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Social Informatics as a Field

Social Informatics as a Field. Social Informatics (SI) refers to the body of research that examines social aspects of computerization including. A relatively new term Umbrella for research that is scattered in journals and conference proceedings for several different fields. Rob Kling.

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Social Informatics as a Field

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  1. Social Informatics as a Field Social Informatics (SI) refers to the body of research that examines social aspects of computerization including. • A relatively new term • Umbrella for research that is scattered in journals and conference proceedings for several different fields.

  2. Rob Kling • University of Wisconsin-Madison: 1970-1973 • UC-Irvine:1973-1996 • In August 1996 moved to Indiana University - Bloomington • Died May 2003 at 58

  3. Rob Kling and Social Informatics Social Informatics (SI) refers to the body of research that examines social aspects of computerization including: • the roles of information technology in social and organizational change • ways that the social organization of information technologies are influenced by social forces and social practices.

  4. Ultimate Goal Developer deeper understandings about: how computerized tools and systems do not stand alone from society but are enmeshed in it how you, as a tool and systems builder and user, are impacting and impacted by society and social life

  5. What groups, organizations, and societies benefit? How? What groups, organizations, and societies lose? How? Do some groups benefit more or less than others? How does society and social life shape technology? How are social rules and processes encoded into computers and computerized systems? How does technology shape society and social life? Questions to Ask about Computerized Technologies What responsibility do designers and developers of computerized technology have to society?

  6. Describing Sociology Sociology • Oxford American Dictionary: the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society • Wikipedia: study of society and human social action. It generally concerns itself with the social rules and processes that bind and separate people not only as individuals, but as members of associations, groups, and institutions, and includes the examination of the organization and development of human social life.

  7. One way of describing the “thing” that we study:Sociotechnical Systems • Hardware • Software • Physical surroundings • People • Procedures • Law and regulations • Data and data structures

  8. Multidisciplinary Research Difficult from a practical standpoint • Journals and Monographs • Libraries • Different terminologies that overlap but are not the same • Different levels of analysis

  9. Example: Sensemaking 1 Brenda Dervin, Communication • how they use information resources in the information seeking process. • Three major elements, i.e., 'situation', 'gap' and 'use'.

  10. Example Sensemaking 2 Karl Weick, Organizational Theory • Ongoing process • During which cues are extracted and make plausible sense retrospectively

  11. What can we learn from these examples? • Communication is a key element in theorizing information-related activities • The same term can mean different things • Researchers in different fields are concerned with different levels of analysis Although not in this example you will also run across terms in different fields that mean very similar things.

  12. Thomas More • 1478-1535 • Utopia (1516) • Showed the ways in which a fictionalized world compared to his actual one • Used a narrative of travel • His political imagination could roam

  13. Utopia as a Literary Genre • Fictionalized descriptions of ideal societies • Escapist • political

  14. Utopias Brought About Without Human Effort • Earliest utopias were myths about earthly paradises. • People did not age or had an easy death. • Greek and Roman myths had resting places such as Elysian fields (or hell) • Common in the Middle Ages

  15. Lands of Cockaigne

  16. Utopias Brought About by Human Effort • Seventeenth century novels • Imaginary voyages • First utopias promoting science • Two subgenres

  17. Utopian Terms 1 • Utopia: A nonexistent society described in considerable detail and normally located in time and space • Positive Utopia (or eutopia): A utopia normally located in a time and space that th author intended a contemporaneous reader to view as considerably better than the society in which that reader lived.

  18. Utopian Terms 2 • Negative Utopia (or dystopia): A utopia normally located in a time and space that the author intended a contemporaneous reader to view as considerably worse than the society in which that reader lived. • In common parlance utopia is equated with positive utopia (eutopia).

  19. Types of Utopias

  20. Purpose of Utopian Work • Escapism • Critique of Existing Systems • Commentary on Social Trends • Related to above: Forecasting • Entertainment / titillation

  21. Technological Utopianism • Utopian and Dystopian imaginings whereby new societies are brought about primarily because of the introduction of new technology. Human effort often plays a role in creating the new technology. • Heavily dependent on technological determinism. • Technological Utopianism and Dystopianism different ends of the spectrum

  22. Utopian or Dystopian

  23. Technological determinism Technological determinism seeks to explain social and historical phenomena in terms of one principal or determining factor. Term was apparently coined by the American sociologist and economist Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) Trap for system designers

  24. Postindustrial take on technology • During industrial revolution information technology was considered a mechanical means of substituting human actions with automated ones • Now informate work where they modify the context in which information is used.

  25. Howcroft and Fitzgerald The genres of technological utopianism and dystopianism are particularly prevalent in relation to the hype and predictions surrounding the Internet.

  26. Assignment 1 Analyzing Images (2 to 3 pages) • The purpose of this assignment is to get you to look closely at some ways in which technology is portrayed. • Find two images of computer/information technology.  One should be utopian, one dystopian.  These images can be from advertising, magazines, newspapers, articles, billboards, TV, movies, or even music.  For each of these images: • 1) Indicate EXACTLY where you found it (in other words, which source, the date it was published, the name of the TV show or movie, channel, date, you get the idea). • 2) Describe the technology presented and indicate if it is current, future, science fictional. • 3) How is the technology presented?  What kind of people are affected by it and are presented as using it?  Who is the target audience (children, computer professionals, individuals, families, etc?).  What is the technology supposed to do to or for them? • 4) What is the "real message" being presented?  Is it to get you to buy something, believe something, protest something, fear something? • 5) How did you react to this image and did you believe what is being presented?  Why or why not? • Your write-up should NOT be in the Question and Answer format presented here, but should be written as a narrative.  Use these questions as a guide.

  27. Syllabus Show syllabus

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