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 the social shaping of technology. 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. A social network is a set of people, including organizations, connected by a set of social relationships. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly integral to these networks. A sociotechnical network includes the technologies that sustain human interaction, and the technologies that people construct and use in collaboration. In socio-technical networks, the social and the technical are essentially inseparable and co-constitutive. The dynamics of these socio-technical 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 attenuate or amplify the influence of ICTs. Researching the use of digital documents is an interesting way to engage the issues that surround 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 more clearly how networked communities and informational environments differentially shape ICTs. This mini-track focuses attention on the use of networked information and communication technologies such as multimedia communication systems, remote sensing instruments, intranets and email, within and among communities-of-practice, such as research scientists, industrial researchers, consultants, and policy-setting groups. Our goal is to bring together researchers who are interested in the technical, geographic, social and economic dynamics that influence communications and collaborations among colleagues both within a community and across communities. We expect this research to raise