Andrew Clement

Cooperative support for computer work: a social perspective on the empowering of end users

The image of computers being used to empower people is a potent and appealing one. For the many working people whose autonomy is routinely challenged by the constraints of large organizations or the vagaries of the market, the spread of sophisticated desktop computers holds the promise of gaining in personal control. While testimonials to the efficacy of desktop computers and announcements of their increased capabilities are regular fare in the media and casual conversation, the easy equation of personal computing power with personal power is an attractive simplification that needs closer scrutiny.

Situating Privacy Online: Complex perceptions and everyday practices

Media and research reports point to the issue of privacy as the key to understanding online behaviour and experience. Yet it is well recognized within privacy-advocacy circles that ‘privacy’ is a loose concept encompassing a variety of meanings. In this article we view privacy as mediating between individuals and their online activities, not standing above them, and as being constantly redefined in actual practice. It is necessary to examine, therefore, what individuals are reacting to when asked about online privacy and how it affects their online experience. This article is based on data generated in the Everyday Internet study, a neighbourhood- based, ethnographic project being conducted in Toronto, Canada, that investigates how people integrate online services in their daily lives. We propose that there are three organizing ‘moments’ of online privacy: the moment of sitting in front of the computer, the moment of interaction with it, and the moment after the data has been released.

Considering privacy in the development of multimedia communications

This paper discusses the privacy implications of multi-media communications systems by examining how privacy issues arise and are dealt with by the researchers who are simultaneously developing and using such systems. While several design principles are emerging from this process that can guide future developments, it is argued that greater attention to privacy concerns will be needed as these new communications technologies are applied more widely.

CAVEAT Exemplar: Participatory Design in aNon-Profit Volunteer Organisation

This paper reports a university course-based case study undertaken with a volunteer organisation. Our goals were to explore the use of participatory design in a non-profit volunteer setting; to reflect on the experience of learning and applying participatory methodologies; and to create a prototype, using off-the-shelf database software, that could become a sustainable organisational information system. We found system design methodologies that stress cooperation and consensus especially appropriate when working with volunteers, who expect control over their work in exchange for their time and effort. The Future Workshop was particularly valuable in developing group insight into work and consensus around system priorities. The study resulted in a prototype which has evolved, through in-house refinement, into a working system.

The promise and perils of a participatory approach to developing an open source community learning network

This paper describes and analyses the early developmental stages of a community learning network based in an urban community and social service agency. With government funding, the community organization contracted with a small software firm to design and implement participatively a web-based ‘community portal’ using open source software and techniques. While adopting these progressive development ideals has brought notable benefits, they have also posed significant challenges for the parties involved. In particular, mis-matched expectations, budget squeezes, and slipped schedules have been attributed to the approach being too participatory and too open. We examine these claims and offer insights into community-oriented, participatory, open source development projects.

The interplay of public and private spaces in internet access

The creation of public internet access facilities is one of the principal policy instruments adopted by governments in addressing ‘digital divide’ issues. The lack of plans for ongoing funding, in North America at least, suggests that this mode is regarded mainly as transitional, with private, home-based access being perceived as superior. The assumption apparently is that as domestic internet penetration rates rise, public access facilities will no longer be needed. Central to this issue are the varied characteristics of publicly provided and privately owned access sites and their implications for non-employment internet activities. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of these two access modes? More fundamentally, how do people conceptualize public and private spaces and how does this perception influence their online activities? Finally, why do people choose one over the other, and how do they navigate between the two? This article attempts to answer these questions by drawing on data generated within the Everyday Internet Project, a ‘neighborhood ethnography’ of internet usage. It argues that the conventional view of private and public access facilities as immiscible, fixed alternatives is inadequate. Rather than ‘pure’ types, they are better understood as offering hybrid spaces whose identity and character are fluid, perceived differently by individuals in light of the activities being performed, life experiences, infrastructure and architecture. The picture emerging from our study is one where public and private access modes intertwine with each other in a variety of ways, their combination offering significant additional value for many users. From a public policy perspective, these findings suggest that if universal access is to be achieved, there is a continuing need for publicly supported broad-spectrum facilities with integrated technical support and learning opportunities, even if domestic penetration rates approach that of the telephone.

Sharing Wireless Internet in Urban Neighbourhoods

Over the last decade, Internet use in countries around the world has grown dramatically. This is especially true in Canadian cities, and Canada is widely acknowledged as having strong broadband penetration rates (Frieden 2005; Wu 2004). Residential households are increasingly adopting Internet technology and using it in their daily activities. In large urban centres, Internet usage rates approach 80%, overwhelmingly via broadband connections (Statistics Canada 2006). Users commonly report using the Internet for many facets of their lives, including communication, entertainment, and information-seeking in the home, at work, and at school (Dryburgh 2001).

Looking for the designers: Transforming the ‘invisible’ infrastructure of computerised office work

Desktop computerisation is a widespread phenomenon that affects many women office workers. So far, much of the discussion of this topic treats these workers as ‘users’ while the need for them to (re)design their work and information systems tends to be ignored.This paper applies both conventional and social analytic notions of information systems design to archetypal secretarial work groups, and argues that hitherto under-recognised elements of system design are endemic to desktop computerisation. Case studies which examine how office groups have created information systems and associated work practices, largely through their own efforts, illustrate how this design work can be accomplished. The informal, localised processes of collaborative problem solving, development and sharing of local expertise are important ingredients in this achievement. Broader mobilisation efforts can also play a role.

Collaboration and conflict in the development of a computerized dispatch facility

Recent research on the social and cultural aspects of systems development work has focused on the work of professional software and systems designers. A complementary approach is to look at the work of end users as systems developers, whose informal systems design work is frequently ignored or undervalued in organizations and by IS researchers. This case study, of an application to facilitate dispatch work in a large organization, describes a history of collaboration and conflict between IS professionals and end users as systems designers. Application development was initiated by end users, the initial programming was carried out by IS professionals in collaboration with end users, and the subsequent implementation and enhancement of the application was shared, and passed back and forth between end users and the organizations IS department over a period of several years. We take a Social Construction of Technology approach to describing this history, examining the mixture of cooperation and conflict between the Dispatch and IS departments in terms of the differing interpretations of the application by the social groups involved in its history. A constructivist approach to studying systems design allows us to recognize the unique expertise end users bring to systems development work, and provides a useful means for describing the political aspects of systems design and implementation over an extended time period.

K-Net and Canadian Aboriginal communities

The Kuh-Ke-Nah Network (K-Net) is an autonomous telecommunications system that currently comprises over 100 points of presence (PoPs) in Aboriginal communities and related organizations across Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba, Canada. The majority of Aboriginal communities connected by K-Net are in remote high-cost serving areas. K-Net primarily serves Ontarios Nishnawbe Aski Nation, north of the 51st parallel, where 49 First Nations communities (Indian bands, with a total population base of 45000), occupy 210000 square miles of territory, or two-thirds of Ontario, at a population density of approximately 0.2 persons per square mile.