Digitalized Drones in the Steel Industry: The Social Shaping of Technology

This chapter discusses the influence individuals have in the ICT standards development process. The chapter draws upon ideas underlying the theory of the Social Shaping of Technology (SST). Looking through the SST lens, a number of non-technical factors that influence ICT standards development are identified. A literature review on the role of the individual in ICT standards setting and a case study of the IEEE 802.11 Working Group (WG) show that in a standards body's WG, the backgrounds, skills, attitudes, and behaviour of the individual WG members are crucially important factors. Yet, the case study also shows that in most cases employees tend to represent the ideas and goals of their respective employer. The chapter observes that the non-technical factors are ignored all too often in the literature. It argues that a better understanding of the impact and interplay of these factors, specifically including the skills and attitudes of the WG members, will have significant implications both theoretical and managerial.

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The Networked Effect of Children and Online Digital Technologies

Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-2255-3.ch636 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 7312-7326

Author(s):

Teresa Sofia Pereira Dias de Castro ◽

António Osório ◽

Emma Bond

Keyword(s):

Social Construction ◽

Digital Technologies ◽

Actor Network Theory ◽

Theoretical Models ◽

The Other ◽

Social Construction Of Technology ◽

Social Shaping Of Technology ◽

The Social ◽

Contemporary Life ◽

Social Shaping

Within the scope of how technology impacts on society three theoretical models: the social shaping of technology (SST), social construction of technology (SCOT) and the Actor-Network theory (ANT) are frameworks that help rethink the embeddedness of technology within society, once each is transformed and transformative of the other. More attention will be given to the ANT approach since it solves the technology/society dualisms unresolved by the previous proposals. This is a flexible epistemological possibility that can reach the ambiguity of contemporary life and the remarkable transformations brought by progress that have changed drastically childhood and children's contemporary lives.

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Users as Developers

End-User Computing ◽

10.4018/978-1-59904-945-8.ch093 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 1330-1345

Author(s):

Beryl Burns ◽

Ben Light

Keyword(s):

Human Resources ◽

Professional Identity ◽

Knowledge Sharing ◽

Knowledge Work ◽

Social Shaping Of Technology ◽

The Social ◽

Social Shaping ◽

Contact Centre ◽

Forms Of Knowledge

We report the findings of a field study of the enactment of ICT supported knowledge work in a Human Resources contact centre, illustrating the negotiable boundary between what constitutes the developer and user. Drawing upon ideas from the social shaping of technology, we examine how discussions regarding producer-user relations require a degree of greater sophistication as we show how users develop technologies and work practices in-situ. In this case different forms of knowledge are practised to create and maintain a knowledge sharing system. We show how as staff simultaneously distance themselves from, and ally with, ICT supported encoded knowledge scripts, the system becomes materially important to the project of constructing the knowledge characteristic of professional identity. Our work implies that although much has been made of contextualising the user, as a user, further work is required to contextualise users as developers and moreover, developers as users.

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What Use is Domestication Theory to Information Systems Research?

Handbook of Research on Contemporary Theoretical Models in Information Systems ◽

10.4018/978-1-60566-659-4.ch027 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 482-494 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Deirdre Hynes ◽

Helen Richardson

Keyword(s):

Information Systems ◽

Everyday Life ◽

Social Shaping Of Technology ◽

Is Research ◽

Systems Research ◽

Information Systems Research ◽

The Social ◽

Social Shaping ◽

Domestication Theory

This chapter introduces and discusses domestication theory—essentially about giving technology a place in everyday life—and its relevance and importance to information systems (IS) research. The authors discuss domestication within the context of the social shaping of technology and critique use and adoption theories more widely found in IS studies. The authors illustrate how domestication theory underpins studies of how Irish households find ways of using computers (or not) in their everyday life and research into the use of ICTs in UK gendered households. In conclusion they outline how developments in domestication theory can contribute to future IS research.

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On the Social Shaping of the Semantic Web

Handbook of Research on Social Dimensions of Semantic Technologies and Web Services ◽

10.4018/978-1-60566-650-1.ch017 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 341-356 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Paul T. Kidd

Keyword(s):

Semantic Web ◽

Information And Communications Technologies ◽

Utility Value ◽

Web Searches ◽

Social Shaping Of Technology ◽

The Social ◽

Communications Technologies ◽

Dominant Design ◽

Social Shaping ◽

Conceptual Formulation

Addressed in this chapter is the Social Shaping of the Semantic Web in the context of moving beyond the workplace application domain that has so dominated the development of both Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), and the Social Shaping of Technology perspective. The importance of paradigms and the values that shape technology are considered along with the utility value of ICT, this latter issue being somewhat central in the development of these technologies. The new circumstances of ubiquity and of uses of ICT beyond mere utility, as a means of having fun for example, are considered leading to a notion of the Semantic Web, not just as a tool for more effective Web searches, but also as a means of having fun. Given this possibility of the Semantic Web serving two very different audiences and purposes, the matter of how to achieve this is considered, but without resorting to the obvious and rather simple conceptual formulation of the Semantic Web as either A or B. The relevance of existing Social Shaping of Technology perspectives is addressed. New thoughts are presented on what needs to be central to the development of a Semantic Web that is both A and B. Key here is an intelligent relationship between the Semantic Web and those that use it. Central to achieving this are the notions of the value of people, control over technology, and non-utility as a dominant design principle (the idea of things that do not necessarily serve a specific purpose).

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