Thomas Østerlie

Dual materiality and knowing in petroleum production

This paper explores the relationship between materiality and knowing through the notion of dual materiality. Dual materiality highlights how digital technology becomes important, as its materiality plays an integral part in creating, not simply representing, the materiality of the physical world. We elaborate upon this insight through a theory on sociomaterial knowing grounded in ethnographic fieldwork within a petroleum company. The main theoretical proposition of this theory is that knowing arises from the emerging patterns of interaction between material phenomena, the material arrangements for knowing about these phenomena, and knowledge practices. We elaborate upon this through three predominant modes of knowing in petroleum production: instrumentation, interpretation, and learning. This paper contributes to the broader discourse on sociomateriality by refining ideas of materiality through the notion of dual materiality. We conclude by encouraging further exploration of different materialities in contemporary work and organizing.

An empirical study on selection of Open Source Software - Preliminary results

Growing attention on component-based development has inspired the development of several normative methods for selection of software components. Despite these efforts, empirical studies show only minor adoption of such methods. To understand how research can contribute to improving the selection of components we interviewed developers from 16 Norwegian software companies which integrate Open Source Software (OSS) components into their systems. We find that the selection of OSS components has a situational nature where project specific properties significantly constrain the selections outcome, and that developers employ a ‘first fit’ rather than ‘best fit’ approach when selecting OSS components. This could explain the limited adoption of normative selection approaches and general evaluation schemas. Moreover, it motivates a shift from developing such methods and schemas towards understanding the situational nature of software selection.

Open Source Software: A Source of Possibilities for Software Engineering Education and Empirical Software Engineering

Open source projects are an interesting source for software engineering education and research. By participating in open source projects students can improve their programming and design capabilities. By reflecting on own participation by means of an established research method and plan, masters students can in addition contribute to increase knowledge concerning research questions. In this work we report on a concrete study in the context of the Net- beans open source project. The research method used is a modification of action research.

Understanding Open Source in an Industrial Context

This paper discusses the meaning of open source in an industrial context. Building a grounded theory from an industry-driven R&D project, our analysis shows that open source in an industrial context is multifaceted. We find that the meaning of open source must be established in the context of the individual organization.

Can We Teach Empirical Software Engineering

We report about an empirical software engineering course for PhD students. We introduce its syllabus and two different pedagogical strategies. The first strategy is based on individual learning and presentations. The second relies also on social activities to support learning and knowledge sharing. The syllabus, which has been used for three iterations of the course, is available at our web site together with student essays, evaluation data, and other documentation produced during course runs.

Punctuation and extrapolation: representing a subsurface oil reservoir

This article discusses how data are made to represent subsurface phenomena in petroleum production. Drawing on studies of the subsurface disciplines in an oil company, and the multitude of sensor data employed there, we suggest that sensor data as representational artifacts are punctuated along three axes. We refer to this as spatial, temporal and aspectual punctuation. Whereas, the first two refer to the positioning of data in space and time, the latter refers to the sensors’ response to single aspects of the interaction with a subsurface phenomenon. We show how extrapolation of punctuated data is a crucial element of the work of understanding the subsurface. It is when the punctuated data points are creatively extrapolated along the three axes of punctuation that ideas and models of the subsurface phenomena take shape. Consequently, we argue that the processes of punctuation and extrapolation are the keys to understand how knowledge about the subsurface is created at the onshore office. Punctuation gives mobility whereas extrapolation is necessary to establish reference between the punctuated data and the inaccessible oil reservoir. We specifically discuss the implications this has for reservoir models as representational artifacts.

Debugging Integrated Systems: An Ethnographic Study of Debugging Practice

This paper explores how software developers debug integrated systems, where they have little or no access to the source code of the third-party software the system is composed of. We analyze the practice of debugging integrated systems, identifying five characteristics that set it apart from existing research on debugging: it spans a variety of operating environments, it is collective, social, heterogeneous, and ongoing. We draw implications of this for software maintenance research and debugging practice. The results presented in this paper are based on observations from an ethnographic study of the Gentoo OSS community, a geographically distributed community of over 320 developers developing and maintaining a software system for distributing and integrating third-party software packages with different Unix versions.

On Countering Methods Erosion: Contributing towards Stronger and More Empirically Grounded Information Systems Theory

This paper offers practical advice to better leverage the potential of grounded theory for generating stronger and better empirically grounded information systems theory. Presenting and discussing five issues to keep in mind when doing grounded theory, the paper seeks to encourage more skilled, reflective, and appropriate use of grounded theory to meet this goal. The five issues are discussed in light of methods erosion, a lack of clarity about the distinct research strategies and goals of different research methods. The paper concludes with three practical suggestions for countering erosion of grounded theory in information systems research.

Co-materialization: Digital Innovation Dynamics in the Offshore Petroleum Industry

This paper empirically explores the concept of co-materialization to explain the digital innovation dynamics in offshore petroleum production. The central insight developed is that the very nature of subsurface processes and phenomena that may be monitored and controlled is transformed as offshore petroleum production is digitalized. The paper shows how digital technologies are intrinsic to this transformation as material reality and abstract concepts take on meaning together through digital technologies. The central dynamic driving this transformation is the process wherein digital technologies, physical phenomena, and work processes for monitoring and controlling these phenomena evolve together in continuous interplay.

Manufacturing Accomplices: ICT Use in Securing the Safety State at Airports

Based on a study of ICT use at an airport security checkpoint, this paper explores a possible explanation to the paradox that travelers find existing airport security measures inadequate while at the same time believing air travel to be sufficiently secure. We pursue this explanation by showing that, for the security checkpoint to function properly in relation to the overall function of the airport, travelers have to be enrolled in a particular program of action. They are then locked into this program through sanctions. Travelers are forced into participating in a system many of them find ethically and morally objectionable. Yet, active participation makes it difficult for them to object to the moral and ethical issues of their actions without damning themselves. Our explanation of the security paradox is, therefore, that while travelers remain critical of airport security, they avoid damning themselves by criticizing the system in terms of its own logic. They have been made accomplices.