HCC class lecture 19 comments John Canny 4/4/05

Administrivia No class on Wednesday – CHI Social networks (next reading) should be online Friday.

Knowledge Ecologies Sometimes bundled as part of “Actor-Network Theory,” draws on a similar tradition to Latour – anthropological and sociological studies of science. The “ecology” metaphor is used by Susan Leigh-Star, Bonnie Nardi and Vicky O’Day. A different emphasis from Latour – more concern about social groups (communities of practice), centers of power and the boundaries between them. Another key figure in this line of research is Donna Haraway, author of “A Cyborg Manifesto”.

Immutable Mobiles Kinds of artifacts that convey essentially the same meaning independent of context: Maps Math equations Charts, graphs etc. Far more prevalent in science than in other realms of human endeavor. They don’t require knowledge of the writer’s context or background, as do novels or many other texts.

Immutable Mobiles Semiotics introduced a number of concepts to think about immutable mobiles. These include: Realism: the philosophical perspective that things exist in the world independent of words. Modality: the degree of truth or reality of a sign. I.M.s are at the extreme end of realism – the signifier is supposed to unambiguously denote the thing. Readerly (vs. Writerly) texts: the meaning of the text is clear to the reader. The discussion of “modality” explicitly separated the “map” from the “territory”. So does Piaget’s work: there is a specific stage when children understand how to navigate the neighborhood first-hand, but not using a map.

Layered Representations Seems to mirror Latour’s idea of “black boxes” The representations are exposed as one opens up the boxes. Some are opaque (unopened), while others are exposed.

Formalism and Distance Star’s focus is on what happens at a distance, as immutable mobiles cross social boundaries. As we saw with Wenger’s readings, many objects intended as “immutable mobiles,” such as insurance claim forms, are anything but that. The desire for formalism apparently faces insurmountable obstacles. Fortunately, there are still people in the loop to figure out what to do.

Formalism and Distance Any push towards greater formalism should be matched by a greater understanding of the group work context. i.e. in order to make “mobiles” really mobile, one must understand the resources and conventions at the likely sources and destinations.

Freezing Representations In reality, the layered representations used in a complex organization tend to move by themselves. A natural strategy to force stability is to “freeze” various parts of the representation with specifications or standards. Put another way, design is about making progressive commitments. In practice these commitments are not made top-down, or bottom-up, but at arbitrary levels driven by all the constraints in the system.

Boundary Objects Boundary objects are artifacts that mediate the interaction between different work-groups, or communities of practice. Rather than spanning time and space arbitrarily (as immutable mobiles), they mediate between specific communities. But otherwise they share similar properties. In general, the more “concrete” they are, the better.

Brokering Boundary objects, as the term suggests, are “objects”. Boundaries can also be mediated by people, called “brokers.” These people “speak” the language of two or more communities, and it is understood that their role includes mediation between them. Brokering is a complex role which involves reconciling perspectives and philosophies. It is a difficult political space since the foci of power are in “centers” of discipline or perspective.

Brokering Brokers are often in a difficult situation since they must represent the views of a conflicting or a competing group, but must avoid “taking sides”. Brokers often form “communities of practice” of their own to address these issues.

Discussion Topics T1: List some boundary objects that you routinely work with. What are the communities between which these objects mediate? Are there brokers as well? T2: Suppose you wanted to identify boundary objects or brokers computationally. What kind of data would you need, and what would you do with it?