Learning to Appropriate a Project Social Network System Technology

Abstract

Construction project participants constitute a complex social human network composed of a heterogeneous and fragmented set of stakeholders. The disjoint group of actors that team to work on a project constitutes collective entities, social networks at different scales in time and space. There is a need to incorporate new social network systems that respond to the demand for the interfacing of actors’ communication in the construction project practices. For this purpose, it is critical to understand how social actors interact with these new technologies. This research proposes a framework to understand the actors’ learning process of a social networking system technology, in particular an in-house developed social-network- system for construction projects. The challenge is to understand the interplay of social network system and social actors, as it involves the interaction of multiple actors. It is expected that learning and understanding the components of this technology will lead learners to effectively use the its resources and enable them to effectively appropriate its associated processes for its use, including communication and coordination with the construction work force, and creation, contribution, and distribution of information content.