Toward a more structured use of information technology in the research community

Abstract

Toward a more structured use of information technology in the research community de Moor, Aldo Published in:The American Sociologist Publication date: 1996Link to publication Citation for published version (APA):de Moor, A. (1996). Toward a more structured use of information technology in the research community. The American Sociologist, 27(1), 91-101. General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.-Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research -You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain -You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright, please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. AbstractInformation technology has great potential for supporting the activities of research networks. However, some fundamental problems must first be addressed to determine whether the technological support is necessary at all. Once that need has been determined, merely installing a set of isolated, generic information tools is not sufficient to address the full spectrum of network information needs. Therefore, a comprehensive and customized network information system is required. We argue that a specification method can help to structure the development of such an information system.

Applying conceptual graph theory to the user-driven specification of network information systems

“…The scope of the method and methodological design criteria were discussed in [1,6]. A model of the user-driven development process was described in [7].…”

“…From the analysis point of view, the NIS is seen as the set of meaningfully combined and configured information and communication processes which are necessary to support and coordinate the activities of the network participants in their various roles [1]. In the analysis view we thus focus on how meaningful process requirement definitions can be made.…”

“…These tools enable a fixed set of information and communication processes, which in turn allow participants to carry out their network activities. Another important feature is that for reasons such as the relative lack of hierarchical organization of the participants, and the participants themselves being the task-experts, user-driven network information system development is essential [1]. This means that the participants are responsible for determining the exact roles that a suite of tools plays in the enabling of their work processes.…”

Information Tools for Sustainable Development: Enabling Distributed Human Intelligence

“…Determining exactly what parts of communication can be automated is not a trivial task, however. Therefore, instead of merely providing a set of autonomous tools, substantial efforts must be made on the development of integrated and customized network information systems (De Moor, 1996). In these systems, it is very clearly identified what coordination patterns are to be enabled by which constituting information tools or human participants.…”

An ontological framework for user-driven system specification

“…Such tools include mailers, mailing lists and a great variety of Web-applications. Still, from an analytical instead of such a design perspective, a network information system can be regarded as a set of meaningfully configured and combined information and communication processes necessary to support and coordinate the activities of the network participants in their various roles [3]. This implies that the usage context in which the information system operates, needs to be very clearly defined.…”