Drexel University

Faculty Member, I School

Associate Professor

College of Information Science & Technology (the iSchool)

About

I am fascinated by the processes of collaboration across knowledge-boundaries in organizational information system (IS) design and use. I am motivated by the desire to ensure that technology design is human-centered, supporting people in their work rather than impeding their effectiveness.
The core focus of IS design has moved "upstream" in the waterfall model, from technical design to the co-design of business-processes and IT systems. Such IS-related organizational innovation deals with "wicked problems," where many business process and information management problems are interrelated. Wicked problems are impossible to define objectively: we need to involve diverse stakeholders in negotiating suitable problem definitions and boundaries for change. Our lack of understanding about how to establish a "common language" for this type of design means that information system innovation tends to be pretty hit-and-miss. Most such initiatives spend more time arguing about process definitions than achieving change.
My research investigates distributed cognition in situated design and technology use that spans knowledge domain boundaries. Through ethnographic studies, I investigate the processes of collaborative design, problem-definition, and knowledge-sharing. I experiment with representational techniques and team-management methods to support collaborative problem-framing. I explore the role of technology in supporting formal (IT-mediated) and informal (interpersonal) systems of collaboration. The objective is to understand how we may engage diverse stakeholders meaningfully in IT-related change -- and how we may define human-centered applications of IT that support people in the work they need to do.

Visit my (new) blog, Improvising Design, at
http://blog.improv-design.com/

Contact Information