Steps Toward an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and Access for Large Information Spaces

We analyze a large-scale custom software effort, the Worm Community System (WCS), a collaborative system designed for a geographically dispersed community of geneticists. There were complex challenges in creating this infrastructural tool, ranging from simple lack of resources to complex organizatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Information systems research 1996-03, Vol.7 (1), p.111-134
Main Authors: Star, Susan Leigh, Ruhleder, Karen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biology
Buildings
Collaboration
collaboratory
Communities
Computer software
Ecology
End users
ethnography
Information retrieval
Information storage and retrieval systems
Information technology
Infrastructure
internet
Organizational behavior
organizational computing
participatory design
scientific computing
Studies
Systems development
Worms
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Summary:We analyze a large-scale custom software effort, the Worm Community System (WCS), a collaborative system designed for a geographically dispersed community of geneticists. There were complex challenges in creating this infrastructural tool, ranging from simple lack of resources to complex organizational and intellectual communication failures and tradeoffs. Despite high user satisfaction with the system and interface, and extensive user needs assessment, feedback, and analysis, many users experienced difficulties in signing on and use. The study was conducted during a time of unprecedented growth in the Internet and its utilities (1991–1994), and many respondents turned to the World Wide Web for their information exchange. Using Bateson's model of levels of learning, we analyze the levels of infrastructural complexity involved in system access and designer-user communication. We analyze the connection between systems development aimed at supporting specific forms of collaborative knowledge work, local organizational transformation, and large-scale infrastructural change.
ISSN:1047-7047
1526-5536
DOI:10.1287/isre.7.1.111