Using a Practice Based Perspective to Inform the Design of Knowledge Management Systems: Evidence from Supporting eBanking Activities

The existing mechanistic view of Knowledge Management (KM) pursued by most IT initiatives in this stream, perceiving knowledge as a commodity has proven inadequate to support the highly knowledge-intensive workplace contexts. Drawn from the generic ideas of “technologies-in-practice”, as suggested by Orlikowski (2000), we emphasize the necessity of attaching a more situated character in the technical propositions for KM. In the center of our perspective stand the notions of activities and work practices, as the explanatory tools for interpreting roles and experiences of actors. Work practices serve not only as the context to knowledge, but also as the anchoring point for the enactment of collective learning and thus the support of communities of practice. Our work is substantiated with recommendations for technical approaches to KM. We ground our propositions on the experience of implementing a KM solution for the support of a newly employed and strategically important (e-)banking role, the “Front-line Customer Service”

Exploring the socio-economic structures of internet-enabled development: a study of grassroots netpreneurs in China

types: ArticleThis is an open access article that is freely available in ORE or from the publisher's web site. Please cite the published version.There is increasing interest in the potential of internet platforms for networking and collaboration - often referred to as web 2.0 - to open up unprecedented prospects for individuals to come together and engage in economic and political activities, bypassing and indeed subverting the corporate structures of the market economy and state control. The prevailing discourse on this technology-driven transformative potential focuses on networks of individuals interacting through technology tools with little, if at all, attention to the social context that gives rise and sustains their networked economic or political activities. In this paper we study the social embeddedness of the empowering potential of internet-enabled economic activity. We present and discuss a case of intense entrepreneurial activity in a Chinese community, engaging in e-commerce trading conducted on a platform of internet tools. Our analysis of this case juxtaposes the emerging views on web2.0 business activities with views drawn from a long established literature on entrepreneurship as a networked activity. We found that internet-based entrepreneurial activity at this case of grassroots development enacts online social networking mechanisms of peer-to-peer and vendor-customer interactions and heavily depends on a corporate service provider, as well as the historically developed community infrastructure for commerce. Overall, our research explores whether economic activity enabled by web 2.0 is an individualistic phenomenon, or it relies on institutional bearings and if so what is their nature

Trusting e-voting amidst experiences of electoral malpractice: The case of Indian elections

This paper constructs explanatory theory on trust in e-voting, a term that refers to the use of stand-alone IT artefacts in voting stations. We study e-voting as a techno-organisational arrangement embedded in the process of elections and the broader socio-economic context of a country. Following a critical realist approach, we apply retroduction and retrodiction principles to build theory by complementing existing studies of e-voting with insights from an in-depth case study of elections in India. First, we seek evidence of trust in e-voting in the responses of the public to the announcement of election results. Then we derive the following four mechanisms of trust creation or loss: the association of e-voting with the production of positive democratic effects; the making of e-voting part of the mission and identity of electoral authorities; the cultivation of a positive public attitude to IT with policies for IT-driven socio-economic development; and, in countries with turbulent political cultures, a clear distinction between the experience of voting as orderly and experiences of malpractice in other election tasks. We suggest that these mechanisms explain the different experience with e-voting of different countries. Attention to them helps in assessing the potential of electoral technologies in countries that are currently adopting them, especially fragile democracies embarking upon e-voting

Interpreting the trustworthiness of government mediated by information and communication technology: Lessons from electronic voting in Brazil. Information Technology for Development

Original citation: Avgerou, Chrisanthi, Ganzaroli, Andrea, Poulymenakou, Angeliki and Reinhard, Nicolau (2009) Abstract The electronic voting system of Brazil is understood to be widely trusted by the citizens of the country and international observers. More precisely, it is seen as a trustworthy mechanism of producing elections results that accurately represent the choices of the electorate. In this paper we discuss briefly the concepts of trust and trustworthiness and focus to examine the formation of beliefs regarding the latter. We argue that the belief of trustworthiness is only partly attributable to the perception of the merits of the technical system and its enactment procedures. Significant role in the formation of this belief in the case of the Brazilian electronic elections has played the the reputation of the institutional actors responsible for the elections -the Superior and the Regional Electoral Courts. We therefore conclude that, unlike common assumptions about the potential of e-government in developing countries to restore trust in government institutions which are considered untrustworthy, the production of trust in ICT-mediated government services relies on citizens' perceptions of their trustworthiness

Knowledge acquisition for organisational problem solving : developing expert systems and beyond

This paper examines the introduction of knowledge acquisition techniques to facilitate managerial and administrative problem solving. The characteristics of such problem situations do not lend themselves to normative approaches such as simply introducing expert systems. However appropriately performed knowledge acquisition can still be of benefit by providing a better understanding of problem situations and it can provide a suitable basis for the process of negotiation and compromise needed to resolve organisational problems. This emerging role for knowledge acquisition differs from that of systems analysis, for example, in that it focuses on improving the understanding of the location, ownership and impact of available organisational knowledge rather than the data flows and tasks performed within the organisation. The paper provides guidelines for performing knowledge acquisition for organisational problem solving

Learning opportunities in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games player communities

Digital games have been traditionally used for educational purposes while they offer realistic opportunities for unleashing ones' creativity through self-motivated participation in virtual learning spaces [8, 10]. Such games - in their majority simulation games - are being used in occupational training (e.g. aircraft pilots and managers) and many organisations and institutions have introduce them in their training practices. Still, where the game scenario does not simulate a real life situation, the learning contribution from playing it is more controversial. In this paper we are becoming an insider and explore how players of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) engage in virtual communities, learn and communicate their (game-related) knowledge. Players within such a context are forming guilds and alliances in order to extend their skill-base and capabilities of their game role (character). For our analysis, we are using the notion of Communities of Practice in order to understand the motives, behaviours and practices of how players learn to engage in common practices, share communal values, communicate their experiences, and behave in open and democratic virtual spaces. Our findings are based on a 7-month qualitative analysis in participating in the MMORPG Earth and Beyond

Interpreting the trustworthiness of government mediated by information and communication technology: lessons from electronic voting in Brazil

The electronic voting system of Brazil is understood to be widely trusted by the citizens of the country and international observers. More precisely, it is seen as a trustworthy mechanism of producing election results that accurately represent the choices of the electorate. In this article, we discuss briefly the concepts of trust and trustworthiness, and focus to examine the formation of beliefs regarding the latter. We argue that the belief of trustworthiness is only partly attributable to the perception of the merits of the technical system and its enactment procedures. In our case study we found that the institutional actors responsible for the elections—the Superior and the Regional Electoral Courts—have played a key role in the formation of the belief that the electronic elections are trustworthy. We therefore conclude that, unlike common assumptions about the potential of e-government in developing countries to restore trust in government institutions that are considered untrustworthy, the production of trust in government services mediated by information and communication technology relies on citizens' perceptions of their trustworthiness

Studying information systems at the organizational level: interpreting technology

The aim of this paper is to discuss the objectives of `organisation-level' research into information systems in technology-anchored subjects, and to suggest why there is a need to bring such research closer to social sciences. `Objectives' in our view encompass the nature of research questions postulated, the motivation for doing research, the research audience, and the utilities envisaged for the research findings. The main argument developed here is that rich and sustaining research into information systems practices cannot be based on solely positivist-objectivist approaches. Such approaches, mainly the legacy of natural science, have dominated research into technical aspects of information systems but are inadequate and ultimately ineffectual. On the other hand, purely organisational analyses, devoid of technological richness, are equally improbable, thus the need we articulate here, for an organisationally linked research approach that can encompass the sophistication and detailed nature of the technologies that we use. The natural place to find such an approach, we argue, is within the social sciences