From: kling@ics.uci.edu (Rob Kling)
Subject: Article - Behind the Terminal
Newsgroups: comp.groupware
Date: 14 Aug 92 00:22:06 GMT


This is the abstract of an article which you might find of interest.
It examines the social dimesnions of implementing information systems
and office systems with ideas that are pertinent to groupware. But it
does not specialize in groupware issues. Consequently, I'm not
posting the full article on comp.groupware. I have posted the full
article on comp.society and comp.infosystems.

I will soon be giving some seminars on the web models whihc are partially
explained in this paper. Consequently, I'd appreciate any feedback.

If there is interest, I'll post an earlier, companion paper,
"Defining the Boundaries of Computing Across Complex
Organizations" in Critical Issues in Information Systems
Research.  Richard Boland and Rudolf Hirschheim (eds.) John Wiley
and Sons, 1987.

Best wishes,

Rob Kling

===========================================
                          Behind the Terminal:
             The Critical Role of Computing Infrastructure
         In Effective Information Systems' Development and Use


                               Rob Kling
             Department of Information and Computer Science
                  Public Policy Research Organization
                        University of California
                            Irvine, Ca 92717
                              714-856-5955
                        email:kling@ics.uci.edu

                               Draft 4.02
                      July 17, 1991 (Aug 4, 1991)

To appear in: Challenges and Strategies for Research in Systems
Development. William Cotterman and James Senn (Ed.). John Wiley,
London.

                            ABSTRACT
Contemporary approaches to systems analysis ignore the importance
of computing infrastructure -- the kinds of resources necessary
for making computerized system workable and effective.
Infrastructure includes "hard resources" such as electricity and
physical space; it also includes human resources such as the
skill levels of systems users and maintainer.
Systems analyses which account for infrastructure can help lead
to more effective recommendations.  The key organizing ideas of
this paper, web models, are based on almost 20 years of empirical
studies of the ways that people and organizations adopt, develop
and use computerized systems. It is based on an understanding of
how people and organizations actually behave rather than upon a
model which prescribes how they should behave.

Web models draw "large" social boundaries around a focal
computing resource so that the defining situation includes: the
ecology of participants who influence the adoption and use of
computer-based technologies, the infrastructures for supporting
system development and use, and the history of local computing
developments. Web models help explain the actual leverage of
computing developments, their carrying costs, and the ways that
systems are valued by different participants.  Web models are
contrasted with conventionally rational "discrete-entity" models
which are a-contextual, a-historical, and assume that adequate
infrastructure can always be available as needed.
The web approach to computing infrastructure is  illustrated with
a rich longitudinal case study of the use of desktop computing in
a dynamic work group. The chapter also examines ways that
infrastructure designs influence the choice of computerized
systems which are appropriate for specific groups of users.

Acknowledgements: I've deepened my understanding of computing
infrastructure and systems development in discussions with Jon
Allen, Werner Beuschel, Joey George, Suzanne Iacono, Tom Jewett,
Matthew Jones, Kate Kaiser, John King, Kenneth Kraemer, Steve
Lepore, Geoff Walsham, and Mary Zmuidzinas. Funds for conducting
some of the research reported here came from NSF Grants
IRI8709613 and IRI9015497.
Newsgroups: comp.groupware