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1 – 10 of 22The purpose of this article is to examine the ways in which self-tracking data have meaning and value in and after the life of the creator, including how such data could become…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to examine the ways in which self-tracking data have meaning and value in and after the life of the creator, including how such data could become part of the larger historical record, curated in an institutional archive. In doing so, the article expands upon existing shared interests among researchers working in the areas of self-tracking, human–computer interaction and archival science.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 18 people who had self-tracked for six months or more were recruited for the study. Participants completed a survey which gathered demographic data and characteristics vis-à-vis their self-tracking behavior. In-person semi-structured interviews were then conducted to ascertain the beliefs of the participants regarding the long-term use and value of personal quantified-self data.
Findings
The findings reveal the value that people place on self-tracking data, their thoughts on proper modes for accessing their archive once it moves from the private to the public space, and how to provide fidelity within the system such that their experiences are represented while also enabling meaning making on the part of subsequent users of the archive.
Originality/value
Today’s quantified-self data are generally embedded in systems that create a pipeline from the individual source to that of the corporate warehouse, bent on absorbing and extracting insight from a totality of big data. This article posits that new opportunities for knowing and for design can be revealed when a public interest rationale is appended to rich personalized collections of small data.
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James A. Hodges and Ciaran B. Trace
This article aims to advance a multifaceted framework for preserving algorithms and algorithmic systems in an archival context.
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to advance a multifaceted framework for preserving algorithms and algorithmic systems in an archival context.
Design/methodology/approach
The article is based on a review and synthesis of existing literature, during which the authors observe emergent themes. After introducing these themes, the authors follow each theme as manifest in existing digital preservation projects, starting with algorithms' earliest conceptual starting points and moving up through themes' eventual implementation within a complex social environment.
Findings
The authors find current literature is largely divided between that which addresses algorithms primarily as computational artifacts and that which views them instead as primarily social in nature. To bridge this gap the authors propose that “the algorithm,” as the algorithm is frequently deployed in popular discourse, is best understood as not as either the algorithm's technical or social components, but rather the sum total of both.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited by its methodology as a literature review. However, the findings point toward a new framing for future research that is less divided in terms of social or material orientation.
Practical implications
Creating multifaceted records of algorithms, the authors argue, enables more effective regulation and management of algorithmic systems, which in turn help to improve their levels of fairness, accountability, and trustworthiness.
Originality/value
The paper offers a wide variety of case studies with the potential to inform future studies, while contextualizing the studies together within a new framework that avoids prior limitations.
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The purpose of this paper is to argue that researchers in the information disciplines should embrace ethnomethodology as a way of forming deeper insights into the relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to argue that researchers in the information disciplines should embrace ethnomethodology as a way of forming deeper insights into the relationship between people and recorded knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper introduces the core concepts of ethnomethodology as a means of articulating what this perspective brings to the understanding of the way that society is accomplished. A selection of key studies are then examined to highlight important ethnomethodological findings about the particular relationship of documents to human actions and interactions.
Findings
Ethnomethodology highlights the fact that people transform their experiences, and the experiences of others, into documents whose status as an objective object help to justify people’s actions and inferences. Documents, as written accounts, also serve to make peoples’ actions meaningful to themselves and to others. At the same time, ethnomethodology draws attention to the fact that any correct reading of these documents relies partly on an understanding of the tacit ideologies that undergird people’s sense-making and that are used in order to make decisions and get work done.
Originality/value
This conceptual framework contributes to the information disciplines by bringing to the fore certain understandings about the social organization of document work, and the attendant social arrangements they reveal. The paper also outlines, from a methodological perspective, how information science researchers can use ethnomethodology as an investigative stance to further their knowledge of the role of documents in everyday life.
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This article aims to examine a particular sub‐set of human information behavior that has been largely overlooked in the library and information science (LIS) literature; how…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to examine a particular sub‐set of human information behavior that has been largely overlooked in the library and information science (LIS) literature; how people are socialized to create and use information.
Design/methodology/approach
Naturalism and ethnomethodology were used as theoretical frameworks to examine what a group of fifth grade students were taught about documents, how this information was imparted to them, and how social factors were manifested in the construction and form of those documents. Two concepts are shown to be critical in the explication of students as document creators and users: the notion that there is a “stock of knowledge” that underlies human interaction (some of which relates to recorded information), and that this socialization process forms part of a school's “hidden curriculum.”
Findings
Students were socialized to be good (in the sense of being competent) creators and users of documents. Part of the role of “being a student” involved learning the underlying norms and values that existed in relation to document creation and use, as well as understanding other norms and values of the classroom that were captured or reflected by documents themselves. Understanding “document work” was shown to be a fundamental part of student affiliation; enabling students to move from precompetent to competent members of a school community.
Originality/value
This research demonstrated that people possess a particular stock of knowledge from which they draw when creating and using information. Competence in this aspect of human information behavior, while partly based on one's own experience, is shown to be largely derived or learned from interaction with others.
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Mohammad Mayouf and Ciaran Gilligan
In construction projects, underpayments can be recognised as one of the significant drawbacks that impact the success of a project. Research into underpayments is considered…
Abstract
Purpose
In construction projects, underpayments can be recognised as one of the significant drawbacks that impact the success of a project. Research into underpayments is considered ambiguous and provides a limited reflection of the issue, which makes it complicated to trace how it originates in the first place. This study aims to examine the causes that lead to underpayments and develop a holistic synthesis of underpayments for subcontractors in the lifecycle of a construction project.
Design/methodology/approach
An open-ended and closed-ended questionnaire was used to collect the data using purposeful sampling with 28 construction stakeholders who ranged from main contractors, subcontractors and others (Small medium enterprises SMEs, Consultancies, Clients etc.). Data collected was analysed to trace drivers and the impact of underpayment and suggested mitigation strategies to be identified whilst viewing the perspectives of a main contractor and subcontractor.
Findings
The findings show that the most prominent driver for underpayments is variation disputes followed by cash flow. The research also suggests mitigation strategies such as collaborative working, more robust budget control and early identification of risks as potential remedies to overcome the underpayment issue. The research concludes with a framework that elicits the complexity underlying underpayments for subcontractors in construction projects.
Originality/value
The research evolves the understanding that underpayment is a complex phenomenon, relying heavily on the data/information exchange mechanism between the main contractor and subcontractors. This research provokes the need to understand underpayment further so it can be mitigated.
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Salman Ahmad, Ciaran Connolly and Istemi Demirag
Using Dean's (2010) analytics of government, this research explores how regimes of governing practices are linked to the underlying policy rationalities in dealing with the UK…
Abstract
Purpose
Using Dean's (2010) analytics of government, this research explores how regimes of governing practices are linked to the underlying policy rationalities in dealing with the UK government's COVID-19 testing policies as a strategy for governing at a distance, including how targets were set and operationalized.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on the UK government's policy documents, other official publications (plans) and parliamentary discourse, together with publicly available media information related to its COVID-19 policies.
Findings
This research reveals that, with respect to the governance of COVID-19 in the UK, testing has the dual role of inscription for the government's performance and classification for the pandemic risks. The analysis illustrates that the central role of testing is as a technology for classification for identifying and monitoring the virus-related risks. Moreover, our discourse analysis suggests that initially COVID-19 testing was used by the UK government more for performance communication, with the classificatory role of testing and its performativity as a strategic device evolving and only being acknowledged by government gradually as the underlying testing infrastructure was developed.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is based upon publicly available reports and other information of a single country's attempts to control COVID-19 over a relatively short period of time.
Originality/value
This paper provides a critical understanding of the role of (accounting) numbers in developing an effective government policy for governing COVID-19.
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Şengül Öymen Gür and Şengül Yalçınkaya Erol
Due to discontent arising from the application of Modernism's totalitarian and homogenising logic to house design, recent research has concentrated on differences between…
Abstract
Due to discontent arising from the application of Modernism's totalitarian and homogenising logic to house design, recent research has concentrated on differences between cultures, societies and ethnic groups to the extent that today's students of architecture have difficulty finding sources which point to any universally valid values and preferences adopted by contemporary populations. In this study seventeen major design principles stemming from man-environment relationships, such as privacy, territoriality, personal space, backstage behaviour, orientation, and so on, as deduced from Turkish traditional houses, are investigated in terms of similarities among cultures. Samples of contemporary houses are selected from Turkey and elsewhere. Between local and international house designs full matches are depicted and verified by way of statistical analyses across fourteen items, such as living space subdivisions for guests and family, indirect access to the house (modulation), multi-purpose living space subdivisions (hierarchical living space), individualized bathrooms in bedrooms, independent family rooms, semi-closed spaces on the first floor, larger fenestration on upper floors as opposed to opacity of ground floors, segregated garden space, powerful demarcation of the garden space, orientation toward the house's own territory, bathrooms being situated in night time domains, differentiated status of spaces, multiple uses for stair landings (such as for hiding places for goods). Only three items showed some variance: closed balconies on upper floors were local, and semi-open spaces on ground floors were international tendencies. The practice of allowing direct access from the main entrance to a vertical circulation area was also predominantly a local choice.
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