Robert J. Sandusky

Negotiation and the coordination of information and activity in distributed software problem management

Publicly accessible bug report repositories maintained by free / open source development communities provide vast stores of data about distributed software problem management (SWPM). Qualitative analysis of individual bug reports, texts that record community responses to reported software problems, shows how this distributed community uses its SWPM process to manage software quality. We focus on the role of one basic social process, negotiation, in SWPM. We report on the varieties and frequencies of negotiation practices and demonstrate how instances of negotiation in different contexts affect the organization of information, the allocation of community resources, and the disposition of software problems.

Digital libraries: situating use in changing information infrastructure

How users meet infrastructure is a key practical, methodological challenge for digital library design. This article presents research conducted by the Social Science Team of the federally funded Digital Libraries Initiative (DLI) project at the University of Illinois. Data were collected from potential and actual users of the DLI testbed—containing the full text of journal articles—through focus groups, interviews and observations, usability testing, user registration and transaction logging, and user surveys. Basic results on nature and extent of testbed use are presented, followed by a discussion of three analytical foci relating to digital library use as a process of assemblage: document disaggregation and reaggregation; information convergence; and the manner in which users confront new genres and technical barriers in information systems. The article also highlights several important methodological and conceptual issues that frame research on social aspects of digital library use.

Infrastructure management as cooperative work: implications for systems design

This study looks at the data communicationsnetwork management organization (NMO) within alarge financial institution and appliesconcepts from Computer-Supported CooperativeWork (CSCW) and other domains to developtechniques for describing work within this andother similar organizations. Networkmanagement is one form of infrastructuremanagement, which is comprised of two kinds ofwork: real-time supervisory control work anddesign work. While many studies of group workfocus on the activities of small groups ofpeople engaged in either real-time supervisorycontrol or design work, examinations oforganizations where both kinds of work occurare relatively rare. The focus is on the workpatterns and data forms that are found withinthe NMO. Some of the implications of theanalysis in regard to the design of CSCWsystems are presented and discussed.

Infrastructure Management as Cooperative Work: Implications for Systems Design

This study looks at the data communicationsnetwork management organization (NMO) within alarge financial institution and appliesconcepts from Computer-Supported CooperativeWork (CSCW) and other domains to developtechniques for describing work within this andother similar organizations. Networkmanagement is one form of infrastructuremanagement, which is comprised of two kinds ofwork: real-time supervisory control work anddesign work. While many studies of group workfocus on the activities of small groups ofpeople engaged in either real-time supervisorycontrol or design work, examinations oforganizations where both kinds of work occurare relatively rare. The focus is on the workpatterns and data forms that are found withinthe NMO. Some of the implications of theanalysis in regard to the design of CSCWsystems are presented and discussed.

Knowledge sharing in online communities of practice: Digital trends

With the advent of the Internet, there has been an increase in interest in examining how information and communication technologies might support distributed communities of practice (Wenger, 2001). However, empirical studies of online communities of practice (CoPs) are sparse. Moreover, the majority of these studies are conducted within organizational context and only a few recent studies of CoPs crosses organizational boundaries. To address this disparity, this panel will compare and contrast different types of online CoPs that cross organizational boundaries. The panelists will present four case studies of online CoPs: College students, frequent flyer mileage collectors, virtual reference librarians, webmasters, and open source software developers. Each presenter will share findings from their empirical studies of specific online CoPs and will discuss implications and challenges for research and practice. Noriko Hara and Pnina Shachaf will aim to empirically ground a typology of online CoPs (Debe, Bourhis, & Jacob, 2003), which was used to analyze leadership in online CoPs (Bourhis, Debe, & Jacob, 2005). They will use this typology to analyze variations of each of the dimensions of two online CoPs. Thomas Haigh will present a study of frequent flyer online communities and how they share informal knowledge and empower themselves. Thomas Mackey will present a study of students using blogs in a class setting and discuss the impact of social software on authorship and collaboration in online communities. Robert Sandusky will present a study of knowledge sharing in an open-source software projects bug report repository. The panel moderator, Elisabeth Davenport, is an expert in social informatics and has published in the area of online communities of practice. The panel as a whole will demonstrate how the five cases that are described in the four presentations represent variations of formality of CoPs-how formal and informal CoPs are created and institutionalized. In addition, the panelists will discuss how a typology of CoP is influenced by formality and sources of power.

Review of Accessing and browsing information and communication by Ronald E. Rice, Maureen McCreadie, and Shan-Ju L. Chang, Cambridge, MA: The MIT press

Introducing a new hobby for other people may inspire them to join with you. Reading, as one of mutual hobby, is considered as the very easy hobby to do. But, many people are not interested in this hobby. Why? Boring is the reason of why. However, this feel actually can deal with the book and time of you reading. Yeah, one that we will refer to break the boredom in reading is choosing accessing and browsing information and communication as the reading material.

Accessing and browsing information and communication

Introducing a new hobby for other people may inspire them to join with you. Reading, as one of mutual hobby, is considered as the very easy hobby to do. But, many people are not interested in this hobby. Why? Boring is the reason of why. However, this feel actually can deal with the book and time of you reading. Yeah, one that we will refer to break the boredom in reading is choosing accessing and browsing information and communication as the reading material.