Representing scientific associations through the lens of Actor-Network Theory

Abstract

Knowledge on the social web presupposes to gather information about its current and potential users and document their relationships, interests and needs. A recent branch of sociology, the Actor-Network Theory or ANT, states that relations among human and nonhuman actors are equally important to comprehend social phenomena. Since scientists are potential users of huge computational support, their communities provide relevant cases for domain characterization and software design. This paper investigates the possibilities of using ANT to characterize a real instance of those social networks. The active role of nonhuman actors allows us to trace the relations based on material clues left behind by the actors, and also to bring forth features to be explored by social software. The results of this study present a graphical representation that allows quantitative and qualitative analysis of the social network, which may inform a better design of systems for those communities.