Presentation from paper at European Conference on Information Systems

1. Defining the social media IT
artefact for eParticipation:
An ensemble view
Marius Rohde Johannessen & Bjørn Erik Munkvold
Department of Information Systems
University of Agder, Norway
20th European Conference on Information Systems | June 11-13, 2012

2. Outline
• Introduction: Necessity of the IT artefact
• Theoretical definition: The social media artefact
• Single medium: capabilities for eParticipation
• Social media/holistic : Social media as II
• Empirical testing: Example case and findings
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3. The short version
• Socialmedia has become popular in government,
but results are somewhat limited (government 1.5)
• Paper
attempts to improve our understanding of social
media in the context of eParticipation
• We analyse social media as ensemble IT artefact in a two
step process:
1. Technology and eParticipation capabilities
2. Information Infrastructures (II)
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4. Introduction
Background and motivation
• Defining IT artefact can contribute to understanding
• Ensemble view: Socio-technical definition of IT
• Because: social media is both social/cultural and technical.
• The technology is simple (forms, HTML etc.), while the use
and culture is what makes social media different
• But: Technological functionality also determines use
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5. Theoretical definition
Ensemble artefact: eParticipation capabilities
• Lots of different initiatives at all levels of government
• Objectives ranging from dissemination to consultation
• A number of different social media + hybrids
• Need for evaluation of technology and capabilities
• Adaptedversion of Tambouris (et al 2007) provides us
with understanding of the specific system
• Sæbø/Flak 2008: added fields for activities and expected outcomes
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6. Theoretical definition
Ensemble artefact: single medium capabilities
Name of medium <insert name of social medium>
Technical functionality, such as forms, video, feedback
Functionality
options, calendar tools, search, sharing, commenting
Information/two-way consultation/involvement in the political
Level of participation
process/collaboration/power transfer to civil society
Stage in decision making Agenda setting, analysis, policy creation, implementation,
process monitoring
Actors Divided into facilitators and users of the technology
Voting, discourse formation, decision making, activism,
Activities
consultation, petitions
Expected outcomes Civic engagement, deliberative effects, democratic effects
Defining the technological characteristics and eParticipation capabilities of social media for eParticipation
(adapted from Tambouris et al., 2007 and Sæbø et al., 2008)
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7. Theoretical definition
Ensemble artefact: social media as II
• Information Infrastructures
• Based on socio-technical theory and structuration theory
• Sees technology not as single artefact, but as networks of
technologies and people
• First used to describe the physical infrastructure of the
«Information superhighway», later developed to a broader theory
for thinking about technology
• Why use II to define the IT artefact?
• Embodies ideas from sociotech, structuration & network theory
• Provides us with a short and easy, but comprehensive framework
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8. Theoretical definition
Ensemble artefact: socio-technical aspects(II)
Infrastructures have a supporting or enabling function, as opposed to
Enabling
systems that are specifically designed for one single purpose.
An infrastructure is one irreducible unit shared by a larger community.
Shared
Sharing demands standards for proper communication.
Socio- IIs are socio-technical networks. Not just technology, but also users and
technical producers
There are no limits on the number of users, stakeholders, network nodes
Open and technical components. One cannot draw a border for one single
infrastructure.
Heterogeneo IIs are connected in infrastructure ecologies, layered upon each other, and
us similar functions may be implemented in different ways.
You cannot change an entire infrastructure, or build it from scratch. New
Installed
things must be attached to the old, and the old (the installed base)
base
influences how the new can be designed.
Aspects of Information Infrastructures (Hanseth & Monteiro, 1998)
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9. Theoretical definition
Ensemble artefact: socio-technical aspects(II)
Social media are not designed to support political deliberation. The system might not
Enabling be ideal for the purpose, and users will have to make do and adapt to the limits of
the medium
Users need to adapt to their environment. One user group cannot change the way an
entire infrastructure functions. Studies of political parties’ activity on Facebook show
Shared
that the political parties have attempted to use social media as a one-way channel,
which is not in line with the culture of social media
Researchers and practitioners need to understand the culture of social media in order
Socio-technical
to become effective social media users.
The open nature of infrastructures means it becomes difficult, but also necessary, to
Open
find ways of delimiting our object of study.
The heterogeneous nature of infrastructures influence the form of political debate,
Heterogeneous and this should be taken into consideration when we make decisions on where to
look for public spheres.
To some extent controls, or guides, what we can and cannot do with social media. For
example, Facebook discussions are influenced by the way information is presented on
Installed base
Facebook, and might not be a good fit with the needs of political parties due to issues
such as compliance with archiving regulations.
Relevance of II for eParticipation 9

10. Empirical testing
Example case
• Norwegian 2009 parliamentary election
• First serious attempt at social media use:
• Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Youtube, Flickr etc.
• Objective: facilitate debate and engagement
• Data collection:
• Interviews (F2F and e-mail)
• Content and genre analysis of online communication
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11. Empirical testing
Case findings: capabilities
Name of medium Facebook
Personalised front page, Profiles, Groups, Networks, ”wall” for
message posting, Photo uploads, Notes/links, status updates,
Functionality events, Video, Chat, 3rd party applications, internal private
messaging system, search, Sharing of content, mobile app for
smartphones
Information, two-way consultation, possibly involvement in the
Level of participation
political process (legal constraints need examination)
Stage in decision
Agenda setting, Analysis
making process
Party information workers, politicians, NGOs, individual citizens. All
Actors
can be both sender and receiver of information.
Activities Information, activism, consultation, petitions
Expected outcomes Civic engagement
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12. Empirical testing
Case findings: II
Enabling Learning to cope with the restrictions of the system
Shared Finding the balance between standardisation and customisation
Socio-
Adapting to the culture of social media, understanding how to use it
technical
Open Scoping – what to use, what not to?
Heteroge
Deciding on value – what is political, what should we answer/ignore?
neous
Installed
Still not there yet (government 1.5)
base
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13. Relevance
• For research:
• Contributes to understanding of social media as IT artefact
(or at least discussion of…)
• Use of II makes visible the complex nature of social media
as a whole
• Capabilities allows us to analyse the individual medium
• For practice:
• Can apply the combined framework to their own social
media operations  increased understanding
• A more practitioner-friendly application of the framework
will be presented in another paper.
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14. Thank you for listening!
marius.johannessen@uia.no
Bjorn.e.munkvold@uia.no
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