A distributed coalition consisting of a Head Start program, its youth activities program development director, rural youth, an art gallery and its curators, a graphic designer, and a university department are collaborating to design, build, and populate a user controlled content management system to bring the youthsâ work to a global audience, enable computer mediated interaction, provide a venue for exploring artistic expression, and introduce information and communications technologies (ICTs) to the youth and other project participants. Using a project-based approach combined with implicitly constructed scenarios and the iterative and informal processes associated with free / libre / open source software development, the geographically and organizationally distributed project team created the first release of the Growing Tennessee Web site to coincide with a photo exhibition held at a not-for-profit art gallery. The project will build upon its previous accomplishments and introduce additional media and their supporting technologies to rural youth.

This is a submission to the 3rd Annual Social Informatices SIG Research Symposium: The Social Web, Social Computing and the Social Analysis of Computing. This concept paper mainly deals with the question whether back-end technology such as Web Services or concepts such as the Service Oriented Architec-ture (SOA) have any social meaning (and if so, how social science can conceptualize it). Both technologies are discussed broadly in academia and business. However, most of the research points on pure tech-nical questions and barely analyzes social and or-ganizational issues. Since not much work has been done before in this field by social scientists, this paper tries to answer the research question coming from a very broad perspective. It follows a three step approach. First, in putting together insights from very diverse fields of research I want to show, different ways how to conceptualize isomorphism between Information Technology (IT) at the one side and the organizational and social dimension respectively on the other side. Second, I apply basic statements of this discussion to understand the organizational and social issues of SOA. Third, these assumptions are evaluated and compared shortly with early results from empirical field work. Theoretical reflections and impressions from expert interviews lead us to an affirmative answer of the research question. This results finally in a pleading for more interdisciplinary research. For this purpose intellectual approaches which cross traditional lines of research like Social Informatics (SI) might provide further support.

This is a submission to the "Interrogating the social realities of information and communications systems pre-conference workshop, ASIST AM 2006." Commons-based digital libraries (CBDL) are an emerging phenomenon â they are digital libraries based on notions of common pool resource management. Developing a CBDL framework will provide a sustainable and equitable vision for digital information management and use. The commons-based digital library is first defined followed by the essential aspects of the framework. The metaphorical meanings and theories of libraries, repositories, and the commons are not included. Interested researchers are encouraged to contact the author. Acknowledgments: Thanks to Blaise Cronin for very helpful comments on a very early draft. Thanks to the faculty at SLIS, Indiana University - they helped me develop some of these ideas by asking lots of hard questions. Thanks also to Heather Morrison for helping me flesh out the definition.

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This chapter discusses the social, organizational and technical challenges and solutions that emerged when facilitating collaboration through videoconferencing for a large, geographically dispersed research and development (R&D) organization. Collaboration is an integral component of many R&D organizations. Awareness of activities and potential contributions of others is fundamental to initiating and maintaining collaboration, yet this awareness is often difficult to sustain, especially when the organization is geographically dispersed. To address these challenges, we applied an action research approach, working with members of a large, geographically distributed R&D center to implement videoconferencing to facilitate collaboration and large group interaction within the center. We found that social, organizational and technical infrastructures needed to be adapted to compensate for limitations in videoconferencing technology. New social and organizational infrastructure included: explicit facilitation of videoconference meetings; the adaptation of visual aids; and new participant etiquette practices. New technical infrastructure included: upgrades to video conference equipment; the use of separate networks for broadcasting camera views, presentation slides and audio; and implementation of new technical operations practices to support dynamic interaction among participants at each location. Lessons learned from this case study may help others plan and implement videoconferencing to support interaction and collaboration among large groups.

Purpose: To show how e-readiness indicators, specifically the Networked Readiness Index, participate in the work of defining policy problems. Methodology/Approach: The article critically examines the Networked Readiness Index is terms of its presentation and its underlying model. It relies on an approach to policy analysis that views policy problems as socially constructed. Findings: E-readiness assessment tools purport to show how ready the nations of the world are to exploit the potential of new information and communication technologies. Yet they do more than that; being actively engaged in constructing policy problems. In the case of the NRI, the problem of the international digital divide is defined in a particular way that privileges certain interests while at the same time legitimatising its inclusion on the agenda of international organizations as a problem worthy of sustained attention. Practical Implications: The findings of the article suggest a need for alternative indicators that register the voices of a wider range of groups and could therefore create a more inclusive digital divide policy problem. Originality/value: Little critical (as opposed to technical) analysis of e-readiness indicators exits in the literature. By focusing on these tools, the article contributes to the debate surrounding the issue of the digital divide.

This paper reviews research into social tagging and folksonomy (as reflected in about 180 sources published through December 2007). Methods of researching the contribution of social tagging and folksonomy are described, and outstanding research questions are presented. This is a new area of research, where theoretical perspectives and relevant research methods are only now being defined. This paper provides a framework for the study of folksonomy, tagging and social tagging systems. Three broad approaches are identified, focusing first, on the folksonomy itself (and the role of tags in indexing and retrieval); secondly, on tagging (and the behaviour of users); and thirdly, on the nature of social tagging systems (as socio-technical framewor

This is a submission to the "Interrogating the social realities of information and communications systems pre-conference workshop, ASIST AM 2006". Digital photography has widely replaced film in recent years, yet there has been relatively little research into digital photography as a socio-technical phenomenon. This project examines the computerization of scientific photography among marine mammal researchers. Scientists studying marine mammals use photo-identification to identify individual animals (whales, dolphins, etc.) in their research, and have recently widely switched to digital photography. This study examines ways in which scientists' work practices, communication patterns, relationships, and behaviors have changed by applying Kling's Socio-Technical Interaction Network (STIN) strategy. STIN integrates the social and technical to develop a nuanced understanding of technology and extends Actor-Network Theory.

This is a submission to the 3rd Annual Social Informatics SIG Research Symposium: The Social Web, Social Computing and the Social Analysis of Computing Without the Internet there would be no Open Access (OA) movement. The movement, like social networks, was born digital. But how do you capture the history of a movement that, like a document, was born digital? How successful are traditional methodologies in capturing OAâ s past? My goal in this short paper is to identify the issues that I have encountered in my own research in order to assist others who may be considering a similar inquiry.

This is a submission to the "Interrogating the social realities of information and communications systems pre-conference workshop, ASIST AM 2006".