Terence Love

Digital Eco-systems Pre-Design: Variety Analyses, System Viability and Tacit System Control Mechanisms

This paper reports research into the application of Ashbys Law of Requisite Variety to assist with identifying optimal choices of design solutions at the pre-design stage of designing digital ecosystems. This study of the application of Ashbys Law is a component of a larger research program investigating the application of classical systems analysis tools in pre-design optimisation processes in designing digital information systems. The paper describes three extensions to Ashbys Law of Requisite Variety developed by the authors that extend the analytical role of Ashbys Law in diagnosis of unintended design outcomes from changes in control of variety in complex, multi-layered and hierarchical systems (such as digital eco-systems) that have multiple stakeholders or constituencies. The paper demonstrates this application of Ashbys Law of Requisite Variety and the three extensions in a pre-design role in relation to digital learning object eco-systems. Analysis of variety generation and variety control is used to investigate how choice of software systems such as XML influences the control of system variety. The research draws attention to ways this leads to weaknesses in eco-system viability necessitating additional variety controlling measures that offer opportunities for hegemonic control of the eco-system by constituencies providing the additional variety controlling infrastructures and standards.

Complex built‐environment design: four extensions to Ashby

Purpose – This paper sets out to report on research by the authors into the development and application of four extensions to Ashbys Law of Requisite Variety (LoRV) that increase its utility in the arena of unplanned changes in hegemonic control of designed complex socio‐technical systems/digital eco‐systems in the built environment that are structurally dynamic or emergent.Design/methodology/approach – Research on which the paper is based focused on exploration of classical systems approaches to the design of complex socio‐technical systems in which ownership, power, control and management of structure and benefit generation and distribution are distributed, dynamic and multi‐constituent. Support for development of these four extensions to Ashbys Law comes from observation of four decades of socio‐technical systems development along with critical thinking that combined systems analysis theories with theories and findings from fields of hegemonic analysis, design research, management, management informa...

Critical Reflections on the Operation of Aboriginal Night Patrols

Much has been written about Aboriginal night patrols in recent decades; this has typically been ethnographic or evaluative. However, little work has been done to situate night patrols against wider historic trends in criminal justice and theorize their contribution in relation to neoliberal regimes of justice. Drawing on data collected as part of an evaluation of Aboriginal night patrols in New South Wales, this paper develops a critical approach to understanding night patrols. We interrogate the notion of ‘community’—central to the philosophy and practice of night patrols—examining the limitations of community forms of justice in challenging dominant understandings of crime and addressing the structural causes of crime.

Heath services system improvements: case study of stroke unit using design research methods

Background This paper describes recent research involving a user focused design analysis of in-hospital residential treatment for stroke patients in a dedicated stroke unit. The focus of the research was to identify potential design strategies to improve stroke unit patient care from a health services user perspective. The theoretical perspective used is systemic in which the performance of the stroke unit in its hospital context is analysed as a designed socio-technical system that includes all of the designed objects, processes, infrastructure, subsystems, organisational behaviours, rules and legitimation, and resources that enable its functioning. Method The data collection and data analysis used systems and design research tools and analyses. Data collection is from a single ‘deep slice’ case study following a single patient through a stroke unit in a medium scale hospital of (approximately 280 acute beds overall) with 26 stroke unit beds. The case study involved over 200 hours of observations over nine weeks and liaison with hospital and family over the four months of the patient’s stay in hospital. Design analysis followed two pathways: 1) identifying problems of service to the health service user that offered design opportunities for improvement or resolution; 2) systems design analyses to identify root causes of user problems and process failures. Results The case study identified multiple problems and multiple design opportunities for resolving problems and addressing process weaknesses and failures. In addition, the systems design analyses identified three structural systemic problems that appear to be causal factors for most of the design problems identified in the stroke unit case study. Conclusion The paper concludes with three design proposals for improving stroke unit outcomes via improving the design of stroke unit organisational systems. These proposed design strategies may be of benefit more widely in hospital system design for improving health services’ outcomes, financial efficiency and user interaction.