Panos Constantinides

The ends of information systems research: a pragmatic framework

In this paper, we argue that any effort to understand the state of the Information Systems field has to view IS research as a series of normative choices and value judgments about the ends of research. To assist a systematic questioning of the various ends of IS research, we propose a pragmatic framework that explores the choices IS researchers make around theories and methodologies, ethical methods of conduct, desirable outcomes, and the long-term impact of the research beyond a single site and topic area. We illustrate our framework by considering and questioning the explicit and implicit choices of topics, design and execution, and the representation of knowledge in experimental research--research often considered to be largely beyond value judgments and power relations. We conclude with the implications of our pragmatic framework by proposing practical questions for all IS researchers to consider in making choices about relevant topics, design and execution, and representation of findings in their research.

Negotiating ICT development and use: The case of a telemedicine system in the healthcare region of Crete

Recent research on the development and use of information and communication technology (ICT) has focused on the emergent use of technology in practice and the multiplicity of outcomes being simultaneously negotiated by different groups and individuals. In this paper, we seek to understand this emergent process by examining the interrelationship between the context(s) in which ICTs are introduced, the ways in which ICTs are enacted in practice, and the role of different technological artifacts. We pursue the value of these conceptual developments in an interpretive case study on the introduction of a telemedicine system in the healthcare region of Crete, Greece. Some key implications arising from the case study refer to the relationship between power relationships and organizational change; the relationship between existing work practices and resistance to ICT-mediated change; and the role of different artifacts in negotiations of power, as well as in processes of community formation.

A narrative networks approach to understanding coordination practices in emergency response

This paper examines coordination practices in emergency response by adopting a narrative networks approach (Pentland & Feldman, 2007). We apply this approach in the analysis of qualitative data collected in an empirical longitudinal study (2003-2006) of emergency response across a geographical region of Greece. We provide an in-depth narrative analysis of two different emergency incidents and the efforts to coordinate those. The paper concludes with the implications of using a narrative networks approach for understanding the temporal and situated nature of coordination, while placing emphasis on the performativity of coordination practices.

The development and consequences of new information infrastructures: the case of mashup platforms:

The advent of Web 2.0 has led to the development of new information infrastructures, where the logic of collective action is becoming more heterogeneous and multilayered, derived not from a single core structure (e.g. a corporation), but from networked interdependencies. Although lay users and expert user-developers act collectively towards commonly shared goals (e.g. producing, mixing, ripping and sharing digital content), their actions are not collective but rather are instigated under complex motivational structures whereby no single individual or group of individuals has complete information regarding all likely combinations of future events. This article explores the complex interactions of distributed networks of lay users, expert developers and owners of new information infrastructures such as Flickr. The article then focuses on the challenge of governing the consequences of these new information infrastructures and concludes with implications for further research.

Perspectives and implications for the development of information infrastructures

In the same way that infrastructures such as transportation, electricity, sewage, and water supply are widely assumed to be integrators of urban spaces, information infrastructures are assumed to be integrators of information spaces. With the advent of Web 2.0 and new types of information infrastructures such as online social networks and smart mobile platforms, a more in-depth understanding of the various rights to access, use, develop, and modify information infrastructure resources is necessary. Perspectives and Implications for the Development of Information Infrastructures aims at addressing this need by offering a fresh new perspective on information infrastructure development. It achieves this by drawing on and adapting theory that was initially developed to study natural resource commons arrangements such as inshore fisheries, forests, irrigation systems, and pastures, while placing great emphasis on the complex problems and social dilemmas that often arise in the negotiations.

The communicative constitution of IT innovation

This paper contributes to studies of IT innovation, by approaching discourse and technology not as alternating causalities of change, but rather as constitutive to processes of change. Drawing on a communicative constitution of organization (CCO) perspective, the paper provides an analysis of oral and written evidence on innovations in the English National Programme for IT (NPfIT) from 1998 to 2011. The paper makes two key contributions to the literature. First, it offers a longitudinal empirical understanding of how IT innovation is constituted in the triadic relationship between human and nonhuman actors, and the narrative texts in which the delegation between the first two occurs. The paper explores the implications of this renewed understanding of IT innovation for IS research in sociomateriality. Second, the paper contributes to CCO-informed research by adopting a methodological approach that draws on both a historical analysis of the constitution of material objects in specific narrative texts and a rhetorical analysis of communicative actions. The paper explores the methodological implications of this approach for addressing the challenge of understanding the scaling-up of micro communicative actions to macro actions towards the constitution of IT innovation.

Approaching Information Infrastructure as an Ecology of Ubiquitous Sociotechnical Relations

In this paper, we seek to understand the ecology of ubiquitous sociotechnical relations involved in the development and use of information and communication technologies. We draw on some examples from an empirical case study on the development and use of a regional healthcare information technology network to illustrate our conceptualization of this information infrastructure as an ecology. We conclude with some implications for theory and practice.

Introduction—Platforms and Infrastructures in the Digital Age

In the last few years, leading-edge research from information systems, strategic management, and economics have separately informed our understanding of platforms and infrastructures in the digital age. Our motivation for undertaking this special issue rests in the conviction that it is significant to discuss platforms and infrastructures concomitantly, while enabling knowledge from diverse disciplines to cross-pollinate to address critical, pressing policy challenges and inform strategic thinking across both social and business spheres. In this editorial, we review key insights from the literature on digital infrastructures and platforms, present emerging research themes, highlight the contributions developed from each of the six articles in this special issue, and conclude with suggestions for further research.

eEmergency health care information systems

In this paper we provide an overview of the way that information and communication technologies have been used for emergency healthcare support. The paper provides a literature review of case studies exploring information systems for monitoring signals, images, medical videos, as well as information protocols used during emergency health care support, and describes future trends. We anticipate that eEmergency systems can significantly improve the delivery of healthcare during emergency cases. However, the monitoring and evaluation of these systems and especially their use in daily practice still remains a goal to be achieved.

Co-Orienting the Object: An Activity-Theoretical Analysis of the UK’s National Program for Information Technology

This paper contributes to research on the success and failure of information and communication technologies (ICT) by focusing on the learning processes associated with the development of new ICT projects and the way they challenge and extend familiar organizational limits. Drawing on recent developments in activity theory, we provide an analysis of oral and written evidence taken before a House of Commons Committee in relation to the UK’s National Program for IT (NPfIT). Our preliminary findings point to the ways in which new objects of activity such as the NPfIT can emerge from the meeting of contrasting forms of discursive activity, as well as how new policy insights can be translated into new organizational practices. We conclude with some implications for further research.