8th Social Study of ICT Workshop
Information Systems and Innovation Group,
Department of Management,
London School of Economics and Political Science
The Habitat of Information: Social and Organizational Consequences of
Information Growth
Friday 25th of April, 2008
The workshop will take place in the Hong Kong Theatre, Ground Floor,
Clement House, LSE
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/informationSystems/newsAndEvents/
2008events/SSIT8programme.htm
Information growth is a distinctive phenomenon of the late 20th and
early 21st century. Large varieties of information are currently
produced and circulated, in a rapidly increasing scale, across the
various institutional domains of contemporary societies. Technical
and administrative innovations have been expanding the interoperable
platforms that make possible the development and diffusion of
information within and across systems and organizations. At the same
time, a range of devices from desktop computing to cell phones and
digital cameras have been spreading across the population, making
individuals and social groups important producers and consumers of
information. A pivotal development has been the emergence, expansion
and deepening involvement of the internet in social and economic life.
Taken together, these developments establish a new socio-economic
environment in which information-based operations, and information
goods and services acquire crucial importance. This is clearly shown
in the rapid ascent to economic dominance of internet-based companies
that demonstrate superior data editing and information management
strategies. New commercial possibilities steadily develop around the
production, ordering and distribution of information, as data become
interoperable across sources and older forms of information (e.g.
image, text and sound) are brought to bear upon one another. But
information growth has wider social implications as well. The
involvement of information in every walk of life redefines the
relationship between information and reality, and reshapes the social
practices through which information is stored, retrieved, understood,
disseminated and remembered. Increasingly, information mediates
between humans and reality. In this context, the activities of
ordering, making sense, evaluating, navigating and acting upon
information step onto the centre-stage of contemporary life,
impinging upon skill profiles and personal choices. They often do so
under conditions in which the established boundaries between
individuals and institutions are rendered shifting and negotiable.
There is a growing awareness of the current information growth
dynamics and the emerging information habitat. However, the recent
character of the phenomenon makes the social and economic
implications of these dynamics not well understood. The 8th Social
Study of ICT workshop brings together a number of prominent scholars
and practitioners whose work and experience help illuminate the
relevant developments.
Program
8.30-9.15 Registration
9.15 Welcome
Morning Session
9.45 10.45 Keynote: Information Growth and the Texture
of Reality
Albert Borgmann, Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of
Montana.
10.45 11.00 Coffee Break
11.00 12.00 The Expanding Information Universe
John Gantz , Chief Research Officer and Senior Vice President of IDC
International Data Corporation.
12.00 13.00 Panel on the Organizational Consequences of
Information Growth
This panel will address how companies and organizations are managing
their information resources. Which strategies do they develop to cope
with information growth and the increasing involvement of information
in organizational operations? Which new practices, skills and roles
emerge in today's information-intensive organizations and industries?
Chair: Dr. Carsten Sorensen, Information Systems and Innovation
Group, Department of Management, London School of Economics.
Panel Participants:
- Azeem Azhar, Head of Innovation, Reuters.
- James Backhouse, Reader, Information Systems and Innovation Group,
Department of Management, London School of Economics.
- Richard Boulderstone, Director of eStrategy, The British Library.
- Ole Hanseth, Professor, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo.
13.00 14.30 Lunch
Afternoon Session
14.30 15.30 Living in Ephemeria: On the Short-lived and
Disposable Character of Information
Jannis Kallinikos, Professor, Information Systems and Innovation
Group, Department of Management, London School of Economics.
15.30 16.30 The Fog of Data: Memory, the Past and
Computers
Geoffrey Bowker, Professor and Director of the Center for Science,
Technology and Society, University of California, Santa Clara.
16.30 17.00 Coffee Break
17.00 18.00 Panel on Information, Memory, and Culture
The panel will address the contrast between, on the one hand, the
durability of technological information (e.g. databases) and, on the
other hand, the short lifespan of information and its rapidly
evaporating value (e.g. global stock markets). Information growth is
intimately tied to the management of time and the proliferation of
events in contemporary life. In this respect, it is as much an
instrumental as a cultural phenomenon.
Chair: Giovan Francesco Lanzara, Professor, Department of
Organization and Political Systems, University of Bologna, Italy.
Panel Participants:
- Elena Espσsito, Associate Professor, Faculty of Communication
Science, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy.
- Mireille Hildebrandt, Associate Professor, Law Faculty, Erasmus
University Rotterdam, Free University Brussels.
- Lev Manovich, Associate Professor, Visual Arts Department,
University of California, San Diego, California.
- Felix Stadler, Senior Lecturer, Media Arts Program, Zurich
University of the Arts.
18.00-18.15 Final Remarks
If you are interested in coming please send an email to Frances
White to reserve a place ([log in to unmask] ).
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Paul Brown - based in OZ Dec 07 - Apr 08
mailto:[log in to unmask] == http://www.paul-brown.com
OZ Landline +61 (0)7 5443 3491 == USA fax +1 309 216 9900
OZ Mobile +61 (0)419 72 74 85 == Skype paul-g-brown
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Visiting Professor - Sussex University
http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/ccnr/research/creativity.html
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