TY - JOUR T1 - Building an apparatus: Refractive, reflective and diffractive readings of trace data JF - Journal of the Association for Information Systems Y1 - 2020 A1 - Carsten Østerlund A1 - Kevin Crowston A1 - Corey Brian Jackson AB -

We propose a set of methodological principles and strategies for the use of trace data, i.e., data capturing performances carried out on or via information systems, often at a fine level of detail. Trace data comes with a number of methodological and theoretical challenges associated with the inseparable nature of the social and material. Drawing on Haraway and Barad’s distinctions among refraction, reflection and diffraction, we compare three approaches to trace data analysis. We argue that a diffractive methodology allows us to explore how trace data are not given but created though construction of a research apparatus to study trace data. By focusing on the diffractive ways in which traces ripple through an apparatus, it is possible to explore some of the taken-for-granted, invisible dynamics of sociomateriality. Equally, important this approach allows us to describe what and when distinctions within entwined phenomena emerge in the research process. Empirically, we illustrate the guiding principles and strategies by analyzing trace data from Gravity Spy, a crowdsourced citizen science project on Zooniverse. We conclude by suggesting that a diffractive methodology may help us draw together quantitative and qualitative research practices in new and productive ways that also raises interesting design questions.

VL - 21 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Documentation and Access to Knowledge in Online Communities: Know Your Audience and Write Appropriately? JF - Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology Y1 - 2019 A1 - Carsten Østerlund A1 - Kevin Crowston AB - Virtual collaborations bring together people who must work together despite having varied access to and understanding of the work at hand. In many cases, the collaboration is technology supported, meaning that the work is done through shared documents of various kinds. We develop a framework articulating the characteristics of documents supporting collaborators with asymmetric access to knowledge versus those with symmetric access to knowledge. Drawing on theories about document genre, boundary objects, and provenance, we hypothesize that documents supporting asymmetric collaborators are likely to articulate or prescribe their own (1) purpose, (2) context of use, (3) content and form, and (4) provenance in greater detail than documents supporting symmetric collaborators. We explore these hypotheses through content analysis of documents and instructions from a variety of free/libre open source projects (FLOSS). We present findings consistent with the hypotheses developed as well as results extending beyond our theory-derived assumptions. As participants gradually gain access to knowledge, the study suggests, prescriptions about the content of documents become less important compared to prescriptions about the context, provenance, and process of work. The study suggests new directions for research on communications in virtual collaborations, as well as advice for those supporting such collaborations. VL - 70 IS - 6 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Work features to support stigmergic coordination in distributed teams Y1 - 2017 A1 - Kevin Crowston A1 - James Howison A1 - Bolici, Francesco A1 - Carsten Østerlund KW - Coordination KW - Stigmergy AB -

When work products are shared via a computer system, members of distributed teams can see the work products produced by remote colleagues as easily as those from local colleagues. Drawing on coordination theory and work in computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), we theorize that these work products can provide information to support team coordination, that is, that work can be coordinated through the outcome of the work itself, a mode of coordination analogous to the biological process of stigmergy. Based on studies of documents and work, we postulate three features of work products that enable them to support team coordination, namely having a clear genre, being visible and mobile, and being combinable. These claims are illustrated with examples drawn from free/libre open source software development teams. We conclude by discussing how the proposed theory might be empirically tested.

JF - Academy of Management Annual Meeting ER - TY - Generic T1 - Boundary-Spanning Documents in Online FLOSS Communities: Does One Size Fit All? T2 - Forty-sixth Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-46) Y1 - 2013 A1 - Carsten Østerlund A1 - Kevin Crowston JF - Forty-sixth Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-46) CY - Wailea, HI ER - TY - Generic T1 - What characterizes documents that bridge boundaries compared to documents that do not? An exploratory study of documentation in FLOSS teams T2 - Hawai'i International Conference on System Science Y1 - 2011 A1 - Carsten Østerlund A1 - Kevin Crowston JF - Hawai'i International Conference on System Science ER - TY - CONF T1 - Work as coordination and coordination as work: A process perspective on FLOSS development projects T2 - Third International Symposium on Process Organization Studies Y1 - 2011 A1 - Kevin Crowston A1 - Carsten Østerlund A1 - James Howison A1 - Bolici, Francesco JF - Third International Symposium on Process Organization Studies CY - Corfu, Greece UR - http://www.process-symposium.com/ ER -