Understanding and Communicating Social Informatics : A Framework for Studying and Teaching the Human Contexts of Information and Communication Technologies.

Cover -- Title Page -- Contents -- Figures and Tables -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- Chapter 1: Introduction to Social Informatics -- 1.1 The Disconnection Between Popular and Scholarly Discussion -- 1.2 Defining Social Informatics -- 1.3 The Value of Social Informatics -- Chapter 2: The Consequences of ICTs for Organizations and Social Life -- 2.1 The Social Nature of ICTs -- 2.1.1 ICTs Are Interpreted and Used inDifferent Ways by Different People -- 2.1.2 ICTs Enable and Constrain Social Actions and Social Relationships -- 2.1.3 ICTs Provide a Means to Alter Existing Control Structures -- 2.1.4 There Can Be Negative Consequences of ICT Developments for Some Stakeholders -- 2.2 The Technical Nature of ICTs -- 2.2.1 ICTs Play Both Communicative and Computational Roles -- 2.2.2 There Are Important Temporal and Spatial Dimensions of ICT Consequences -- 2.2.3 ICTs Rarely Cause Social Transformations -- 2.3 The Institutional Nature of ICTs -- 2.3.1 Social and Technical Consequences Are Embedded in Institutional Contexts -- 2.3.2 ICTs Often Have Important Political Consequences -- Chapter 3: Social Informatics for Designers, Developers, and Implementers of ICT-Based Systems -- 3.1 Understanding the Social Design of ICTs -- 3.1.1 The Historical Premise of Designer-Focused Systems -- 3.1.2 The Configurational Nature of ICT-Based Systems -- 3.1.3 Usability Is a Partial Response to Designer-Focused Approaches -- 3.2 Principles for Social Design -- 3.2.1 Social Design Compared to Designer-Focused Approaches -- 3.2.2 Designing for a Heterogeneity of Uses, People, Contexts, and Data -- 3.2.3 The Designing of ICTs Continues During Their Use -- 3.2.4 There Is Agency in the Design and Deployment of ICTs -- Chapter 4: Social Informatics for ICT Policy Analysts -- 4.1 How Can Social Informatics Contribute to ICT Policy Analysts'Work?.

4.1.1 How Social Informatics Can Help -- 4.1.2 Contemporary Policy Issues from a Social Informatics Perspective -- 4.1.2.1 Notebook Computers Replacing Textbooks -- 4.2 A Historical View of Social Informatics-Oriented Policy Analysis -- 4.2.1 U.S. ICT Policy (1970-Present) -- 4.2.1.1 U.S. Congress's Office of Technology Assessment -- 4.2.1.2 The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board -- 4.2.1.3 President's Information Technology Advisory Committee -- 4.2.1.4 U.S. Department of Commerce -- 4.2.2 Private ICT Research Institutes in the 1990s -- 4.2.3 European ICT Policy Analysis (1985-Present) -- 4.2.3.1 The United Kingdom's Programme on Information and Communication Technologies -- 4.2.3.2 European Commission's Information Society Project Office in the 1990s -- 4.3 ICT Policy Analysis in the Next Decades -- Chapter 5: Teaching Key Ideas of Social Informatics -- 5.1 Why Teach Social Informatics? -- 5.1.1 Social Informatics Teaching in the Context of Broad Trends in Science-Oriented Education -- 5.2 Summarizing the Teaching of Social Informatics -- 5.2.1 Current Status of Teaching Social Informatics -- 5.2.2 Issues with the Current Status of Teaching Social Informatics -- 5.3 Teaching Social Informatics -- 5.3.1 Key Social Informatics Ideas -- 5.3.1.1 The Context of ICT Use Directly Affects Their Meanings and Roles -- 5.3.1.2 ICTs Are Not Value Neutral: Their Use Creates Winners and Losers -- 5.3.1.3 ICT Use Leads to Multiple, and Often Paradoxical, Effects -- 5.3.1.4 ICT Use Has Ethical Aspects -- 5.3.1.5 ICTs Are Configurable -- 5.3.1.6 ICTs Follow Trajectories -- 5.3.1.7 Co-Evolution of ICT System Design/Development/Use -- 5.3.2 Tailoring Social Informatics Concepts forSpecific Curricular Purposes -- 5.3.3 Social Informatics as Informed Critical Thinking -- 5.3.4 Issues with Teaching Social Informatics.

5.3.4.1 Motivating Contemporary ICT-Oriented Educators to Value (and Include) Social Informatics Concepts and Techniques in the Curriculum -- 5.3.4.2 Difficulties with Synthesizing Social Informatics Literature That Is Mostly Research-Based and Spread Across Numerous Disciplines -- 5.3.4.3 Issues with Helping Students Integrate Social Informatics Concepts and Techniques with Their Own Experiences -- 5.3.4.4 Dealing with Existing Mental Models That Students Bring to Social Informatics Topics -- 5.4 Recommendations -- Chapter 6: Communicating Social Informatics Research to Professional and Research Communities -- 6.1 Learning from Organizational and Social Informatics -- 6.2 Audience -- 6.3 Communicating to ICT Professional Audiences -- 6.3.1 Perceptions of the Relevance of Social Informatics Research -- 6.3.2 Competition for the Attention of the ICT Professional Audience -- 6.3.3 Strategies for Communicating to ICT Professional Audiences -- 6.3.3.1 Learning About ICT Professionals -- 6.3.3.2 Redesigning the Research Focus -- 6.3.3.3 Publicizing Social Informatics Research to the ICT Professional Audience -- 6.3.3.4 Holding Regular Forums That Bring Academics Together with ICT Professionals -- 6.3.3.5 Providing Continuing Education for ICT Professionals -- 6.3.3.6 Creating Research-Based "ICT Extension Services" -- 6.3.3.7 Managing Competition with Research and Consulting Firms -- 6.4 Communicating to Academic and Research Communities -- 6.4.1 Audience -- 6.4.2 Challenges of Communicating to Academic and Research Communities -- 6.4.3 Strategies for Improving Communication with Other Academic and Research Communities -- 6.4.3.1 Raising the Profile of Social Informatics Research -- 6.4.3.2 Increasing Publishing Options for Social Informatics Research -- 6.4.3.3 Taking Advantage of Easy Access to Networked Digital Information About Social Informatics.

6.4.3.4 Research Initiatives to Raise the Profile of Social Informatics -- 6.4.3.5 Increasing Institutional Support for Social Informatics Research -- 6.5 Raising the Visibility of Social Informatics -- Chapter 7: Conclusions -- 7.1 Summary of Findings, Concepts, and Issues -- 7.1.1 ICTs Are Socially Shaped -- 7.1.2 Problem-Oriented Nature of Social Informatics Research -- 7.1.3 People Are Social Actors -- 7.1.4 ICT Use Is Situated and Contextually Dependent -- 7.2 Specific Relevance to Particular Domainsof Interest -- 7.2.1 Social Informatics Relative to Designing, Developing, and Implementing ICTs -- 7.2.2 Social Informatics Relative to Information and ICT Policy Making -- 7.2.3 Social Informatics in ICT-Oriented Formal Education -- 7.3 Moving from Collecting Findings to Theorizing About ICTs -- 7.3.1 Institutional Nature of ICTs -- 7.3.2 Conceptualizing Computing from a Social Informatics Perspective -- 7.4 Social Informatics as a Professional Obligation -- 7.5 Taking Social Informatics Seriously -- References -- Appendix A: Reviews and Anthologies of Social Informatics Research -- Appendix B: Structure and Process of the 1997 Social Informatics Workshop -- Appendix C: 1997 Social Informatics Workshop Participants -- Appendix D: Additional Reviewers -- About the Authors -- Name Index -- Subject Index -- Glossary.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.