<Emphasis Type="Italic">This Is Not a Fish</Emphasis>: On the Scale and Politics of Infrastructure Design Studies

Interconnected workplace information technologies (information infrastructures) are distributed across user and system types, agendas, locales, and temporal rhythms. The term infrastructuring describes the design of information infrastructure not as a bounded phase but as a continuous collaborative and inherently political process. From the perspective of ethnographers, however, this conceptualization presents the practical challenge of dealing with the political work involved in infrastructuring and in its study. In this paper, I discuss the challenges of infrastructuring activities for ethnographic research. Based on a self-revealing account of my three-year ethnographic study of an oil company’s project to design a platform for subsea environmental monitoring in the Arctic region, I discuss how my framing of infrastructuring was the result of my process of constructing the ethnographic field in my research. I combined four mechanisms to scale my ethnographic method to investigate infrastructuring across heterogeneous dimensions. Drawing on my practical experience, I discuss how my process of constructing the field let me discover richer possibilities for understanding the politics involved in the study of infrastructuring.     

Tying Knots: Participatory Infrastructuring at Work

Today, most design projects are infrastructuring projects, because they build on technologies, competencies and practices that already exist. While infrastructuring was originally seen as being full of conflicts and contradictions with what is already present, we find that many contemporary reports seem to mainly address participatory infrastructuring as horizontal co-design and local, mutual learning processes in which people attempt to make the most out of available technology. In this paper we expand our view of design activities in three dimensions: First, how participatory processes play out vertically in different political and practical arenas; second, on the back stage of design, the messy activities that occur before, between and after the participatory workshops. And third, on their reach; how they tie into existing networks across organizations, and how agency and initiatives become dispersed within these networks. To illustrate and discuss the process of participatory infrastructuring we use a case study from an educational context. This particular project contains a diverse set of design activities at many organizational levels revolving around technology, decision-making, competence-building, commitment and policy-making. The project highlights these complexities, and our discussions lead to a vocabulary for participatory infrastructuring that focuses on knotworking, rather than structure, and on both horizontal and vertical reach and sustainability. This vocabulary is grounded in the meeting of the literature on infrastructuring, participatory design, and activity theory, and leads to a revised understanding of, for example, learning and conflicts in participatory infrastructuring.     

Designing digital and creative scaffolds to strengthen Indigenous nations: being Wiradjuri by practising sovereignty

ABSTRACT

The proliferation of digitally mediated DIY practices constitutes new modalities of political expression and participation, shaping how citizenship is enacted and performed. However, our paper begins by problematizing concepts of citizenship in media and communication contexts that only speaks to identity-formation. For Indigenous Australians, citizenship does not need to be asserted or constructed—they are sovereign and they have never ceded their land, rights or identity. Pursuing this argument, we share insights of various digital and creative scaffolds that are being designed with Wiradjuri people as continuous ‘infrastructuring’ to express and practice Wiradjuri sovereignty. This exploration is enabling a political identity to form and creating multiple places to be Wiradjuri together. We also discuss how designing digital and creative scaffolds can be considered as a meeting place of sovereigns, to attend to a consciousness that non-Indigenous people are also practising their own sovereignty in relation to respecting Indigenous sovereignty/ies.     

Re-Infrastructuring for eHealth: Dealing with Turns in Infrastructure Development

In this paper, we examine infrastructuring in the context of developing national, public eHealth services in Norway. Specifically, we analyze the work of a project team engaged in the design and development of new web-based capabilities for communication between citizens and primary healthcare practitioners. We frame the case as a study of re-infrastructuring to signify a particular occasion of infrastructuring that entails facilitating a new logic within established social and technological networks. To make sense of the particularities of re-infrastructuring, we draw from research in infrastructure studies which considers embeddedness as a resource in infrastructure evolution. We analyze how actors worked to re-infrastructure through adapting primary care information systems, information flows and representations of patient data. Our findings show how the work of re-infrastructuring revolves around addressing two key design concerns: a) bringing novelty without being trapped in the existing arrangements or harming what is in place, b) bringing changes that are within a specific direction although they happen through distributed decision taking.     

Infrastructuring in Healthcare through the OpenEHR Architecture

In Norway, a national initiative is currently aiming at standardising the electronic patient record (EPR) content based on an openEHR framework. The openEHR architecture, offers users the capability to conduct standardisation and structuration of the EPR content in a distributed manner, through an internet-based tool. Systems based on this architecture, is expected to ensure universal (also internationally) interoperability among all forms of electronic data. A crude estimate is that it is necessary to define somewhere between 1000 and 2000 standardised elements or clinical concepts (so-called archetypes), to constitute a functioning EPR system. Altogether, the collection of defined archetypes constitutes a backbone of an interoperable EPR system lending on the openEHR architecture. We conceptualize the agreed-upon archetypes as a large-scale information infrastructure, and the process of developing the archetypes as a infrastructuring effort. With this as a backdrop, we focus on the following research question: What are the challenges of infrastructuring in a large-scale user-driven standardisation process in healthcare? This question is operationalized into three sub-questions: First, how are the openEHR-based archetypes standardised in practice? Second, what is the role of daily clinical practice, and existing systems in the process of developing archetypes? Third, how may related, but supposedly independent infrastructuring projects shape each other’s progress? We contribute with insight into how power relations and politics shape the infrastructuring process. Empirically, we have studied the formative process of establishing a national information infrastructure based on the openEHR approach in the period 2012–2016 in Norway.     

Infrastructuring and Ordering Devices in Health Care: Medication Plans and Practices on a Hospital Ward

In this paper, we analyse physicians’ and nurses’ practices of prescribing and administering medication through the use of paper-based, and digitalized medication plans. Our point of departure is an ethnographic study of the implications of upgrading an electronic medication module (EMM) that is part of an electronic health record (EHR), carried out at an endocrinology department. The upgrade led to a temporary breakdown of the EMM, and a return to paper-based medication plans. The breakdown made visible and noticeable the taken-for-granted capabilities of medication plans in their paper-based and digital versions, and the distribution of functionalities between medication plans and clinicians. We see the case as an opportunity to analyse infrastructuring in health care, the process by which medical practices and artefacts become parts of social and technological networks with longer reaches and more channels through which coordination among distributed actors is enabled and formed. In this case, infrastructuring means an extended scope and intensity of the coordinative capabilities of medication plans, and an increased vulnerability to, and dependency on events outside the immediate loci of interaction. We particularly note the capacity of the EMM to facilitate different kinds of ordering of information and practices, and propose the conceptualizing of such digitalized artefacts as ‘ordering devices’. Ordering devices order information, stipulate action, and coordinate interaction across and within social worlds, and achieve this through the flexible support of different kinds of ordering.     

Impact of digital leadership capability on innovation performance: The role of platform digitization capability

Following a mixed-methods approach, we theorized that digital leadership influences innovation performance by digitalizing the firm's platform. A multiple case study of ten companies was deployed to derive a theoretical model relating digital leadership and innovation performance. The resulting model was empirically tested on a sample of 117 European firms. We find that digital leadership improves a firm's innovation performance by digitalizing the firm's platform. We contribute to IS research by theoretically developing the concepts of digital leadership capability and platform digitization capability and empirically analyzing the relationship of these two critical IT capabilities and their impact on innovation performance.     

Infrastructuring for Cultural Commons

In this paper we reflect on our involvement in the design and development of two information systems: Fusion and EUscreen. Both are infrastructural initiatives aimed at contributing, from different angles, to wider public access to and appropriation of the European digital cultural heritage. Our analysis is founded on the notions of an installed base and gateway in information infrastructure development. We situate our co-design activities and infrastructuring strategies in relation to a broader interest in advocating not only the preservation of and access to digital cultural heritage, but, more importantly, enabling collaboration, to support the emerging practices of diverse user groups, and to contribute to cultural commons.     

The emergence of digital ecosystem governance: An investigation of responses to disrupted resource control in the Swedish public transport sector

Digital ecosystem governance entails the management of complex, dynamic power relationships. As entrant platform providers seek to cultivate an ecosystem, they must carefully navigate these power relationships when dealing with governance tensions. Providers generally seek to leverage the ecosystem's generative potential by facilitating a variety of interactions and distributing design rights. Simultaneously, they need to ensure stability and order by imposing rules that resolve contentious matters and restrict ecosystem participants' degrees of freedom. This study explores how and why providers can induce ecosystem actors to engage in collaborative negotiation regarding such governance tensions through a case study of the introduction of an open data platform in the Swedish public transport sector. Our analysis offers three main contributions. First, it provides an empirical demonstration that entrepreneurial threats, as well as opportunities, can trigger platform launches and drive collaborative negotiation of digital ecosystem governance. Second, it extends conceptualizations of boundary resources beyond the current focus on transactional elements by demonstrating the role of interactive boundary resources in the negotiation of governance grounded in both social and systemic power relationships. Third, it shows how positive reinforcement can complement punitive measures to increase acceptance of design rules.     

The TRiTS model: teacher roles in introducing digital technology into a school curriculum

The wide use of digital technology for educational purposes opens up some issues regarding its integration within the school curriculum. Our research aims to contribute to the current discussion about how mobile/portable technology can be integrated into formal education. In this perspective, we consider digital technology and media as a potential integral part of school activity that could effectively support educational achievement. However, the way in which it is applied by teachers in a real context can substantially change its impact on effective achievements. In our research, we extensively investigated the role of the teacher in using digital technology for stimulating and prompting classroom activities in class in-line with the school curriculum. In this paper, we first present a model that illustrates the roles of teachers in transforming digital technology as a resource for developing skills as required in educational curricula. The teacher role in introducing technology at school—TRiTS—model has been conceived by combining relevant literature and findings from a case study that we have been running in a primary school over the last 4 years. We then discuss the influence of the different teacher roles on students (their attitude and level of participation), as emerged from our study.     

Lead complementor involvement in the design of platform boundary resources: A case study of BMW's onboard apps

An increasing number of companies have implemented digital platforms to attract complementors who create innovations on the platform. Establishing such digital platforms is a challenge for incumbent companies because they lack related experience and capabilities. In particular, boundary resources that are the interface between the platform and complementors need to be well-designed to attract complementors and keep them engaged. We propose that lead complementor involvement helps incumbent companies to improve the design of the platform boundary resources. In a multi-year action research study, we established lead complementor involvement in the boundary resource design of a digital platform for automotive onboard apps at the BMW Group and evaluated how boundary resources improved. Along three episodes, we illustrate that lead complementor involvement was effective and we summarise our findings in four propositions: (1) lead complementor involvement facilitates platform emergence for incumbent companies by enhancing boundary resource design, (2) lead complementor involvement is more efficient in higher platform layers, (3) lead complementor involvement is facilitated by an increase of intensity and frequency of interactions between complementors and platform owner and (4) establishing a complementor community helps to continuously identify opportunities for lead complementor involvement. We contribute to the information systems literature on platform emergence and design by focusing on the process of designing boundary resources and by considering the heterogeneity of complementors. Furthermore, we contextualise the concept of lead user involvement in the domain of digital platforms and compare and contrast lead complementors and lead users.     

Gamifying collective human behavior with gameful digital rhetoric

This paper presents a design framework called Gameful Digital Rhetoric that offers a set of design frames for designing meaningful digital rhetoric that guides collective human behavior in ubiquitous social digital services, such as crowdsourcing. The framework is extracted from our experiences with building and developing crowdsourcing case studies. From a video game perspective, the paper has categorized our experiences into seven design frames to encourage collective human activity. This approach is different from traditional gamification, as it focuses more on the semiotic aspect of virtuality in the video games, not game mechanics; it helps to enhance the current meaning of the real world for changing human attitude and behavior through various socio-cultural and psychological techniques. Therefore, it is possible to discuss respective design frames for enhancing crowdsourcing by incrementally adding new digital rhetoric. The paper also presents how Gameful Digital Rhetoric allows us to guide collective human behavior in Collectivist Crowdsourcing; the design is explained through a scenario-based and experiment-based analyses. The paper then discusses how to design collective human behavior with Gameful Digital Rhetoric and how to identify the design’s potential pitfalls. Our approach offers useful insights into the design of future social digital services that influence collective human behavior     

Digital twin-based designing of the configuration,motion, control,and optimization model of a flow-type smart manufacturing system

Digital twins can achieve hardware-in-the-loop simulation of both physical equipment and cyber model, which could be used to avoid the considerable cost of manufacturing system reconfiguration if the design deficiencies are found in the deployment process of the traditional irreversible design approach. Based on the digital twin technology, a quad-play CMCO (i.e., Configuration design-Motion planning-Control development-Optimization decoupling) design architecture is put forward for the design of the flow-type smart manufacturing system in the Industry 4.0 context. The iteration logic of the CMCO design model is expounded. Two key enabling technologies for enabling the customized and software-defined design of flow-type smart manufacturing systems are presented, including the generalized encapsulation of the quad-play CMCO model and the digital twin technique. A prototype of a digital twin-based manufacturing system design platform, named Digital Twin System, is presented based on the CMCO model. The digital twin-based design platform is verified with a case study of the hollow glass smart manufacturing system. The result shows that the Digital Twin System-based design approach is feasible and efficient.     

Exploiting incumbents' potentialities: From linear value chains to multisided platforms

Two‐sided (or multisided) platforms are significantly transforming the competitive landscape. Companies like Airbnb and Uber entered and challenged traditional industries by adopting business models able to innovatively exploit the opportunities provided by digital technologies. Recent studies have pointed out that the characteristics of multisided platforms might inspire traditional businesses to foster innovation, enabling different kinds of value creation and capture. This paper aims to explore this possibility through a longitudinal case study of an Italian tour operator that moved from a traditional linear value chain model to a multisided platform. Relying on the literature about multisided platforms and the modalities adopted by incumbents in fostering innovation, this research offers contributions to both theory and practice. Firstly, it shows how incumbents can reinterpret their resources and relationships in order to conceive new multisided platforms. Secondly, it investigates how the experience gained by incumbents can unveil technological opportunities. Thirdly, it shows how the incumbents can manage complexity and adopt a systemic perspective in developing multisided platforms. Thus, the contribution to the academic dimension is in enriching the knowledge of how multisided platforms can help incumbents in dealing with their ‘typical curse’.     

Exploring design trade-offs for achieving social inclusion in multi-tiered design problems

ABSTRACT

The digital age of the future is ‘not out there to be discovered’, but it needs to be ‘designed’. The design challenge has to address questions about how we want to live, work, and learn (as individuals and as communities) and what we value and appreciate, e.g.: reflecting on quality of life and creating inclusive societies. An overriding design trade-off for the digital age is whether new developments will increase the digital divide or will create more inclusive societies. Sustaining inclusive societies means allowing people of all ages and all abilities to exploit information technologies for personally meaningful activities. Meta-design fosters the design of socio-technical environments that end-user developers can modify and evolve at use time to improve their quality of life and favour their inclusion in the society. This paper describes three case studies in the domain of assistive technologies in which end users themselves cannot act as end-user developers, but someone else (e.g.: a caregiver or a clinician) must accept this role requiring multi-tiered architectures. The design trade-offs and requirements for meta-design identified in the context of the case studies and other researchers’ projects are described to inform the development of future socio-technical environments focused on social inclusion.     

Design thinking and imitatio in an educational setting

Schools are expected to prepare students for the future, providing them with methods for dealing with the emergent world. This article considers how teachers can work with digital productions at primary schools even when they are not acquainted with the new production genres. We propose a methodological framework to assist students and teachers in their exploration of unknown media genres based on a case study. We revive the ancient concept of imitatio and integrate it with contemporary design thinking to support production dynamics that lead to increased digital literacy.     

一种逻辑仿真测试平台的设计

目前在开发网络设备的大规模数字系统中，仿真验证阶段自动化程度不高，以至投人的人力大、产品开发周期长。该文针对这种情况，提出了ATM、IP、SDH领域内的一种逻辑仿真测试平台(以下简称平台)的程序设计方案。平台由仿真器启动，支持激励数据的自动化生成和分析验证的自动化进行，并且平台的通用性设计使得它可以在不同的操作系统下适用于较多的逻辑业务。实践表明，根据该设计方案开发的平台，在各个部门的推广使用，明显提高了部门的生产效率，显著缩短了产品的开发周期，节省了人力。     

Interactive Paper as a Mobile Client for a Multi-channel Web Information System

We describe how interactive paper can be used together with a multi-channel web information system to build a platform for experimenting with multi-modal context-aware mobile information services. As an application, we present a tourist guide for visitors to an international festival that was developed to investigate alternative modes of information delivery and interaction in mobile environments. The guide is based around a set of interactive paper documents—an event brochure, map and bookmark. The brochure and map are augmented with digital services by using a digital pen to activate links and a text-to-speech engine for information delivery. The digital pen is also used for data capture of event ratings and reviews. The bookmark provides access to advanced searches and ticket reservations. We describe the architecture and operation of the system, highlighting the challenges of extending a web information system to support both the generation of the paper documents and the interaction from these documents, alongside more traditional access channels. Finally, we discuss the range of context-aware interactions that is supported by our platform.     

Development of a multi-agent-based distributed simulation platform for semiconductor manufacturing

Since the semiconductor manufacturing system is a large-scale complex system, it is difficult to solve complex problems in semiconductor manufacturing by the mathematical modeling method. This paper presents a multi-agent-based distributed simulation platform to support the extremely complex semiconductor manufacturing analysis. A multi-agent-based distributed simulation platform framework and a multi-agent collaborative control model are proposed to provide a flexible infrastructure and a multi-agent coordination mechanism in distributed environment for semiconductor manufacturing simulation. A multi-agent time synchronization model for distributed simulation is designed to keep events in the correct logical time order in simulation and steps of time synchronization are given. An interaction model and message formats are presented to describe how agents communicate with each other in simulation. The platform development and the design of graphical user interface are also exploited in this paper. Finally, evaluation of this multi-agent-based platform was illustrated with a case study. It indicates that the platform is effective in modeling and simulating the complex semiconductor manufacturing and provides the insights about how to improve the semiconductor manufacturing process with well targeted measures.