AS SOCIO-TECHNICAL INTERACTION NETWORKS

We examine the kind of design conceptions that help us best understand cost and complexity of starting and maintaining a scientific multiple media communication forum, such as pre-print servers, field-wide data sets, and collaboratories. We refer to these various communication forums as Multiple Media Forums (or MMFs). We first present and document the model that is implicitly advanced in most discussions about scientific communications. We develop what we call the " Standard Model of scientific MMFs. " Then we present an alternative model, a model that considers technologies as sociotechnical-networks. This model provides a richer understanding of the scientific MMFs themselves, and also a more complete understanding of the conditions and activities that support the sustainability of an MMF within a field. We illustrate the significance of Socio-Technical Interaction Network models with examples of MMFs drawn from the fields of high energy physics, molecular biology and information systems. 2 ..

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