Fall 2002, Sections A, A1, A2, & A3: Course Outline, Assignments and Weekly Schedule

© C. Haythornthwaite, 2002

Last updated September 26, 2002

This is one of two core courses that may be taken to satisfy requirements for the Information Studies Minor offered by the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
This course is approved for UIUC’s General Education, Social and Behavioral Sciences: Social Science (GEN ED: SS).  

Click here for a list of further readings on various topics associated with part IV of the assignment

Click here for details on the assignments

Click here for extra material relating to class

Professor Caroline Haythornthwaite (haythorn@uiuc.edu)

Room 123, Library and Information Science Building (LISB), 501 East Daniel St.

Phone: (217) 244-7453 Office Hours: Thursday 2-4pm, or by appointment

Prof. Haythornthwaite (haythorn@uiuc.edu), Room 126 LISB

A1 : Muzhgan Nazarova (nazarova@uiuc.edu) -------131 LISB

A2 : Vandana Singh (vsingh1@uiuc.edu) ------------ 46 LISB

A3 : Dinesh Rathi (drathi@uiuc.edu) ---------------- 126 LISB

Required Text: Gareth Morgan (1996). Images of Organization, 2nd edition. Sage.

Recommended: Laurence Prusak (1997). Knowledge in Organizations. Boston, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Other Readings: These are mainly available online, either through the library gateway or directly through the URLs given below. Other readings can be found as indicated on reserve in the LIS Library, or via LIS Online Reserve (click here for details on reaching the online reserves).

If in doubt about where to find a reading, click here for Where To Find The Readings. Requires password, same as for the online reserves.

This course explores information – where it is found, how it flows, how it is used, how its presence affects how problems are viewed and further information collected. Our definition of information is broad and includes consideration of data, information and knowledge We examine social aspects of information gathering, use and dissemination in organizations and the way in which this influences and is influenced by information technology (IT) and communication technology (ICT). We look at how social, organizational and/or societal views and practices affect the design, implementation and use of information and its accompanying technologies. Our focus on information, technology and organizations leads us to examine how computer-based systems are used to support information collection, processing, and exchange, and the way social aspects of information combine with technical aspects of information technologies in organizational settings. Our perspective falls generally under the category of "social informatics" and more specifically "organizational informatics" (For more on social informatics, see http://www.slis.indiana.edu/SI/ ).

To address this area we draw from many disciplines in bringing together work on

• rational and natural approaches to organizations and information
• computers in the workplace
• computer-supported cooperative work
• computer-mediated communication
• formal and informal information systems and their support through IT and ICT
• distributed work
• computer-supported collaborative learning
• virtual workplaces and telework

The preconceptions we carry about how information is (or should be) organized and used greatly affect both how it is used and how technologies are designed to support information and the work of organizations. We pay attention to images and metaphors of organizations and technology in this course and examine

• how our image of the role of technology affects how we perceive its place in an organization, and how we design, choose and implement technologies to support that image
• how and why information is important to an organization
• information processes in organizations and the technologies that support them
• how an organization's technology affects its information gathering and use, and its connections to external organizations, agencies or institutions
• how organizational, technological and societal factors affect information processing goals

This course is lecture and discussion based and depends on your doing weekly readings, particularly for the discussion sessions. You are not expected to work with technologies, but to bring their personal knowledge about information use, work, organizations, and technologies into class discussions, to make active connections between experiences and readings and course work, and to participate even if you haven’t (yet) finished reading for the week.

Grading for this course is based on initial submission of six sections of a semester long cumulative project, and the re-submission of the final completed project (85%), and submissions and/or participation in activities for the lecture and discussion as set by each section instructor during the semester (15%).

• Introduction to the purpose of the course; review of syllabus and discussion of expectations for the class.

• What are organizations? What is a technology? What are information technologies? Where do they fit in organizations? What are information systems?
• Images and metaphors; how images help us conceptualize organizations and technologies; major metaphors about organizations, and the ones we’ll discuss

 Morgan: Introduction (p. 3-8), and Chpt. 10 on Metaphor (p. 347-353)

Gladwell, M. (2002). The talent myth: Are smart classweb overrated? The New Yorker, July 22, 2002. [http://www.gladwell.com/2002/2002_07_22_a_talent.htm]

Kling, R. (2000). Learning about information technologies and social change: The contribution of social informatics. The Information Society, 16, 217-232. [available online via UIUC]

Metaphors in our lives; How they affect how we think about and design technologies, and how they affect us.

 Parker, I. (May 28, 2001). Absolute Powerpoint: Can a software package edit our thoughts? The New Yorker. [http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~wilkins/group/powerpt.html]

The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation [http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/index.htm], and a page by its author [http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/making.html]

How do data, information and knowledge differ? Where do they fit in the organization? Where do we find them? How do we understand the role of IT with respect to these forms of information?

 Davenport, T.H. (1997). Chpt. 1, Information Ecology: Mastering the information and knowledge environment. NY: Oxford University Press.

 Shapiro, C. & Varian, H.R. (1999). Chpt. 1 in Information Rules (pp.1-18). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.<read now and/or for week 4>

Understanding the array of and interconnection of data, information and knowledge.

 Nardi, B.A. & O'Day, V. (1999). Information ecologies. Chpt. 4 in Information Ecologies: Using Technology with a Heart. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.;

Connectedness of IT systems; connectedness of "I" and "T"; risks: 'normal accidents'; inter-organizational interaction; tied and ‘complementary’ systems; attention structures; impact of IT on information processes; sensemaking

 Weick, K, Chpt. 10 in Knowledge in Organizations (p.213-226). [Weick K. "Cosmos vs Chaos:Sense and Nonsense in Electronic Contexts" in Organizational Dynamics, Autumn 1985.]

 Shapiro, C. & Varian, H.R. (1999). Chpt. 1 in Information Rules (pp.1-18). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. <if you didn’t finish it last week>

Perrow, C. (1984). Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies. New York, NY: Basic Books. (particularly Chpt. 3, Complexity, coupling, and catastrophe.)

Specter, M. (May 28, 2001). The doomsday click: How easily could a hacker bring the world to a standstill? The New Yorker, 100-107. http://www.michaelspecter.com/ny/2001/2001_05_28_doomsday.html

Norman, D.A. (2002). Inside risks: Beyond the computer industry. Communications of the ACM, 45(7), 120. <1 page>

"A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention" (Herbert Simon, quoted in Shapiro & Varian, p. 6)

 Goldhaber, Michael H. (1997). The Attention Economy and the Net, First Monday, 2(4). http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue2_4/goldhaber/

Cheyne, T.L. & Ritter, F.E. (2001). Targeting audiences on the Internet. Communications of the ACM, 44(4), 94-98.

Information Ecology (3-5 pages; 750-1250 words)

Useful References: Nardi; Davenport

5. Rational I

Rational view of organizations and information; open and closed systems; rationalizing organizational structures; the rationalization of information and knowledge into data; technologies for formal interactions and transaction management: typologies -- TPS, MIS, etc.; Perrow’s task typology; structure of information and knowledge problems and their transfer into IT (Perrow; Nonaka & Takeuchi)

 Morgan, Chpt. 2, Mechanization takes command: Organizations as machines

Tacit and explicit knowledge

 Polanyi, tacit knowledge (in Knowledge in Organizations). [Polanyi, M. (1966). The Tacit Dimension. Doubleday.]

and/or

 Nonaka, I. (1994). A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organization Science, 5(1), 14-37. [Reprinted (2000) in D.E. Smith, Knowledge, Groupware and the Internet. Boston, MA: Butterworth Heinemann.]

Information Work (3-5 pages; 750-1250 words)

Useful References: Davenport; see assignment write-up

6. Rational II

Organizations and their environments: views of the environment; who to watch, who to work with, who to compete with; inter-organizational ties, etc.; network externalities, role of standards; learning organizations and organizational memory; organizations as capable of learning, growth, development, reacting to stimuli.

 Walsh & Ungson, Chpt. 9 in Knowledge in Organizations [Walsh, James P. & Ungson, Gerardo Rivera (1991). Organizational Memory, Academy of Management Review, 16(1), pp 57-91.]

 Morgan, Chpt. 4, Learning and self-organization: Organizations as brains

See also

Gladwell, M. (2000). The Power of Context (Part Two): The magic number one hundred and fifty. Chpt. 5 in The Tipping Point. London: Little Brown.

Diffusion of innovation theory; impacts and consequences; IT as producer of change

 Gladwell, M. (March 17, 1997). The Coolhunt, The New Yorker. http://www.gladwell.com/1997/1997_03_17_a_cool.htm

and/or

 Gladwell, M. The three rules of epidemics (from The Tipping Point) http://www.twbookmark.com/books/8/0316316962/Chpt._excerpt9508.html

Rogers, E.M (1995). Diffusion of Innovations. Fourth Edition. NY: The Free Press. (Chpt. 1 is a good overview)

7.1. Classification and Its Discontents I

Where rational classification and its use for IT breaks down; informal work structures and patterns; social networks; communities of practice; shared cognition, transactive memory (who knows who knows what, who knows who knows what)

 Krackhardt & Hansen, Chpt. 3 in Knowledge in Organizations [Krackhardt, David & Hanson, Jeffery R. (July -August, 1993). Informal Networks: The Company, Harvard Business Review, July -August.]

 Bower, B. (1997). Minds meet in the social whirl. Science News. http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc97/75th/bb_essay.htm

Invisible work; whose work is invisible? what information is there about invisible work?

 Timmermans, S., Bowker, G., & Star, L. (1998). The architecture of difference: Visibility, discretion, and comparability in building a nursing intervention classification. In A.M. Mol and M. Berg (Eds.), Differences in medicine: Unraveling practices, techniques and bodies (pp.202-225). Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press.;

and/or

 Star, S.L. & Strauss, A. (1999). Layers of silence, arenas of voice: The ecology of visible and invisible work. CSCW, 8 (1-2), 9-30.

External connections (3-5 pages; 750-1250 words)

8.1. Classification and Its Discontents II

Natural view of organizations; individual motivations; worker as good/bad, implications for design; computer-mediated communication, prescriptive vs permissive systems; interpretively flexible systems

  Morgan, Chpt. 3, Nature intervenes: Organizations as organisms

Social construction of reality, social construction of technology (SCOT); adaptive structuration

 Jackson, M.H., Poole, M.S. & Kuhn, T. (2002). The social construction of technology in studies of the workplace. In L. Lievrouw & S. Livingstone (Eds.). Handbook of New Media (pp. 236-253). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Organizational culture and the way it interacts with rational information and IT use; internal politics, status, hierarchies, and information processing; secrecy, unshared information; organizational history, culture and decision making; organization culture and IT fit; historical (non-rational) reasons for action.

Guest presentation on Gender and IT.

 Morgan, Chpt. 5, Creating social reality: Organizations as cultures [see also Chpts 6, 7]

Ethics and IT

 Thomson, A.J. & Schmoldt, D.L. (2001). Ethics in computer software design and development. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 30(1-3), 85-102.

and/or

 Herring, S. (1996). Posting in a different voice: Gender and ethics in CMC. In C. Ess (ed.), Philosophical Perspectives on Computer-Mediated Communication (pp. 115-145). Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

What do groups actually do together, what are working relationships based on? Groups and groupware; Who benefits from groupware? Who does the work? Why groupware applications have failed? Will they fail in the future? Working together collaboratively through IT; what kinds of information are conveyed; what conventions arise in the use of IT; collaboration and collaboratories

 McGrath, J.E. (1990) Time Matters in Groups. In J. Galegher, R.E. Kraut & C. Egido (Eds.), Intellectual Teamwork: Social and Technological Foundations of Cooperative Work (pp.23- 61). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

or

 Chidambaram, L. & Bostrom, R.P. (1997a). Group development (I): A review and synthesis of developmental models. Group Decision and Negotiation, 6(2), 159-187.

Working together collaboratively through IT; what kinds of information are conveyed; what conventions arise in the use of IT

 Hollingshead, A.B. & Contractor, N.S. (2002). New media and organizing at the group level. In L. Lievrouw & S. Livingstone (eds). Handbook of New Media, (pp. 221-235). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Rational/Natural (7-10 pages)

Models (images) of decision making processes; Is it really rational? collaboration, coordination and competition; information needs for decision making; resistance to change; uncertainty and equivocality; decision making under conditions of ambiguity; technologies for meeting and decision support, GDSS.

 Daft, R.L. & Lengel, R.H. (1986). Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design. Management Science, 32(5), 554-571. [a classic, but read this with attention to the fact that "media richness" as outlined here has been much challenged since then].

Anonymity – hiding information about the ‘self’ – pros and cons; anonymous vs non-anonymous decision making; implications for work at a distance, trust in working relationships

 Postmes, T., & Lea, M. (2000). Social processes and group decision making: Anonymity in group decision support systems. Ergonomics, 43, 1252-1274.

Distributed and virtual offices, collaborative work places and spaces; work at a distance; telecommuting and distributed offices; transferring work out of the office; working together in cyberspace; collaboratories; mobile computing; design and use of distributed workplaces and spaces; work and MUDs, MOOs, bulletin boards, intranets, CVEs, collaboratories; building online community; CoPs

 Lunsford, K. J., & Bruce, B. C. (2001, September). Collaboratories: Working together on the web. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 45(1), 52-58. Available online at: http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/JAAL/9-01_Column/index.html

Finholt, T. (2002). Collaboratories. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 36, 73-107.

Erickson, T. (1993). From interface to interplace: The spatial environment as a medium for interaction. Proceedings of the Conference on Spatial Information Theory. Available at: http://www.pliant.org/personal/Tom_Erickson/Interplace.html [physical to online spaces]

Mark Weiser on Ubiquitous Computing: http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/UbiHome.html

Streitz, N.A., Siegel, J., Hartkopf, V. & Konomi, S. (Eds.). Cooperative Buildings: Integrating Information, Organizations and Architecture. Berlin: Springer. [novel applications of technology to provide information monitoring in buildings]

Telework, impact of IT allowing work to transfer out of the office; social worlds

 Salaff, J. (2002). Where home is the office: The new form of flexible work. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet in Everyday Life, Oxford, UK: Blackwell. [telework impact on the home]

or

 Haythornthwaite, C. & Kazmer, M.M. (2002). Bringing the Internet home: Adult distance learners and their Internet, Home and Work worlds. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet in Everyday Life (pp. 431-463). Oxford, UK: Blackwells. [online distance education impact on the home]

Brown, J.S. & Duguid, P. (2000). Home alone. First Monday, 5(4). (Chpt. 3 of The Social Life of Information). Available at: http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_4/brown_Chpt.3.html. [the real story about working at home via IT]

Kistner, T (2001). Rethinking where classweb work. Net.Worker December 11, 2001. http://www.nwfusion.com/net.worker/research/2001/1112networkerfeat.html

Information and quality of life in physical structures; IT impact on individuals in their physical space; information and information pathways inherent in the physical office (invisible information); technologies that support or replace that structure; designs for working; panopticons & surveillance

 Becker, F. & Steele, F. (1995). Rethinking status, identity and space. Chpt. 3 in Workplace by Design: Mapping the High-Performance Workscape (pp. 27-47). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.;

 Gladwell, M. (2000). Designs for working: Why your bosses want to turn your new office into Greenwich Village. The New Yorker, Dec. 11, 2000, p.60, 62, 64-5, 68-70. http://www.gladwell.com/2000_12_11_a_working.htm

Groups (one group submission of 7-10 pages)

Guest presentation on new technologies for learning and work.

Wrap up, and any last questions about submission of final assignments

 Kling, R. (2000). Learning about information technologies and social change: The contribution of social informatics. The Information Society, 16, 217-232.

Complete assignment due; Share (informally) your project work from this semester with others in the class.

Complete Project, including new section on Physical/Virtual Space