Les's SSI Blog

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[edit] 2006/01/31: Negotiated Order Theory

I've posted some notes on Negotiated Order Theory in a separate page. A nice project or paper would be an analysis of how/when NOT works and/or fails as an theory, underpinning or framework for some particular sets of SI problems, issues, or cases. How do some specific sociotechnical orders get negotiated, how/when can they be explained better with some other theory, etc. One could begin by analogizing from existing case studies of negotiated orders (like the Thomas or Modell papers on the NOT notes page), to some SI case studies that have not yet been treated from this perspective.

[edit] 2006/01/31: Defining and Scoping "Modern" SI

Chip and I have been discussing the length and breadth of SI as a field and body of knowledge, how to get into it and make it accessible; what lens(es) and perspectives to stress, and what processes work best. We certainly have concluded that "traditional" SI, while it laid a formidable groundwork of theories and methods, and called attention to pressing intellectual, social, and even technical issues, has now been effectively superseded by a much wider range of concerns and approaches. It is as though SI has now become a ubiquitous concern, and has become so commonplace and natural that it no longer needs to be presented as a challenging, new, or different discipline. Like Mark Weiser's contention that computing will have "succeeded" when it has become ubiquitous and invisible in daily life rather than a special category of news and analysis, maybe SI has begun to "succeed" as an intellectual---and practical---endeavor, and has begun to evolve into a ubiquitous perspective that now pervades many, many of the more traditional disciplines and has even sometimes changed them significantly from the inside.

It's not even really clear (to us at least) how and whether there "is" such a "discipline" as SI. (This may depend on the what the meaning of "is" is.) In any case, "traditional" SI -- as represented by "The Irvine School" and its descendents (folks like Kling, Kraemer, King, Dutton, Iacono) and other related investigations such as those in MIS, HCI, and in CSCW (e.g. people like Orlikowski, Kraut, Keisler, Weisband, etc.), which have generally focused on meso-level analyses of integration of "computing" into workplaces, homes, and schools are being augmented by much wider explorations of interactions between social phenomena and ICT phenomena. Similarly, in concert with the increasing sociotechnical pervasiveness---even dominance---of ICTs, we find a much wider range of social practices that stand for analysis. These include, for example, community building/networking; rapid informal self-organized cultural agregates like instant messaging cohorts and social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace; social semantics via collaborative tagging in del.icio.us and Flickr; dynamic arenas of conflict and consensus in knowledge building such as wikipedia and open-source; integrated play and "third-space" environments like MMOGs; and grand social patterns such as modulation of loads and communication vulnerabilities via the naturally patterned rhythms of human activity on a global scale (article below). Many of these spheres did not exist as sociotechnical practices until recently, so it's only natural that they weren't part of original SI concerns with "computerization" and its social integration/impacts.

So we find ourselves with what is certainly a struggle for how to scope, define, and teach the field - breadth vs depth, theory vs practice, ranges of methods (simulation to ethnography), and so on. By way of illustration, the article below is one example of the potential reach of SI when it's defined, broadly and simply, as "studies of intersections among technical and social spheres for ICTs":

Nathan Friess, Ryan Vogt and John Aycock, "Timing is Everything." Computers & Security Volume 24, Issue 8 , November 2005, Pages 599-603 (Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive N.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada)

Abstract: Social engineering attacks are well-known to prey on human weaknesses. Besides these weaknesses, humans insist on eating, sleeping, and partaking in non-work activities. On a global scale, work schedules combined with IT policies leave large windows of vulnerability – but how large? We examine calendar data through the year 2010 and locate the longest vulnerability windows which could be exploited by well-timed attacks by malicious software. The same data can be analyzed to solve a related problem: determining the best times to release software patches. Keywords: Human factors; Vulnerabilities; Patching; Time; Holidays.

[edit] Creation Myth

As we get into SI in the seminar, I find myself (naturally) thinking about many SI issues and finding materials and references that I find interesting and that may support thinking in the class, or even lead to something more. I've found that the best way to initiate and develop new ideas is to talk with smart people, and to write down what you think as you chat and read, however inchoate or sketchy your thoughts, and accumulate the writings. So here they will be, occasionally and as they emerge, in reverse chronological order. If there's another better place to be writing, maybe I'll move this to there.

- Les Gasser, 20060131