Sociotechnical interaction at work: an ethnographic study of the Wikipedia community

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shing-Chung Jonathan Yam
Keyword(s):  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Knowledge Generation ◽  
Online Ethnography ◽  
Hierarchical Order ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Personal Interactions ◽  
Cooperative Knowledge ◽  
The Way

AbstractWith much of Wikipedia’s research centering on the encyclopedia’s articles, less is known about the way its editors confront issues through computer-mediated talk pages. I present a novel attempt to investigate the diversity of discursive, sociotechnical interactions in the community with a data-driven online ethnography. I detail three issues: (i) how human editors collaborate with bots; (ii) what kinds of sociotechnical interaction are used in the discussion of article development; and (iii) how these interactions sustain the project. Notable differences emerge as to how human editors interact with other humans and bots during both article construction and personal interactions. With eight dimensions of interaction in cooperative knowledge generation identified, I proceed with a discussion of Wikipedia’s sociotechnical authorship, hierarchical order, and protocological operations.

How to turn managers into data-driven decision makers

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 553-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Daniel André Carillo ◽  
Nadine Galy ◽  
Cameron Guthrie ◽  
Anne Vanhems
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Instrument ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Business Analytics ◽  
Business World ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Multi Stage ◽  
Attitudes Toward Statistics ◽  
Attitude Toward Business ◽  
Professional Contexts ◽  
The Way

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the need to engender a positive attitude toward business analytics in order for firms to more effectively transform into data-driven businesses, and for business schools to better prepare future managers. Design/methodology/approach This paper develops and validates a measurement instrument that captures the attitude toward business statistics, the foundation of business analytics. A multi-stage approach is implemented and the validation is conducted with a sample of 311 students from a business school. Findings The instrument has strong psychometric properties. It is designed so that it can be easily extrapolated to professional contexts and extended to the entire domain of business analytics. Research limitations/implications As the advent of a data-driven business world will impact the way organizations function and the way individuals think, work, communicate and interact, it is crucial to engage a transdisciplinary dialogue among domains that have the expertise to help train and transform current and future professionals. Practical implications The contribution provides educators and organizations with a means to measure and monitor attitudes toward statistics, the most anxiogenic component of business analytics. This is a first step in monitoring and developing an analytics mindset in both managers and students. Originality/value By demonstrating how the advent of the data-driven business era is transforming the DNA and functioning of organizations, this paper highlights the key importance of changing managers’ and all employees’ (to a lesser extent) mindset and way of thinking.

scholarly journals How do places of origin influence access to mobility in the global age? An analysis of the influence of vulnerability and structural constraints on Senegalese translocal livelihood strategies

2017 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Schöfberger
Keyword(s):  
International Migration ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Livelihood Strategies ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Economic Vulnerability ◽  
Global Age ◽  
The Way

Abstract. Literature has often underlined the relevance of mobility for modern lifestyles. However, it has frequently overlooked that mobility has long been the rule in Senegal. There, mobility has allowed households to cope with environmental and economic vulnerability. Over the last decades, households have extended their traditional mobility through internal and international migration. This paper investigates how place-related vulnerability and structural constraints influence the way Senegalese households construct translocal spaces and livelihood strategies in the global age. For this purpose, a multi-sited ethnographic study has been conducted at four villages in Senegal and at two immigration destinations in Italy and Spain. The empirical results show that vulnerability and structural constraints in the home place do not prevent households from adopting strategies based on mobility, but rather influence the composition of translocal spaces, the ability to move between places, and the construction of translocal livelihood strategies.

Impressions in action: the socially situated construction of expertise in the workplace

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aditya Johri
Keyword(s):  
Impression Formation ◽  
Task Assignment ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Knowledge Generation ◽  
Task Completion ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Workplace Setting ◽  
Socially Situated

Purpose – The impressions of others’ expertise are fundamental to workplace dynamics. Identifying expertise is essential for workplace functions such as task assignment, task completion, and knowledge generation. Although prior work has examined both the nature of expertise and its importance for work, formation of expertise impressions in the workplace has not received much attention. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper the author addresses the question – how do we form expertise impressions in the workplace – using data from an ethnographic study of a workplace setting. The author employs a case study of project team formation to synthesize a process framework of impression formation. Findings – The author proposes a framework that integrates sociocultural and interactional accounts to argue that actors utilize situational and institutional frames to socially construct their expertise impressions of others. These frames emerge as actors engage in activities within a community of practice. Originality/value – This practice-based explication of expertise construction moves beyond narrow conceptions of personality-based traits or credentials as signals of expertise. It explains why sharing of expertise within organizations through the use of information technology continues to be problematic – expertise is an enactment and therefore it defies reification through knowledge management.

Elaborations

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Suk-Young Chwe
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Generation ◽  
The One ◽  
Influence Behavior ◽  
The Way

This chapter begins by describing two competing kinds of explanations to the one offered in the preceding chapter. The first is the way in which rituals are thought to influence behavior through direct psychological stimulation. The second is based on how being physically together in a group of people affects individual emotions. It addresses the question of whether common knowledge is an impossible ideal. It then discusses how publicity—or more precisely, common knowledge generation—and content are never really separable, in contrast to the book's argument that both must be considered in understanding cultural practices such as rituals. The chapter goes on to explain how historical precedent can generate common knowledge and generating community through common knowledge.

Scaffolding the OEEU's Data-Driven Ecosystem to Analyze the Employability of Spanish Graduates

2018 ◽  
pp. 236-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Vázquez-Ingelmo ◽  
Juan Cruz-Benito ◽  
Francisco J. García-Peñalvo ◽  
Martín Martín-González
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Master's Degree ◽  
Bachelor's Degree ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Technological Evolution ◽  
Technological Support ◽  
Related Data ◽  
Spanish Universities ◽  
The Way

This chapter outlines the technological evolution experimented by the Observatory for University Employability and Employment's information system to become a data-driven technological ecosystem. This observatory collects data from more than 50 Spanish universities and their graduate students (bachelor's degree, master's degree) with the goal of measuring the factors that lead to students' employability and employment. The goals pursued by the observatory need a strong technological support to gather, process, and disseminate the related data. The system that supports these tasks has evolved from a standard (traditional) information system to a data-driven ecosystem, which provides remarkable benefits covering the observatory's requirements. The benefits, the foundations, and the way the data-driven ecosystem is built will be described throughout the chapter, as well as how the information obtained is exploited in order to provide insights about the employment and employability variables.

Nethnography

2009 ◽  
pp. 1611-1628
Author(s):  
Adriana Andrade Braga
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Online Interactions ◽  
Ethnographic Approach ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
History Of

This chapter explores the possibilities and limitations of nethnography, an ethnographic approach applied to the study of online interactions, particularly computer-mediated communication. In this chapter, a brief history of ethnography, including its relation to anthropological theories and its key methodological assumptions is addressed. Next, one of the most frequent methodologies applied to Internet settings, that is to treat logfiles as the only or main source of data, is explored, and its consequences are analyzed. In addition, some strategies related to a naturalistic perspective for data analysis are examined. Finally, an example of an ethnographic study, which involves participants of a Weblog, is presented to illustrate the potential for nethnography to enhance the study of CMC.

Corporates in the Digital Age

2021 ◽  
pp. 1519-1532
Author(s):  
Hammad Azzam
Keyword(s):  
Digital Age ◽  
Customer Experience ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Essential Factor ◽  
Global Culture ◽  
Customer Interaction ◽  
The Way

A proposition for digital transformation of global groups into efficient enterprises is introduced. At the heart of the proposition is a transformational practice aimed at creating a customer-focused, data-driven global culture in any customer-serving company. The digital age has added a level of complexity to the way we acquire and serve customers. Doing a good job in the traditional channels is not enough anymore. Online is increasingly becoming the channel of choice with the two main customer-interaction paradigms: sell and service. And building a great customer experience is probably the most essential factor of success for both functions.

scholarly journals Advocacy Outcomes Are Not Self-Evident: The Quest for Outcome Identification

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bodille Arensman
Keyword(s):  
Evaluation Methods ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Personal Interactions

Advocacy outcomes are not self-evident. Identifying advocacy outcomes is extremely difficult because they are often intangible, arising from (personal) interactions, and they are not always traceable. This challenges conventional evaluation methods, which is recognized in the advocacy evaluation literature. However, current evaluation methods claim to do justice to these complexities while in reality, these methods assume outcomes are identified logically following from actions. Based on empirical findings from a multisited ethnographic study of an advocacy evaluation, this article questions these underlying assumptions and empirically demonstrates how advocacy outcomes are socially and politically constructed, leaving room for interpretation.

L2 Chinese learners’ pragmatic developmental patterns in data-driven instruction and computer-mediated communication (CMC)

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiong Li
Keyword(s):  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
Developmental Patterns ◽  
Data Driven Instruction ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
L2 Chinese

Abstract This study examined second language (L2) Chinese learners’ developmental patterns of pragmatic competence in two computer-mediated communication (CMC) conditions: (1) CMC with data-driven instruction embedded in the course of CMC and (2) CMC without data-driven instruction. Learners’ pragmatic competence was operationalized as their ability to use a Chinese sentence final particle (SFP) ne during CMC with a native speaker partner. The study investigated: (1) whether learners (as a group) developed their use of ne over time in the two CMC conditions, and (2) how individual learners changed their use of ne (if any) in the two conditions. The quantitative analysis (token and type frequency of ne) revealed that CMC itself did not promote learners’ use of ne. However, it promoted learners’ production of ne when data-driven instruction was incorporated into CMC. Supporting the quantitative findings, the qualitative analysis showed that one learner in the CMC with data-driven instruction outperformed his counterpart in the CMC without data-driven instruction group in the diverse use of ne.

scholarly journals Under the bridge in Tehran: Addiction, Poverty and Capital

Ethnography ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maziyar Ghiabi
Keyword(s):  
Drug Users ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
The State ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
The City ◽  
The Way

The article provides an ethnographic study of the lives of the ‘dangerous class’ of drug users based on fieldwork carried out among different drug using ‘communities’ in Tehran between 2012 and 2016. The primary objective is to articulate the presence of this category within modern Iran, its uses and its abuses in relation to the political. What drives the narration is not only the account of this lumpen, plebeian group vis à vis the state, but also the way power has affected their agency, their capacity to be present in the city, and how capital/power and the dangerous/lumpen life come to terms, to conflict, and to the production of new situations which affect urban life.

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