Carsten Sørensen

Research Commentary---Digital Infrastructures: The Missing IS Research Agenda

Since the inauguration of information systems research (ISR) two decades ago, the information systems (IS) fields attention has moved beyond administrative systems and individual tools. Millions of users log onto Facebook, download iPhone applications, and use mobile services to create decentralized work organizations. Understanding these new dynamics will necessitate the field paying attention to digital infrastructures as a category of IT artifacts. A state-of-the-art review of the literature reveals a growing interest in digital infrastructures but also confirms that the field has yet to put infrastructure at the centre of its research endeavor. To assist this shift we propose three new directions for IS research: (1) theories of the nature of digital infrastructure as a separate type of IT artifact, sui generis; (2) digital infrastructures as relational constructs shaping all traditional IS research areas; (3) paradoxes of change and control as salient IS phenomena. We conclude with suggestions for how to study longitudinal, large-scale sociotechnical phenomena while striving to remain attentive to the limitations of the traditional categories that have guided IS research.

Mobility: an extended perspective

The emergence and convergence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) are fundamentally transforming the use of technology, and in particular concerning the issues of mobility. The current debates on mobility, however, almost exclusively consist of functionalist analyses of how particular mobile technologies can alleviate geographical barriers for human activity. This paper reconsiders, from a theoretical perspective, the concept of mobility. We argue that mobility should not exclusively be linked to human corporeal travel. The concept also relates more broadly to the interaction people perform. In order to appreciate the relationship between mobility and human interaction, three interrelated dimensions are discussed-spatial, temporal, and contextual aspects of mobility. In order to characterize the social topology of ICT supported mobilized interaction, we suggest and discuss the adoption of a fluid metaphor. Based on these discussions, a case of a new mobile technology system introduced in a Japanese distribution service firm is discussed.

Innovation through knowledge codification

Academics and business professionals are currently showing a significant interest in understanding the management of knowledge and the roles to be played therein by information and communication technology (ICT). This paper takes a closer look at one of the primary issues raised when supporting the management of knowledge: how to understand the role of knowledge classification and codification as means for further organizational learning and innovation. Two manufacturing cases are analysed using particular perspectives from current theories on classification, namely the management of knowledge and organizational innovation. It is concluded that a more complex understanding of the interplay between cognitive and community models for knowledge management as informed by research on the social processes of classification can inform our understanding of both the role of classification of knowledge for organizational innovation and the viability of providing ICT support based on codified knowledge.

Tales from the police: Rhythms of interaction with mobile technologies

There is a need to understand and conceptualize the relationships between work activities, the context of work, and the use of mobile technologies because of the widespread diffusion of mobile information and communication technologies within organizational settings. The police have, since the advent of radio communication systems, deployed mobile technologies to support officers in conducting their jobs and offer an exemplary domain for studying the use of mobile technologies. This paper applies the theory of virtualization as a means to characterize the use of mobile technologies for operational policing. The paper suggests the concept of rhythms of interaction as a method of characterizing the alternation in intensity of communication through and with mobile technologies and the intricate relationships between physical and virtual contexts of work.

Distributed tuning of boundary resources: the case of Apple's iOS service system

The digital age has seen the rise of service systems involving highly distributed, heterogeneous, and resource-integrating actors whose relationships are governed by shared institutional logics, standards, and digital technology. The cocreation of service within these service systems takes place in the context of a paradoxical tension between the logic of generative and democratic innovations and the logic of infrastructural control. Boundary resources play a critical role in managing the tension as a firm that owns the infrastructure can secure its control over the service system while independent firms can participate in the service system. In this study, we explore the evolution of boundary resources. Drawing on Pickerings (1993) and Barrett et al.s (2012) conceptualizations of tuning, the paper seeks to forward our understanding of how heterogeneous actors engage in the tuning of boundary resources within Apples iOS service system. We conduct an embedded case study of Apples iOS service system with an in-depth analysis of 4,664 blog articles concerned with 30 boundary resources covering 6 distinct themes. Our analysis reveals that boundary resources of service systems enabled by digital technology are shaped and reshaped through distributed tuning, which involves cascading actions of accommodations and rejections of a network of heterogeneous actors and artifacts. Our study also shows the dualistic role of power in the distributed tuning process.

Towards A Theory of Organizational Information Services

The use of information technology (IT) in organizations has undergone dramatic changes during the past 30 years. As a result, it has become increasingly common to adopt services rather than traditional systems perspective to more accurately capture contemporary practices. There is, however, a lack of theories that can help us understand, assess, and design information services in organizational contexts. On this backdrop, we combine general notions of information processing options and requirements to outline a contingency theory of organizational use of information services. The theory suggests that information services are configurations of heterogeneous information processing capabilities; these services are evoked by organizational actors to help execute tasks, and evoking different configurations may lead to equally satisfactory outcomes. The theory distinguishes between four types of services computational, adaptive, networking, and collaborative services, and it suggests that organizational actors need portfolios of information services that are suited to the equivocality and uncertainty profile of the information processing they face. The paper defines four types of services and how they relate to information processing requirements; it applies the theory to a study of information services in response to vehicle policing; and it outlines how the theory relates to standardization and unintended consequences of information services. We conclude by discussing the theory and its implications for research and practice.

Exploring Knowledge Emergence: From Chaos to Organizational Knowledge

Abstract This paper explores the emergent nature of organizational knowledge, which has not been addressed sufficiently in the current Knowledge Management (KM) research. For the task, we reconsider the concept of knowledge by looking at four distinct discourses on knowledge; namely, knowledge as object, knowledge as interpretation, knowledge as process, and knowledge as relationship. Then the fundamental nature of the emergence of knowledge will be discussed where we will argue that human interaction is the source of knowledge emergence. Based on the theoretical discussions, we examine a case study of a fire crisis threatening the supply chain between Aisin Seiki and Toyota in Japan. It demonstrates significant self-organizing, emergent KM practices that effectively coordinated various human and physical resources and contextual information in this chaotic situation. Finally we discuss the implications for future KM practices, by considering in particularly the institutional aspects of information and communication technologies in KM practices.

Designing Ubiquitous Information Environments: socio-technical issues and challenges

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From the social to the systematic

Large design and manufacturing projects are conducted in elaborate settings. Interdependent specialists work together, building complex systems. A substantial part of their daily work concerns the coordination of distributed work. This paper reports from a field study at Foss Electric, a Danish manufacturing company, where the development of an instrument for testing the quality of raw milk was studied. Scheduled and informal project meetings together with paper-based coordination systems were the primary means of managing the complexity of coordinating work within the project. This paper investigates the origination, use, and function of these coordination mechanisms applying a Coordination Mechanism perspective (Schmidt and Simone, 1996). We argue that the complexity of coordinating distributed work in large design projects result in the adoption of coordination systems. These systems formalize aspects of coordination work through artifacts, procedures for use and conventions.

Survival of the leanest: intensive knowledge work and groupware adaptation

Managing knowledge is a value‐creating process in most organizations and is particularly important in knowledge‐intensive firms. Explores the ways in which groupware might facilitate processes of knowledge creation within a particular type of knowledge‐intensive firm. Based on a case study analysis of an expert consultancy where e‐mail was used successfully for information and knowledge search, and Lotus Notes was used with mixed results in project working, argues that the complexity of articulating the knowledge creation process can be reduced by using e‐mail. Furthermore, e‐mail, when considered in context, is potentially a rich medium for the development of collective knowledge over time despite its purported lean characteristics. Also concludes that, although distributed Lotus Notes databases can obviously alleviate temporal and spatial complexity, this media lacks the richness required for complex processes of knowledge creation. Thus, where temporal and spatial constraints do not exist, there will be substantial barriers for using groupware to support processes of knowledge creation in this type of knowledge‐intensive firm.