DMS Blog Week 12: Identify two ways your profession can help bridge the digital divide.

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The digital divide is defined as being “the differential access to and use of the internet according to gender, income , race and location”(Flew, 2008, p. 26). In the area of information management when looking at organizations and their use of information and communication technologies, the digital divide between companies is mainly created due to location and wealth. In this blog I will identify two ways in which the field of information management may help companies in less developed countries close the social and global digital divide with companies in developed countries, when it comes to computer mediated communication.

The first cause of the digital divide we will discuss, is one that may between the national start up companies in third world countries and national start up companies in developed countries, due to economic differences. According to Pick and Azari (2007) the difference in the socioeconomic status of a country is one of the variables that may lead to a digital divide.

A high initial investment in information technology is almost a survival requirement for start up's in developed countries. This may include investments such as: desktops and laptops for every employee, personal printers, broadband internet access, etc. On the other hand, these investments may be seen as complete inconceivable to start ups in developing countries, who may invest in a few desktop computer to carry out certain work tasks that absolutely require information technologies.

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In a case such like the one's presented above, a professional information manager would be able to step in a carry out an ethnographical research of the companies work behavior and the interlinked work processes. Furthermore documenting the companies communication channels and directions, will lead to the identification of the internal and external information flows of the company. This preliminary study, will lead to the next step which involves designing a collaboration network suited to the companies needs. In the design process of this collaboration network the researcher will be able to take in to account the company's level of engagement and the economic feasability with regard to information technology investment. In other words, an information manager will be able to maximize the benefits of the accessible technology, which is something a lot of companies in developed countries, who have the money to invest still fail to do. (Cases)

In terms of national start up companies one has to take in to account the culture and customer revolving technology. The presence of a technoculture in developing countries will be small pr close to none in comparison to developed countries close to none. Therefore, the question is whether the necessity for technological innovations in for increased computer mediated communication is necessary. The answer, as the world sees it today, is that technology and progress go hand in hand. So yes, technological innovations and the start of a formation of a technology culture is necessary.

Hype is defined as “excessive promotion, exuberant positive (or negative discourse, exaggeration” (Brand, 2010).

This is another area where the profession of information management may come in to question, as a creator of hype in a company. Creating hype can be done in several ways. An information manager would not create the hype the same way as a marketer, who would do it through arousing human emotions or repetition. In a sense, an information manager, can create hype by informing and changing peoples “technological frames” (Orlikowski, 1997, p.3) which are seen as “mental models or frames of references that individuals have about the world, their organization, work, technology, and so on”. Informing companies and people about the benefits of using information technology and computer mediated communication. Additionally providing Knowledge about ways the company may benefit from investing and learning about technology will encourage application and further spread and could possibly lead to a further “diffusion of innovation”(Flew, 2008, p. 207).

Through applying their knowledge in situations such as the previously mentioned, information managers have the power to change the significance of some of the underlying factors that create the digital divide, mainly those of income (seen as economic capabilities), location and education.

References

Brand, J. (2010) The digital divide: Week 12 Digital Media and Society[PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from: http://ilearn.bond.edu.au/@@597E95B6E5D9B0B6E87F02602569165B/courses/1/COMN12-302_103/content/_551310_1/DMS12-103.pdf

Flew, T. (2008). New Media: An Introduction (3^rd). Sydney: Oxford University Press.

Pick, J.B., & Azari, R. (2007). Worldwide digital divide: influences of education, workforce, economic, and policy factors on information technology. ACM Digital Library, Retrieved from http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1235019&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CFID=116623887&CFTOKEN=16180121

Orlikowski, W.J. (1992). Learning from notes: organizational issues in groupware implementation. Proceedings of the Cscw'92: proceedings of the conference on computer-supported cooperative work (pp. 362-369). New York: ACM Press

Images 
Image 1, retrieved 30th november 2010:
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRQJq2OYZfXHyS8T7oz1lP5pHqQzc_WjFZx-MVjjWvD1BKil__QNQ 
Image 2, retrieved 30th november 2010:
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ_vxDeiDDmGasseijz7iLH78o7vRjcGaZYT4WMNPH5rK8fcLMk

DMS Blog 3 : What does the word community mean for your profession and will its meaning change in a decade?

A virtual community can be seen as an online space where employees working in a team, for a common purpose, can participate and interact, leading to computer supported cooperative work (CSCW). This blog will present how recent CSCW related innovations have changed the importance of virtual communities in organizational behavior, in addition exploring the effect this change will have information management as a profession.

IBM, a leading software corporation created the social software of Lotus Connections with the purpose of providing a capability for organizations to establish work networks and communities, by means of functionalities, such as: Blogs, community-space, social networking, forums, file sharing, wikis, etc.

Moving one step further up the line of innovation, other tools such as SL meetings, designed to support meetings and event on second life, allow for even richer messages to be transmitted through an online communication channel. The media richness model, as described by Daft and Lengel (as cited in Miller, 1999), describes rich media as having: instant feedback, multiple cues, natural language and a personal focus on the medium. Where, Face-to-face communication is the richest of all communication channels.

Scene from Second Life

The recent evolution of the use of virtual communities in organizations. Has taken the capabilities of using tools such as those offered by Lotus Connection, which are limited to sending and receiving textually based information in a synchronous or asynchronous manner, to the possibility of including vocal and physical cues in online communication. Virtual worlds and tools such as SL meetings, eliminates the previously necessary constraints of being in the same place at the same time to use a rich communication channel.

The change of the term community within organizations has taken community from being a geographically defined traditional community, where inclusion or exclusion were defined according to physical location of offices or location of headquarters, to the idea of online communities where membership is according to purpose, cause, etc.

This change in community has derived from organizations slowly adapting to globalization. Globalization has forced organizations to have an 'international' mindset when selecting communication channels, as globalization is according to Flew (2008), amongst other things, the “rise of multinational corporations; international production, trade and financial systems; international communication flows; global movements of people...” (p. 26). Internal communication increasingly includes communication transcending national boundaries.

This elimination of time and space constraints create what McLuhan refers to as a the 'global village. McLuhan (in Symes, 1995) further said ‘Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned’ (p. 3)

Work teams within organizations, are to a larger extent existing and interacting purely on virtual worlds, leading to the idea that offline communication may replace as main communication channel. This is because, the richness of the communication channel online will be equal to face-to-face communication channel, as well as being more convenient.

The task of the information manager, to manage new technological innovations in terms of communication, with organizational capabilities and needs, becomes increasingly challenging. In this knowledge economy, information is being retrieved, stored, shared through an online medium, making access, security and participation new focal points for the profession.

In conclusion, globalization, are changing geographically formed organizational communities, to ideological communities driven by common purpose, interest, etc. allowing communities to exist in the online environment. Continuous innovations in software for CSCW, means that communication in online communities will become the main communication channel between organizational members worldwide.

References

Flew, T. (2008). New Media: An Introduction (3^rd). Sydney: Oxford University Press.

Symes, B. 1995. Marshall Mcluhan’s ‘Global Village’. Retrieved November 2010. From http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/bas9401.html

Miller, Katherine,  1999  Organizational communication : approaches and processes / Katherine Miller  Wadsworth, Belmont, Calif. ; London

Webpages

Lotus connections - social software for business. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/connections/

Meetings and events in second life. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://work.secondlife.com/en-US/worksolutions/meetings/

The tales of Camping and the Porty Potty

I went camping this weekend to Rainbow Beach, amazing place! Beautiful scenery. I had a great great time, met some great people. Truly fun experience. We went to some dunes(picture below) and it was absolutely amazing. The beach was perfectly clear and at perfect temperature. I'd recommend it to anyone, it was fantastic!

Anyways, I recently read a blog post (http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/) that black people don't camp, apparently it's a caucasian trend. Who knew? Quite entertaining I must say but this has absolutely nothing to do with this blog entry.

I like the relaxed feeling of just hanging out by the ocean and the camp site.  I like nature. I got some new pets, 4 turkeys (Michael, Thanksgiving, Peter and Pancho) and a frog (Frank). I almost walked in to what I am convinced was probably the most dangerous spider in the southern hemisphere. Not a problem! When nature calls, then I got a problem. Camping and bathrooms, oh my goodness! Camping, bathrooms and heat, oh my double goodness!! Not pleasant, pretty much sums it up.

Frank was cuter

Today I wanted to share with you some of the observations I made this weekend:

1. I didn't see any black people camping

2. Going to the bathroom while camping can easily become a phobia

3. People have a strange tendency to take their dogs to the bathroom..?

4. Why not provide some light in the porty pottys, so as to avoid using the senses of touch and smell

5. I am happy wet nappies were invented

My recommendation: Take your own bathroom and while you're at it, take your own shower too.