Crossing collaborational divides: digital documents in socio-technical networks

Abstract

Socio-technical research draws from the rich theoretical and applied literature that addresses the influence of technology on society and on social practices, and of social influences on the shaping of technology. Notable examples include the Social Shaping of Technology (SST) tradition, which is based on social studies of science and technology (cf. Williams and Edge, 1995), the Tavistock Institute’s Socio-Technical Systems (STS) tradition, based on the analysis of work organization (cf. Mumford, 1997; 2000), and network-centric theories from sociologists such as Latour (1987) (actor-network theory, or ANT) and Castells (1996). Network-centric approaches are particularly well-suited for examining the social and technical dimensions of IT-enabled communication, such as those that occur via email, the Internet, intranets, electronic journals, and other collaborative communication technologies. Socio-technical networks can be conceptualized as the enactment of patterns of interaction and relationship which occur between individuals, within and between organizations and institutions, and through information and communications technologies which embed, and are embedded in interactions. In these heterogeneous arrangements, what is "social" and what is "technical" cannot be readily isolated in practice. In our view, socio-technical networks are fundamental to socio-technical studies, and information and communication technologies (ICTs) are necessary (but not sufficient) components of networked forms of social organization. The dynamics of these sociotechnical networks are known to play a critical role in a number of diverse transformations, such as those that diffuse knowledge, invention and innovation from university scientists to industry entrepreneurs (and vice-versa.) Informational environments also constrain and enable collaborative interactions in such settings, and may mitigate or amplify the influence of ICTs on barriers to collaboration. Research on the use of digital documents seems particularly apt for understanding the technical, geographic, social and economic dynamics that influence communications and collaborations within and among geographically and organizationally dispersed communities-of-practice. A focus on the use of these potentially malleable technologies may reveal