This article discusses some key ideas from social informatics research and ends with a brief discussion of the character of the field today. Readers who wish to understand social informatics by learning about its origins and influences may wish to start in that later section and then return to the beginning for a more substantive focus. This article serves as a brief introduction to social informatics for information technology professionals and researchers, and includes numerous references to help interested readers readily locate more comprehensive resources

Social Informatics is the body of research that examines the design, uses, and consequences of information and communication technologies in ways that take into account their interaction with institutional and cultural contexts. This article serves as a brief introduction to social informatics. Examples such as computer networks, scientific communication via electronic journals, and public access to the Internet are used to illustrate key ideas from social informatics research. Some of the key themes include: the importance of social contexts and work processes, socio-technical networks, public access to information, and social infrastructure for computing support. The article draws upon 25 years of systematic analytical and critical research about information technology and social change.

In this article, we examine the conceptual models that help us understand the development and sustainability of scholarly and professional communication forums on the Internet, such as conferences, pre-print servers, field-wide data sets, and collaboratories. We first present and document the information processing model that is implicitly advanced in most discussions about scholarly communications -- the "Standard Model." Then we present an alternative model, a model that considers information technologies as Socio-Technical Interaction Networks (STINs). STIN models provide a richer understanding of human behavior with online scholarly communications forums. They also help to further a more complete understanding of the conditions and activities that support the sustainability of these forums within a field than does the Standard Model. We illustrate the significance of the STIN model with examples of scholarly communication forums drawn from the fields of high energy physics, molecular biology, and information systems. 3

This paper examines unstated, but critical, social assumptions which underlie social analyses of computerization. It focuses on the popular, professional and scholarly literature which claims to describe the actual nature of computerization, the character of computer use, and the social choices and changes that result from computerization. Many articles and books in this large and diverse literature are written within the conventions of specific genres. These conventions of each of these genres limit the kinds of ideas which authors can explore and communicate effectively. This paper examines five common and important genres: technological utopian, technological anti-utopian, social realism, social theory, and analytical reduction. Each genre is characterized and illustrated. The strengths and weaknesses of each genre are described. A major theme of this paper is the way that any genre's conventions limits the kinds of ideas which authors can examine and communicate. In the 1990s, there will be a large market for social analyses of computerization. Technological utopian analyses are most likely to dominate the popular and professional discourse. The empirically oriented accounts of social realism, social theory and analytical reduction, are likely to be much less common and also less commonly seen and read by computer professionals and policymakers. These genres are relatively subtle, portray a more ambiguous world, and have less rhetorical power to capture readers' imaginations. Even though they are more scientific, these empirically anchored genres don't seem to appeal to many scientists and engineers. It is ironic that computing -- often portrayed as an instrument of knowledge -- is primarily the subject of a popular and professional literature that are Reading "All...

If you read a broad sample of books or articles about computerization and changing work, you will find that groups of authors seem to be writing about completely different universes. Some focus on older technologies, or on current technologies; others explore the possibilities afforded by emerging technologies. A few writers will focus on those professionals who have significant

Computer Science is hard pressed in the US to show broad utility to help justify billion dollar research programs and the value of educating well over 40,000 Bachelor of Science and Master of Science specialists annually in the U.S. The Computer Science and Telecommunications

“Like most phenomena–atoms, ants, and stars–characteristics of organizations appear to fall into natural clusters, or configurations. ” – Henry Mintzberg Software use in many organizations has spread vertically. I present evidence that applications that are widely used in organizations have at least three distinct patterns of use: one for individual contributors, one for managers, and one for executives. Use within each of these groups is shaped by its particular activity and incentive structures. Interaction among group members promotes shared social conventions and feature use. When designing, acquiring, or supporting such an application, the best approach could be to treat it as three distinct applications. The applications discussed include

Digital libraries (DLs) are the focus of professional movements in the medical, legal, and scholarly communities. DLs are being used increasingly nationwide in the legal profession for research; computer-integrated court reporting; and for trial presentations of multimedia documents and evidence photos. In this paper, we present results of a study which contributes to DL research by examining some new DL design concepts within the legal domain. Two key forms of DL usability- interface and organizational- are discussed. While the Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI) research community has made progress in improving interface usability, organizational usability is less well understood. We introduce the concept of organizational usability which refers to the mix between a computer system’s design and an organization’s characteristics such that the system can be effectively integrated into the work practices of members of the organization and is socially accepted by them. We explore the technical and sociotechnical dimensions of organizational usability by applying them to DLs used in the California Superior Courts.

The challenge of designing the best overall interface while supporting individual and task-based differences has long been with us. As software is used more widely, one might think the problem would grow. In fact, the studies reported here suggest that it is becoming more tractable. Greater interaction among users coalesces usage into a few widelyshared constellations of features. Widespread use can help us identify and understand those patterns. Applications that are widely used in organizations have different patterns of use resulting from at least three significant activity and incentive structures: one for individual contributors, one for managers, and one for executives. When designing, acquiring, or supporting such an application, the best approach could be to treat it as three distinct applications. Failure to consider these categories results in avoidable problems and missed opportunities.

Developing countries (DCs) have yet to fully benefit from the many advances in the Information Technology (IT) field, mainly due to problems such as lack of resources and systems infrastructure. COTS-Based Systems (CBS) entail purchasing a number of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software components, each satisfying some part of the requirements of the system and integrating these components into the required system. CBS offers a number of benefits that the DCs can access, such as reducing development and maintenance costs. Therefore, CBS can be used to provide support for DCs to improve their IT processes.