Carsten Sorensen, Department of Information Systems, London School of Economics and Political Science: Challenges in Information and Communication Technologies

As the rapid development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) provide us with a range of options, we as information systems researchers attempt to understand and conceptualise the challenges associated with both the development and use of these technologies in individual, group, private and work contexts. We apply theories from other disciplines helping us, for example, understanding human and organisational behaviour. We also develop our own theories, mostly concerning the ICT development process. There is, however a need for further work attempting to theorise what is at the centre of our discipline, namely the ICT artefact. A study by Orlikowski and Iacono (2001) shows that a quarter of all the papers published in Information Systems Research were in fact not based on any conceptualisation of the ICT artefact at all. This presentation will ask the general question: "What is ICT used for?" and discuss it through preliminary research characterising situated software from both a technical and a social perspective, and for each of these perspectives characterise the technology within a mono-centric, a poly-centric and a processual dimension.

Välkommna!
John Cumberbatch