research-article

Across boundaries of influence and accountability: the multiple scales of public sector information systems

Authors:

Christopher A. Le Dantec,

W. Keith EdwardsAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '10: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 113 - 122

https://doi.org/10.1145/1753326.1753345

Published: 10 April 2010 Publication History

Abstract

The use of ICTs in the public sector has long been touted for its potential to transform the institutions that govern and provide social services. The focus, however, has largely been on systems that are used within particular scales of the public sector, such as at the scale of state or national government, the scale of regional or municipal entity, or at the scale of local service providers. The work presented here takes aim at examining ICT use that crosses these scales of influence and accountability. We report on a year long ethnographic investigation conducted at a variety of social service outlets to understand how a shared information system crosses the boundaries of these very distinct organizations. We put forward that such systems are central to the work done in the public sector and represent a class of collaborative work that has gone understudied.

References

[1]

Ackerman, M.S. The intellectual challenge of CSCW: The gap between social requirements and technical feasibility. Hum.-Comput. Interact., 15, 2, (2000), 179--203.

Digital Library

[2]

Ackerman, M.S. and McDonald, D.W. Collaborative support for informal information in collective memory systems. Information Systems Frontiers, 2, 3-4, (2000), 333--347.

Digital Library

[3]

Bardram, J. Designing for the dynamics of cooperative work activities. In CSCW '98: Proceedings of the 1998 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work. ACM, New York, NY, USA (1998). 89--98.

Digital Library

[4]

Bechky, B.A. Object lessons: Workplace artifacts as representations of occupational jurisdiction. American Journal of Sociology, 109, 3, (2003), 720--752.

[5]

Becker, T. Rating the impact of new technologies on democracy. Commun. ACM, 44, 1, (2001), 39--43.

Digital Library

[6]

Bell, G., Blythe, M., and Sengers, P. Making by making strange: Defamiliarization and the design of domestic technologies. ACM Transactions of Computer-Human Interaction, 12, 2, (2005), 149--173.

Digital Library

[7]

Bentley, R. and Dourish, P. Medium versus mechanism: Supporting collaboration through customization. In Proceedings ECSCW'95. Stockholm (1995). 133--148.

Digital Library

[8]

Berg, M. and Bowker, G. The multiple bodies of the medical record: Toward a sociology of an artifact. The Sociological Quarterly, 38, 3, (1997), 513--537.

[9]

Bowker, G.C. and Star, S.L. Sorting Things out: Classification and Its Consequences. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (1999).

Digital Library

[10]

Carlile, P.R. A pragmatic view of knowledge and boundaries: Boundary objects in new product development. Organization Science, 13, 4, (2002), 442--455.

Digital Library

[11]

Carlile, P.R. Transferring, translating, and transforming: An integrative framework for managing knowledge across boundaries. Organization Science, 15, 5, (2004), 555--568.

Digital Library

[12]

Carroll, J.M. and Farooq, U. Patterns as a paradigm for theory in community-based learning. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 2, 1, (2007), 41--59.

[13]

Commssion on Homelessness. Permanent supportive housing for atlanta: A five year plan. Tech. rep., Atlanta Commission on Homelessness (2004).

[14]

Dawes, S.S. and Pardo, T.A. Maximizing knowledge for program evaluation: Critical issues and practical challenges of ICT strategies. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 4084/2006, (2006), 58--69.

Digital Library

[15]

Deloitte Consulting. Blueprint to end homelessness in atlanta in ten years. Tech. rep., Atlanta Commission on Homelessness (2003).

[16]

Dourish, P., Lamping, J., and Rodden, T. Building bridges: Customisation and mutual intelligibility in shared category management. In GROUP'99: Proceedings of the international ACM SIGGROUP conference on Supporting group work. ACM, New York, NY, USA (1999). 11--20.

Digital Library

[17]

Goecks, J., Voida, A., Voida, S., and Mynatt, E.D. Charitable technologies: Opportunities for collaborative computing in nonprofit fundraising. In CSCW '08: Proceedings of the ACM 2008 conference on Computer supported cooperative work. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2008). 689--698.

Digital Library

[18]

Grinter, R.E., Herbsleb, J.D., and Perry, D.E. The geography of coordination: Dealing with distance in R&D work. In GROUP '99: Proceedings of the international ACM SIGGROUP conference on Supporting group work. ACM, New York, NY, USA (1999). 306--315.

Digital Library

[19]

Grudin, J. Why CSCW applications fail: Problems in the design and evaluation of organization of organizational interfaces. In CSCW '88: Proceedings of the 1988 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work. ACM, New York, NY, USA (1988). 85--93.

Digital Library

[20]

Gutierrez, O. and Friedman, D.H. Managing product expectations in human services information systems implementations: The case of homeless management information systems. International Journal of Project Management, 23, (2005), 513--523.

[21]

Harrison, Y., Murray, V., and MacGregor, J. The impact of ICT on the management of canadian volunteer programs. Tech. rep., University of Victoria (2004).

[22]

Heath, C. and Luff, P. Collaborative activity and technological design: Task coordination in london underground control rooms. In ECSCW'91: Proceedings of the second conference on European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, MA, USA (1991). 65--80.

Digital Library

[23]

Herbsleb, J.D., Mockus, A., Finholt, T.A., and Grinter, R.E. Distance, dependencies, and delay in a global collaboration. In CSCW '00: Proceedings of the 2000 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2000). 319--328.

Digital Library

[24]

Kellogg, K., Orlikowski, W.J., and Yates, J. Life in the trading zone: Structuring coordination across boundaries in postbureaucratic organizations. Organization Science, 17, 1, (2006), 22--44.

Digital Library

[25]

Kling, R. Automated welfare client-tracking and service integration: The political economy of computing. Commun. ACM, 21, 6, (1978), 484--493.

Digital Library

[26]

Kling, R. Cooperation, coordination and control in computer-supported work. Communications of the ACM, 34, 12, (1991), 83--88.

Digital Library

[27]

Le Dantec, C.A. and Edwards, W.K. The view from the trenches: Organization, power, and technology at two nonprofit homeless outreach centers. In CSCW '08: Proceedings of the ACM 2008 conference on Computer supported cooperative work. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2008). 589--598.

Digital Library

[28]

Lutters, W.G. and Ackerman, M.S. Achieving safety: A field study of boundary objects in aircraft technical support. In CSCW '02: Proceedings of the 2002 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2002). 266--275.

Digital Library

[29]

Markus, M.L. Power, politics, and MIS implementation. Commun. ACM, 26, 6, (1983), 430--444.

Digital Library

[30]

Merkel, C., Farooq, U., Xiao, L., Ganoe, C., Rosson, M.B., and Carroll, J.M. Managing technology use and learning in nonprofit community organizations: Methodological challenges and opportunities. In CHIMIT '07: Proceedings of the 2007 symposium on Computer human interaction for the management of information technology. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2007).

Digital Library

[31]

Miles, M.B. and Huberman, A.M. Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook. London, 2nd edn. (1994).

[32]

Mynatt, E.D., O'Day, V.L., Adler, A., and Ito, M. Networked communities: Something old, something new, something borrowed ... Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 7, 1-2, (1998), 123--156.

Digital Library

[33]

Orlikowski, W.J. The duality of technology: Rethinking the concept of technology in organizations. Organization Science, 3, 3, (1992), 398--427.

Digital Library

[34]

Orlikowski, W.J. Learning from notes: Organizational issues in groupware implementation. In CSCW '92: Proceedings of the 1992 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work. ACM, New York, NY, USA (1992). 362--369.

Digital Library

[35]

Orlikowski, W.J. Using technology and constituting structures: A practice lens for studying technology in organizations. Organization Science, 11, 4, (2000), 404--428.

Digital Library

[36]

Orlikowski, W.J. Sociomaterial practices: Exploring technology at work. Organization Studies, 28, 9, (2007), 1436--1448.

[37]

Ribes, D. and Finholt, T.A. Tensions across the scales: Planning infrastructure for the long-term. In GROUP '07: Proceedings of the 2007 international ACM conference on Supporting group work. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2007). 229--238.

Digital Library

[38]

Ribes, D. and Finholt, T.A. Representing community: Knowing users in the face of changing constituencies. In CSCW '08: Proceedings of the ACM 2008 conference on Computer supported cooperative work. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2008). 107--116.

Digital Library

[39]

Sarpard, K. From counting to cash: How MIS impacts the homeless. The International Journal of Applied Management and Technology, 1, 1, (2003), 17--27.

[40]

Snellen, I. ICTs, bureaucracies, and the future of democracy. Commun. ACM, 44, 1, (2001), 45--48.

Digital Library

[41]

Star, S.L. and Griesemer, J.R. Institutional ecology, 'translations' and boundary objects: Amateurs and professionals in berkeley's museum of vertebrate zoology, 1907--39. Social Studies of Science, 19, 3, (1989), 387--420.

[42]

Strauss, A. and Corbin, J. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Sage, second edn. (1998).

[43]

Taylor, J.A. and Burt, E. Not-for-profits in the democratic polity. Commun. ACM, 44, 1, (2001), 58--62.

Digital Library

[44]

Weiss, J.A., Gruber, J.E., and Carver, R.H. Reflections on value: Policy makers evaluate federal information systems. Public Administration Review, 46, 6, (1986), 497 --- 505.

Digital Library

[45]

Zimmerman, A. and Finholt, T.A. Growing an infrastructure: The role of gateway organizations in cultivating new communities of users. In GROUP '07: Proceedings of the 2007 international ACM conference on Supporting group work. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2007). 239--248.

Digital Library

Cited By

Lee SDourish P(2024)Reconfiguring Data Relations: Institutional Dynamics around Data in Local GovernanceProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36869598:CSCW2(1-28)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3686959
Tracey PGarcia P(2024)Intermediation: Algorithmic Prioritization in Practice in Homeless ServicesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36869518:CSCW2(1-24)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
https://doi.org/10.1145/3686951
Bopp CVoida A(2023)"Showing the Context": A Need for Oligopticonic Information Systems in Homelessness MeasurementProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35796227:CSCW1(1-24)Online publication date: 16-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3579622
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Across boundaries of influence and accountability: the multiple scales of public sector information systems
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
    1. Collaborative and social computing theory, concepts and paradigms
      1. Computer supported cooperative work
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing and business
      1. Computer supported cooperative work

Recommendations

Transparency and Accountability After 2015: e-Parliament for Citizens' Engagement in the Ghanaian Environment
ICEGOV '15-16: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance

Beyond providing information, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) really contributes to citizens' participation to public debate. With the use of ICT, Civil societies have played a big role especially in the areas of training, research, ...
Assessment of ICT project failure factors in Kenyan government agencies

E-governance has made it possible to provide efficient government administration and services through ICT. ICT projects in the private sector do well compared to those in the public sector and worse in government agencies. However, government ICT projects ...
eGovernance implementation model for public sector innovation
ICEGOV '12: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance

This study examines the process of innovation in the Federal Government Agencies of Pakistan to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of public services. Research objective of this study is to provide an eGovernance Implementation Model of how ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '10: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2010

2690 pages

ISBN:9781605589299

DOI:10.1145/1753326

General Chair:
Elizabeth Mynatt
Georgia Institute of Technology
,
Program Chairs:
Geraldine Fitzpatrick
Vienna University of Technology
,
Scott Hudson
Carnegie Mellon University
,
Keith Edwards
Georgia Tech
,
Tom Rodden
University of Nottingham

Copyright © 2010 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 10 April 2010

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

CHI '10

Sponsor:

SIGCHI

CHI '10: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 10 - 15, 2010

Georgia, Atlanta, USA

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

Upcoming Conference

CHI 2025

Sponsor:
sigchi

ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 26 - May 1, 2025

Yokohama , Japan

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

50
Total Citations
View Citations
716
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)27
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)4

Reflects downloads up to 02 Mar 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Lee SDourish P(2024)Reconfiguring Data Relations: Institutional Dynamics around Data in Local GovernanceProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36869598:CSCW2(1-28)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3686959
Tracey PGarcia P(2024)Intermediation: Algorithmic Prioritization in Practice in Homeless ServicesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36869518:CSCW2(1-24)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
https://doi.org/10.1145/3686951
Bopp CVoida A(2023)"Showing the Context": A Need for Oligopticonic Information Systems in Homelessness MeasurementProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35796227:CSCW1(1-24)Online publication date: 16-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3579622
Darian SChauhan AMarton RRuppert JAnderson KClune RCupchak MGannett MHolton JKamas EKibozi-Yocka JMauro-Gallegos DNaylor SO'Malley MPatel MSandberg JSiegler TTate RTemtim AWhaley SVoida A(2023)Enacting Data Feminism in Advocacy Data WorkProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35794807:CSCW1(1-28)Online publication date: 16-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3579480
Chau CHolstein KMadaio M(2022)Part of the Conversation: Workforce Professionals' Perspectives on the Roles and Impacts of Workforce TechnologiesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35551356:CSCW2(1-22)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3555135
Rifat MProttoy HAhmed S(2022)Putting the Waz on Social Media: Infrastructuring Online Islamic Counterpublic through Digital Sermons in BangladeshProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3502006(1-19)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3491102.3502006
Briggs ACafaro F(2021)End-User Needs of Fragmented Databases in Higher Education Data Analysis and Decision MakingInformatics10.3390/informatics80300428:3(42)Online publication date: 24-Jun-2021
https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics8030042
Van Kleunen LMuller BVoida S(2021)"Wiring a City"Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/34492525:CSCW1(1-22)Online publication date: 22-Apr-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3449252
Ammitzbøll Flügge AHildebrandt TMøller N(2021)Street-Level Algorithms and AI in Bureaucratic Decision-MakingProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/34491145:CSCW1(1-23)Online publication date: 22-Apr-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3449114
Prilla M(2019)"I simply watched where she was looking at"Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/33611273:GROUP(1-21)Online publication date: 5-Dec-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3361127
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Figures

Tables

Media

View Table of Conten