Robert M. Mason

Rumors, False Flags, and Digital Vigilantes: Misinformation on Twitter after the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing

The Boston Marathon bombing story unfolded on every possible carrier of information available in the spring of 2013, including Twitter. As information spread, it was filled with rumors (unsubstantiated information), and many of these rumors contained misinformation. Earlier studies have suggested that crowdsourced information flows can correct misinformation, and our research investigates this proposition. This exploratory research examines three rumors, later demonstrated to be false, that circulated on Twitter in the aftermath of the bombings. Our findings suggest that corrections to the misinformation emerge but are muted compared with the propagation of the misinformation. The similarities and differences we observe in the patterns of the misinformation and corrections contained within the stream over the days that followed the attacks suggest directions for possible research strategies to automatically detect misinformation.

Knowledge and Knowledge Management in the Social Media Age

Social media comprise the set of tools identified as blogs, wikis, and other social networking platforms that “enable people to connect, communicate, and collaborate.” These tools create a dynamic, complex information infrastructure that enables easier, faster, and more widespread sharing of information. These affordances make possible phenomena such as viral processes, and they can change how we are able to work and organize. This article explores the impact of this emerging knowledge ecosystem (KE) on some prominent characteristics of knowledge and knowledge management (KM) models through an exploratory critical review of popular epistemological perspectives and conceptual foundations underlying KM models. We find that this emerging KE requires a revisiting of both the social aspects of knowledge creation and some popular notions of enterprise knowledge management.

An exploratory study on meta skills in software development teams: antecedent cooperation skills and personality for shared mental models

Shared mental models (SMMs) provide an approach to improving team learning and performance. SMM means that team members share common expectations about the team processes, results, !and individual roles in achieving the teams objective. Our model of antecedents and consequences of SMMs demonstrates how cognitive capabilities contribute to effective software development teams. Higher scores on two meta-level cognitive skills (A-shaped skills and T-shaped skills) and a personality characteristic (agreeableness), which help teammates coordinate their skills and knowledge, enhance the development of an SMM and thereby enhance team performance. The results open new and important areas for research into both the meta-level cognitive skills and the agreeable characteristic required for team effectiveness. There is also promise for new approaches to team building.

Culture-Free or Culture-Bound? A Boundary Spanning Perspective on Learning in Knowledge Management Systems

Knowledge management systems (KMSs) have been criticized as having a North American bias. The cultural dimension of KMSs, particularly the relationship of learning and culture in KM projects, are rarely discussed. This paper addresses these concerns in a review of the conceptual foundations for KM and by examining implementations of KM projects. Despite the evolutionary changes in how KM is viewed, KMSs, as they have been designed, implemented, and reported, do not appear to provide for cultural diversity among users. Instead, the reports of KMSs indicate that such systems seek to create and maintain a homogeneous organizational culture, and the adoption of such a shared culture appears to be a prerequisite for success. The paper discusses KMSs as systems that exhibit boundary spanning objects and processes in three different categories, and an analysis of reported projects reveals that boundary spanning across national and ethnic boundaries is rare.

Organizational Fields and the Diffusion of Information Technologies Within and Across the Nonprofit and Public Sectors: A Preliminary Theory

This qualitative-inductive study examines the diffusion of information technologies across service providers that contract to provide public services for a state human service agency. The researchers were struck by extensive data that illustrated salient “ruptures,” inconsistencies, and contradictions in the information systems that stand in stark contrast to the touted characteristics of the ostensible systems. The analysis draws attention to the extensive political symbolism attached to the actual information systems and to contradictory institutional logics that different participants impose on the collecting and valuing of various parcels of information. The researchers provide a preliminary theory about the isomorphic diffusion of technologies into and across the nonprofit sector and argue that these institutional dynamics imply a structuration process at a level that is much more macro institutional than the structuration of information technology artifacts that has been emphasized by recent scholars who write in the adaptive structuration perspective.

Characterizing Online Rumoring Behavior Using Multi-Dimensional Signatures

This study offers an in-depth analysis of four rumors that spread through Twitter after the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings. Through qualitative and visual analysis, we describe each rumors origins, changes over time, and relationships between different types of rumoring behavior. We identify several quantitative measures-including temporal progression, domain diversity, lexical diversity and geolocation features-that constitute a multi-dimensional signature for each rumor, and provide evidence supporting the existence of different rumor types. Ultimately these signatures enhance our understanding of how different kinds of rumors propagate online during crisis events. In constructing these signatures, this research demonstrates and documents an emerging method for deeply and recursively integrating qualitative and quantitative methods for analysis of social media trace data.

A Multilevel Perspective of Tensions Between Knowledge Management and Social Media

In this article, we discuss the tensions that are perceived in organizations as the use of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter challenge past approaches to knowledge management initiatives in organizations. We address these perceived tensions using a three-level conceptual framework: the macro- (organizational) level, the meso- (group) level, and the micro- (individual) level. In our discussion, we posit that perceived tensions arise when managers seek to maintain their traditional roles at the macro- (organization) level, yet social media affordances enable these roles to be performed at the micro- (individual level) and mesolevels. Shifts in the extent of the meso-level connections beyond the immediate organizational boundaries enable a wider community of practice than before. As a consequence, traditional management roles may give way to more flexible roles, with greater individual responsibilities for control and more sense-making and knowledge access taking place at the mesolevel. Our contribution is three-fold. In our article, we examine four key organizational factors (roles, ownership, control, and value) using a three-level conceptual model; associate the perceived tensions that arise in organizations with implicit shifts in these variables that accompany the use of social media; and suggest that shifts in emphasis in roles and control at each level can be instrumental in resolving perceived tensions as knowledge management efforts encompass social media.

A Lower Bound Cost Benefit Model for Information Services.

Abstract This paper describes an economic modeling approach to evaluating the costs and benefits associated with providing information services through information centers. The approach develops a framework for understanding observations about the demand for scientific and technical information and integrating these observations with fundamental economic principles. The resulting cost and benefit models permit estimating a lower bound on benefits and the calculations of net benefits (benefits less costs). The paper includes example calculations for information analysis centers and illustrates, through sensitivity analyses, how changes in parameter values can change the outcome of the calculations.

The role of metaphors in strategic information systems planning

This paper posits that (1) metaphors perform a crucial role in enacting strategy and linking strategic thinking with IT planning; (2) the war metaphor, which underlies many previous discussions of strategic information systems (SIS) is inadequate, possibly obsolete, in todays environment, and the shift away from this metaphor in the past few years is evidence of this; (3) other metaphors offer potentially more useful foundations for strategic thinking and SIS planning in todays world than the war metaphor; and (4) explicit articulation and exploration of alternative metaphors help identify strategic opportunities for information technology (IT) applications, designing SIS for global enterprises, and formulating research on SIS issues. This paper outlines these arguments and identifies desirable characteristics of metaphors, and discusses alternative metaphors of the organization as: an adapting organism, city-state, participant in organized team sports, an expression of philosophy, and expression of economic forces. The paper concludes with suggestions for research on the use of metaphor in strategy formulation and IT planning.

The negotiation and selection of horizontal mechanisms to support post‐implementation ERP organizations

Purpose – For an organization to realize the intended benefits of an enternprise resource planning (ERP) investment, it must integrate both technical expertise and functional area knowledge, and it must have continuing support after implementation. The study aims to expand understanding of how organizations ensure the necessary support from functional experts during and after ERP installations. In particular, the study aims to address the question of the type of horizontal support mechanism chosen for this support and how managers make these choices.Design/methodology/approach – The study is a replicated case study based on interviews with project leaders in nine universities judged to have successful PeopleSoft ERP implementations. Thematic analysis is applied to identify the factors influencing managerial choices and organizational decisions made to assure post‐implementation ERP support.Findings – The findings indicate that managers of ERP implementations recognize the necessity for horizontal coordina...