1 IN 364.v2003.ppt, ANT, complexity and systems development Eric Monteiro NTNU and Univ. of Oslo IN364 March 2003

2 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Contents ”Organizational issues” – where are they? ANT – notions, illustrations – and critique Key lessons and issues

3 IN 364.v2003.ppt, ”Implementation” Specified Coded Tested Prototyped A few users Pockets of use, ad hoc Everyone using it Everyone, for important things

4 IN 364.v2003.ppt, ”Using an IS” Seen it Touched it Occasionally For selected tasks, not for everything Often routinely

5 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Examples ”Two and a half million Norwegians use the Internet every month” (Gallup, November 2002) ATM - - Cinema - - Flight check in - - c2b - - …

6 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Organizational politics groups Agendas Interests Conflict, not harmony, is the rule

7 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Interpretative flexibility MTueWThF

8 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Ex.: GP pharmacy prescription

9 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Ex.: NMD identifier logisitics GP pharmacy prescription

10 IN 364.v2003.ppt, ANT: Basic moves Our world is full of technology The end, not the means Same role => same explanation Reductionist? Vulgar? Anti-humanistic?

11 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Appropriating ANT Social science => ICT –A GENUINE interest in the technology Backward gazing => design –Only after the dust has settled... Details => basic notions –Unstable, keeps changing

12 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Inscriptions WHO inscribes WHAT is inscribed (which scenario) HOW is it inscribed (the material) STRENGTH of an inscription - does it succeed?

13 IN 364.v2003.ppt, ”Benefits” – for whom?? Calenders….. Benefits = those CALLING meetings Additional work = those BEING called Ex.: Internet banking ?

14 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Individual  cooperative work Lotus Notes in Alfa Corporation ”sharing experience” – projects, customers (implicit) structures of incentives

15 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Ex.: Lotus Notes in Statoil (1992- )

16 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Ex.: Lotus Notes in Statoil $ Olje ISO 9000 Norne

17 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Irreversibility Irreversibilitet - measuring how well-aligned the actor-network is –How difficult it is to undo an earlier inscription –To what extent future action is determined

18 IN 364.v2003.ppt, QWERTY Q W E R T Y U I O P Å A S D F G H J K L Ø Æ Z X C V B N M

19 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Standardization (I) Imposed - emergent ? –Ex.: ISO vs. Internet Irreversibility? –Ex.: QWERTY Key dilemma: Keep stableChange

20 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Problem areas ”Actant” Only micro studies ”Flat” actors Centered, drifting A grand theory of everything Design = intervention, not from scratch

21 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Purity and danger strong, rhetorical device! socially constructed (M Douglas) danger = impurity = fragmentation ”Infrastructures are clean - tidy, uniform”

22 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Fragmentation = dirt “[W]e risk that the company’s information and access get fragmented (...) The Intranet market is highly fragmented today, with a number of strong competitors fighting each other with technological as well as political means. (...) For the non-specialist, this creates the impression that Intranet technology is cheap, but it is of key importance to recognise that the Intranet technology of today has it price — they require an effort to be integrated with the existing infrastructure of the company” ((SData K/RD21, IT challenges and trends )

23 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Actant Just a fake? A play with words? Who interpretes the actants? Reasonable interpretations Unsolvable problem!

24 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Only micro? what about larger structures Institutions? ”move up and down!” (Callon, Latour 1986)

25 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Flat actors Goal directed Machiavelli No soul Symbolic aspects

26 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Centered Goal oriented Managerialism No drifting A mastermind, an origo

27 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Grand theory of everything what is NOT an actor-network? –None talks about boudaries - do they exist? The neverending networks –The world in your lap –How to delimit them –Methodological issues ”There is never only one network” (Leigh Star)

28 IN 364.v2003.ppt, Design Till now - networks from scratch Infrastructure Gradual change of networks Polyvalent networks