Implementing GIS technology in India: some issues of time and space

In this paper, I examine the need to understand the implications that time and space issues have for the implementation of IT. The design and development of technical systems often takes place in a social context that is significantly different from where they are used. Such discontinuities in social context caused by these differences in temporal and spatial parameters (between `when and where' systems are designed and used) have significant implications in how IT is implemented in organizations. These differences in context are significantly magnified and also more complex to interpret, when the development and use of IT takes place in different countries, as is common today within the present context of globalisation. I present my analysis by examining the case of GIS, a technology that is developed in the West, and transferred for use in India within the context of natural resources management. The empirical basis for this analysis is provided by a 3-year longitudinal study of an Indian government GIS implementation project. GIS technology, by virtue of the scientific principles of cartography and mathematics on which it is based, can be seen as being situated within a positivistic epistemology and implying quite distinct assumptions with respect to time and space drawn from Western society. In the recipient society of India, assumptions of time and space vary significantly from those inscribed in GIS technology, and these differences can be seen to contribute to a variety of problems in project implementation. For example, some implementation problems identified in the study included: development of systems that were not considered relevant by users; the lack of continuity in project management practices; and inappropriate co-ordination between the various agencies. An analytical approach incorporating aspects of time and space enables us to go beyond the surface level managerial descriptions of project implementation problems, to more deeper explanations of questions related to `why do these problems occur?'