The purpose of this study was to explore the codependencies of the social and technical structures that yield Wikipedia the website and Wikipedia the community. In doing so, the research investigated the implications of such a sociotechnical system for the maintenance of the project and the emergence of collective intelligence. Using a theoretical framework informed by digital media studies, science and technology studies, and the political economy of communication, this study examined the material and ideological conditions in which Wikipedia has developed. The study's guiding research questions addressed the nature of Wikipedia's sociotechnical system and potential for collective intelligence, as well as the historical development of the project's technical infrastructure and the state of its technology-assisted collaboration. A mainly qualitative multi-method research approach was employed, including document analysis, semi-structured interviewing, and social network analysis. A plethora of documents were carefully selected and examined to explore how and why decisions were made, policies implemented, and technologies adopted on the site. Additionally, 45 interviews were conducted with members of Wikipedia's technical community to understand the relationships between social and technical aspects of the project and the motivations of programmers who contribute automated tools. Finally, social network measures and visualizations were used to interrogate notions of collaboration and make more transparent the centrality of technology to the content creation process. The study revealed that Wikipedia's technical development has been shaped by the dueling ideologies of the open-source software movement and postindustrial capitalism. Its sociotechnical system features the complex collaboration of human contributors, automated programs, social bureaucracy, and technical protocol, each of which conditions the existence and meaning of the others. In addition, the activity on Wikipedia fits established models of collective intelligence and suggests the emergence of a cyberculture, or culturally informed shared intelligence, unique to the digital media context. Software robots (bots) are central actors in this system and are explored in detail throughout this research.

Recent systemic failures such as the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Global Financial Crisis, and Northeast Blackout have reminded us, once again, of the fragility of complex sociotechnical systems. Although the failures occurred in very different domains and were triggered by different events, there are, however, certain common underlying mechanisms of abnormalities driving these systemic failures. Understanding these mechanisms is essential to avoid such disasters in the future. Moreover, these disasters happened in sociotechnical systems, where both social and technical elements can interact with each other and with the environment. The nonlinear interactions among these components can lead to an “emergent” behavior – i.e., the behavior of the whole is more than the sum of its parts – that can be difficult to anticipate and control. Abnormalities can propagate through the systems to cause systemic failures. To ensure the safe operation and production of such complex systems, we need to understand and model the associated systemic risk. Traditional emphasis of chemical engineering risk modeling is on the technical components of a chemical plant, such as equipment and processes. However, a chemical plant is more than a set of equipment and processes, with the human elements playing a critical role in decision-making. Industrial statistics show that about 70% of the accidents are caused by human errors. So, new modeling techniques that go beyond the classical equipment/process-oriented approaches to include the human elements (i.e., the “socio” part of the sociotechnical systems) are needed for analyzing systemic risk of complex sociotechnical systems. This thesis presents such an approach. This thesis presents a new knowledge modeling paradigm for systemic risk analysis that goes beyond chemical plants by unifying different perspectives. First, we develop a unifying teleological, control theoretic framework to model decision-making knowledge in a complex system. The framework allows us to identify systematically the common failure mechanisms behind systemic failures in different domains. We show how cause-and-effect knowledge can be incorporated into this framework by using signed directed graphs. We also develop an ontology-driven knowledge modeling component and show how this can support decision-making by using a case study in public health emergency. This is the first such attempt to develop an ontology for public health documents. Lastly, from a control-theoretic perspective, we address the question, “how do simple individual components of a system interact to produce a system behavior that cannot be explained by the behavior of just the individual components alone?” Through this effort, we attempt to bridge the knowledge gap between control theory and complexity science.

This thesis is motivated by the need to explore the relationships between technology and volunteerism. Despite the fact that information and communication technologies (ICTs) proliferate within voluntary organisations and have an obvious effect on volunteering practice, the literature on the relationships between such technologies and voluntary contexts is scant. This is particularly in terms of its insights with regard to the actual processes of production and consumption of these technologies within the sector. This interdisciplinary research project was carried out to answer a central research problem: how do information technologies interrelate with human activities in voluntary settings? In throwing light on this problem, an ethnographic case-oriented study was conducted in a Scottish community-based sports organisation over the course of two years. This research has utilised insights from the Sociology of Technology, Information Systems Research and Organisational Sociology to find out how human actors’ interactions with technology play out in the context of volunteer-involving organisations, and to conceptualise the complexity of the unfolding of technology in relation to the specific characteristics of volunteering activities. To unpack the core research question, three types of sociotechnical interactions were identified as the most relevant: these were ‘service’, ‘identity’ and ‘ecological’. My analysis of the empirical data suggests that there are different domains within which these critical interactions are assembled. In my research, three different domains (drifting, conditioning and imbricating) have thematically emerged when sociotechnical interactions were being mapped out in (a) shadowing a technology project, (b) analysing technological non-use and (c) rethinking organisational persistence in the selected observed case. This thesis argues for an ‘infrastructural’ approach when studying technology so as to extend our understanding about technology-initiated improvement projects in the sector. This research argues that accomplishing volunteer work requires complicated mixture of sociomaterial assemblages, including ICTs, which are embedded in the everyday life of volunteers, paid staff and their community. Furthermore, this study discusses that existing analytical infrastructural approaches developed in relation to artefact-oriented, large-scale sociotechnical networks need some modification to be satisfyingly applied in low-tech, mundane settings such as volunteer work in amateur sports.

The number of medication errors associated with preventable deaths in healthcare facilities remains at a high rate for healthcare leaders. Practices of medication delivery remain similar to those 10 years ago. Hospitals that have implemented barcoding medication administration systems have reported a decrease in medication errors ranging from 60% to as high as 93%. Despite this utility of barcoding, only 50% of U.S. hospitals have implemented barcode medication administration. This comparative case study explored the strategies hospital leaders used to implement barcode medication administration systems, utilizing the sociotechnical theory for a conceptual framework. Face-to-face, semistructured interviews were used to identify experiences from a purposive sample of 20 hospital leaders from Minnesota and Iowa. The research question guiding this study addressed strategies hospital leaders used to implement barcode medication systems to reduce preventable medical errors. After analyzing the interview transcripts using inductive analyses, 4 themes emerged. These themes include the strategic organizational communication, technology and end user support, hands-on training, and application of audit reports. Hospital leaders might benefit from the study findings when developing strategies to implement barcode medication systems. The implication for positive social change includes the potential of decreasing patient medication errors and reducing loss of life caused by medication errors with hospital leaders accelerating the adoption of barcode medication systems in hospitals. Other health care providers may explore how the findings might help reduce medication errors in their facilities.

A pesquisa se caracteriza como pesquisa-ação. A análise e discussão de dados ocorre em três fases: fase exploratória, principal e avaliação/validação. O campo do estudo é uma indústria do setor calçadista do Rio Grande do Sul. Partindo do pressuposto que as indústrias calçadistas brasileiras, ao longo da sua história, têm adotado o sistema taylorista como principal modo de produção e, identificando que há necessidade de transformações do projeto de trabalho, considerando os altos índices de absenteísmo, custos humanos e de processo, pretende-se quebrar paradigmas ao introduzir, no setor, características mais flexíveis no projeto de trabalho. A partir da análise do sistema de produção vigente no cluster calçadista do Rio Grande do Sul, esta pesquisa tem o objetivo centrado em propor melhorias no sistema de trabalho que contemplem as questões sociotécnicas, considerando os quatro subsistemas do sistema sociotécnico: subsistema pessoal, subsistema tecnológico, o projeto do sistema de trabalho e o ambiente externo. Os resultados da fase exploratória indicaram necessidade de intervenção em duas questões: a implantação da multifuncionalidade como meio de flexibilização do processo produtivo e mudanças na jornada de trabalho que iniciava ainda de madrugada. Os resultados da implantação da nova jornada e da multifuncionalidade associada à alternância postural estão indicando diminuição dos custos humanos (acidentes de trabalho, distúrbios ocupacionais e absenteísmo), maior grau de autonomia dos trabalhadores e, maior flexibilização do processo produtivo para atender as demandas de mercado. Ocorreu incremento na satisfação das pessoas em relação ao trabalho, maior comprometimento com os resultados e rumos da empresa e, conseqüente satisfação com o trabalho e melhorias na saúde e qualidade de vida. Em termos de dificuldades, encontrou-se a resistência dos trabalhadores do segundo escalão (coordenadores de setor e gerências) em quebrar paradigmas ao adotar um novo sistema de gestão, dificultando os resultados em termos de indicadores de produção. / This research is characterised as action research. The analysis and data discussion occurs in three stages: exploratory, principal and evaluation/validation. The study field is a shoe industry in Rio Grande do Sul. From the presupposition that Brazilian shoe industries, during their history, have adopted the Taylorist system as main way of production and, identifying that there is a need for work project transformations, considering the high rates of absenteeism, human and process costs, it is intended to break paradigms when introducing, in the sector, more flexible characteristics in the work project. From the analysis of the current production system in the shoe cluster in Rio Grande do Sul, this research has the aim focused on proposing improvements in the work system which consider the sociotechnical issues, considering the four subsystems of the sociotechnical system: personal subsystem, technological subsystem, work system project, and external environment. The exploratory stage results indicated intervention necessity in two issues: the multifunctionality implementation as a way for productive process flexibilisation and changings in the working hours which used to begun at dawn. The results of the new schedule implementation and the multifunctionality associated to posture alternation are indicating a decreasing in the human costs (job accident, occupational disorder and absenteeism) major degree of workers autonomy and, major flexibilisation of the productive process to supply the market demand. It occurred an increasing of people satisfaction related to work, major engagement with the results and company direction and, consequent satisfaction with the work and improvements in health and life quality. In terms of difficulties, it was found a resistance of the second scale workers ( section coordinators and management) to break paradigms when adopting a new management system, difficulting the results in terms of production indicators.

abstract: This dissertation examines the use of social media technologies by US local governments for internal and external collaboration. Collaboration is defined as the process of working together, pooling resources, sharing information and jointly making decisions to address common issues. The need for greater collaboration is evident from numerous examples in which public agencies have failed to effectively collaborate and address complex challenges. Meanwhile, the rise of social computing promises the development of ‘cultures of participation’ that enhance collaborative learning and knowledge production as part of everyday work. But beyond these gaps and expectations, there has been little systematic empirical research investigating the use of these powerful and flexible technologies for collaboration purposes. In line with prior research, my dissertation draws on sociotechnical and resource dependence theoretical approaches to examine how the interaction between technological and social context of an organization determine the adoption and use of a technology for a task. However, in a break with prior work that often aggregates social media technologies as one class of technology, this dissertation theorizes different classes of social media based on their functionality and purpose. As a result, it develops more explicit means by which organization, technical, and environmental context matter for effective collaboration. Based on the aforementioned theoretical approaches, the dissertation develops a theoretical model and several hypotheses, which it tests using a unique 2012 national survey of local governments in the US conducted by the Center for Science, Technology and Environmental Policy Studies at ASU. Overall, the findings of this dissertation highlight that the adoption and use of social media technologies for collaboration purposes can be understood as an outcome of stakeholder participation, innovativeness, and social media type. Insights from this dissertation contribute both to our theoretical understanding about social media technology adoption and use in government and provide useful information for agencies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Public Administration 2016

A pesquisa se caracteriza como pesquisa-ação. A análise e discussão de dados ocorre em três fases: fase exploratória, principal e avaliação/validação. O campo do estudo é uma indústria do setor calçadista do Rio Grande do Sul. Partindo do pressuposto que as indústrias calçadistas brasileiras, ao longo da sua história, têm adotado o sistema taylorista como principal modo de produção e, identificando que há necessidade de transformações do projeto de trabalho, considerando os altos índices de absenteísmo, custos humanos e de processo, pretende-se quebrar paradigmas ao introduzir, no setor, características mais flexíveis no projeto de trabalho. A partir da análise do sistema de produção vigente no cluster calçadista do Rio Grande do Sul, esta pesquisa tem o objetivo centrado em propor melhorias no sistema de trabalho que contemplem as questões sociotécnicas, considerando os quatro subsistemas do sistema sociotécnico: subsistema pessoal, subsistema tecnológico, o projeto do sistema de trabalho e o ambiente externo. Os resultados da fase exploratória indicaram necessidade de intervenção em duas questões: a implantação da multifuncionalidade como meio de flexibilização do processo produtivo e mudanças na jornada de trabalho que iniciava ainda de madrugada. Os resultados da implantação da nova jornada e da multifuncionalidade associada à alternância postural estão indicando diminuição dos custos humanos (acidentes de trabalho, distúrbios ocupacionais e absenteísmo), maior grau de autonomia dos trabalhadores e, maior flexibilização do processo produtivo para atender as demandas de mercado. Ocorreu incremento na satisfação das pessoas em relação ao trabalho, maior comprometimento com os resultados e rumos da empresa e, conseqüente satisfação com o trabalho e melhorias na saúde e qualidade de vida. Em termos de dificuldades, encontrou-se a resistência dos trabalhadores do segundo escalão (coordenadores de setor e gerências) em quebrar paradigmas ao adotar um novo sistema de gestão, dificultando os resultados em termos de indicadores de produção. / This research is characterised as action research. The analysis and data discussion occurs in three stages: exploratory, principal and evaluation/validation. The study field is a shoe industry in Rio Grande do Sul. From the presupposition that Brazilian shoe industries, during their history, have adopted the Taylorist system as main way of production and, identifying that there is a need for work project transformations, considering the high rates of absenteeism, human and process costs, it is intended to break paradigms when introducing, in the sector, more flexible characteristics in the work project. From the analysis of the current production system in the shoe cluster in Rio Grande do Sul, this research has the aim focused on proposing improvements in the work system which consider the sociotechnical issues, considering the four subsystems of the sociotechnical system: personal subsystem, technological subsystem, work system project, and external environment. The exploratory stage results indicated intervention necessity in two issues: the multifunctionality implementation as a way for productive process flexibilisation and changings in the working hours which used to begun at dawn. The results of the new schedule implementation and the multifunctionality associated to posture alternation are indicating a decreasing in the human costs (job accident, occupational disorder and absenteeism) major degree of workers autonomy and, major flexibilisation of the productive process to supply the market demand. It occurred an increasing of people satisfaction related to work, major engagement with the results and company direction and, consequent satisfaction with the work and improvements in health and life quality. In terms of difficulties, it was found a resistance of the second scale workers ( section coordinators and management) to break paradigms when adopting a new management system, difficulting the results in terms of production indicators.

A pesquisa se caracteriza como pesquisa-ação. A análise e discussão de dados ocorre em três fases: fase exploratória, principal e avaliação/validação. O campo do estudo é uma indústria do setor calçadista do Rio Grande do Sul. Partindo do pressuposto que as indústrias calçadistas brasileiras, ao longo da sua história, têm adotado o sistema taylorista como principal modo de produção e, identificando que há necessidade de transformações do projeto de trabalho, considerando os altos índices de absenteísmo, custos humanos e de processo, pretende-se quebrar paradigmas ao introduzir, no setor, características mais flexíveis no projeto de trabalho. A partir da análise do sistema de produção vigente no cluster calçadista do Rio Grande do Sul, esta pesquisa tem o objetivo centrado em propor melhorias no sistema de trabalho que contemplem as questões sociotécnicas, considerando os quatro subsistemas do sistema sociotécnico: subsistema pessoal, subsistema tecnológico, o projeto do sistema de trabalho e o ambiente externo. Os resultados da fase exploratória indicaram necessidade de intervenção em duas questões: a implantação da multifuncionalidade como meio de flexibilização do processo produtivo e mudanças na jornada de trabalho que iniciava ainda de madrugada. Os resultados da implantação da nova jornada e da multifuncionalidade associada à alternância postural estão indicando diminuição dos custos humanos (acidentes de trabalho, distúrbios ocupacionais e absenteísmo), maior grau de autonomia dos trabalhadores e, maior flexibilização do processo produtivo para atender as demandas de mercado. Ocorreu incremento na satisfação das pessoas em relação ao trabalho, maior comprometimento com os resultados e rumos da empresa e, conseqüente satisfação com o trabalho e melhorias na saúde e qualidade de vida. Em termos de dificuldades, encontrou-se a resistência dos trabalhadores do segundo escalão (coordenadores de setor e gerências) em quebrar paradigmas ao adotar um novo sistema de gestão, dificultando os resultados em termos de indicadores de produção. / This research is characterised as action research. The analysis and data discussion occurs in three stages: exploratory, principal and evaluation/validation. The study field is a shoe industry in Rio Grande do Sul. From the presupposition that Brazilian shoe industries, during their history, have adopted the Taylorist system as main way of production and, identifying that there is a need for work project transformations, considering the high rates of absenteeism, human and process costs, it is intended to break paradigms when introducing, in the sector, more flexible characteristics in the work project. From the analysis of the current production system in the shoe cluster in Rio Grande do Sul, this research has the aim focused on proposing improvements in the work system which consider the sociotechnical issues, considering the four subsystems of the sociotechnical system: personal subsystem, technological subsystem, work system project, and external environment. The exploratory stage results indicated intervention necessity in two issues: the multifunctionality implementation as a way for productive process flexibilisation and changings in the working hours which used to begun at dawn. The results of the new schedule implementation and the multifunctionality associated to posture alternation are indicating a decreasing in the human costs (job accident, occupational disorder and absenteeism) major degree of workers autonomy and, major flexibilisation of the productive process to supply the market demand. It occurred an increasing of people satisfaction related to work, major engagement with the results and company direction and, consequent satisfaction with the work and improvements in health and life quality. In terms of difficulties, it was found a resistance of the second scale workers ( section coordinators and management) to break paradigms when adopting a new management system, difficulting the results in terms of production indicators.

By definition, a system is comprised of hardware, software and "liveware". It also interacts with other systems composed themselves of those elements. However, the "human" element tends to be neglected in many projects, leading to unsafe or inefficient systems. Although some studies have shown that sociotechnical approaches to project management can generate economic gains of 20%, not to mention social gains, in practice, few projects integrate human factors correctly. Many reasons can explain this lack of integration. Humans alone are much more difficult to model and understand than technology. When considering groups or organizations, the problem increases exponentially. Hence, traditional engineering and risk management methods cannot be used to address the human side of a system. There exist approaches and methods to use our current understanding of human behavior, however these tend to be understood and used only by a small number of specialists. Most project managers, designers and engineers have insufficient knowledge of their existence or do not understand how to make good use of them. There are two major challenges in the integration of human factors. The first one is to justify an interest in such an approach. Given the educational background and experience of many engineers, this is no easy task. The SNCF (French Railways) has chosen to face this challenge and achieved quite good results. However, this does not solve the problem, as project managers and engineers then request tools and methods. Fulfilling this need represents the second challenge. This is the subject of this study: to make a shift from technology-centered approaches to design and risk management to a more sociotechnical approach thanks to a macroergonomics project framework. Human factors engineering and ergonomics is a multi-disciplinary domain. It goes from human resources management to physical ergonomics and integrates such subjects as psychology, sociology and human reliability. To improve the reliability or efficiency of systems, one approach is to develop a single tool addressing one aspect of human factors or integrating it with one kind of activities. However, many of those tools already exist, even if they have remained at the state of research results yet or been applied only in some very specific sectors. Hence, for this research, it was decided to develop a method that covers the whole process of a project and contains the different considerations related to human factors as well as the activities required to ensure the safety of the system. Recent research led by the US Army and adapted by the UK and Canadian Armies as well as Eurocontrol have lead to the emergence of a new discipline called Human Factors Integration (HFI). This discipline proposes a project management process that covers different domains of human factors: manpower, personnel, training, ergonomics, safety, health and hazards, survivability. HFI is a good starting point but it responds only partly to our expressed need. Indeed, the SNCF requires a more general approach, easily accessible, with a greater emphasis on organization and risk management. During this study, the HFI method was extended based on recent research results, especially in human and organizational reliability. The main improvements made are the addition of the "organization" domain and the development of safety-related activities. Many other principles were also integrated including barriers, prescribed vs. real tasks, redundancy, recovery, degraded situation, system dynamics and measurement. Some interests of this method are its inheritance from systems engineering, its capacity to be utilized by users from different cultures and experience, and its independence from specific models of human behavior or task processing. The main output of the study is a documentation of this method defining the activities and tasks for each phase of the project as well as the composition of the team. The method was evaluated based on its application on the "Sécurité des Travaux Organisation Réalisation Préparation" (STORP) project. This project aims at redesigning the infrastructure maintenance system of the SNCF, modifying the concepts, principles, guidelines and documentations, in order to improve its efficiency and safety. This application enabled to test the coherence and usability of the method, as well as highlight its main advantages, while underlining and improving the human factors integration in STORP. Through this evaluation, this study constitutes one of the first attempts to apply HFI to a non-military domain and to non-specific projects. / Master of Science

In an age of shrinking research and development (RandD) budgets, sustaining big science and technology (SandT) projects is inevitably questioned by publics and policy makers. The fusion enterprise is an exemplar. The effort to develop a viable system to produce unlimited and environmentally benign electricity from fusion of hydrogen isotopes has been a goal for six decades and consumed vast financial and intellectual resources in North America, Europe, and Asia. In terms of prolonged duration and sustained resource investment, the endeavor has developed into a huge fusion enterprise. Yet, no practical system for the generation of electricity has yet been demonstrated. This is the paradox at the heart of the fusion enterprise. Why, despite unfulfilled visions and broken promises, has the grand fusion enterprise endured? How can such a long-term enterprise persist in a funding culture that largely works in short-term cycles? Adapting Sheila Jasanoff's thesis of "sociotechnical imaginaries", I examine the relationship of shared and contrasting visions, co-produced expressions of nature and society, and distinctpolitical cultures in the quest for viable fusion. A systematic cultural and technological comparison of three fusion ventures, the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), and Wendelstein-7X, exposes how these projects and the institutions they inhabit frame the goals, risks, and benefits of the fusion enterprise and sustain a common set of fusion imaginaries. Positioned within the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in the United States, the international ITER Organization sited in France, and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany, the three projects are prime examples of big science and technology. Rigorous research and analysis of these cases advance the thesis of the unfulfilled utopian vision of fusion energy that has endured for more than sixty years. / Doctor of Philosophy / In an age of shrinking research and development budgets, sustaining big science and technology projects is inevitably questioned by publics and policy makers. The fusion enterprise is an exemplar. The effort to develop a viable system to produce unlimited and environmentally benign electricity from fusion of hydrogen isotopes has been a goal for six decades and consumed vast financial and intellectual resources in North America, Europe, and Asia. In terms of prolonged duration and sustained resource investment, the endeavor has developed into a huge fusion enterprise. Yet, no practical system for the generation of electricity has yet been demonstrated. This is the paradox at the heart of the fusion enterprise. Beyond articulating a possible path forward for the fusion enterprise, the intent of this study is to inform decision makers who will shape energy strategy for the second half of the twenty-first century.