A socio-technical framework for cyber-infrastructure design

Abstract This study presents a practical case application of socio-technical framework to assess and predict the development of cyber-infrastructure (CI) in Korea. Applying a socio-technical system approach to CI, this paper attempts to gain a clear understanding of how CI will evolve and stabilize in the cyber environment. It investigates the complex interaction between social and technical aspects of CI by highlighting the co-evolving nature, diversity, and interface which constitute the next generation network environment. It describes the challenges in developing, deploying, and maintaining the diverse components of CI and provides a snapshot of Korea's current approach to supporting members in meeting this challenge. The purpose of this study is to provide insight into these challenges and opportunities by offering a socio-technical analysis of CI development involving the social dynamics and organizational, policy, management, and administration decisions inherent in the design and development of CI.

[1]  Karen Ruhleder,et al.  Steps Toward an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and Access for Large Information Spaces , 1996, Inf. Syst. Res..

[2]  Mirghani S. Mohamed.  Cyberinfrastructure: an emerging knowledge management platform , 2007 .

[3]  Wiebe E. Bijker,et al.  Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs: Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change , 1995 .

[4]  Dong Hee Shin,et al.  Extending social constructivism with institutional theory: A broadband civic networking case , 2005 .

[5]  William H. Dutton,et al.  Transformation Through Cyberinfrastructure-Based Knowledge Environments , 2004 .

[6]  Steve Sawyer,et al.  Broadband and mobile opportunities: a socio-technical perspective , 2003, J. Inf. Technol..

[7]  Tchanghee Hyun Hyun,et al.  The evolution of Korean Information Infrastructure and its future direction : A system dynamics model , 1998 .

[8]  Mark C. Sheehan.  Cyberinfrastructure: Changing a Cottage Industry. , 2008 .

[9]  Geoffrey C. Bowker,et al.  Understanding infrastructure: History, heuristics and cyberinfrastructure policy , 2007, First Monday.

[10]  Don Tapscott,et al.  Paradigm shift: The new promise of information technology: Don Tapscott and Art Caston McGraw-Hill Inc., New York, 1993, 337 pp. £21.95 ISBN 0-07-062857-2 , 1992, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[11]  John Seely Brown,et al.  The Origins of Ubiquitous Computing Research at PARC in the Late 1980s , 1999, IBM Syst. J..

[12]  Kihyeon Cho.  Cyberinfrastructure in Korea , 2007, Comput. Phys. Commun..

[13]  Joel West,et al.  Seeking open infrastructure: Contrasting open standards, open source and open innovation , 2007, First Monday.

[14]  Dong Hee Shin.  A social dynamics of the development of community network: problems raised by a case of community network development , 2007, Inf. Res..

[15]  Steve Sawyer,et al.  Social informatics: Perspectives, examples, and trends , 2005, Annu. Rev. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[16]  Peter Freeman.  Is 'designing' cyberinfrastructure -or even, definining it- possible? , 2007, First Monday.

[17]  Margaret Hedstrom,et al.  And the last shall be first: recordkeeping policies and the NII , 1999 .

[18]  Dong-Hee Shin,et al.  A critique of Korean National Information Strategy: Case of national information infrastructures , 2007, Gov. Inf. Q..

[19]  Gregory R. Crane,et al.  Cyberinfrastructure for the humanities and social sciences: advancing the humanities research agenda , 2007, JCDL '07.

[20]  Bong Gyou Lee,et al.  Privacy Protection for a Secure u-City Life , 2007, International Conference on Computational Science.

[21]  Dong-Hee Shin,et al.  Socio-technical challenges in the development of digital multimedia broadcasting: A survey of Korean mobile television development , 2006 .