Elliott Books

Summary of Book Review in Ariadne Web Magazine by Emma Tonkin

The original review can be found in:
Article Title: "Computerization Movements and Technology Diffusion. From Mainframes to Ubiquitous Computing"
Author: Emma Tonkin
Publication Date: 30-April-2008 Publication: Ariadne Issue 55
Originating URL: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue55/tonkin-rvw/
Copyright and citation information File last modified: Monday, 28-Apr-2008 11:24:09 UTC

Excerpts:

"This book is all about computerisation movements - CMs, for short. CMs are social, professional, intellectual and/or scientific movements [1], collective movements fuelled by a group of people who share a vision of the way that things should be, and are ready to promote that vision."

"Elliott and Kraemer's book is about drawing out the social, cultural and political landscape behind the process of deciding which of the really big ideas get time, effort, promotion and encouragement, and what ideas are to be quietly ignored - why, how and when organisations adopt and promote computing technologies."

"This book contains twenty chapters, research papers on the topic of CMs that, as the Acknowledgements state, further the work of the late professor Rob Kling, who died in May 2003. A foreword by Susan Iacono sketches out the material, and the context in which it was written."

"This book contains twenty chapters, research papers on the topic of CMs that, as the Acknowledgements state, further the work of the late professor Rob Kling, who died in May 2003. A foreword by Susan Iacono sketches out the material, and the context in which it was written. Chapter 1 of this volume provides an introduction and sketches out the structure for the succeeding nineteen chapters which are as follows:

Part I: Introduction
1. Computerization Movements and the Diffusion of Technological Innovations
2. Reprints of Seminal Research Papers on Computerization Movements:
Paper 1: Computerization Movements and the Mobilization of Support for Computerization
Paper 2: Computerization Movements: The Rise of the Internet and Distant Forms of Work

Part II: Productivity
3. The Computerization Movement in the U.S. Home Mortgage Industry: Automated Underwriting from 1980 to 2004
4. Visions of the Next Big Thing: Computerization Movements and the Mobilization of Support for New Technologies
5. Framing the Photographs: Understanding Digital Photography as a Computerization Movement

Part III: Democratization
6. From the Computerization Movement to Computerization: Communication Networks in a High-Tech Organization
7. Internetworking in the Small
8. Online Communities: Infrastructure, Relational Cohesion, and Sustainability

Part IV: Death of Distance
9. Virtual Teams: High-Tech Rhetoric and Low-Tech Experience
10. Large-Scale Distributed Collaboration: Tension in a New Interaction Order
11. Examining the Proliferation of Intranets

Part V: Freedom and Information Rights
12. Information/ Communications Rights as a New Environmentalism? Core Environmental Concepts for Linking Rights-Oriented Computerization Movements
13. Examining the Success of Computerization Movements in the Ubiquitous Computing Era: Free and Open Source Software Movements
14. Emerging Patterns of Intersection and Segmentation When Computerization Movements Interact
15. Seeking Reliability in Freedom: The Case of F/OSS
16. Movement Ideology vs. User Pragmatism in the Organizational Adoption of Open Source Software

Part VI: Ubiquitous Computing
17. The Professional's Everyday Struggle with Ubiquitous Computing
18. Politics of Design: Next-Generation Computational Environments
19. Social Movements Shaping the Internet: The Outcome of an Ecology of Games

Part VII Conclusion
20: Comparative Perspective on Computerization Movements: Implications for Ubiquitous Computing."

"In Chapter 1, the CM is defined as 'a broad environmental dynamic of interacting organizations and institutions that shape utopian visions of what technology should do and how it should be used' (p.3)."

"...research into CMs is mercilessly realist. The actual state of clothing of the Emperor is a factor in the way that rhetoric - `discourse aimed at an audience to gain either intellectual or active adherence' [2] - shifts over time, but a critical point here is that a computerisation movement can exist no matter what the actual state of the Emperor's underwear drawer may happen to be - a continuing gap is observed 'between CM visions and the reality of technology use in organisations and society' (p. xviii). In other words, new technologies are described via utopian visions, and as a result of all this rhetoric, it is not unusual for technology to be adopted, but to identify the real-world technology as a manifestation of that vision may be no easy feat. Rhetoric, we are told, is used to convince stakeholders that a new IT concept is the next big thing, that it is not the next big thing, and what should be learnt from the preceding experiences [3]."

"The book is a delight, because it is rare for busy professional academics and researchers to have the time, the opportunity and the motivation to lay down their pen (or, as it may be, their Blackberry) and reflect deeply and thoughtfully on the equally deeply and sincerely held beliefs and assumptions that underlie their work. As a professional cynic I am aware that it is even rarer to be able to do so productively, thoughtfully and without cynicism."

"The synopsis on the back cover finishes with the oblique comment that `The empirical studies presented here show the need... to be aware that CM rhetoric can propose grand visions that never become part of a reality, and reinforce the need for critical and scholarly review of promising new technologies'. I would add that the tools offered here comprise a framework for analysis of computerisation movements; while the studies offered here represent a comprehensive set of examples of how these tools can be applied, and at the same time provide an illustration by example of the most productive attitude to take while doing so. There is therefore ample opportunity to step out of the embedded political discourse in which computing is mired and take the time to apply this analysis in other contexts, including sectors such as institutional repositories, registries and the many faces of social software."

References
1. Kling Rob & Suzanne Iacono. 1988. The mobilization of support for computerization: The role of computerization movements. Social Problems 35(3)(June): 226-43.
2. Perelman, Chaim. (1982). The realm of rhetoric (William Kluback, Trans.). Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press: pp.147.
3. Allen, Jonathan P., "Visions of the Next Big Thing: Computerization Movements and the Mobilization of Support for New Technologies." Forthcoming in K. Kraemer and M. Elliott (eds.), Computerization Movements and Technology Diffusion: From Mainframes to Ubiquitous Computing. Information Today: p. 147.
4. Iacono, S. and R. Kling (2001). In: Information Technology and Organizational Transformation: History, Rhetoric, and Practice, edited by J. Yates and J. Van Maanen. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, California.

Author Details
Emma Tonkin
Interoperability Focus
UKOLN

Email: e.tonkin@ukoln.ac.uk
Web site: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

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