signal. We observe strong paramagnetism in HOPG, increasing with the neutron fluence. We correlate the induced paramagnetism with structural defects by comparison with density-functional theory calculations. In addition to the in-plane vacancies, the trans-planar defects also contribute to the magnetization. The lack of any magnetic order between the local moments is possibly due to the absence of hydrogen/nitrogen chemisorption, or the magnetic order cannot be established at all in the bulk form.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

LAND REFORM AND DEFORESTATION IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZONIA

No processo de reforma agrária brasileiro é comum a redistribuição de terra ocorrer por meio de invasões das grandes proprieades pelos sem terra. Esse mecanismo introduz insegurança no direito de propriedade fundiária e, na Regîão Amazônica, tem como consequência o excesso de desflorestamento. Esse trabalho utiliza um jogo não-cooperativo para mostrar que as interações estratégicas entre proprietários e posseiros em um contexto instittucional onde as florestas naturais são consideradas como recursos de livre acesso implicam o excesso de desflorestamento. A principal implicação analítica do modelo é que a taxa de desflorestamento de determinada área tende a aumentar com o número de posseiros na área. Essa implicação é confirmada quando testada em um painel de dados censitários municipais da Amazônia brasileira no período 1970-96 e esse resultado se mantem mesmo quando se controla o problema da endogeneidade do número de posseiros na especificação de uma equação de desflorestamento. Da perspectiva ambiental, portanto, o resultado permite questionar os mecanismos utilizados pelas políticas de reforma agrária no Brasil.----------------------------------------In Brazil, the land reform involves redistribution of land plots from large landowners to squatters. It generates property rights insecurity which alters land uses and fosters forest depletion. In this paper, a non cooperative game model is developed where natural forests are considered as an open access resource and the strategic interactions between landowners and squatters lead to an over deforestation. The main theoretical implication is a positive impact of squatters on deforestation. It is successfully tested on a panel data set covering the municipalities of the Legal Amazonia controlling for the endogeneity of squatters in a deforestation equation. The result questions the modalities of the Brazilian state-led land reformreforma agrária, desflorestamento, insegurança dos direitos de propriedade, econometria de painel, Land reform, Deforestation, land tenure insecurity, panel estimation, Land Economics/Use,

Méthodologie de « Design Collaboratif » : une approche intégrative

Plusieurs travaux suggèrent que le « design » peut constituer une forme « idéale-type » de recherche, capable de réconcilier et d'articuler les connaissances théoriques et les connaissances pratiques. Dans cette communication nous proposons une méthodologie de design collective et intégrative : collective parce qu'elle se centre sur l'articulation des savoirs théoriques et pratiques ; intégrative parce qu'elle tente de combiner les aspects clés des deux démarches de design identifiées, celle fondée sur la science des organisations et celle privilégiant la participation et l'engagement des praticiens. Cette méthodologie a été développée pour concevoir une solution TIC innovante, un site web de compétences, visant à renforcer les synergies et l'innovation au sein du cluster Télécoms Sophipolitain. Au-delà du contexte dans lequel elle a été développée, cette méthodologie répond au défi de produire à la fois des connaissances théoriques et pratiques.Méthodologies de “Design” ; Recherche collaborative ; Règles de Design ; Environnement muti-acteurs ; multi-technologiques ; système organisationnel complexe