Beyond the organizational ‘container’: Conceptualizing 21st century sociotechnical work

The Potential for Citizen Science in Information Systems Research

“…At the time of publication, their project was being experimentally tested in the Guntur District in the Andhra Pradesh Region of India, and, while ongoing, the project highlighted the use of concepts central to IS research and similar fields. In this case, it highlighted the ideas of technology-mediated participation (Nov, Arazy, & Anderson, 2011a;Preece & Schneiderman, 2009), design science (Hevner, March, Park, & Ram, 2006;Peffers, Tuunanen, Rothernberger, & Chatterjee, 2007), and usefulness beyond the context of sociotechnical systems (Winter et al, 2014). With their research, they eventually hoped to systematize the design so that one could transfer citizen science structures from domain to domain (e.g., from healthcare to education or from country to country).…”

“…It has been mentioned as an area of study as IS research grapples with moving beyond the "organizational container" to study extra-organizational infrastructures (Winter et al, 2014), as a way to garner citizen participation in understanding extra-organizational technological phenomena (Prestonpik & Crowston, 2012;Nov et al, 2011a), in understanding and designing the technologies that support virtual collaboration in scientific research , and in understanding the motivations of digital volunteers (Nov, Arazy, & Anderson, 2011b).…”

“…Nevertheless, given calls for IS research to move beyond the organizational container (Winter et al, 2014) and given that major IS journals seek to address societal challenges through special issues (Majchrzak, Markus, & Wareham, 2016), we contend we also need to consider alternative research activities to expand the portfolio of how one can conduct IS research. Citizen science is but one such activity.…”

“…Is IS research extending beyond its sociotechnical roots in business organizations and towards researching extra-organizational phenomena at the confluence of human behavior, technology, society, and sustainability (Winter et al, 2014;Irwin, 1995)? If this is indeed the case, then what can IS research do to further engage the public to make relevant societal contributions?…”

“…If this is indeed the case, then what can IS research do to further engage the public to make relevant societal contributions? While answers to these questions are not immediately accessible, they touch on considerations for IS research outside the context of the organization (Winter, Berente, Howison, & Butler, 2014;Tilson, Lyytinen, & Sørensen, 2010;Hirschheim & Klein, 2012), and present opportunities for IS research in a global community (Gurstein, 1999;Watson, Boudreau, & Chen, 2010). In this regard, we explicate citizen science for IS research.…”