Understanding and Communicating Social Informatics: A Framework for Studying and Teaching the Human Contexts of Information and Communication Technologies

Citation

Cullen, M. (2009), "Understanding and Communicating Social Informatics: A Framework for Studying and Teaching the Human Contexts of Information and Communication Technologies", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 316-318. https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830910968317

Understanding and Communicating Social Informatics deals with issues of likely interest to most modern enterprises and their people. The authors characterise “social informatics” (SI) as systematic research about the social aspects of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their roles in social and organisational change. This is a thorough, scholarly work, written for various stakeholders such as educators, administrators, analysts and programme funders.

One recurrent claim is that the failure of “technology‐centered organizational interventions” tends to be for socio‐technical rather than solely technological reasons. Empirical SI research challenges a “magic bullet” approach to innovative technology – there are rarely any “social transformations” effected by ICTs alone. This seems to be a timely admonition. How familiar is the global catch‐cry of technology as definitive solution, or panacea! Pragmatic corporations and governments are no exception to its allure. That major social and institutional ramifications are entwined with the introduction of technology seems self‐evident, yet this can often be expediently diluted at potentially great cost. That organisations are political networks as well as task or production systems is also a reality that is well documented in the marketplace and common experience.

Among the salient social factors flagged by the authors are variations between the ways people interpret and use ICTs. The potential for ICTs to restructure, even diminish, existing institutional social relationships and information processing is also noted. Case studies such as military defence systems, web usage by academics and the introduction of Lotus Notes in a consulting firm are discussed. These illustrations demonstrate the subtly influential human issues that can determine the success or costly misuse of technology. Deployed effectively throughout the book, they also enliven what might otherwise have become an abstract discourse.

Selected ICT development history is also recounted. During the 1950s and 1960s a shared intellectual community of users and designers prevailed, whereas (the authors claim) modern software designers rarely understand the working conditions of their users. Suggested improved social design principles include skilled observation of contextual work practices (a tacit holistic appraisal), versus the compartmentalised (explicit tasks and operations) approach of developer‐centred engineering. Disparities between preconceived design and subsequent implementation realities may also provoke an ongoing, evolutionary adaptation of those ICTs. To identify such divergence between technical design and the nuances of user settings is not an outrageous observation. The contributions of various North American and European government and ICT policy bodies are also tracked. The ubiquitous issue of the digital divide is raised. The authors again endorse an integration of both social practices and technologies for achieving the best organisational transformations.

In the context of ICT‐oriented education and teaching of social informatics, a simultaneous rise in workforce demands for ICT skills and a decrease in graduate numbers is noted. Tertiary SI education of students in such disciplines as computer science, business information systems and information science is aligned with better usage and valuing of ICTs. These are all logical connections to make, yet the authors cite a “disturbing summary” – that SI topics usually receive insubstantial coverage in ICT programmes. Interestingly, Australian and European curricula are lauded for better integrating SI concepts and literature.

Key SI ideas are explored, including the significance of ICT contexts, their mixed effects on users, their varied (sometimes paradoxical) consequences, ethical aspects, configurational ability and trajectories. The authors proceed to portray social informatics as “informed critical thinking”, developing students' ability to critique ICTs independently of those groups who commission, design, or implement them. This is a commendable objective and consistent with the best traditions of rigorous analysis and decision‐making.

Subsequently. a lengthy chapter is devoted to communicating SI research to professional and research communities. ICT professionals, teachers, researchers and policy makers are targeted; those engaged in SI research globally are estimated to number several hundred. The “magic bullet” theory is again dismissed, given the billions of dollars that are allegedly wasted annually on large‐scale, failed corporate projects. Later, the authors use SI insights to assess reasons for systems failure. They basically advocate better anticipation of social and organisational contexts in system design, development and implementation phases.

In setting out their conclusions the authors emphasise the interdisciplinary nature of SI research and that it provides professionals with “current analytic skills, empirically grounded concepts, and common findings”. It is essentially problem‐oriented and assumes people to be social actors, using ICTs in specific contexts, which in turn shape the ICTs.

This is a book that should strike chords with information professionals. Its thesis is not so much revolutionary as a systematic assessment of an acknowledged imbalance. Any thorough appraisal of the interplay or, arguably, symbiosis, between people and technology will remain highly relevant for this era. It is a dynamic at the heart of modern life that impacts on all of us.