What’s in a face? Making sense of tangible information systems in terms of Peircean semiotics

Within this paper, we utilise a delimited area of philosophy to help make sense of a delimited area of design science as it pertains to a class of contemporary information systems. The philosophy is taken from that of Charles Sanders Peirce; the design science is directed at the construction of visual devices in that area known as visual management. The utilisation of such devices within their wider visual management systems we take to be instances of what we refer to as tangible information systems. Tangible information systems use tangible artefacts, such as whiteboards and magnetic tokens, to accomplish information. We particularly use Peircean semiotics to analyse the use of tangible emoticons articulated upon performance boards within a large-scale manufacturing facility. We infer from our analysis of these informative artefacts that certain integrated aspects of Peircean philosophy offers an alternative way of framing notions of a proper design science, design theory and design artefact for the discipline of information systems

Form-ing institutional order: the scaffolding of lists and identifiers

This paper examines the central place of the list and the associated concept of an identifier within the scaffolding of contemporary institutional order. These terms are deliberately chosen to make strange and help unpack the constitutive capacity of information systems and information technology within and between contemporary organisations. We draw upon the substantial body of work by John Searle to help understand the place of lists and identifiers in the constitution of institutional order. To enable us to ground our discussion of the potentiality and problematic associated with lists we describe a number of significant instances of list-making, situated particularly around the use of identifiers to refer to people, places and products. The theorisation developed allows us to better explain not only the significance imbued within lists and identifiers but the key part they play in form-ing the institutional order. We also hint at the role such symbolic artefacts play within breakdowns in institutional order

THE ENACTMENT OF PERSONAL IDENTITY

The issue of personal identity and its management is a major problematic area for action, communication and representation within the information society. Surprisingly, whereas theorisation of personal identity as an individual and social construct is well-established, theorisation of identity as a technological construct is less well-formulated. This means that whereas technological developments in the area of so-called personal identity management move forward at pace, much of this research and development lacks firm theoretical underpinnings. This paper builds upon previous work and attempts a tentative theorisation of the issue of personal identity in terms of a framework we refer to as the enactment of significance. We argue that this conception better enables us to understand more clearly the way in which personal identity is enacted through the complex entanglement of action, communication and representation and the bearing such entanglement has on contemporary considerations of information, systems and technology

Signaling games: thought experiments and Information Systems

We propose the thought experiment as a useful but neglected ‘method’ of research within Information Systems. To demonstrate the usefulness of this approach we use the particular ‘intuition pump’ of a signaling game, taken from the philosophy of convention, to demonstrate how information can be seen to evolve as a complex, systemic accomplishment amongst a community of actors. An example from the study of animal communication is first used to highlight the relevance of this thought experiment. We then unpack various ideas about the nature of information in terms of component elements of the signaling game. We also demonstrate the way in which this thought experiment helps clarify the relationship between information and that of agency, embodiment, intentionality and materiality. This leads us to demonstrate the applicability of the signalling game to a class of information system ubiquitous in the human sphere: that of an effective manual system

Formatics

The aim of this paper is to elaborate upon certain key aspects of a conceptual framework which we believe helps unpack the sociotechnical and sociomaterial nature of human organisation through the idea of the enactment of significance. In this paper we focus upon unpacking a particular, and surprisingly neglected, aspect of this process of accomplishing significance: that of forma – the ‘substance’ of a sign. Even though we are surrounded by formative technologies (especially digital computing technologies) in the modern world, we lack a clear understanding of the variety of forma, and the place of forma within various systems that accomplish significance. Therefore, within this paper we consider a number of common principles evident amongst a series of diverse and ‘strange’ examples of forma. In examining these cases we suggest a number of tentative aspects of what we might call a theory of formatics: an area which considers both the fundamental nature of forma and the place of such forma within the larger universe of communicative and performative accomplishment. We conclude with an examination of the place of formatics within a wider informatics directed at better performatics

Personal Identification in the Information Age: The Case of the National Identity Card in the UK

The informatics infrastructure supporting the Information Society requires the aggregation of data about individuals in electronic records. Such data structures demand that individuals be uniquely identified and this is critical to the necessary processes of authentication, identification and enrolment associated with the use of e-Business, e-Government and potentially e-Democracy systems. It is also necessary to the representation of human interactions as data transactions supporting various forms of governance structure: hierarchies, markets and networks. In this paper we use the agenda surrounding the proposed introduction of a national identity card in the UK as an empirical backbone for considering the issue of identity management. Currently, the UK government is attempting to relate the rights and entitlements of citizenship in the UK with a standard electronic identifier for British citizens and its instantiation in an ‘entitlements card’. This attempt to define legitimising identity seems to us a potentially fruitful empirical source for examining the conceptual and pragmatic issues associated with identity management in the information age. Such a card offers numerous potential benefits for individuals and organisations but its introduction raises major challenges to data protection, data privacy and public trust in the information governance of the UK

FORM-ING INSTITUTIONAL ORDER

This paper examines the central place of the list and the associated concept of an identifier within the scaffolding of contemporary institutional order. These terms are deliberately chosen to make strange and help unpack the constitutive capacity of information systems and information technology within and between contemporary organisations. We draw upon the substantial body of work by John Searle to help understand the place of lists in the constitution of order. To enable us to ground our discussion of the potentiality and problematic associated with lists we describe a significant and modern instance of list-making, situated around the issu of digital identity management. The theoretical framework discussed allows us to better explain breakdowns in the institutional order characteristic of this domain

Information Systems as Socio-Technical or Sociomaterial Systems

This paper considers the nature of the concept of an information system and particularly its basis as a socio-technical system. We argue that while socio-technical ideas have been heavily used within the discipline of Information Systems, the way in which an information system itself is socio-technical is quite poorly explained in such literature. We seek to address this by using a conceptual framework founded in organizational semiotics and systemics which directly locates an information system as mediating between activity systems on the one hand and technology systems on the other. We ground our discussion in a range of examples from different historical periods and cultures. This helps us demonstrate some of the universal features of information systems, whilst also demonstrating the central place of information systems in the sociomaterial practices of organizations

Constructing Electronic Government: The Case of the UK Inland Review

The term electronic government (e-Government) generally refers to the use of information and communications technology (ICT) to change the structures and processes of government organisations. Many governments world-wide have invested heavily in this agenda but there is a lack of clear case material which describes the potentialities and pitfalls experienced by organisations at the forefront of this change. The department of the Inland Revenue has been at the forefront of this electronic government e- Government vision in the UK. The department has undertaken major attempts to re-engineer its interface with the UK citizen and other stakeholders. It has also suffered a number of highly publicised failures in delivering its services electronically. This paper presents a case study of the process of ‘constructing’ e-Government experienced by this organisation. We place this organisation’s attempts at ICT innovation within the context for e- Government within the UK. We also use a model developed as part of our research - the electronic government organisation - to help explain some of the potentialities and pitfalls in this area. In terms of this analysis we review definitions of e-government and call for a more holistic use of the term in the development of future strategy

The UK National Identity Card

Currently, the UK government is attempting to relate the rights and entitlements of citizenship with a standard identifier for all British citizens and its representation in a national identity card. This teaching case describes the history of this endeavor as promoted by the UK government and its agencies. It also describes the reaction to these plans on the part of numerous other stakeholder groups within the UK. This is a rich case for examining a number of critical, contemporary issues of relevance to Information Systems practice that are occurring world-wide. On the one hand, such an identity token, if introduced successfully, will act as a significant component in the personal identity management infrastructure supporting e-Government and e- Business in the UK. On the other, its introduction raises major challenges to data protection, data privacy and public trust in the information governance of this nation state