Envisioning a Future Where We Eat Our Own Dog Food: How to Support Collective Wisdom of the IS Crowd

In this presentation, I envision a future in which we eat our own dog food and suggest how to promote mass collaboration by supporting the collective wisdom of the IS crowd. This presentation was made in Twenty Ninth International Conference on Information Systems, Paris 2008, as part of a panel on Open Access Publishing and the Future of Information Systems Research. The panel description is available in ICIS 2008 Proceedings at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2008/126/ and the other presentations are available through the following: http://sprouts.aisnet.org/8-35

Developing Individuals\u27 Transactive Memories of Their Ego-Centric Networks to Mitigate Risks of Knowledge Sharing: The Case of Professionals Protecting CyberSecurity

A memory of who knows what, so called transactive memory, can be an important cognitive structure in facilitating knowledge sharing in situations where successful collaboration depends on simultaneously maximizing sharing while mitigating its risks. We examine the development of transactive memory in cross- organizational networks—or ego-centric networks—that individuals build and maintain in their work. How do individuals develop transactive memory about who knows what in personally driven social networks that operate at the boundaries of cross-organizational work? In this paper, we advance a model of factors affecting the development of an individual’s transactive memory of his/her ego-centric work network and test the model with a group of professionals engaged in responding to unforeseen events related to national security. Overall, we find that frequent use of dialogic practices explain much of the degree to which an individual has developed a transactive memory of his/her ego-centric network. Dialogic practices are, in turn, affected by the degree to which the task is perceived as interdependent on the knowledge and actions of others and organizational support for learning. We note theoretical extensions to the literatures of transactive memory and information systems design for ego-centric networks

Communication Context-Dependent Technology Use in Virtual Teams

Global virtual teams (GVT) are increasingly using virtual workspace technology (VWT) which allow for multiple forms of interaction between team members. However, there is limited empirical and theoretical research on how the use of these technologies depends on the communication context of the teams. We extend recent theorizing about technology support for virtual communication to suggest that VWTs afford team members different forms of interaction. Further, we suggest that, to achieve better performance, teams choose interaction forms (using VWT) that match their communication context. More specifically, we propose that GVTs vary particularly along two dimensions of communication contexts: diversity and task innovativeness, and that VWTs can be used for two forms of interaction: virtual co-presence and knowledge evolution. We hypothesize that higher performing GVTs with high diversity use VWT for virtual co-presence and higher performing GVTs with high innovativeness of task use VWT for knowledge evolution. Data from 54 GVTs provide empirical support for our hypotheses

Visible Collective and Self-Management Along with Secret Gardens: The Landscape For Distributed Innovation Organizations In Competitive Environments

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. (HYPERLOOPTT) is a global crowd-based innovation startup competing in the hyperloop industry. HYPERLOOPTT distinguishes itself from the competition by not simply engineering a hyperloop but also designing sociotechnical systems and practices that enable them to push the use of a distributed innovation system to the extreme. HYPERLOOPTT faces two sources of competition: against other organizations in the hyperloop industry, and against other claims on the time of its largely part-time contributors. We conducted an ethnographic analysis of the coordination practices of the organization, concluding that HYPERLOOPTT is effectively competing on both fronts by creating the means for visible collective and self-management of knowledge as well as by secretly walling in intellectual property, making the walls and their contents invisible. The invisibility of IP walls seems to avoid inhibiting collaboration among part-time contributors since their lack of awareness reduces any frustration that might arise if they knew important information for their work was being withheld. We draw implications for theory on distributed innovation systems in market-oriented organizations

Serial Integration, Real Innovation: Roles of Diverse Knowledge and Communicative Participation in Crowdsourcing

Despite a burgeoning public and scholarly interest on open innovation and crowdsourcing, how to enable members of online temporary crowd to maintain knowledge integration and innovation remains underexplored. This study seeks to understand the ways in which online crowd members collectively generate more innovative and serial integrative solutions to crowdsourced open innovation challenges. Analyzing 3,200 unique posts generated by 486 participants of 21 organization-sponsored online crowdsourcing innovation challenges, this research demonstrates that crowd members contribute more innovative solutions when being exposed to explicitly shared diverse knowledge, and that crowd members’ communicative participation acts as a catalyst for the production of both innovation and serial knowledge integration. Findings suggest that managers who seek to generate knowledge integration and innovation should endeavor to implement systems that afford high-level communicative participation, as well as encourage crowd members to make their diverse knowledge explicit while minimizing their cognitive load in knowledge sharing

Formative and Summative Feedback in Solution Generation: The Role of Community and Decision Support System in Open Source Software

Formative feedback is an important aspect of solution generation. This article decomposes formative feedback in four components based on learning literature: likability of feedback, verification feedback, specific elaborated feedback, and general elaborated feedback. However, formative feedback may have different effect in the solver depending in his state of anxiety. In addition, the solver receives formative feedback from the community and summative feedback from DSS. A negative summative feedback from DSS induces anxiety to the solver. Feedback literature not distinguishes between formative or summative feedback, which could explain the contradictory findings. This research theorizes about how summative feedback modifies formative feedback based on ACT. This analysis was performed by using an OSS community, which produced 976,635 lines of code in 36,878 solutions for 5,108 problems. The results suggest that summative feedback modifies how formative feedback affects the solver. Implications for the solution generation, We-intentions, formative and summative feedback are drawn

Understanding Collective Reflection in Crowdsourcing for Innovation: A Semantic Network Approach

Empowered by the wisdom of crowds, innovation nowadays is increasingly relying on diverse individuals’ knowledge collaboration. Research on crowdsourcing and open innovation has demonstrated that through deliberate understanding and reflective thinking, members of the online crowd collectively manage their knowledge to generate innovative ideas. However, the semantic patterns of how online crowd’s collective reflection ultimately leads up to innovation remains unclear. Employing semantic network approach, this study analyzed a total of 1,116 posts contributed by online crowds responding to two organization-sponsored crowdsourcing open innovation challenges. Findings show that the semantic patterns of online crowds’ knowledge collaboration evolve from one phase to another in accordance with crowd members’ collective reflection on their diverse knowledge. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed

BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT AND THE IS FIELD: HAVE WE FINALLY ARRIVED OR JUST MISSED THE BOAT?

As BPM (Business Process Management) is gaining acceptance among academics and practitioners, questions remain about its role in Information Systems (IS) teaching and research. This panel continues and expands the dialogue within the IS community on how BPM is and should be integrated within IS. Initially proposed by Donald Chand, Alina Chircu and M. Lynne Markus (Information and Process Management, Bentley University, USA), the panel is chaired by Alina Chircu and features Varun Grover (Clemson University, USA), Ann Majchrzak (University of Southern California, USA), and Michael Rosemann (Queensland University of Technology, Australia). The panelists will address the current status, the IS field capabilities, and the future opportunities related to the integration of BPM in IS research and teaching. Each panelist will be able to interpret the definition of BPM in their own way and will be taking pro and con positions for the purposes of stimulating the debate