Socio-technical Environment Research Articles

Interpretable Models for Near-real-time Prediction of Team Cognitive Workload in Complex Sociotechnical Environments Using Behavioral and Physiological Data

Interpretable Models for Near-real-time Prediction of Team Cognitive Workload in Complex Sociotechnical Environments Using Behavioral and Physiological Data

Combining Danmaku and Discussion Boards: Toward A Scalable and Sociable Environment for Mass Collaboration in MOOCs

In online learning at scale, wherein instructional videos play a central role, interactive tools are often integrated to counteract passive consumption. For example, the forum or discussion board is widely used, and an emerging functionality, danmaku, which enables messages to be synchronized with video playback, has also been utilized recently. To explore how mass participation is accommodated and what categories of interaction learners implement, this study utilizes analysis of interaction and manual content analysis through learner-generated text data from two specific tools employed in a massive open online course (MOOC) setting: the discussion board (N = 739) and danmaku (N = 2435). Results of the analysis of interaction indicate that mass participation is managed differently by the tools: danmaku fosters a collective space for massive participants, while the discussion board organizes them into threaded small groups. In addition, results of the content analysis show danmaku primarily supports indirect interaction with a focus on the socio-emotional dimension, while the discussion board serves as a platform for direct discussions, particularly in the cognitive dimension. Furthermore, within the context of large-scale engagement, various levels of joint interaction, in addition to collaboration, are discerned and discussed in both socio-emotional and cognitive interactions. The findings offer insights for developing sociable and scalable socio-technical environments in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), addressing emerging educational trends. Practical implications for educational design based on these findings are also discussed.

The epistemic value of doombehaviour: beyond the prudential consequences of doomscrolling, doomchecking, and doomsurfing

This paper analyses a novel and increasingly prevalent category of epistemic behaviour: doombehaviour, constituted by the popular phenomena of doomscrolling and doomsurfing, as well as doomchecking, which is introduced in this paper. Doombehaviour, referring to the frequent or immersive online consumption of negatively valenced news, became ubiquitous during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. As this behaviour has since then been found to negatively impact mood and mental health, advice has been to minimise doombehaviour or even limit news consumption altogether. Yet, as I argue, this assessment overlooks the importance of the epistemic motivation instantiating the behaviour. By presenting an analysis of doomscrolling, doomsurfing, and doomchecking within the context of our socio-technical environment, arguing for the distinct instrumental epistemic values of these categories of doombehaviour, this paper provides more nuanced advice for individuals seeking to balance the potential epistemic benefits and prudential costs of this behaviour. Epistemically motivated individuals should refrain from doomscrolling due to the risk of consuming sophisticated misinformation. However, within the parameters presented in this paper, the epistemic goods obtained through doomchecking and doomsurfing may justify the prudential costs for individuals motivated to acquire knowledge of, or be informed about, current events. This discussion opens the door to further explorations of these increasingly prevalent and potentially harmful epistemic behaviours that have, so far, been ignored by the discipline.

Public engagement for inclusive and sustainable governance of climate interventions.

The need for public engagement is increasingly evident as discussions intensify around emerging methods for carbon dioxide removal and controversial proposals around solar geoengineering. Based on 44 focus groups in 22 countries across the Global North and Global South (N = 323 participants), this article traces public preferences for a variety of bottom-up and top-down engagement practices ranging from information recipient to broad decision authority. Here, we show that engagement practices need to be responsive to local political cultures and socio-technical environments, while attending to the global dimensions and interconnectedness of the issues at stake. Establishing public engagement as a cornerstone of inclusive and sustainable governance of climate-intervention technologies requires (i) recognizing the diversity of forms and intensities of engaging, (ii) considering national contexts and modes of engagement, (iii) tailoring to technological idiosyncrasies, (iv) adopting power-sensitive practices, (v) accounting for publics' prior experience, (vi) establishing trust and procedural legitimacy and (vii) engaging with tensions and value disagreements.

Assessment of Adoption and Acceptance of Building Information Modeling for Building Construction among Industries in Qatar

Building information modeling (BIM) has become a vital tool in the construction industry, especially in Qatar, where remarkable infrastructural growth and innovation have taken place. This study looked into the factors influencing the adoption and acceptability of BIM in the Qatari construction industry using the Information System Success Model (ISSM), the Technology Acceptability Model (TAM), and structural equation modeling (SEM). Survey information gathered from project managers, contractors, engineers, architects, suppliers, and BIM specialists with direct BIM expertise was examined. The results showed that intentions to adopt BIM have a significant influence on its Perceived Usefulness and ease of use. The adoption of BIM is also significantly impacted by ISSM elements, including the Total Quality, Organizational Efficiency, Innovativeness, and Financial Aspects. This study illustrates the complex interactions between organizational influences and personal perspectives by demonstrating the direct and indirect effects of these factors on BIM adoption. These results provide a complete picture of the dynamics influencing BIM adoption in Qatar’s construction sector. As a result, this study makes connections between individual technology acceptance and the larger socio-technical environment of BIM implementation, providing essential information for building sector stakeholders, policymakers, and industry leaders. By using these insights to create strategies to boost BIM’s adoption and acceptability, the construction industries may be further aligned with global best practices in project management and delivery.

Evaluating performance in the context of mobile telework: an attention-based view

This study is an empirical account of how line managers evaluate the performance of their subordinates in the context of mobile telework. Whilst the increasing use of new technologies affords certain advantages for line managers in remote performance evaluation (PE), it also results in a greater volume, fragmentation and variety of performance data, which can be challenging to manage. Adopting an attention-based view (ABV), we shed light on the role of technology in PE, elaborating on the kinds of attentional stimuli that are generated by technology as part of the broader socio-technical work environment, and how these together with the attentional perspectives of the manager influence attentional engagement, i.e. what managers direct their time, energy and effort on in PE. Our focus is on attention as something line managers do, in their immediate context. We contribute to the remote work and PE literature by showing how the interplay between two drivers of attentional engagement: attentional stimuli (different possible foci of attention in the external environment) and managers’ own attentional perspectives (the cognitive and motivational structures that influence what stimuli receive attention) influence the attentional engagement in PE of mobile teleworkers.

Pathways to professional digital competence to teach for digital citizenship: social science teacher education in flux

ABSTRACT Increasingly pervasive digital technologies in societies are placing complex demands on the development of young people’s digital citizenship and digital competence. Social science education and teacher education (TE) play important, but poorly understood, roles in this development. Through reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, this paper explores 15 Swedish teacher educators’ (TEDs) views of teaching for digital citizenship, particularly social science TE’s role. We also consider organisational and personal conditions that may influence TEDs’ views of professional digital competence (PDC) for such teaching. Their views are examined through a postdigital lens, with a focus on democratic implications in evolving socio-technical environments. The results indicate that TEDs acknowledge the importance of social science TE in teaching for digital citizenship, but find maintaining responsiveness to societal changes challenging. Challenges are also posed by the multidisciplinary character of social science education, including how personal trajectories shape TEDs’ views of their dual-didactic task of teaching to teach for digital citizenship. This paper contributes knowledge of how TEDs, as ‘street-level bureaucrats’ in social science TE, navigate between written and performed education policy in teaching for digital citizenship, with specific attention to the dynamic character of PDC in social science education.

Quali-quanti visual methods and political bots

Computational social science research on automated social media accounts, colloquially dubbed “bots”, has tended to rely on binary verification methods to detect bot operations on social media. Typically focused on textual data from Twitter (now rebranded as "X"), these inference-based methods are prone to finding false positives and failing to understand the subtler ways in which bots operate over time, through visual content and in particular contexts. This research brings methodological contributions to such studies, focusing on what it calls “bolsobots” in Brazilian social media. Named after former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, the bolsobots refer to the extensive and skilful usage of partial or fully automated accounts by marketing teams, hackers, activists or campaign supporters. These accounts leverage online political culture to sway public opinion for or against public policies, opposition figures, or Bolsonaro himself. Drawing on empirical case studies, this paper implements quali-quanti visual methods to operationalise specific techniques for interpreting bot-associated image collections and textual content across Instagram, TikTok and Twitter/X. To unveil the modus operandi of bolsobots, we map the networks of users they follow (“following networks”), explore the visual-textual content they post, and observe the strategies they deploy to adapt to platform content moderation. Such analyses tackle methodological challenges inherent in bot studies by employing three key strategies: 1) designing context-sensitive queries and curating datasets with platforms’ interfaces and search engines to mitigate the limitations of bot scoring detectors, 2) engaging qualitatively with data visualisations to understand the vernaculars of bots, and 3) adopting a non-binary analysis framework that contextualises bots within their socio-technical environments. By acknowledging the intricate interplay between bots, user and platform cultures, this paper contributes to method innovation on bot studies and emerging quali-quanti visual methods literature.

Evaluating clinical decision support software (CDSS): challenges for robust evidence generation.

Computerized clinical decision support software (CDSS) are digital health technologies that have been traditionally categorized as medical devices. However, the evaluation frameworks for traditional medical devices are not well adapted to assess the value and safety of CDSS. In this study, we identified a range of challenges associated with CDSS evaluation as a medical device and investigated whether and how CDSS are evaluated in Australia. Using a qualitative approach, we interviewed 11 professionals involved in the implementation and evaluation of digital health technologies at national and regional levels. Data were thematically analyzed using both data-driven (inductive) and theory-based (deductive) approaches. Our results suggest that current CDSS evaluations have an overly narrow perspective on the risks and benefits of CDSS due to an inability to capture the impact of the technology on the sociotechnical environment. By adopting a static view of the CDSS, these evaluation frameworks are unable to discern how rapidly evolving technologies and a dynamic clinical environment can impact CDSS performance. After software upgrades, CDSS can transition from providing information to specifying diagnoses and treatments. Therefore, it is not clear how CDSS can be monitored continuously when changes in the software can directly affect patient safety. Our findings emphasize the importance of taking a living health technology assessment approach to the evaluation of digital health technologies that evolve rapidly. There is a role for observational (real-world) evidence to understand the impact of changes to the technology and the sociotechnical environment on CDSS performance.

Crafting Mission-Oriented Innovation Ecosystems: Strategic Levers for Directing Collaborative Innovation Toward the Grand Challenges

In recent years, cross-sectoral, collaborative innovation within so-called mission-oriented innovation ecosystems has emerged as a key strategy to address the grand challenges of our time, ranging from climate change to global health and fostering sustainable, inclusive growth. By adopting an explorative research approach, this article investigates and systematizes the strategic levers employed to translate (politically-defined) missions into concrete ecosystem practices based on a case study of 15 technology-based innovation ecosystems in Germany. Ultimately, this article argues that mission integration into broader ecosystem strategy may happen at the level of an ecosystem's value proposition, architecture, or reward model. Identifying key levers for designing mission-oriented innovation ecosystems whilst also pointing to the importance of the broader socio-technical environment and organizational dynamics, the study lays out a number of options for practitioners to adjust ecosystem strategies according to their unique objectives and challenges.

Physicians’ Perceptions of Clinical Decision Support to Treat Patients With Heart Failure in the ED

Clinical decision support (CDS) could help emergency department (ED) physicians treat patients with heart failure (HF) by estimating risk, collating relevant history, and assisting with medication prescribing if physicians' perspectives inform its design and implementation. To evaluate CDS usability and workflow integration in the hands of ED physician end users who use it in clinical practice. This mixed-methods qualitative study administered semistructured interviews to ED physicians from 2 community EDs of Kaiser Permanente Northern California in 2023. The interview guide, based on the Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design and the Sociotechnical Environment models, yielded themes used to construct an electronic survey instrument sent to all ED physicians. Main outcomes were physicians' perceptions of using CDS to complement clinical decision-making, usability, and integration into ED clinical workflow. Seven key informant physicians (5 [71.4%] female, median [IQR] 15.0 [9.5-15.0] years in practice) were interviewed and survey responses from 51 physicians (23 [45.1%] female, median [IQR] 14.0 [9.5-17.0] years in practice) were received from EDs piloting the CDS intervention. Response rate was 67.1% (51 of 76). Physicians suggested changes to CDS accessibility, functionality, and workflow integration. Most agreed that CDS would improve patient care and fewer than half of physicians expressed hesitation about their capacity to consistently comply with its recommendations, citing workload concerns. Physicians preferred a passive prompt that encouraged, but did not mandate, interaction with the CDS. In this qualitative study of physicians who were using a novel CDS intervention to assist with ED management of patients with acute HF, several opportunities were identified to improve usability as well as several key barriers and facilitators to CDS implementation.

Navigating gender dynamics: a male researcher's experiences on conducting feminist HCI research

In this perspective article, I invite readers to accompany me on a personal journey of self-discovery and transformation as a male researcher within the field of feminist Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). I will delve into the specific topic of gender-opposite research in socio-technical environments and reflect on my experiences, especially the associated challenges and opportunities. My journey exposed me to critical literature and engaged me in long-term fieldwork simultaneously, expanding my understanding of the dynamics that shape our society. My perspectives, sensitization, and awareness of gender-related issues evolved significantly over the course of more than 3 years of being dedicated to a feminist research project. By sharing this narrative, I hope to promote critical discussions about the significance of both, personal growth, and transformation as well as the need for reflexivity in the pursuit of feminist research (with a focus on the specific context of gender-opposite research in socio-technical environments). I will dive into the complexities that I encountered in the settings and compromises I felt obliged to make which were influenced by the embodied nature of my research. As I will furthermore show, there had been an impact on my research practices in terms of planning, observation, analysis, and writing.

Enterprise Digital Transformation using a Sociotechnical System Approach

AbstractDigital transformation is gaining increased attention due to its potential to change the way companies operate and unveil new business strategies. In consideration of the fact that digital transformations occur under specific sociotechnical environments and with particular intentions, success highly depends on the ability of companies to explicitly characterize their sociotechnical context and intended transformation. This paper sheds some light on how companies might approach digital transformation efforts through an enterprise‐level sociotechnical system approach that centers on digital twins and model‐based methods. Research findings and intervention strategies are derived from observations and interviews on ongoing projects, supplemented by findings from the literature. Core systems engineering analysis methods such as Concept of Operations analyses are part of such strategies given their potential to accelerate the sociotechnical system redesign cycle and generate actionable decisions toward digital transformation. A sociotechnical system analysis framework intended to guide organizations in developing their strategic approaches for adopting digital twins as transformation strategy is also shared. This framework and the entire paper assert the importance of taking a sociotechnical system perspective in defining, designing, and implementing a digital transformation.

A Framework for Emotion-Oriented Requirements Change Handling in Agile Software Engineering

<bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Background:</b> Requirements Changes (RCs) – the additions/modifications/deletions of functional/non-functional requirements in software products – are challenging for software practitioners to handle. Handling some changes may significantly impact the emotions of the practitioners. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Objective:</b> We wanted to know the key challenges that make RC handling difficult, how these impact the emotions of software practitioners, what influences their RC handling, and how RC handling can be made less emotionally challenging. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Method:</b> We followed a mixed-methods approach. We conducted two survey studies, with 40 participants and 201 participants respectively. The presentation of key quantitative data was followed by descriptive statistical analysis, and the qualitative data was analysed using Strauss–Corbinian Grounded Theory, and Socio–Technical Grounded Theory analysis techniques. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Findings:</b> We found (1) several key factors that make RC handling an emotional challenge, (2) varying emotions that practitioners feel when it is challenging to handle RCs, (3) how stakeholders, including practitioners themselves, peers, managers and customers, influence the RC handling and how practitioners feel due to the stakeholder influence, and (4) practices that can be used to better handle RCs. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Conclusion:</b> Some challenges are technical and some are social which also belong to aspects of agile practice, emotional intelligence, and likely belong to cognitive intelligence. Therefore, to better handle RCs with positive emotions in socio–technical environments, agility, emotional intelligence, and cognitive intelligence need to work in synergy with each other.

Geographies of COVID‐19

Geographies of COVID‐19

Enriching Socio-Technical Sustainability Intelligence through Sharing Autonomy

We suggest to extend scientific research on sustainability beyond its focus on interactions between natural and social systems to socio-technical systems and the ways in which those interactions affect the challenge of sustainability. In increasingly digitalized settings, socio-technical sustainability intelligence becomes critical for human-centered development of societies worldwide, including the achievement of future organizational success. Human-centered enablers, such as self-awareness, global perspective, and societal consciousness, lay foundation for reflective socio-technical practice in highly dynamic ecosystems that are increasingly backed by Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). Socio-technical practice requires frameworks and architectures that support active stakeholder engagement throughout design and engineering. In this contribution, we propose sharing autonomy as inherent feature of sustainable socio-technical system development and operation. We introduce an architecture and mechanism for building and handling autonomy as part of socio-technical sustainability intelligence. We exemplify both with a system-relevant logistics use case to illustrate the enrichment of CPS-based socio-technical environments through active stakeholder participation.

DIGITAL TRENDS IN THE MODERN MEDIA SPACE: SOCIOCULTURAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL ASPECTS

Digital technologies are changing the modern media landscape, which requires a regular and systematic study of best innovative practices, specific empirical cases, as well as the understanding and scientific justification of these transformations, which is an actual problem field of research on social communications. This defined the aim of the study – to analyze digital trends in the modern media space, and to consider the sociocultural and technological aspects of the problem of using digital technologies in journalism. To implement the tasks we applied elements of the method of systematic literature review and analysis of the practices of using digital technologies by leading global agencies and editions. The results of the study showed that the development of the modern media space is largely determined by digital trends. New technologies open up new opportunities for journalism, developing quantitative and qualitative aspects of media activity and causing the emergence of new trends, such as journalism of things, glance journalism, immersive journalism, automated journalism, wearable journalism, etc. Currently, digital technologies are considered as a tool that helps in the work of a journalist, creating a socio-technical environment for increasing the efficiency and economic viability of journalistic practice, optimizing and automating routine processes, ensuring the relevance of materials, generating, moderating and creating personalized content, supporting and expanding dynamic forms of civic participation. The intensive development of digital technologies requires a thorough critical study of their use, analysis of prospects and risks, potential impact on the media space.

OP70 Gaps In The Evaluation Of Clinical Decision Support Software (CDSS): Interviews With Australian Policymakers

IntroductionClinical Decision Support Software (CDSS) can improve the quality and safety of care by providing patient-specific diagnostic and treatment recommendations. However, robust evaluation is required to ensure that the recommendations provided are clinically valid, up-to-date, and relevant to a specific clinical context. Most evaluation studies assess CDSS performance from the perspective of end-user requirements. But only occasionally is CDSS subject to stringent pre- and post-market evaluation, making it difficult to determine the safety and quality in practice. This study aimed to assess CDSS evaluation in Australia to identify gaps in evaluation approaches.MethodsWe conducted 11 semi-structured interviews with different policymakers from committees involved in digital health activities in Australia. Data were thematically analyzed using both theory-based (deductive) and data-driven (inductive) approaches.ResultsOur findings indicated that evaluating CDSS as a purely technical intervention has overly narrowed the assessment of benefits and risks by inadequately capturing the sociotechnical environment. Existing evaluation methods, adopting a static view of the implemented system, cannot discern the impact of the dynamic clinical environment and rapidly evolving technology on CDSS performance. The timeframe of evaluation studies are also incongruent with fast software upgrade cycles, with clinical practices and software potentially changing by the time evaluation is complete. The regulation of software as a medical device depends on the intended use. CDSS are exempt from regulation because they only ‘produce advice’; however, this ignores the fact that they can transition to specifying a diagnosis and treatment after a software update. There is no framework for continuous post-market monitoring, and this is especially important when a CDSS algorithm can change and impact on patient management.ConclusionsThe sociotechnical environment is a significant factor influencing the impact of CDSS on clinical practice, therefore evaluation approaches must acknowledge the dynamic nature of clinical and organizational contexts. Pragmatic and data-driven methodologies are required for CDSS evaluation that acknowledge the evolving landscape of clinical practice and its relationship to technology.

Data Visualization and Analysis of COVID-19 Data

Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, many data visualizations were created to alert the public to the rapidly growing threat. Statistics on the spread of COVID-19 have been displayed on data dashboards, a mechanism for sharing information throughout the pandemic, which has aided in this process. When developing the visuals for COVID-19, the majority of time was spent on the technical aspects of designing and evaluating various visualization methods. Little is understood about the inner workings of visualization production processes due to the complex sociotechnical environments in which they are embedded. However, such ecological data is necessary for identifying the particulars and tendencies of visualization design practices in the wild and generating insights into how artists learn to perceive and approach visualization design on their terms and for their contextual aims. We conducted in-depth interviews with dashboard designers from federal and state health departments, major news media outlets, and other firms that created (often widely used) COVID-19 dashboards to gain insight into the following areas. What kind of problems, disagreements, and conflicts arose during making the COVID-19 dashboard because of the participation of visualization creators? The trajectory of design practices—from genesis to expansion, maintenance, and termination—is determined by the complex interconnections between design goals, design tools and technologies, labour, emerging crisis circumstances, and public participation. We zeroed in on these procedures' tensions between designers and the general public. Conflicts frequently arose due to a chasm between public demands and prevailing policies. They typically centred on the types and amounts of information that should be visualized and how public perceptions shape and are shaped by visualization design. The strategies used to deal with (potential) misinterpretations and misuse of visualizations. Our findings and takeaways offer fresh viewpoints on visualization design by highlighting the bundled activities typically linked with human and nonhuman participation along the entire trajectory of design practice

Governing and securing the territorial volumes of burial: transformations in the political economy and domestic geopolitics of death

ABSTRACT This paper explores how transformations in the domestic geopolitics of burial space has produced new logics in respect of property, security and capacity as forms of volumetric and material governance. Focusing on the everyday practices of municipal burial space during the late 19th century in England, this paper builds on feminist political economy approaches to interrogate the emergence of volumetric securitization through transformations in the material politics of burial across a changing socio-technical environment. The volumetric geopolitics of burial shows how embodied experiences and practices of interment illuminate specific class-based death cultures and economies through intimate and affective ecologies of governance. Drawing on examples of two cemeteries located on the Wirral Peninsula during the implementation of the Burial Laws and Amendments Acts (1852–85), this paper looks at how burial volumes are governed, understood, contested and coexist, and the affective and embodied sensibilities that mobilize securitizing behaviours across cemetery space.