INF52108.10.04

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INF5210-8.10.04

• Presentation of articles
• Group HMonteiro Scaling information
  infrastructure
• Group A HansethMonteiro Inscribing behavior in
  information infrastructure standards
• Short run through of ANT Terms
• Short run through of II Terms
• Discussion About Terms.
• Case examples

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Actor Network Theory-ANT

• Its a set of terminologies used for describing
  the interactions between human and non-human
  participants within the world of information
  infrastructures.
• It is a set of terms derived from science and
  technology studies and social construction of
  technology.
• It is an analytical tool used to describe
  technologies influence on human behavior

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ANT 2

• Monteiro(1, pg 71) says that ANT ..provides a
  language to describe how, where, and to what
  extent technology influences human behavior. This
  is valuable when identifying the influence of
  seemingly grey and anonymous components such as
  standards or system modules that are already
  installed. In particular, it allows ANT to zoom
  in and out of a situation as required.

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ANT 3

• actors or actants is used for both human and
  non-human actors. They both influence each other
  in this network. An actant can be a single
  person, a group, or a company and its II

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ANT 4

• The actors influence each other trough
  inscriptions and translations of these
  inscriptions. Inscriptions are written into
  artifacts ( this can be a technology, a
  paperclip, a user manual, a hammer etc.) that is
  used in a actor-network.

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ANT 5

• Alignment is the process of making networks
  inscriptions your own through reaching an
  agreement and succeed in the implementation of a
  standard, and enrolment is the active role of
  making the translations your own and adjusting
  toward the unifications between networks

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II Terms

• Networks externalities
• path dependency
• lock-in
• Bootstrapping
• Open
• Shared
• Evolving
• Standardized
• Heterogeneous
• Installed base
• universalism versus heterogeneity

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• What is an Information Infrastructure (II)
• A substructure or underlying foundation basic
  installations facilities to support various ICT
  applications
• Includes various type of hardware, basic
  software, also general information, as
  standards and classification codes furthermore
  people and organisation resources that support
  the infrastructure
• II are different from Information Systems (IS)
• Serves large communities
• Must be available at any time enduring
• The are never build from scratch
• No day of birth or death

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Hanseth (1997,1998 and 2002, 1) illustrates that
information infrastructures are characterized by
being open in the sense that there is no limit to
the number of users , shared within a community
of people, evolving in that they reinforce
themselves through growth in numbers of users,
number of sub-structures etc., standardized
through allowing different solutions working on
different sub-levels connecting them with
gateways (Figure 2) and heterogeneous in the
sense that it is a multidimensional through
allowing ecologies of infrastructures to
interact, being technical or non-technical
participants in the underlying foundation or in
other words, the installed base.
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Installed base

• It is the foundation that new aspects and
  branches of an evolving and growing
  infrastructure must adhere to.

• It influence all further development and
  extensions of an II by invoking demands on any
  changes that is to be made on the II.

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Networks externalities

• Outlaying factors that forces you to make changes
  to your existing network in one form or another.

• Laws
• Competing techs

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Path dependency

• Choices taken at an early point of development
  influence the reach of where you can go.

• We can distinguish between two forms of path
  dependence. Early advantage in terms of numbers
  of users leads to victory. Early decisions
  concerning the design of the technology will
  influence future design decisions Hanseth

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Lock-in

• As a consequence of path dependencies lock-ins
  can occur.

• A lock-in may be caused by any type of factor. It
  can be the hardware, software, path dependency,
  information itself or in large networks it can be
  caused by network externalities and more.

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Case examples

• http//www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/INF5210
  /h03/studentarbeider/deliverables/del2gr5.pdf
• http//www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/INF5210
  /h03/studentarbeider/deliverables/del2gr3.PDF
• Sturles example Studweb

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Studweb

• Actants
• Students
• Administration, institutes, faculties etc..
• Databases
• Student DB
• Subjects DB
• Lånekassen

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Studweb

• Inscriptions(students)
• Must be accepted to UIO
• Must have paid tuition
• Must have a sos.sec.nr ( personnr)
• Must have a code
• Students on study programmes must register a
  study plan in the StudentWeb. The study plan also
  contains the student's and UiO's mutual
  agreements.

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What Studweb must provide for students

• fylle ut og bekrefte utdanningsplan og senere se
  på opplysninger om denne
• semesterregistrere deg dersom du ikke skal ha
  utdanningsplan
• søke undervisningsopptak, se resultatet og
  bekrefte tilbud
• finne betalingsinformasjon/bestille giro for
  betaling av semesteravgift og kopiavgift
• kjøpe utskrifter
• annullere/endre eksamensmeldinger
• se hvilke eksamensmeldinger du er registrert med
• se eksamensresultatene dine
• endre adresse
• endre PIN-kode
• bytte fastlege
• reservere deg mot at din e-postadresse blir
  oppført i personkatalogen til UiO

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What studweb must provide for Admin

• Ease the administrations work
• Coordinate nr of students that are taking exams
• Provide data in wanted views
• Students taking ONE subject
• Students with the same study plan
• THIS requires depth research

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What changes have been made?

• Registration
• Takes less time, accessible from everywhere
• Less physical work for the administration
• Students have to access it via the internet.
• Students must cancel courses at an earlier time
• Things like ordering printouts of your grades are
  easier, pay for larger print quotaetc.
• AND MANY MORE FUNKTIONS!!!

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Studweb grows

• More functions introduced
• http//www.uio.no/studier/studentweb/

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Studweb is standardized

• All browsers will show content
• Can be run on every platform

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What should Del 3 cover?

• Case description
• Use figures to show what you're writing about!
• Show inscriptions, adaptations, integrations
  (prior and future), posible lock-ins.
  Breakdowns..etc..
• Are there complexities that cant be solved? Can
  they be minimized?
• Show how one can zoom in and out, blackbox areas
  that are of less interest. Etc.
• Your evaluation.