Metacommunication Patterns in Online Communities
Published version of a chapter in the book: Online Communities and Social Computing. Also available from the publisher at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02774-1_26 This paper discusses about contemporary literature on computer-mediated metacommunication and observes the phenomenon in two online communities. The results contribute by identifying six general-level patterns of how metacommunication refers to primary communication in online communities. A task-oriented, user-administrated, community (Wikipedia in Finnish) involved a remarkable number of specialized metacommunication genres. In a centrally moderated discussion-oriented community (Patientslikeme), metacommunication was inter…
The Genre System Lens on E-Democracy
Published version of an article published in Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, 20 (2), 51-82. Also available from the publisher at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/sjis/vol20/iss2/3 E-Democracy aims at enhancing citizen involvement in societal communication and decision making. However, the very ideals of democracy vary while reports of e-democracy in use have often left them undiscussed. Moreover, theoretical works on the potential of information technology (IT) for democratization have often viewed IT as a “black box”, and assumed that technology should create an impact as such. Hence, there is a dearth of research on the interplay between models of e-democracy and actual IT artefacts …
Explaining Change Paths of Systems and Software Development Practices
This chapter discusses how systems development practices are shaped. Based on interviews conducted in ten development organizations and previous literature, we identify eight types of change paths in systems development practices: emergence, adoption, idealization, formalization, abandonment, informalization, entropy, and disobedience. We argue that the eight change path types provide an integrated theoretical framework on the study of how systems development practices change in organizations, projects, and among individual developers in a given context. We discuss how this framework complements existing theories and concepts of the contemporary literature on systems development.
Pre-determinants of Implementing IT Benefits Management in Norwegian Municipalities: Cultivate the Context
The concept of benefits management addresses explicated practices to realize benefits from information technology investments. However, a minority of organizations have implemented those. We explored which pre-determinants affect the implementation of benefits management practices by conducting a Delphi process in the Norwegian municipality sector. The experts represented governmental organs, general management, and municipal service managers. They identified 59 pre-determinants of potential importance. However, the experts reached no significant consensus on the relative importance of the pre-determinants. Instead, we suggest that the identified pre-determinants should be holistically and …
Problems in the Interplay of IS Development and IT Operations: An Alignment Analysis
This chapter addresses the interplay of IS development and IT operations in system development projects, as seen from the perspective of IT operations. The underlying perspective is that a well-performed interplay of the two domains is essential, both for the successful development of a new information system, as well as for its subsequent operation. In this chapter, we use alignment theory to analyse data from a Delphi study in order to investigate the interplay of the two areas. The chapter concludes that the two areas are often unsatisfactorily aligned and that improving their interplay must be a priority for IS development and IT operations alike.
Establishing On-Line Corporate Training in Distributed, Synchronous eCollaboration: A Field Study
Whereas technologies for eCollaboration are maturing, a need for learning eCollaboration in distributed organizations continues. This paper presents the experiences from establishing corporate training in distributed, synchronous eCollaboration. The training package was delivered solely on-line with synchronous interaction among the participants and the instructors. The study contributes to the scarce body of research on computer-supported collaborative learning in professional and corporate contexts. The reported experiences illustrate several challenges to establish corporate on-line training of eCollaboration: promotion of awareness of the benefits of learning eCollaboration, management …
Diverging approaches to benefits realization from public ICT investments
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore practical methods for benefits realisation, with the intention of investigating if they are variance of a theme or rather can be classified as different approaches.Design/methodology/approachBased on a document study of Norwegian methods‐in‐use, this study uses an analytical comparison following an assimilation‐accommodation procedure to categorize the chosen methods as instances of approaches to benefits realisation.FindingsThis study documents the emergence of several methods from practice in the last half decade. This analysis suggests the existence of three distinct approaches to benefits realisation and defines these according to their cen…
Introduction to the Enterprise Content Management and XML Minitrack
Content management in contemporary enterprises concerns a variety of information resources: documents in different forms, databases, and metadata such as ontologies, annotations, and indexes. XML and the web are important technologies used to support both resource integration and distribution.
Generic Data Models for Semantic e-Government Interoperability : Literature Review
Interoperability of e-government systems is suggested to increase transparency, efficiency, effectiveness, and customer service in the public sector. Generic data models are often seen as a way for achieving especially semantic interoperability. To assess how the contemporary data models support semantic egovernment interoperability, we reviewed literature on data models suggested for the public sector in light of four features: standard modelling language, entityrelationship modelling, vocabulary for data exchange and methodology. The review contributes previous research by introducing a four-feature framework for assessing capability of e-government data models to enhance interoperability…
Deliberate and Emergent Changes on a Way Toward Document Management
A unit of Fortum Service Ltd. operates and maintains the Rauhalahti power plant in Central Finland. In 1996-97, the unit launched a project pursuing coordinated organization-wide electronic document management (EDM). This case follows deliberate and emergent changes related to document management in the organization since the initiation of the project until February 2000. New information technologies were adopted, and responsibilities for continuous improvement of EDM were assigned. The continuous improvement was implemented as an extension of the ISO 9002 quality system earlier adopted for process improvement. The case shows that a shift from the paper-based era towards organization-wide E…
Perceived support in e-collaborative learning: An exploratory study which make use of synchronous and asynchronous online-teaching approaches
Published version of a chapter in the book: Advances in Web-Based Learning - ICWL 2012. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33642-3_2 This study compares four different learning environments for e-collaborative learning in two European countries related to the dimension of student’s mutual support. The theoretical baseline is Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (ZOPD) and the socio-genetic approach of Piaget. The analyzed data are based on questionnaires collected over the time period of an entire semester including four different courses at the master’s level. These courses applied different e-collaborative approaches including a variety of tools f…
How Digital is Communication in Your Organization?
Novel innovations in the area of digital media are changing the ways we communicate and organize. However, few practical measures exist for analysing the digitalisation of organizational communication as an intermediate factor in the initiatives to adopt new information and communication technologies (ICT). Building upon the genre theory of organizational communication, a categorization of communication forms, and quantitative measures we suggest such metrics and a measurement method. A case study applying them in an industrial organization suggests the method and metrics to be applicable for quantifying how new information systems affect to organizational communication as well as for antic…
Perceived Support in E-Collaborative Learning: An Exploratory Study Which Make Use of Synchronous and Asynchronous Online-Teaching Approaches
This study compares four different learning environments for e-collaborative learning in two European countries related to the dimension of student's mutual support. The theoretical baseline is Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZOPD) and the socio-genetic approach of Piaget. The analyzed data are based on questionnaires collected over the time period of an entire semester including four different courses at the master's level. These courses applied different e-collaborative approaches including a variety of tools for supporting communication. It is assumed that these courses including communication tools e.g. virtual face-to-face meetings enhance the chances for better communication,…
Deliberate and Emergent Changes on a Way Towards Electronic Document Management
A unit of Fortum Service Ltd. operates and maintains the Rauhalahti power plant in Central Finland. In 1996-97, the unit launched a project pursuing coordinated organizationwide electronic document management (EDM). This case follows deliberate and emergent changes related to document management in the organization since the initiation of the project until February 2000. New information technologies were adopted, and responsibilities for continuous improvement of EDM were assigned. The continuous improvement was implemented as an extension of the ISO 9002 quality system earlier adopted for process improvement. The case shows that a shift from the paper-based era towards organizationwide EDM…
Problems in the interplay of development and IT operations in system development projects: A Delphi study of Norwegian IT experts
ContextThe assumption of the presented work is that the ability of system developers and IT operations personnel to cooperate effectively in system development projects has great impact on the quality of the final system solution, as well as on the service level of its subsequent operation. ObjectiveThe present research explores the interplay of system development and IT operations and the challenges they are meeting. We are especially interested in identifying problems encountered between these two parties in system development projects. MethodWe identify and rank problems by using a ranking-type Delphi study. We involved 42 Norwegian IT experts and split them into three expert panels: sys…
Usability Work in Agile Systems Development Practice: A Systematic Review
In this chapter we present the results of a systematic literature review of the recommendations in the existing research literature on usability work in agile systems development. The review contributes by summarizing the literature in light of seven claims about how to integrate usability work into an agile development project. By analyzing the claims we show how the previous literature provides grounds, warrants, backing, rebuttal, and qualification with regard to each of them. From this comprehensive overview of the literature we then discuss a research agenda with a particular focus on how situational factors for the claims must be researched and how this must encompass identified rebut…
Why Benefits Realization from ERP in SMEs Doesn't Seem to Matter?
Author's version of a chapter in Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Also available from the publisher: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/HICSS.2011.497 It is often argued that IT investments require active management practices for benefits realization. This applies also to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. As well, benefits realization efforts are assumed to create more value than they cost. Hence, the maturity of organizations should be increased and their cultures cultivated towards more rational benefits realization practices. Our study on ERP implementations in Egyptian medium-sized organizations, however, provides aberrant results that challen…
A Genre-Based Method for Information Systems Planning
Currently, corporations implement diversified computer-based information systems (IS). These include organization-scale solutions such as enterprise resource planning systems, inter-, extra-, and intranet applications, product data management, and enterprise document management systems. At the same time, the end user is ever more capable of rapidly developing and tailoring small-scale applications for groups, organizational units, and personal purposes independently (Grover, Teng, and Fiedler, 1998). Furthermore, corporations are investing in information technology infrastructures that take full advantage of global networking and business process re-engineering (Broadbent and Weill, 1997; G…
Issues of adopting benefits management practices of IT investments in municipalities: A Delphi study in Norway
Author's version of a chapter in Proceedings of the 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Also available from the publisher at http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/HICSS.2007.303 The concept of benefits management highlights explicit practices to facilitate benefits realization from information technology (IT) investments, in addition to plain project management focusing on information systems (IS) deliverables as such. This article presents preliminary results from a Delphi study of identifying critical issues to facilitate adoption of benefits management practices in Norwegian municipalities. Three expert panels were established, representing three stakeholder groups within…
Enterprise content management: An integrated perspective on information management
Konferansebidrag fra 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2005. HICSS 2005 Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is an emerging concept involving numerous software vendors, consultants, and information management practitioners around increasing market potential. However, there exist yet few academic reports on ECM from the viewpoint of organizational system implementations. This article analyses 58, mainly practitioner-oriented, case narratives of ECM projects and implementations to identify a framework of major issues that require managerial attention in organizations. The main areas covered by the framework are: objectives/impacts sought with ECM, enterprise model…
The concept of genre within the critical approach to information systems development
Abstract Jurgen Habermas' Critical Social Theory is regarded as a potential approach to information systems development (hereinafter referred to as the critical approach). However, the theoretical promise of this approach has not yet been operationalized in practice. This paper discusses the potential of the genre theory of organizational communication as a conceptual basis for doing so, using two studies that applied genre concepts to analyses and debates on document management. In particular, the paper illustrates the capability of genre concepts in responding to pleas for three types of rationality — communicative, emancipatory, and formal — considered fundamental to any method of inform…
Introduction to the enterprise content management minitrack
Enterprise content management (ECM) focuses on the management of textual and multimedia content across and between enterprises, emphasizing the coexistence of technical and social aspects within the content management. Methods and techniques applicable for managing textual and multimedia information with all sizes of content units, ranging from XML and database structures through web pages and documents to document collections, are studied as well as approaches focusing on specific content structures. In a piece of ECM research, multiple of the perspectives may be covered, or one of the perspectives is chosen as the major view to the area: • the technical perspective including the developme…
Research-in-progress
In this paper, we present a research-in-progress study where we are revisiting a well known knowledge-level framework of understanding (i.e. knowledge) of a system proposed by Olfman et al. (2006). The catalyst for this relook was the anomalies and incongruencies that surfaced when we tried to apply this framework in another study whose aim was to examine how hermeneutic reflection helps in learning. While the framework proved a useful vehicle to carry out hermeneutic analysis, it also proved inadequate in accounting for some significant aspects of what constitutes understanding of a system. A closer look at the data revealed that other theoretical premises could not only provide a better i…
Towards a Framework for Building Theory from ISD Practices
The paper presents a framework for building theory from ISD practices. The framework locates ISD practices in a learning loop that is situated in a development context. The framework recognizes that ISD practices are related to their learned rationale that may come from previous experiences, i.e. observed impacts of practices, or from existing theory. These concepts recognized by the framework are needed for building theory from ISD practices, for designing research approaches for studying ISD, for evaluating existing research on ISD practices and for evaluating ISD methods. The framework is also used in the analysis of three recent studies on ISD practices and a discussion about the uses o…
Challenges in Information Systems Procurement in the Norwegian Public Sector
Published version of a chapter in the book Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 6846, 404-417. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22878-0_34 Public procurement of information systems (IS) and IS services provides several challenges to the stakeholders involved in the procurement processes. This paper reports initial results from a Delphi study, which involved 46 experienced procurement managers, chief information officers, and vendor representatives in the Norwegian public sector. The participants identified altogether 98 challenges related to IS procurement, divided further into 13 categories: requirements specification, change management, cooperation a…
Models of E-Democracy
Pulished article in Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 17 (1), 818-840. Also available from the publisher: http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol17/iss1/37/ Several theories of E-Democracy have been presented, and implementations of and experiments in E-Democracy emerged. However, existing literature on the subject appears rather non-comprehensive, lacking an integrated basis, for gathering knowledge in the future. After an analysis of theories of E-Democracy versus implementations reported in related literature, we address the need for a model generally absent from contemporary theoretical literature: the Partisan model of E-Democracy. We aim to simplify the current "jung…
Minitrack Introduction
Rhetoricians since Aristotle have attempted to classify communications into categories or "genres" with similar form, topic or purpose. Given a socially recognized need to communicate, individuals ...
Elaborating the WARE Method for eParticipation Requirements
Published version of a chapter in the book Information Systems Developement, 2010, 785-792. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/b137171_82 eParticipation systems are often directly targeted at citizens. However, as a group of potential users, citizens form a heterogeneous and unpredictable group, which makes requirements elicitation a challenging issue. Based on recently developed ideas for wide audience requirement engineering (WARE), this chapter discusses and elaborates a method for eliciting citizen requirements for eParticipation. The method elaboration was conducted in connection with a project in southern Norway, where young people’s requirements for becom…