Sociotechnical challenges in the design of a knowledge portal

Abstract

This paper describes the authors' experiences as a multidisciplinary team within a national science research organization, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), in building a web-based knowledge portal to support water quality management in an Australian wet tropical region, the Douglas Shire. Their initial assumption was that a knowledge-sharing tool developed through community participation would enhance efforts towards sustainable development in this predominantly sugar cane growing area of far north Queensland. After presenting the general context of the study and a description of the web portal developed, we discuss three sociotechnical challenges faced: the question of value, i.e. understanding what motivates members of a community to become involved in co-design of technology; the problem of translation, i.e. how to develop common understandings and shared visions, given the often differing epistemologies in the so-called lay–expert knowledge divide and between the different discipline areas; and the paradox of meta-design, i.e. the difficulty of asking people to commit to a project of collaborative technology development at a stage when – by the very nature of co-design – that technology is still undefined and emergent. The article ends by offering some tentative conclusions on the authors' experience.

Keywords:

• Information and communications technology design
• knowledge-sharing IC technology
• meta-design in ICT
• interdisciplinary project case studies
• integration of social and technical research
• sociotechnical design processes

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Social and Economic Integration Emerging Science Initiative of CSIRO for providing the funding for this project, their colleagues in other CSIRO Divisions, and the Douglas Shire community members for their participation and help.

The authors are grateful to the anonymous referees for their constructive comments, which have helped to reorient and, it is hoped, improve this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wendy Mee

Wendy Mee, PhD, has a longstanding interest in science and technology studies, having researched, worked and taught in the area of new technologies, including information and communication technologies. She has most recently led projects in two emerging science areas: (i) Social and Economic Integration and (ii) Nanotechnology. She teaches international development and has conducted research in a number of Asian and Pacific countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Marshall Islands, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. She is currently working with Dr Martha Macintyre from the University of Melbourne on a social review of the Lihir Mining Company, Papua New Guinea.

Evie Katz

Evie Katz, PhD, is an Honorary Research Fellow at La Trobe University, Melbourne, part of the anthropology and sociology programme in the School of Social Sciences. She is also currently engaged in social research within the Social Values and Sustainability Group in CSIRO Minerals Division, focusing on the integration of social science research with biophysical science and technology research. Her interest in information and communication technology stems from her doctoral research, which examined the computerization of a public sector workplace and, in particular, the relationship between computerization and organizational culture.

Leila Alem

Leila Alem, PhD, currently works in the ICT Division of CSIRO. Her research interests include e-learning and cognition, user modelling, technologies for supporting information sharing, human–computer interaction, and evaluation of ICT systems. She also has a longstanding interest in user-centred design and cognitive psychology. Leila has recently edited a special issue of the International Journal on e-learning, and has written about 60 publications and reports including six books/manuscripts, seven journal/book chapters and about 35 peer-reviewed conference papers. She is on the review panel of books, international journals, international and national conferences, as well as ARC grant applications.

Simon Kravis

Simon Kravis, PhD, has worked as a researcher in laser physics, geophysics, data analysis and visualization, and document classification, and has designed complex software systems for analysis, modelling and visualization of numerical and text data. He has a particular interest in the operation of multidisciplinary teams.