WordPress database error: [Table 'i203.is203_users' doesn't exist]
SELECT * FROM is203_users WHERE ID = '1' LIMIT 1
Week 15
May 1st: Information in Organizations and Institutions
Powell, Walter W. 1998. “Learning from Collaboration. Knowledge and Networks in the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries.” California Management Review 40:228-240.
Rousseau, Denise M. 1979. “Assessment of Technology in Organizations: Closed versus Open Systems Approaches.” The Academy of Management Review 4:531-542. ![[PDF]](http://dream.sims.berkeley.edu/~jantin/is203/wp-content/acrobat_pdf_icon_sm.gif){kind=icon}
Optional: DeSanctis, G. and P. Monge. 1999. “Introduction to the special issue: Communication processes for virtual organizations.” Organization Science 10:693-703.
May 3rd: Social Issues in Intellectual Property
Chapters 8, 10-11 in Lessig, Lawrence. 1999. Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. New York, NY: Basic Books.
January 2nd, 2007posted by:
WordPress database error: [Table 'i203.is203_users' doesn't exist]
SELECT * FROM is203_users WHERE ID = '1' LIMIT 1
6 Comments
1. zgillen | April 29th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
In the section titled “Collaborative Portfolios” by Walter Powell, the author discusses the difficulties in moving from individual learning to organizational level learning “in which the skills of relational contracting become embedded in organizational routines and procedures.” This reminded me of the Motivation and Knowledge paper by Osterloh and Frey that discussed the difficulties in knowledge transfer with different kinds of motivation. The Osterloh paper focused on the specific relationships between tacit and explicit knowledge of an organization and the different ways of motivating employees to participate in knowledge transfer. Powell examines the network structure and relationships between different pharmaceutical firms. The challenge in this industry is managing to stay competitive while establishing collaborative relationships to continue innovation. The interesting decision that pharmaceuticals make when formulating these relationships is to formalize the conditions or leave everything ad-hoc. In the concluding remarks, Powell states that “building routines for regular contact without formalization allows for the possibility that participants not only contribute ideas, they will take lessons learned and spread them in unexpected and unobtrusive ways.”
In general, I think this is a true statement. Keeping certain relationships open for different participation and channels of communication can add to the rapid development of new ideas and innovation. However, the downfall might also reside in the ad-hoc nature of the process. If all the knowledge remains tacit to the individuals involved, where will the rest of the organization look to capitalize on this information? They won’t have a point of reference. This is the classic 202 problem of information organization v. retrieval. Let’s just take the example of creating a corporate wiki for informal group brainstorming and creation. The individual groups might begin to agree on a structure for this particular project. The problem exists after many different projects are introduced as branches from the original wiki. An individual familiar with one project might want research from a different project wiki and not understand the structure or where to look. Should too much discussion occur on the proper formatting and layout of the wiki itself, this defeats the purpose of having an informal communication channel.
Personally, I’m all about information organization. Maybe it’s how my brain is structured, or my upbringing, or the fact I’m a Gemini. I don’t know. It would be interesting to look at using informal mechanisms for project creation and transferring to more formalized methods at specific points during the project creation.
April 29th, 2007 at 6:23 pm |WordPress database error: [Table 'i203.is203_users' doesn't exist]
SELECT * FROM is203_users WHERE ID = '1' LIMIT 1WordPress database error: [Table 'i203.is203_users' doesn't exist]
SELECT * FROM is203_users WHERE ID = '1' LIMIT 12. Alana | May 3rd, 2007 at 11:36 am
In the Lessig reading, the thing that particularly jumped out at me, especially in light of recent events, was a comment about the open source movement. “The point is simple, but its implication profound. To the extent that code is open code, the power of government is constrained. Government can demand, government can threaten, but when the target of its regulation is plastic, it cannot rely on its target remaining as it wants.” Replace the word “government” with “MPAA”, and we can start to have a conversation about what happens when information is released into the wild despite the best efforts of those who would control it. To be continued…
2111 May 3rd, 2007 at 11:36 am |WordPress database error: [Table 'i203.is203_users' doesn't exist]
SELECT * FROM is203_users WHERE ID = '1' LIMIT 1WordPress database error: [Table 'i203.is203_users' doesn't exist]
SELECT * FROM is203_users WHERE ID = '1' LIMIT 13. mcd | May 3rd, 2007 at 11:39 am
Any reading the drops the F-bomb is blogworthy in my book.
In all seriousness, I enjoyed this reading. I had been noticing all semester (though specific examples escape me at the moment) subtle appearances of parallelism between 205 and 203, and here it is, made explicit (pun intended; see above) in the final reading. The law is, dare I say it, socially constructed. Pam has stressed all semester the organic and reactive development of law (in the US in particular, which Lessig touches on in contrasting the European view of privacy as a fundamental right). Statutes are enacted, policies developed, norms are coaxed and codified—all in reaction to societal needs and problems. True, there are fundamental assumptions and the Constitution standing behind this process, but what makes it all the more interesting is the way courts and legislatures maintain balance in changing circumstances.
Lessig eloquently describes the interaction between the modes of achieving this balance. What technology fails to enable or the market prohibits, the law and social norms need not address, but changes in each system affect the necessary roles of the others. It’s incredibly complex, but Lessig’s argument flows easily to adeptly defend this dance, a process that ultimately speaks to exactly the issues that Coye has covered in 203, put shortly that it’s all connected and worth cross-consideration.
This was an enjoyable read and a perfect summation to the course(s), and I am running out to get my hands on the book . . . just as soon as I write these papers.
May 3rd, 2007 at 11:39 am |WordPress database error: [Table 'i203.is203_users' doesn't exist]
SELECT * FROM is203_users WHERE ID = '1' LIMIT 1WordPress database error: [Table 'i203.is203_users' doesn't exist]
SELECT * FROM is203_users WHERE ID = '1' LIMIT 14. karenhsu | May 6th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Re: Introduction to the Special Issue: Communication in Virtual Organizations
The DeSanctis and Monge paper briefs over a collection studies previously done on virtual organizations that concentrate on such things as how they are defined, various issues with their management, and the arrangement of their communications linkages.
One study found that there is limited impact of telecommuting on the communication structure of work groups. Here, the ubiquitous issues of trust in online settings reappear. Clearly, to communicate freely, employees on both ends must trust both the reliability of the communications technology used as well as its security. It was interesting to realize that the very existence of such a study suggests that the possibility of telecommuters having a predilection for communication with other telecommuters over non-telecommuters had been previously pondered. I would think that the communication experience for telecommuters would be the same regardless of who was at the other end, but the paper considers feelings of alienation. I just assumed you’d ask the person(s) with the highest likelihood of answering correctly. Had this study instead been among people in the office and their communication linkage patterns with telecommuters and non-telecommuters, surely the results would have been very different.
May 6th, 2007 at 10:17 am |WordPress database error: [Table 'i203.is203_users' doesn't exist]
SELECT * FROM is203_users WHERE ID = '1' LIMIT 1WordPress database error: [Table 'i203.is203_users' doesn't exist]
SELECT * FROM is203_users WHERE ID = '1' LIMIT 15. Ken-ichi | May 11th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Lessig was an interesting read. I particularly enjoyed his Thomas Jefferson quote, both the content of the quote and the fact that Lessig refutes Jefferson’s idealistic claim that ideas are nonexcludable. I think I often fall into the trap of thinking that secrecy is impossible, and that information not only should be free (as in freedom), but that it is impossible for it to be otherwise. Obviously this is not the case, as Lessig points out.
I also liked his assertion that copyright exists not to protect some fundamental right authors have over their creations, but rather to provide incentive for them to create in the first place. HIs prediction that DRM will shift copyright to copyduty was also interesting, and I guess that idea is probably what spawned the Create Commons licenses (the best prophesies are self-fulfilling).
May 11th, 2007 at 6:03 pm |WordPress database error: [Table 'i203.is203_users' doesn't exist]
SELECT * FROM is203_users WHERE ID = '1' LIMIT 1WordPress database error: [Table 'i203.is203_users' doesn't exist]
SELECT * FROM is203_users WHERE ID = '1' LIMIT 16. Bernt Wahl | May 15th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
In Introduction to the Special Issue: Communication in Virtual Organizations the paper focuses on how virtual group’s function. In my experience virtual groups are formed out of necessity to bring together enough like-minded souls to accomplish a task or build up an expertise. In the early days of the web (1993) I used Usenet an online discussion group built around a core group of scientist and enthusiasts who were interested in Chaos Theory and Fractal Geometry. The close-knit group had a high value of utility, people were interested in answering rather complicated and generally consisted of academics. As the web grew more people joined, often those that were less sophisticated in mathematics. Over time it lost its appeal to the scientific community.
May 15th, 2007 at 2:21 pm |WordPress database error: [Table 'i203.is203_users' doesn't exist]
SELECT * FROM is203_users WHERE ID = '1' LIMIT 1WordPress database error: [Table 'i203.is203_users' doesn't exist]
SELECT * FROM is203_users WHERE ID = '1' LIMIT 1Trackback this post