TY - JOUR
T1 - From findings to theories
T2 - Institutionalizing social informatics
AU - Sawyer, Steve
AU - Tapia, Andrea
N1 - Funding Information:
Engaging large-scale social informatics projects is not a new idea. For example, the URBIS projects at UCI ran for nearly 15 years. In the early 2000s the NSF funded several large-scale social informatics-like projects via its Information Technology Research program. These forms of collective action provide a means to help institutionalize social informatics by focusing on sustained, linked efforts around issues such as privacy, mobility, ubiquity, etc. Again, this advocacy for larger scale studies is not a suggestion that there should be one (or even a small number) of such efforts. Our goal is to push for collective scholarly activity regarding findings, to pursue theory building via larger scale projects, and to make such activities both visible to others and central to social informaticians.
PY - 2007/7
Y1 - 2007/7
N2 - We focus here on the history, status, and future of social informatics. In doing this we build on the visionary work of the late Rob Kling. Social informatics research contributes insights and perspectives to the study of computing in our society that other approaches do not. We make the case that social informatics is on its way to becoming a scholarly institution: accepted as one of the several approaches to study computing, and in particular, the approach best suited to engage on computerization. In making this case, we highlight the value of social informatics, summarize its principles and common findings, point to current work and issues, illustrate the three perspectives through which to pursue this scholarship, and identify several current activities remaining for social informatics to institutionalize.
AB - We focus here on the history, status, and future of social informatics. In doing this we build on the visionary work of the late Rob Kling. Social informatics research contributes insights and perspectives to the study of computing in our society that other approaches do not. We make the case that social informatics is on its way to becoming a scholarly institution: accepted as one of the several approaches to study computing, and in particular, the approach best suited to engage on computerization. In making this case, we highlight the value of social informatics, summarize its principles and common findings, point to current work and issues, illustrate the three perspectives through which to pursue this scholarship, and identify several current activities remaining for social informatics to institutionalize.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34547401652&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=34547401652&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/01972240701444196
DO - 10.1080/01972240701444196
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:34547401652
SN - 0197-2243
VL - 23
SP - 263
EP - 275
JO - Information Society
JF - Information Society
IS - 4
ER -