Honors Project--Smith College, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A. in education)--Washington State University, August 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007. / Bruckman, Amy, Committee Member ; Bers, Marina, Committee Member ; Mynatt, Elizabeth, Committee Member ; Guzdial, Mark, Committee Chair ; Kolodner, Janet, Committee Member.

This thesis examines organizational use of social media. It focuses on developing an understanding of the ways by which social media are used within formal organizational settings. From the vantage point of this thesis such an understanding can be achieved by looking at tensions and incompatibilities that might potentially exist between social media and organization because of their distinct characteristics. It is argued that the distinct characteristics of social media (e.g. openness, transparency, flexibility, etc.) and organization (e.g., hierarchy, formal relationships, standard procedures, etc.) may engender tensions and incompatibilities that affect the ways of using social media and their potential in organizations. The main premise here is that the possibilities, behaviors and practices afforded by social media are recognizably different in nature from common and established organizational practices, behaviors, norms and routines. Through a structurational understanding of organizational use of social media, influenced by Giddens’ theory of structuration and Orlikowski’s practice lens for studying technology use, this thesis offers the perspective of immiscibility to capture tensions and incompatibilities driven by the distinctive characteristics of social media and organization. It basically offers a way of seeing social media use in organizations as a dynamic, in-practice interplay between social media and organization characteristics. One key argument in this thesis is that the immiscible interplay of social media and organization, produces, at least in transition, ‘a bureaucracy of social media’. Social media, it is argued, are used in ways that are essentially bureaucratic, reflecting and also reinforcing established characteristics of formal organizations through the production and reproduction of structures which are driven by the immiscible interplay. The development of such an understanding was achieved through multiple research studies focusing on the use of the wiki technology for knowledge collaboration and sharing practices in two large multinational organizations: CCC and IBM. A number of qualitative methods were used in these studies to collect empirical evidence from the two organizations including interviews, field visits, observations and document analysis. The overarching contribution of this thesis centers on offering a unique way of understanding organizational use of social media by putting forward tensions and incompatibilities between social media and organization and also by providing an understanding of how such tensions and incompatibilities affect the potential for change by social media.

The number of digital projects aimed at documenting and preserving communities' intangible cultural heritage (ICH) has grown considerably in recent years. These projects take advantage of the advancement of digital technologies to enable local communities to manage their ICH, in tune with the deprofessionalisation of heritage practices. However, additional work is needed to overcome some of the barriers that are emerging in these endeavours, especially related to long-term sustainability and the technical knowledge required. The thesis follows the progress of two case studies that used wikis to enable participation in the documentation of cultural heritage. Using action research, the researcher introduced or tried to improve the use of wikis in these case studies. The first case study involved a Scottish heritage wiki at a national level, but the project ran into many problems. Although the software was appropriate for facilitating public engagement, the research showed that the emphasis should be put on local heritage rather than national, and that face-to-face interactions providing engagement and training activities should have been more widely used as well. The second case study was the analysis of a wiki dedicated to collating and documenting the ICH of the Isle of Jura, Scotland. The problems encountered in this case study point to the presence of pre-existing conflicts and the contentious nature of heritage on the island as barriers to the project. The main argument of the thesis is that involvement in digital cultural heritage can enhance community empowerment, but that this depends upon social dimensions of community cohesion and engagement as well as technical knowledge of the software and technologies involved.

L’émergence du Web 2.0 se matérialise par de nouvelles technologies (API, Ajax…), de nouvelles pratiques (mashup, geotagging…) et de nouveaux outils (wiki, blog…). Il repose principalement sur le principe de participation et de collaboration. Dans cette dynamique, le Web à caractère spatial et cartographique c’est-à-dire, le Web géospatial (ou GéoWeb) connait lui aussi de fortes transformations technologiques et sociales. Le GéoWeb 2.0 participatif se matérialise en particulier par des mashups entre wikis et géobrowsers (ArgooMap, Geowiki, WikiMapia, etc.). Les nouvelles applications nées de ces mashups évoluent vers des formes plus interactives d’intelligence collective. Mais ces applications ne prennent pas en compte les spécificités du travail collaboratif, en particulier la gestion de traçabilité ou l’accès dynamique à l’historique des contributions. Le Geodesign est un nouveau domaine fruit de l’association des SIG et du design, permettant à une équipe multidisciplinaire de travailler ensemble. Compte tenu de son caractère émergent, le Geodesign n’est pas assez défini et il requiert une base théorique innovante, de nouveaux outils, supports, technologies et pratiques afin de s'adapter à ses exigences complexes. Nous proposons dans cette thèse de nouvelles fonctionnalités de type WikiSIG, bâties sur les principes et technologies du GéoWeb 2.0 et visant en particulier à supporter la dimension collaborative du processus de Geodesign. Le WikiSIG est doté de fonctionnalités wiki dédiées à la donnée géospatiale (y compris dans sa composante géométrique : forme et localisation) permettant d’assurer, de manière dynamique, la gestion documentée des versions des objets et l’accès à ces versions (et de leurs métadonnées), facilitant ainsi le travail collaboratif en Geodesign. Nous proposons également la deltification qui consiste en la capacité de comparer et d’afficher les différences entre deux versions de projets. Finalement la pertinence de quelques outils du géotraitement et « sketching » est évoquée. Les principales contributions de cette thèse sont d’une part d’identifier les besoins, les exigences et les contraintes du processus de Geodesign collaboratif, et d’autre part de proposer des nouvelles fonctionnalités WikiSIG répondant au mieux à la dimension collaborative du processus. Pour ce faire, un cadre théorique est dressé où nous avons identifié les exigences du travail collaboratif de Geodesign et proposé certaines fonctionnalités WikiSIG innovantes qui sont par la suite formalisés en diagrammes UML. Une maquette informatique est aussi développée de façon à mettre en oeuvre ces fonctionnalités, lesquelles sont illustrées à partir d’un cas d’étude simulé, traité comme preuve du concept. La pertinence de ces fonctionnalités développées proposées est finalement validée par des experts à travers un questionnaire et des entrevues. En résumé, nous montrons dans cette thèse l’importance de la gestion de la traçabilité et comment accéder dynamiquement à l’historique dans un processus de Geodesign. Nous proposons aussi d’autres fonctionnalités comme la deltification, le volet multimédia supportant l’argumentation, les paramètres qualifiant les données produites, et la prise de décision collective par consensus, etc. / The emergence of Web 2.0 is materialized by new technologies (APIs, Ajax ...), by new practices (mashup, geotagging ...) and by new tools (wiki, blog ...). It is primarily based on the principle of participation and collaboration. In this dynamic, the web mapping with spatial character or simply called Geospatial Web (or Geoweb) evolves by strong technological and social changes. Participatory GeoWeb 2.0 is materialized in particular by mashups among wikis and géobrowsers (ArgooMap, Geowiki, WikiMapia, etc.). The new applications resulting from these mashups are moving towards more interactive forms of collective intelligence. However, these applications do not take into account the collaborative work or the traceability management or the dynamic access to the history of contributions. The Geodesign is a new area, which is the coupling between GIS and design, allowing a multidisciplinary team to work together. As it is an emergent term, the Geodesign has not be well defined and it requires innovative theoretical basis, new tools, media, technologies and practices to fit its complex requirements. We propose precisely in this thesis new features of WikiGIS, which is built on Web 2.0 technologies, and GeoWeb 2.0 aiming in particular to support the collaborative dimension of Geodesign process. The WikiGIS consists of wiki features for the geospatial data (including its geometric component: shape and location) to ensure, dynamically, the documented release management objects and access to these versions (and metadata), facilitating collaborative work on Geodesign. It aims to produce geographic information, while ensuring the quality and credibility of data created. We propose the “deltification” as one of the innovative features of WikiGIS, it is the ability to compare and display the differences between two versions of a project. Finally, the relevance of some geoprocessing and "sketching" tools is mentioned. The main contributions of the present thesis are firstly identifying the needs, requirements and constraints of collaborative Geodesign process, and secondly to offer new features of WikiSIG best meeting to the collaborative dimension of this process. For this, a theoretical framework is drawn up which we identified the requirements of the collaborative Geodesign process and we proposed some innovative features that are subsequently formalized by UML. A user mock-up is developed in order to show the WikiGIS features, which are illustrated on a simulated case study, treated as proof of concept. Finally, these concepts are ultimately validated by experts through a questionnaire and interviews. Briefly, we have amply demonstrated in this thesis the importance of traceability management and how to dynamically access in the historic of Geodesign process and we have proposed other features like deltification, multi-media component that supports the arguments, parameters describing the data produced, decision making by consensus, etc.

Personal home pages are outgrowing their playful beginnings to serve serious purposes. At the forefront of this emergence is academia, where they are becoming a meaningful way for researchers to engage each other. Yet, the medium is still in its infancy: The medium, its adopters, and their practices are unduly constrained by current technology. To better study the meaning and use of personal home pages in academia, I created the AniAniWeb personal-home-page system to loosen these constraints. AniAniWeb applies wiki technology to facilitate easy editing, to enable interaction, and to focus the user on content creation. Others began adopting AniAniWeb in fall 2003. This dissertation centers on a case study of six graduate students and their experience with AniAniWeb over a period of two years. Their practices are viewed through three analytical lenses. Media theory focuses on the technology. Communities of practice focuses on the social context. Core identity theory focuses on the individual. When combined, these frameworks lead to a rich understanding of personal home pages in academia. Based on observations and interviews, issues of design, technology, meaning, and use are addressed.

L'utilisation croissante des sites en web 2.0 sur internet a favorisé l'utilisation des outils du Web 2.0 par de nombreuses organisations à travers le monde. L’un des outils les plus largement utilisés aujourd’hui dans les organisations est la technologie Wiki, et ce tout particulièrement dans la gestion de projet. Parce qu’un nombre croissant d’organisations déploie des systèmes Wiki et que le Web 2.0 fait encore l’objet d’un véritable battage médiatique, il est important de travailler sur ces technologies collaboratives et de mesurer leur succès en termes d’utilisation dans l’environnement de l’organisation. Cette étude traite de l’utilisation de la technologie Wiki dans les entreprises et du besoin de développer cette technologie. Il s’agit également de déterminer comment mesurer le succès des systèmes wiki internes du point de vue des « end-users ». La littérature sur les systèmes Wiki publics et d’entreprise est également présentée. Cette étude propose un modèle théorique de recherche sur le succès des wikis internes des entreprises, fondé sur la précédente théorie sur le succès des systèmes d’information. Enfin, le modèle proposé est testée empiriquement et les déterminants importants du succès des wikis interne des entreprises sont présentés / With the ever increasing use of Web 2.0 sites on the internet, the use of Web 2.0 based tools has been employed by the organizations across the globe. One of the most widely used Web 2.0 tool in organizations is the wiki technology particularly in project management. Since growing number of organisations are deploying wiki systems as Web 2.0 still remains a hype, it is important to investigate into these collaborative technologies and measure the success in corporate environment usage. In this study, we discuss the use of Wiki technology in the enterprise setting, the need for wiki deployment and how can we measure the success of corporate wiki systems from end-user’s perspective. The literature on corporate and public wiki systems is also presented. The paper presents a theoretical research model of enterprise wiki systems’ success based on the previous IS success theory. Finally, the research model of corporate Wiki success is empirically tested and the important determinants of corporate Wiki systems are presented

To seize and make use of knowledge in organizations is important for their competitiveness, amongst other things. To do this is, however, not entirely straightforward and therefore the use of so called knowledge management systems is common. There are different kinds of systems for managing knowledge, for example systems that are known as traditional knowledge management systems. However, a number of difficulties and problems with the traditional knowledge management systems has led to the usage of other systems, for example wikis, for knowledge management. We have, in this thesis, studied the role of a wiki as a knowledge management system in a distributed software development team. We have also studied how a wiki can relate to a traditional knowledge management system. A case study was conducted and five software developers were interviewed. The study showed that the usage of wikis can be versatile and that there are both similarities and differences to traditional knowledge management systems, both regarding the use and the content. The study also showed that wikis and traditional knowledge management systems can be used combined. The conclusions of the study shows that both wikis and traditional knowledge management systems can support and facilitate the management and dispersion of knowledge in organizations. / Att kunna ta vara på kunskap som finns inom organisationer och omsätta denna är viktigt bland annat för organisationers konkurrenskraft. Att göra detta är dock inte helt enkelt och därför tar man ofta hjälp av så kallade kunskapshanteringssystem. Det finns olika typer av system för att hantera kunskap, exempelvis de som benämns som traditionella kunskapshanteringssystem. Ett antal svårigheter och problem med dessa system har lett till att man börjat använda andra system för kunskaphantering, exempelvis wikis. I denna uppsats har vi undersökt en wikis roll som kunskapshanteringssystem inom ett distribuerat mjukvaruutvecklingsteam. Vi har även undersökt hur wikis förhåller sig till traditionella kunskapshanteringssystem. För att undersöka detta genomfördes en fallstudie där fem mjukvaruutvecklare intervjuades. Studien visade att användningen av wikis kan vara mångsidig och att det finns både likheter och skillnader med traditionella kunskapshanteringssystem, både gällande användningen och dess innehåll. Det visade sig också att wikis och traditionella kunskapshanteringssystem kan användas samverkande. Slutsatserna visar att både wikis och traditionella kunskapshanteringssystem kan vara ett stöd och underlätta hanteringen och spridningen av kunskap i organisationer.

This paper seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of current literature regarding technological tools such as Wikis for their use in second language collaborative writing instruction. Some trends that have been identified in technology use for collaborative writing in the second language classroom are that students generally enjoy the technology coupled with group work, and that scaffolding between more and less advanced learners tends to occur when using these online tools. Some areas remain unclear, however, with varying results in several studies as to the quantitative effects on second language acquisition of implementing Wikis and other online tools in group writing exercises. Additionally, freeloading has been observed in various studies, which presents second language teachers with a dilemma when deciding whether to incorporate new technological tools for group work in their classrooms. Finally, this paper provides some ideas for future research directions as well as some practical suggestions and implications for foreign language teachers who wish to utilize Wikis and other collaborative online tools. / text