People and Technology

People and Technology Today: Some Educational Implications

by Alfredo Rodríguez-Sedano

The present article approaches some of the educational implications borne by humanity with technological progress.more The present article approaches some of the educational implications borne by humanity with technological progress.
We begin by pointing out significant data that classify what is considered relevant. Then, confronting the future is
discussed by analyzing the attitudes necessary to promote the goals. Confronted with these challenges, three
possible focuses are suggested in accordance to the novel realities issued from science and technology: The first is
the revitalization of humanism; The second is, the society of knowledge calls for both “radicalism and
responsibility”, which is also a response to our own decisions, without avoiding their consequences nor discharging
them in others; The third is, understanding the true and full significance of solidarity. Finally, some approaches and
educational suggestions are highlighted allowing parents, professors and students the greatest opportunity for
profiting from the limitless resources that science and technology provide us for personal growth.

THIRD MISSION OF UNIVERSITIES: COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND EXTENSION EDUCATION

by Pradeep Dwivedi

Published in UNIVERSITY NEWS 48 (49), NOV.29- DEC.5 2011

Co-authored with:

A.K. Rai
Principal
BRDPG College,
Deoria, UP, Pin code- 274001, India



Archana Kumari
Programme coordinator
TREx: Teaching, Research & Extension Watch
T- 1249-50, mangolpuri
New Delhi

The untapped energy of universities and other institutions of higher education to address regional issues seem... more The untapped energy of universities and other institutions of higher education to address regional issues seem endless. Policy-makers and analysts alike have begun to pay more attention to the ways in which university-based capabilities and activities can contribute to social and economic development. (Gassler et al. 2001). Since their inception, although universities have contributed directly and indirectly too much of the decision-making in wider society, this function has not been ‘core’ to their mission in the same way as the first two streams of university activity – research and teaching.

Technonatures Introduction White Wilbert

by Damian White

An attempt to survey and think through the political implications of hybridity discourses such as Latour and Haraway for environmental politics. This is the introductory chapter from D.White and C.Wilbert (Eds) Technonatures: Environments, Technologies, Spaces, and Places in the Twenty-first CenturyISBN13: 978-1-55458-150-4, 2009.

Lots of other really interesting cuts in the book from Erik Swyngedouw, Sarah Whatmore, Mike Michael, Steve Hinchliffe and others ...check it out at Available from http://www.wlu.ca/press/Catalog/white-wilbert.shtml

Key factors in the invention of marine conservation technology: A case study of TEDs.

by Lekelia "Kiki" Jenkins

see page 105 of Proceedings

To solve problems such as bycatch, policy-makers resort to conservation technologies, such as turtle excluder devices... more To solve problems such as bycatch, policy-makers resort to conservation technologies, such as turtle excluder devices (TEDs). Although substantial funding has been directed toward the invention and diffusion—the spread and adoption of an item by people—(I&D) of conservation technologies, little research has investigated the I&I process itself.  As a case study, I examined the use of TEDs for the U.S. shrimp trawl fisheries.  I identified key features for successful I&D by conducting on-site interviews with people involved in the process including National Marine Fisheries Service gear specialists, Sea Grant agents, and industry representatives. In addition, I analyzed records from management agencies using the grounded-theory approach, a method that allowed me to identify concepts that emerge from the text and to link these concepts to existing theories of invention and diffusion of innovations. The resulting data were used to (1) diagram the relationships among participants in the network and (2) construct a graphical depiction of how technology evolved, including encoded information about the I&D process.  I conclude that: (1) social and political pressures compel speedy action at the determent of adequate goal setting and research planning, (2) people with both mechanical and shrimping expertise have invented the most widely adopted TEDs but directed-recruitment and integration of these individuals into the invention network is poor, and (3) industry-sensitive adoption efforts are the most successful and include the use of videos, translation for non-English speakers, and community-based Sea Grant agents but translation is inadequate and community-based agents are too few.

The end game is diffusion: adoption of turtle excluder devices and the diffusion process

by Lekelia "Kiki" Jenkins

see page 45 of Proceedings

To solve problems such as bycatch, policy-makers resort to conservation technologies, such as turtle excluder devices... more To solve problems such as bycatch, policy-makers resort to conservation technologies, such as turtle excluder devices (TEDs). For conservation technologies to be useful management tools, they must be widely adopted by the intended users. In order to better understand the adoption process for conservation technologies and what influences the success of the process, I studied the adoption of TEDs by the U.S. shrimp fishery. I conducted on-site interviews with key informants including NMFS personnel, Sea Grant agents, state managers and fishers. In addition, I analyzed records from NMFS, Sea Grant, NGOs, and state governments using grounded theory.  This technique allowed me to identify categories and concepts that emerge from the text and to link these concepts to existing theories and models, specifically diffusion theory and technology transfer. Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is transmitted among members of a social system. Technology transfer is the movement of information or technology from one organizational setting to another. An important difference between these two models of adoption is that diffusion theory focuses on individual adoption decisions. By linking my data to these two theories I concluded that (1) some policy-makers and managers erroneously believed that a mandate negates the need for individual adoption decisions (2) both Sea Grant and NMFS used technology transfer methods that promoted TED awareness but not wide-spread adoption (3) diffusion theory would be a more appropriate model to encourage wide-spread adoption (4) enforcement is not a substitute for nor can it assure true adoption.

Bycatch: Interactional expertise, dolphins and the U.S. tuna fishery

by Lekelia "Kiki" Jenkins

published in 'Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science', 2007

The burgeoning field of studies in expertise and experience (SEE) is a useful theoretical approach to complex... more The burgeoning field of studies in expertise and experience (SEE) is a useful theoretical approach to complex problems. In light of SEE, examination of the controversial and well known case study of dolphin bycatch in the US tuna fishery, reveals that effective problem-solving was hindered by institutional tensions in respect of decision-making authority and difficulties with the integration of different expertises. Comparing the profiles of four individuals, who played distinct roles in the problem-solving process, I show that (1) to address a complex problem, a suite of contributory expertises—rarely found in one individual—may be required; (2) formal credentials are not a reliable indicator of who possesses these necessary expertises; (3) interactional expertise and interactive ability are useful tools in combining the contributory expertises of others to yield a desirable collective outcome; and (4) the concepts of contributory expertise and no expertise are useful tools for understanding the actual contribution of various parties to the problem-solving process.

The Evolution of a Trading Zone: A Case Study of the Turtle Excluder Device

by Lekelia "Kiki" Jenkins

published in 'Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science', 2010

This paper explores the evolution of a trading zone by organizing the case study of turtle excluder devices within the... more This paper explores the evolution of a trading zone by organizing the case study of turtle excluder devices within the model proposed by Collins et al. (2007). The case study offers evidence that trading zones do evolve and that the concepts of enforced and fractionated trading zones hold practical utility for describing and defining the complexities of actual exchanges. In this case a trading zone evolved from enforced to fractionated and ultimately diverged into two trading zones. For each step of the evolution I describe the forces that drove these transitions. Finally, I present an adapted trading zone model that is conceptually a better fit for the turtle excluder device case study.

Profile and Influence of the Successful Fisher-Inventor of Marine Conservation Technology

by Lekelia "Kiki" Jenkins

published in 'Conservation & Society', 2010

Anecdotally it is often said that fishers are the best inventors of marine conservation technologies. In this paper I... more Anecdotally it is often said that fishers are the best inventors of marine conservation technologies. In this paper I describe case studies of Turtle Excluder Devices  (TEDs) and dolphin conservation technology, offering empirical evidence that fishers are successful inventors of marine conservation technology. I describe the Local Inventor Effect, in which adoption of a technology is disproportionately high in the geographic area near the inventor’s home. In one case, the adoption of a local invention was 600% higher than that of the next most popular device. Further, I present the Successful Inventor Profile for inventors of marine conservation technologies. This profile consists of three characteristics (1) a successful conservation technology inventor will have extensive experience relevant to the problem and potential solutions, (2) he or she will have extensive experience in fabrication, and (3) he or she will have the ability and tendency to employ mental and/or physical models, to assemble and refine inventions.

Leading IT-Enabled Change Inside Ericsson: A Transformation Into a Global Network of Shared Service Centres

by Einar Iveroth

Iveroth, E. (2010). Leading IT-Enabled Change Inside Ericsson: A Transformation Into a Global Network of Shared Service Centres. Doctorial thesis No. 146, Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, 116 pp., ISSN 1103-8454.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore—from a managerial perspective—how IT-enabled change is designed, led, and... more The purpose of this thesis is to explore—from a managerial perspective—how IT-enabled change is designed, led, and sustained from-within an organisation. This is an issue of central concern because there is a considerable lack of research that directly incorporates IT in management and organisational change studies. In addition, earlier research has recurrently focused on abstract theorising, aggregated perspectives, and exploring organisational change from the outside, from-without. Consequently, the present body of research provides limited knowledge of how organisations in practice lead large-scale IT-enabled transformations.

The thesis herein sets out to explore this question, and does so by following the change designers and agents of the telecommunications company Ericsson, that transformed its finance and accounting unit from a highly decentralised structure into a shared service centre structure (SSC) entitled: “The Global F&A Transformation Programme”. The formal transformation lasted three years, was enabled by an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, and was driven in the majority of Ericsson’s sub-units situated in more than 140 countries.

Theoretically, this thesis addresses the research question: how do actors and structures influence large-scale IT-enabled change? The principal finding of the thesis is a four-stage analytical framework built on the concepts of common ground, common meaning, common interest, and common behaviour: The Commonality Framework for IT-enabled Change. The value of the framework is that it depicts the interplay between actors and structures on a micro-level. In doing so, the framework explains the different levels of complexity in a transformation and how they require different structures to be used, different activities to be performed, different skills to be applied, and different roles to be played. The framework can be used by both academics and practitioners to develop, assess, and improve IT-enabled change projects.

In a broader perspective, the findings further suggest that change comes about as an upward spiral, within which the moving targets of IT and organisation are intimately interconnected. This reciprocal interconnectedness between IT and organisation across time implies that if changes are done to technological properties, this necessitates changes to the organisational properties, and vice versa. Organisations at the hands-on-level more or less have to change to make use of the IT-enabled advantages. Thus, successful IT-enabled change is more than the technology artefact per se, and requires thoughtful attentiveness not only to the technological and material side, but also to the organisational, social and human side of change.

The theoretical contribution of this thesis is the in-depth exposition of different aspects and interplays between the properties of actors and structures from-within the organisation. The empirical contribution is the description of how contemporary multinational organisations initiate, lead, and sustain large-scale IT-enabled change.

Inside Ericsson: a framework for the practice of leading global IT-enabled change

by Einar Iveroth

Iveroth (2010). “Inside Ericsson: a framework for the practice of leading global IT-enabled Change”. California Management Review, Vol. 53, Issue 1

This article explores what it is that managers actually do to successfully lead IT-enabled change. It is based on a... more This article explores what it is that managers actually do to successfully lead IT-enabled change. It is based on a three-year case study of the practice of leading IT-enabled change inside the global telecommunications company Ericsson. The organization managed to successfully change their finance and accounting (F&A) department from an independent structure of numerous local F&A organizations with their own information systems and their own way of doing things into one interdependent global network of shared service centers enabled by a single information system. The findings from the case study are combined with recent research and elevated into the “Commonality Framework for IT-Enabled Change”, which explains how such change can be driven in practice.

The sociomaterial practice of IT-enabled change

by Einar Iveroth

Iveroth (2011) “The sociomaterial practice of IT-enabled change”. Journal of Change Management, Vol. 11, Issue 3 (forthcoming; availible at Taylor & Francis online).

This article applies a sociomaterial perspective to IT-enabled change. The empirical data consists of in-depth... more This article applies a sociomaterial perspective to IT-enabled change. The empirical data consists of in-depth interviews and internal documents from a longitudinal case study of the telecommunications company Ericsson. They managed to successfully transform their finance and accounting (F&A) unit from a highly decentralised structure into a so-called shared service centre (SSC) structure. The transformation was executed within three years and was enabled by an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The findings consist of a framework with four dimensions that explains that IT-enabled change is a practice that is both social and material: a sociomaterial practice. The contribution of this article is that it shows that it is in the entanglement of the social and material elements across time where we can find a deeper understanding of IT-enabled change.

Sex in the Digital Age: Media Ecology and Megan's Law

by Brett Lunceford

Lunceford, Brett. "Sex in the Digital Age: Media Ecology and Megan's Law." Explorations in Media Ecology, 9, no. 4 (2010): 239-44.

This essay considers adolescent sexting from a media ecology standpoint, suggesting that in addition to the... more This essay considers adolescent sexting from a media ecology standpoint, suggesting that in addition to the technologizing of sexuality one must also begin to consider the sexualizing of technological systems.

The Role of Trust in the Successful Implementation of Information Systems

by Carol Tutzauer

Draft study proposal

Increasingly, chief information officers (CIOs) in major corporations face critical decisions relating to the... more Increasingly, chief information officers (CIOs) in major corporations face critical decisions relating to the successful development, deployment, adoption, and management of information technology (IT) systems. In 1995 alone, software project spending in the U.S. reached nearly $250 billion, while U.S. companies found themselves facing cost overruns estimated to be $59 billion and canceled projects amounting to $81 billion (Johnson 1995). With over half of spending on IT systems devoted to overruns and abandoned projects, CIOs must not only weigh carefully decisions to embark on new projects, but also manage such projects effectively.This paper extends the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) beyond purely technological considerations to encompass organizational and human factors -- in particular, the role of organizational trust. A research project is also proposed to test the revised model.

Technology Policy and the National Information Infrastructure

by Lee McKnight

Actores y procesos en la innovación tecnológica

by Felipe Lara Rosano

Reconsidering Technology Adoption and Resistance: Observations of a Semi-Luddite

by Brett Lunceford

Lunceford, Brett. “Reconsidering Technology Adoption and Resistance: Observations of a Semi-Luddite.” Explorations in Media Ecology, 8, no. 1 (2009): 29-47.

The question of how and why people adopt technologies is an area that has received great scrutiny, but less attention... more The question of how and why people adopt technologies is an area that has received great scrutiny, but less attention is given to those who willingly choose to avoid particular technologies. This article considers current models of technology adoption and explores how technology influences us as a society and individually, paying special attention to how large-scale shifts in technological change come to bear on individuals who choose not to adopt specific technologies. By combining scholarship in the information sciences with observations from media ecology theorists, this article proposes a more nuanced view of technology adoption and resistance.

The Concept of Appropriation As a Heuristic for Conceptualising the Relationship Between Technology, People and Organisations.

by Chris Kimble

P. Baillette and C. Kimble. The Concept of Appropriation as a Heuristic for Conceptualising the Relationship between Technology, People and Organisations. Proceedings of 13th UKAIS Conference, (April 2008), Bournemouth, 2008.

The stated aim of this conference is to debate the continuing evolution of IS in businesses and other organisations.... more The stated aim of this conference is to debate the continuing evolution of IS in businesses and other organisations. This paper seeks to contribute to this debate by exploring the concept of appropriation from a number of different epistemological, cultural and linguistic viewpoints to allow us to explore 'the black box' of appropriation and to gain a fuller understanding of the term. At the conceptual level, it will examine some of the different ways in which people have attempted to explain the relationship between the objective and concrete features of technology and the subjective and shifting nature of the people and organisation within which that technology is deployed. At the cultural and linguistic level the paper will examine the notion as it is found in the Francophone literature, where the term has a long and rich history, and the Anglophone literature where appropriation is seen as a rather more specialist term. The paper will conclude with some observations on the ongoing nature of the debate, the value of reading beyond the literature with which one is familiar and the rewards that come from exploring different historical (and linguistic) viewpoints.

The brain as an instrument. Comment on Gergen's 'The acculturated brain'

by Maarten Derksen

Accepted for publication in Theory & Psychology. Gergen has indicated he will reply.

In 'The acculturated brain', his critical analysis of the current brain hype, Kenneth Gergen concludes that we should... more In 'The acculturated brain', his critical analysis of the current brain hype, Kenneth Gergen concludes that we should consider the brain primarily as an instrument for achieving culturally constructed ends, and challenge the determining power of the brain with the question 'could I do otherwise?' In my reply, I point out that the pressing issue is usually 'how could I do otherwise?', sorting out determined behavior from culturally constructed action. The challenge is to understand the increasing traffic between brain and culture, rather than to keep mechanism and meaning separate. Secondly, the notion of the brain as an instrument needs to be developed in the light of technology studies, in order to avoid both neuro-reductionism and the instrumentalism implied in Gergen's proposal.