@article {9999, title = {Implications for hybrid newswork from the activities of local US television journalists during COVID}, journal = {Journalism Practice}, year = {In Press}, abstract = {

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, many local television (TV) newsrooms decided to have employees work from home (WFH) or from the field rather than from the newsroom, creating a kind of hybrid work characterized by flexible work location. From a review of research on telework and WFH, we identified possible impacts of WFH on work and on workers, with a particular focus on news work and news workers. Data on the impacts of hybrid work are drawn from interviews with local television news directors and journalists in the United States and observations of remote work. We found that through creative application of technology, WFH news workers could successfully create a newscast, albeit with some concerns about story quality. However, WFH did not seem to satisfy workers{\textquoteright} needs for socialization or learning individually or as a group. Lifted restrictions on gatherings are mitigating some of the experienced problems, but we expect to see continued challenges to news workers{\textquoteright} informal learning in hybrid work settings.

}, doi = {10.1080/17512786.2024.2344643}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/Implications\%20for\%20hybrid\%20newswork\%20from\%20the\%20activities\%20of\%20local\%20US\%20television\%20journalists\%20during\%20COVID\%20to\%20share.pdf}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Keren Henderson and Kian Loong Lua and Raghav Raheja} } @proceedings {wang2024reelframer, title = {ReelFramer: Human-AI Co-Creation for News-to-Video Translation}, year = {2024}, address = {Honolulu, Hawai{\textquoteright}i}, abstract = {

Short videos on social media are the dominant way young people consume content. News outlets aim to reach audiences through news reels -- short videos conveying news -- but struggle to translate traditional journalistic formats into short, entertaining videos. To translate news into social media reels, we support journalists in reframing the narrative. In literature, narrative framing is a high-level structure that shapes the overall presentation of a story. We identified three narrative framings for reels that adapt social media norms but preserve news value, each with a different balance of information and entertainment. We introduce ReelFramer, a human-AI co-creative system that helps journalists translate print articles into scripts and storyboards. ReelFramer supports exploring multiple narrative framings to find one appropriate to the story. AI suggests foundational narrative details, including characters, plot, setting, and key information. ReelFramer also supports visual framing; AI suggests character and visual detail designs before generating a full storyboard. Our studies show that narrative framing introduces the necessary diversity to translate various articles into reels, and establishing foundational details helps generate scripts that are more relevant and coherent. We also discuss the benefits of using narrative framing and foundational details in content retargeting.

}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.09653}, author = {Sitong Wang and Samia Menon and Tao Long and Keren Henderson and Dingzeyu Li and Kevin Crowston and Mark Hansen and Jeffrey V. Nickerson and Lydia B. Chilton} } @article {wang2023reelframer, title = {Video for ReelFramer: Co-creating News Reels on Social Media with Generative AI}, year = {2023}, type = {Video}, url = {https://youtu.be/WQZcbdp5yJQ}, author = {Sitong Wang and Samia Menon and Tao Long and Keren Henderson and Dingzeyu Li and Kevin Crowston and Mark Hansen and Jeffrey V. Nickerson and Lydia B. Chilton} } @article {9998, title = {Artificial intelligence in information systems: State of the art and research roadmap}, journal = {Communications of the Association for Information Systems (CAIS)}, volume = {50}, year = {2022}, abstract = {

Many would argue that artificial intelligence (AI) is not just a technology but represents a paradigmatic shift in the relationship between humans and machines. Much of the literature assumes that AI-powered practices are substantially different and profoundly changes organizational structures, communication, affordances, and ecosystems. However, research in AI is often fragmented and lacks clarity. While the Information Systems (IS) field can play a pivotal role in the emergence and use of AI, there is a need for a clear direction that specifies how IS can contribute and what are to be the key research themes and questions. This paper draws on a PDW at ICIS 2020 and the discussions that followed. It summarizes and synthesizes five decades of the impact of AI on organizational practices, providing views from various perspectives. It identifies weaknesses in the current AI literature as measured against conceptual clarity, theoretical glue, cumulative tradition, parsimony, and applicability. The paper concludes by identifying direct actions that the IS research community can undertake to address these issues. The final contribution is a next-step research agenda to guide AI research in the coming years.

}, doi = {10.17705/1CAIS.05017}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/Artificial\%20Intelligence\%20in\%20Information\%20Systems\%20State\%20of\%20the\%20Art.pdf}, author = {P{\"a}r J. {\r A}gerfalk and Kieran Conboy and Kevin Crowston and Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa and Jenny Eriksson Lundstr{\"o}m and Patrick Mikalef and Sudha Ram} } @article {9998, title = {Examining Open Innovation in Science (OIS): What Open Innovation can and cannot offer the science of science}, journal = {Innovation: Organization \& Management}, year = {2021}, abstract = {

Scholars across disciplines increasingly hear calls for more open and collaborative approaches to scientific research. The concept of Open Innovation in Science (OIS) provides a framework that integrates dispersed research efforts aiming to understand the antecedents, contingencies, and consequences of applying open and collaborative research practices. While the OIS framework has already been taken up by science of science scholars, its conceptual underpinnings require further specification. In this essay, we critically examine the OIS concept and bring to light two key aspects: 1) how OIS builds upon Open Innovation (OI) research by adopting its attention to boundary-crossing knowledge flows and by adapting other concepts developed and researched in OI to the science context as exemplified by two OIS cases in the area of research funding; 2) how OIS conceptualises knowledge flows across boundaries. While OI typically focuses on well-defined organizational boundaries, we argue that blurry and even invisible boundaries between communities of practice may more strongly constrain flows of knowledge related to openness and collaboration in science. Given the uptake of this concept, this essay brings needed clarity to the meaning of OIS, which has no particular normative orientation toward a close coupling between science and industry. We end by outlining the essay{\textquoteright}s contributions to OI and the science of science, as well as to science practitioners.

}, doi = {10.1080/14479338.2021.1999248}, author = {Susanne Beck and Marcel LaFlamme and Carsten Bergenholtz and Marcel Bogers and Tiare-Maria Brasseur and Marie-Louise Conradsen and Kevin Crowston and Diletta Di Marco and Agnes Effert and Despoina Filiou and Lars Frederiksen and Thomas Gillier and Marc Gruber and Carolin Haeussler and Karin Hoisl and Olga Kokshagina and Maria-Theresa Norn and Marion Poetz and Gernot Pruschak and Laia Pujol Priego and Agnieszka Radziwon and Alexander Ruser and Henry Sauermann and Sonali Shah and Julia Suess-Reyes and Christopher L. Tucci and Philipp Tuertscher and Jane Bj{\o}rn Vedel and Roberto Verganti and Jonathan Wareham and Sunny Mosangzi Xu} } @article {2021, title = {Hybrid intelligence in business networks}, journal = {Electronic Markets}, year = {2021}, month = {Nov-06-2021}, issn = {1019-6781}, doi = {10.1007/s12525-021-00481-4}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/Ebel2021_Article_HybridIntelligenceInBusinessNe.pdf}, author = {Ebel, Philipp and S{\"o}llner, Matthias and Leimeister, Jan Marco and Crowston, Kevin and de Vreede, Gert-Jan} } @article {9998, title = {Knowledge Tracing to Model Learning in Online Citizen Science Projects}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies}, volume = {13}, year = {2020}, pages = {123-134}, abstract = {

We present the design of a citizen science system that uses machine learning to guide the presentation of image classification tasks to newcomers to help them more quickly learn how to do the task while still contributing to the work of the project. A Bayesian model for tracking volunteer learning for training with tasks with uncertain outcomes is presented and fit to data from 12,986 volunteer contributors. The model can be used both to estimate the ability of volunteers and to decide the classification of an image. A simulation of the model applied to volunteer promotion and image retirement suggests that the model requires fewer classifications than the current system.

}, issn = {1939-1382}, doi = {10.1109/TLT.2019.2936480 }, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/transaction\%20paper\%20final\%20figures\%20in\%20text.pdf}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Carsten {\O}sterlund and Tae Kyoung Lee and Corey Brian Jackson and Mahboobeh Harandi and Sarah Allen and Sara Bahaadini and Scott Coughlin and Aggelos Katsaggelos and Shane Larson and Neda Rohani and Joshua Smith and Laura Trouille and Michael Zevin} } @article {9999, title = {Teaching Citizen Scientists to Categorize Glitches using Machine-Learning-Guided Training}, journal = {Computers in Human Behavior}, volume = {105}, year = {2020}, pages = {106198}, abstract = {

Training users in online communities is important for making high performing contributors. However, several conundrums exists in choosing the most effective approaches to training users. For example, if it takes time to learn to do the task correctly, then the initial contributions may not be of high enough quality to be useful. We conducted an online field experiment where we recruited users (N = 386) in a web-based citizen-science project to evaluate the two training approaches. In one training regime, users received one-time training and were asked to learn and apply twenty classes to the data. In the other approach, users were gradually exposed to classes of data that were selected by trained machine learning algorithms as being members of particular classes. The results of our analysis revealed that the gradual training produced {\textquotedblleft}high performing contributors{\textquotedblright}. In our comparison of the treatment and control groups we found users who experienced gradual training performed significantly better on the task (an average accuracy of 90\% vs. 54\%), contributed more work (an average of 228 vs. 121 classifications), and were retained in the project for a longer period of time (an average of 2.5 vs. 2 sessions). The results suggests online production communities seeking to train newcomers would benefit from training regimes that gradually introduce them to the work of the project using real tasks.

}, doi = {10.1016/j.chb.2019.106198}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/MLGT-preprint.pdf}, author = {Corey Jackson and Carsten {\O}sterlund and Kevin Crowston and Mahboobeh Harandi and Sarah Allen and Sara Bahaadini and Scott Coughlin and Vicky Kalogera and Aggelos Katsaggelos and Shane Larson and Neda Rohani and Joshua Smith and Laura Trouille and Michael Zevin} } @article {2019, title = {Classifying the unknown: Discovering novel gravitational-wave detector glitches using similarity learning}, journal = {Physical Review D}, volume = {99}, year = {2019}, pages = {082002}, abstract = {

The observation of gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences by LIGO and Virgo has begun a new era in astronomy. A critical challenge in making detections is determining whether loud transient features in the data are caused by gravitational waves or by instrumental or environmental sources. The citizen-science project Gravity Spy has been demonstrated as an efficient infrastructure for classifying known types of noise transients (glitches) through a combination of data analysis performed by both citizen volunteers and machine learning. We present the next iteration of this project, using similarity indices to empower citizen scientists to create large data sets of unknown transients, which can then be used to facilitate supervised machine-learning characterization. This new evolution aims to alleviate a persistent challenge that plagues both citizen-science and instrumental detector work: the ability to build large samples of relatively rare events. Using two families of transient noise that appeared unexpectedly during LIGO{\textquoteright}s second observing run, we demonstrate the impact that the similarity indices could have had on finding these new glitch types in the Gravity Spy program.

}, issn = {2470-0010}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevD.99.082002}, author = {Scott Coughlin and Sara Bahaadini and Neda Rohani and Michael Zevin and Patane, Oli and Mahboobeh Harandi and Corey Brian Jackson and Noroozi, V. and Sarah Allen and Areeda, J. and Coughlin, M. and Ruiz, P. and Berry, C. P. L. and Kevin Crowston and Aggelos Katsaggelos and Andrew Lundgren and Carsten {\O}sterlund and Joshua Smith and Laura Trouille and Vicky Kalogera} } @article {9999, title = {Appealing to different motivations in a message to recruit citizen scientists: results of a field experiment}, journal = {Journal of Science Communication}, volume = {17}, year = {2018}, chapter = {A02}, abstract = {

This study examines the relative efficacy of citizen science recruitment messages appealing to four motivations that were derived from previous research on motives for participation in citizen-science projects. We report on an experiment (N=36,513) that compared the response to email messages designed to appeal to these four motives for participation. We found that the messages appealing to the possibility of contributing to science and learning about science attracted more attention than did one about helping scientists but that one about helping scientists generated more initial contributions. Overall, the message about contributing to science resulted in the largest volume of contributions and joining a community, the lowest. The results should be informative to those managing citizen-science projects.

}, keywords = {Citizen Science}, doi = {10.22323/2.17010202}, url = {https://jcom.sissa.it/archive/17/01/JCOM_1701_2018_A02}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/JCOM_1701_2018_A02.pdf}, author = {Lee, Tae Kyoung and Kevin Crowston and Mahboobeh Harandi and Carsten {\O}sterlund and Grant Miller} } @proceedings {9999, title = {Blending machine and human learning processes}, year = {2017}, abstract = {

Citizen science projects rely on contributions from volunteers to achieve their scientific goals and so face a dilemma: providing volunteers with explicit training might increase the quality of contributions, but at the cost of losing the work done by newcomers during the training period, which for many is the only work they will contribute to the project. Based on research in cognitive science on how humans learn to classify images, we have designed an approach to use machine learning to guide the presentation of tasks to newcomers that help them more quickly learn how to do the image classification task while still contributing to the work of the project. A Bayesian model for tracking this learning is presented.

}, doi = {10.24251/HICSS.2017.009}, url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10125/41159}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/training\%20v3\%20to\%20share_0.pdf}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Carsten {\O}sterlund and Lee, Tae Kyoung} } @article {657, title = {Gravity Spy: Integrating Advanced LIGO Detector Characterization, Machine Learning, and Citizen Science}, journal = {Classical and Quantum Gravity}, volume = {34}, year = {2017}, pages = {064003}, type = {Journal Article}, doi = {10.1088/1361-6382/aa5cea}, author = {Michael Zevin and Scott Coughlin and Sara Bahaadini and Emre Besler and Neda Rohani and Sarah Allen and Miriam Cabero and Kevin Crowston and Aggelos Katsaggelos and Shane Larson and Tae Kyoung Lee and Chris Lintott and Tyson Littenberg and Andrew Lundgren and Carsten Oesterlund and Joshua Smith and Laura Trouille and Vicky Kalogera} } @article {2017, title = {Recruiting messages matter: Message strategies to attract citizen scientists}, year = {2017}, type = {Poster}, address = {Portland, OR}, abstract = {Although participation of citizen scientists is critical for a success of citizen science projects (a distinctive form of crowdsourcing), little attention has been paid to what types of messages can effectively recruit citizen scientists. Derived from previous studies on citizen scientists{\textquoteright} motivations, we created and sent participants one of four recruiting messages for a new project, Gravity Spy, appealing to different motivations (i.e., learning about science, social proof, contribution to science, and altruism). Counter to earlier studies on motivation, our results showed that messages appealing to learning, contribution and social proof were more effective than a message appealing to altruism. We discuss the inconsistency between the present and prior study results and plans for future work.}, doi = {10.1145/3022198.3026335}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/cpa143-leeA.pdf}, author = {Lee, Tae Kyoung and Kevin Crowston and Carsten {\O}sterlund and Grant Miller} } @article {2016, title = {Manifesto on Engineering Academic Software (Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop 16252)}, volume = {6}, year = {2016}, month = {12/2106}, institution = {Schloss Dagstuhl {\textendash} Leibniz Center for Informatics}, address = {Wadern, Germany}, abstract = {Software is often a critical component of scientific research. It can be a component of the academic research methods used to produce research results, or it may itself be an academic research result. Software, however, has rarely been considered to be a citable artifact in its own right. With the advent of open-source software, artifact evaluation committees of conferences, and journals that include source code and running systems as part of the published artifacts, we foresee that software will increasingly be recognized as part of the academic process. The quality and sustainability of this software must be accounted for, both a priori and a posteriori. The Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop on {\textquotedblleft}Engineering Academic Software{\textquotedblright} has examined the strengths, weaknesses, risks, and opportunities of academic software engineering. A key outcome of the workshop is this Dagstuhl Manifesto, serving as a roadmap towards future professional software engineering for software-based research instruments and other software produced and used in an academic context. The manifesto is expressed in terms of a series of actionable {\textquotedblleft}pledges{\textquotedblright} that users and developers of academic research software can take as concrete steps towards improving the environment in which that software is produced.}, author = {Alice Allen and Cecilia Aragon and Christoph Becker and Jeffrey Carver and Andrei Chi{\c s} and Benoit Combemale and Mike Croucher and Kevin Crowston and Daniel Garijo and Ashish Gehani and Carole Goble and Robert Haines and Robert Hirschfeld and James Howison and Kathryn Huff and Caroline Jay and Daniel S. Katz and Claude Kirchner and Katie Kuksenok and Ralf L{\"a}mmel and Oscar Nierstrasz and Matt Turk and van Nieuwpoort, Rob and Matthew Vaughn and Jurgen Vinju} } @article {9998, title = {Group maintenance in technology-supported distributed teams}, journal = {Information \& Management}, volume = {51}, year = {2014}, month = {4/2014}, pages = {297-309}, abstract = {In this paper we investigate group maintenance behavior in community-based Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) development teams. Adopting a sociolinguistic perspective, we conceptualize group maintenance behavior as interpersonal communication tactics{\textemdash}specifically, social presence and politeness tactics{\textemdash}that help maintain relationships among group members. Developer email messages were collected from two FLOSS projects with different development status and content-analyzed to identify frequently-used group maintenance tactics. We then compared the two projects on the group maintenance tactics used, finding differences that reflect changes in the project work practices. Our work contributes theoretically to FLOSS research and has practical implications for FLOSS practitioners. }, doi = {10.1016/j.im.2014.02.001}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/Group_maintenance\%20paper_part\%20I_20140122_final.pdf}, author = {Kangning Wei and Kevin Crowston and Li, Na and Heckman, Robert} } @proceedings {440, title = {Knowledge Portals: Components, Functionalities, and Deployment Challenges}, year = {2012}, month = {12/2012}, address = {Orlando, FL}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/KP\%20to\%20distribute.pdf}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Claudia L{\"o}bbecke} } @conference {369, title = {Integrated Customer-Focused Knowledge Portals: Design Challenges and Empirical Approaches}, booktitle = {Academy of Management Conference, OCIS Division}, year = {2011}, month = {8/2011}, address = {San Antonio, TX}, abstract = {Knowledge Portals (KPs) are highly integrative Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) that promise to synthesize widely dispersed knowledge and to interconnect individuals by functioning as a {\textquoteright}one-stop knowledge shop{\textquoteright}. Yet, in practice, KPs face major challenges, which are for the most part due to the intricacies of knowledge exchange being subjected to multi-faceted individual and social factors. At the same time, growing anecdotal evidence from case studies indicates KPs{\textquoteright} enormous potential. This paper makes an effort to more distinctly conceptualize KPs and emphasize a KP{\textquoteright}s role to unify networking and repository KMS features. The paper develops three major challenges to successful KP deployment, namely (1) knowledge integration, (2) sufficient participation, and (3) favorable organizational culture and validates these as applicable to KP through a review of 42 empirical papers. The paper concludes with suggestions towards a set of design principles for KP. }, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/14943.pdf}, author = {Claudia L{\"o}bbecke and Kevin Crowston and Nicolas Friederici} } @article {9998, title = {Participation in ICT-Enabled Meetings}, journal = {Journal of Organizational and End User Computing}, volume = {23}, year = {2011}, chapter = {15{\textendash}36}, abstract = {Meetings are a common occurrence in contemporary organizations, and almost everyone shares an understanding of what a meeting is and what participation in a meeting looks like. Yet our exploratory study at Intel, an innovative global technology company, suggests that meetings are evolving beyond this familiar perspective as the pervasive use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) changes work practices associated with meetings. Drawing on data gathered from interviews prompted by entries in the employees{\textquoteright} electronic calendar system, we examine the multiple ways in which meetings build and reflect work in the organization and derive propositions to guide future research. Specifically, we identified four aspects of meetings that reflect work in the 21st century: meetings are integral to work in team-centered organizations, tension between group and personal objectives, discontinuities, and ICT support for fragmented work environment.}, keywords = {Computer-Mediated Communication, Information Technology}, doi = {10.4018/joeuc.2011040102}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/JOEUC_to_distribute.pdf}, author = {Chudoba, Katherine M. and Mary Beth Watson-Manheim and Kevin Crowston and Lee, Chei Sian} } @proceedings {2010, title = {Machine Learning and Rule-Based Automated Coding of Qualitative Data}, year = {2010}, month = {10/2010}, address = {Pittsburgh, PA}, abstract = {Researchers often employ qualitative research approaches but large volumes of textual data pose considerable challenges to manual coding. In this research, we explore how to implement fully or semi-automatic coding on textual data (specifically, electronic messages) by leveraging Natural Language Processing (NLP). In particular, we compare the performance of human-developed NLP rules to those inferred by machine learning algorithms. The experimental results suggest that NLP with machine learning can be an effective way to assist researchers in coding qualitative data. }, keywords = {FLOSS, NLP}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/ml_nlp.pdf , https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/ASIST\%20poster\%202p\%20final.pdf}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Xiaozhong Liu and Allen, Eileen E. and Heckman, Robert} } @proceedings {Scialdone:2009, title = {Group Maintenance Behaviours of Core and Peripheral Members of Free/Libre Open Source Software Teams}, year = {2009}, address = {Skövde, Sweden, 3-6 June}, abstract = {Group Maintenance is pro-social, discretionary, and relation-building behavior that occurs between members of groups in order to maintain reciprocal trust and cooperation. This paper considers how Free/libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) teams demonstrate such behaviors within the context of e-mail, as this is the primary medium through which such teams communicate. We compare group maintenance behaviors between both core and peripheral members of these groups, as well as behaviors between a group that remains producing software today and one which has since dissolved. Our findings indicate that negative politeness tactics (those which show respect for the autonomy of others) may be the most instrumental group maintenance behaviors that contribute to a FLOSS group{\textquoteleft}s ability to survive and continue software production. }, keywords = {FLOSS, Group Maintenance}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/34finalmjs.pdf}, author = {Scialdone, Michael J. and Heckman, Robert and Kevin Crowston}, editor = {Boldyreff, Cornelia and Kevin Crowston and Lundell, Bj{\"o}rn and Wasserman, Tony} } @proceedings {Wiggins:2009, title = {Heartbeat: Measuring Active User Base and Potential User Interest in FLOSS Projects}, volume = {299}, year = {2009}, pages = {94-104}, publisher = {Springer Boston}, address = {Skövde, Sweden, 3-6 June}, abstract = {This paper presents a novel method and algorithm to measure the size of an open source project{\textquoteright}s user base and the level of potential user interest that it generates. Previously unavailable download data at a daily resolution confirms hypothesized patterns related to release cycles. In short, regular users rapidly download the software after a new release giving a way to measure the active user base. In contrast, potential new users download the application independently of the release cycle, and the daily download figures tend to plateau at this rate when a release has not been made for some time. An algorithm for estimating these measures from download time series is demonstrated and the measures are examined over time in two open source projects.}, isbn = {978-3-642-02031-5}, issn = {978-3-642-02031-5}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-02032-2\%5f10}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/heartbeat.pdf}, author = {Wiggins, Andrea and James Howison and Kevin Crowston}, editor = {Boldyreff, Cornelia and Kevin Crowston and Lundell, Bj{\"o}rn and Wasserman, Tony} } @booklet {2009, title = {ICIS 2008 Panel Report: Open Access Publishing to Nurture the Sprouts of Knowledge and the Future of Information Systems Research}, howpublished = {Communications of the Association for Information Systems}, volume = {24}, year = {2009}, abstract = {

The advent of the Internet and the subsequent adoption of Open Access schemata are changing the nature of the scholarly discourse. In response, we seek to stimulate a debate about the role and desired forms of Open Access publishing in the context of the Information System (IS) discipline. We explore the potential contribution of an Open Access perspective on publishing IS-related research and also discuss the roles of traditional journals and their prospects in the contexts of our observations. In particular, we focus on the new possibilities of publishing work-in-progress and its potential benefit for knowledge dissemination including the prospects of turning today{\textquoteright}s limited scholarly exchange into mass collaboration. We illustrate our vision with a working prototype of an Open Access disciplinary repository entitled Sprouts (http://sprouts.aisnet.org). Our aim is to inspire new thinking about the role of Open Access publishing, the potential of its application to disciplinary repositories of emergent work, its anticipated repercussions on our work practices, and its long-term implication for the impact of IS scholarship and the well-being of our community at large. We call for participation and further action in realizing a global repository of IS research in progress. This paper builds on a panel on Open Access that was presented at the 2008 International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), held in Paris, France, in December 2008.

}, keywords = {Information System}, doi = {10.17705/1CAIS.02430}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/ICIS\%20Panel\%20Open\%20Access\%20Publishing.pdf}, author = {Avital, Michel and Bj{\"o}rk, Bo-Christer and Boland, Richard J and Kevin Crowston and Lyytinen, Kalle and Majchrzak, Ann} } @article {Li:2008a, title = {Asynchronous Decision-Making in Distributed Teams (Poster)}, year = {2008}, month = {8{\textendash}12 November}, address = {San Diego, CA}, keywords = {Decision-Making, FLOSS}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/CSCW2008Poster11x17Draft.pdf}, author = {Li, Qing and Heckman, Robert and Allen, Eileen E. and Kevin Crowston and Eseryel, U. Yeliz and James Howison and Wiggins, Andrea} } @proceedings {Li:2008, title = {Decision Making Paths in Self-Organizing Technology-Mediated Distributed Teams}, year = {2008}, address = {Paris, France, 14-17 December}, abstract = {This paper investigates decision making in self-organizing technology-mediated distributed teams. This context provides an opportunity to examine how the use of technological support to span temporal and organizational discontinuities affects decision-making processes. 258 software-modification decision episodes were collected from the public emailing lists of six Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) projects over a span of five years. Six decision-making paths were identified as 1) short-cut decision-making path; 2) implicit-development decision-making path; 3) implicit-evaluation decision-making path; 4) normative decision-making path; 5) dynamic decision-making path; and 6) interrupted/delayed decision-making path. We suggest that the nature of the tasks and the affordances of the technology used reduce the need for explicit coordination, resulting in a broader range of possible decision processes than are observed in face-to-face groups.}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/Decision\%20Making\%20Paths\%20in\%20Self\%20Organizing\%20Technology\%20Mediated\%20Dist.pdf}, author = {Li, Qing and Heckman, Robert and Kevin Crowston and James Howison and Allen, Eileen E. and Eseryel, U. Yeliz} } @proceedings {Scialdone:2008, title = {Group Maintenance in Technology-Supported Distributed Teams}, year = {2008}, address = {Anaheim, CA, 9-13 August}, abstract = {Are geographically-distributed teams which exhibit high levels of group maintenance between members successful? We answer this through content analysis of emails from two Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) teams. Our results illustrate that the groups utilize low levels of organizational citizenship behaviors and high levels of positive politeness actions.}, keywords = {FLOSS, Group Maintenance}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/GroupMaintenance.pdf}, author = {Scialdone, Michael J. and Li, Na and James Howison and Heckman, Robert and Kevin Crowston} } @proceedings {Scozzi:2008, title = {Shared mental models among open source software developers}, year = {2008}, address = {Big Island, Hawai{\textquoteright}i, 7-10 January}, abstract = {Shared understandings are important for software development as they guide to effective individual contributions to, and coordination of, the software development process. In this paper, we present the results of a preliminary analysis on shared mental models within Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) development teams. Based on structuration theory and by adopting cognitive mapping and process analysis, we represented and com-pared the mental models of some developers of the Lucene Java project. Our analysis suggests that there is a high-level of sharing among core developers but the shar-ing is not complete, with some differences related to ten-ure in the project.}, doi = {10.1109/HICSS.2008.391}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/SharedMntalModels.pdf}, author = {Scozzi, Barbara and Kevin Crowston and Eseryel, U. Yeliz and Li, Qing} } @proceedings {Heckman:2007, title = {Emergent decision-making practices in Free/Libre Open Source Software FLOSS development teams}, year = {2007}, address = {Limerick, Ireland, 10-14 June}, abstract = {We seek to identify work practices that make Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) development teams effective. Particularly important to team effectiveness is decision making. In this paper, we report on an inductive qualitative analysis of 360 decision episodes of six FLOSS development teams. Our analysis revealed diversity in decision-making practices that seem to be related to differences in overall team characteristics and effectiveness. }, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/20070320\%20OSS\%20Conference_v15_final\%20submitted.pdf}, author = {Heckman, Robert and Kevin Crowston and Eseryel, U. Yeliz and James Howison and Allen, Eileen E. and Li, Qing} } @article {2007, title = {Investigating the Dynamics of FLOSS Development Teams (Poster)}, year = {2007}, note = {SD 2007 poster - Full Adobe PDF 2007 HSD PI{\textquoteright}s conference poster reporting on the grant project work to date in a full Adobe PDF file. HSD 2007 poster - Small PDF HSD 2007 conference grant progress reporting poster in a smaller PDF file. }, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/HSDposter_8.ai_.pdf , https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/HSDposter_8.pdf}, author = {Li, Na and Li, Qing and Kangning Wei and Heckman, Robert and Eseryel, U. Yeliz and Liddy, Elizabeth D. and James Howison and Kevin Crowston and Allen, Eileen E. and Scialdone, Michael J. and Inoue, Keisuke and Harwell, Sarah and Rowe, Steven and McCracken, Nancy and Wiggins, Andrea} } @article {Crowston:2007b, title = {Self-organization of teams in free/libre open source software development}, journal = {Information and Software Technology Journal: Special issue on Understanding the Social Side of Software Engineering, Qualitative Software Engineering Research}, volume = {49}, year = {2007}, pages = {564{\textendash}575}, abstract = {This paper provides empirical evidence about how free/libre open source software development teams self-organize their work, specifically, how tasks are assigned to project team members. Following a case study methodology, we examined developer interaction data from three active and successful FLOSS projects using qualitative research methods, specifically inductive content analysis, to identify the task-assignment mechanisms used by the participants. We found that {\textquoteleft}self-assignment{\textquoteright} was the most common mechanism across three FLOSS projects. This mechanism is consistent with expectations for distributed and largely volunteer teams. We conclude by discussing whether these emergent practices can be usefully transferred to mainstream practice and indicating directions for future research.}, doi = {10.1016/j.infsof.2007.02.004}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/060918.pdf}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Kangning Wei and Li, Qing and Eseryel, U. Yeliz and James Howison} } @article {2006, title = {Audio of ICIS 2006 Presentation}, year = {2006}, note = {Audio of Kevin, Yeliz and Qing presenting our paper at ICIS 2006. The audio is ok, but next time I{\textquoteright}m definitely going to put the recorder nearer the speakers!}, keywords = {FLOSS}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/ICIS-2006-Kevin-Yeliz-Qing-fixed.mp3}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Eseryel, U. Yeliz and Li, Qing} } @proceedings {Crowston:2006b, title = {Core and periphery in Free/Libre and Open Source software team communications}, year = {2006}, address = {Kaua{\textquoteright}i, Hawai{\textquoteright}i, January}, abstract = {The concept of the core group of developers is important and often discussed in empirical studies of FLOSS projects. This paper examines the question, {\textquotedblleft}how does one empirically distinguish the core?{\textquotedblright} Being able to identify the core members of a FLOSS development project is important because many of the processes necessary for successful projects likely involve core members differently than peripheral members, so analyses that mix the two groups will likely yield invalid results. We compare 3 analysis approaches to identify the core: the named list of developers, a Bradford{\textquoteright}s law analysis that takes as the core the most frequent contributors and a social network analysis of the interaction pattern that identifies the core in a core-and-periphery structure. We apply these measures to the interactions around bug fixing for 116 SourceForge projects. The 3 techniques identify different individuals as core members; examination of which individuals are identified leads to suggestions for refining the measures. All 3 measures though suggest that the core of FLOSS projects is a small fraction of the total number of contributors.}, keywords = {FLOSS}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/CoreAndPeripheryInFreeLibre.pdf}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Kangning Wei and Li, Qing and James Howison} } @proceedings {Heckman:2006b, title = {Emergent decision-making practices in technology-supported self-organizing distributed teams}, year = {2006}, address = {Milwaukee, WI, 10{\textendash}13 Dec}, abstract = {We seek to identify work practices that make technology-supported self-organizing distributed (or virtual) teams (TSSODT for short) effective in producing outputs satisfactory to their sponsors, meeting the needs of their members and continuing to function. A particularly important practice for team effectiveness is decision making: are the right decisions made at the right time to get the work done in a way that satisfies team sponsors, keeps contributors happy and engaged, and enables continued team success? In this research-in-progress paper, we report on an inductive qualitative analysis of 120 decision episodes taken by 2 Free/libre Open Source Software development teams. Our analysis revealed differences in decision-making practices that seem to be related to differences in overall team effectiveness.}, keywords = {Decision-Making, FLOSS}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/Emergent\%20Decision\%20Making\%20Practices\%20In\%20Technology\%20Supported\%20Self\%20O.pdf}, author = {Heckman, Robert and Kevin Crowston and Li, Qing and Allen, Eileen E. and Eseryel, U. Yeliz and James Howison and Kangning Wei} } @article {2006, title = {Investigating the Dynamics of FLOSS Development Teams (Poster)}, year = {2006}, note = {Poster describing the current state of the project for the HSD Principal Investigators{\textquoteright} conference, 14-15 September 2006, Washington DC.}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/hsd2006poster.pdf}, author = {Li, Qing and Kangning Wei and Heckman, Robert and Eseryel, U. Yeliz and Liddy, Elizabeth D. and James Howison and Kevin Crowston and Allen, Eileen E. and Inoue, Keisuke and Harwell, Sarah and Rowe, Steven and McCracken, Nancy} } @conference {Li:2006, title = {Language and power in self-organizing distributed teams}, booktitle = {OCIS Division, Academy of Management Conference}, year = {2006}, address = {Atlanta, GA}, abstract = {In this paper, a comparative case study is conducted to explore the way power is expressed and exercised through language use in distributed or virtual teams. Our research questions are {\textquotedblleft}how is power expressed in online interactions in self-organizing distributed teams, in a context without formal authority or hierarchy?{\textquotedblright} and {\textquotedblleft}What effects do expressions of power have on team outcomes?{\textquotedblright} To fully understand the role of power in self-organizing teams, we apply an input-process-output model on two open source projects-one successful and the other less successful. Two set of codes (source of power and power mechanism) are drawn from the data, and different power patterns interestingly show up between them. The findings lead us to speculate that strong, centralized leadership, the assertive exercise of power, and direct language may contribute to effectiveness in FLOSS teams. And the relevant conclusions and suggestions are provided for further research.}, keywords = {FLOSS}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/LanguageAndPowerInSelf-organizing.pdf}, author = {Li, Qing and Kevin Crowston and Heckman, Robert and James Howison} } @proceedings {Crowston:2005, title = {Coordination of Free/Libre Open Source Software development}, year = {2005}, address = {Las Vegas, NV, USA, December}, abstract = {The apparent success of free/libre open source software (FLOSS) development projects such as Linux, Apache, and many others has raised the question, what lessons from FLOSS development can be transferred to mainstream software development? In this paper, we use coordination theory to analyze coordination mechanisms in FLOSS development and compare our analysis with existing literature on coordination in proprietary software development. We examined developer interaction data from three active and successful FLOSS projects and used content analysis to identify the coordination mechanisms used by the participants. We found that there were similarities between the FLOSS groups and the reported practices of the proprietary project in the coordination mechanisms used to manage task-task dependencies. However, we found clear differences in the coordination mechanisms used to manage task-actor dependencies. While published descriptions of proprietary software development involved an elaborate system to locate the developer who owned the relevant piece of code, we found that {\textquotedblleft}self-assignment{\textquotedblright} was the most common mechanism across three FLOSS projects. This coordination mechanism is consistent with expectations for distributed and largely volunteer teams. We conclude by discussing whether these emergent practices can be usefully transferred to mainstream practice and indicating directions for future research.}, keywords = {Coordination, FLOSS}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/Coordination\%20of\%20Free\%20Libre\%20Open\%20Source\%20Software\%20Development.pdf , https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/CoordinationFreeLibreOSSDevSlides.pdf}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Kangning Wei and Li, Qing and Eseryel, U. Yeliz and James Howison} } @conference {Chudoba:2005a, title = {Meet Me in Cyberspace: Meetings in the Distributed Work Environment}, booktitle = {Academy of Management Conference, OCIS Division}, year = {2005}, address = {Honolulu, HI}, abstract = {Meetings have long been a critical activity in contemporary work life. At least since Mintzberg{\textquoteright}s classic study of managerial behavior, researchers have documented and practitioners have bemoaned the amount of time spent in meetings. Despite these problems, meetings are becoming even more common in organizations. Teams are now found throughout the organization, from the manufacturing floor to senior management. Organizational work increasingly occurs in teams, with participation in meetings becoming a core work activity. How are these meetings conducted? What are the implications of the increased use of ICT in these meetings? As more and more members of organizational teams are distributed and must make extensive use of ICT in order to work together, these questions become even more important. Using the device of genre system, an interrelated set of socially constructed communicative actions, we examine meetings from the perspective of employees at a company in the technology industry. We began with the questions: Are meetings in the 21st century different from Mintzberg{\textquoteright}s conceptualization? If so, how? Drawing on data gathered from interviews that used entries in the employees{\textquoteright} electronic calendar system, we found that employees are attending a large number of meetings (20\% reported more than 25 meetings in a week) and spending significant time in meetings (27\% reported more than 30 hours in a week in meetings). The majority of meetings included non-collocated participants and extensive use of ICT. We explore the implications of these and other findings for collaboration and ICT support.}, keywords = {Computer-Mediated Communication, Virtuality}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/academy2005calendar.pdf}, author = {Chudoba, Katherine M. and Mary Beth Watson-Manheim and Lee, Chei Sian and Kevin Crowston} } @conference {2004, title = {Effective work practices for software engineering}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2004 ACM workshop on Interdisciplinary software engineering research (WISER {\textquoteright}04)}, year = {2004}, pages = {18}, publisher = {ACM Press}, organization = {ACM Press}, address = {Newport Beach, CA, USA}, abstract = {We review the literature on Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) development and on software development, distributed work and teams more generally to develop a theoretical model to explain the performance of FLOSS teams. The proposed model is based on Hackman{\textquoteright}s [34] model of effectiveness of work teams, with coordination theory [52] and collective mind [79] to extend Hackman{\textquoteright}s model by elaborating team practices relevant to effectiveness in software development. We propose a set of propositions to guide further research.}, keywords = {FLOSS}, isbn = {1581139888}, doi = {10.1145/1029997.1030003}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/p18-crowston.pdf}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Annabi, Hala and James Howison and Masango, Chengetai} } @proceedings {Roussinov:2001a, title = {Genre based navigation on the Web}, year = {2001}, publisher = {IEEE}, address = {Maui, HI, January}, abstract = {We report on our ongoing study of using the genre of Web pages to facilitate information exploration. By genre, we mean socially recognized regularities of form and purpose in documents (e.g., a letter, a memo, a research paper). Our study had three phases. First, through a user study, we identified genres which most/least frequently meet searchers{\textquoteright} information needs. We found that certain genres are better suited for certain types of needs. We identified five (5) major groups of document genres that might be used in an interactive search tool that would allow genrebased navigation. We tried to balance the following dual objectives: 1) each group should be recognizable by a computer algorithm as easily as possible 2) each group has a better chance of satisfying particular types of information needs. Finally, we developed a novel user interface for a web searching that allows genre-based navigation through three major functionalities: 1) limiting search to specified genres 2) visualizing the hierarchy of genres discovered in the search results and 3) accepting user feedback on the relevancy of the specified genres.}, isbn = {0-7695-0981-9 }, doi = {10.1109/HICSS.2001.926478}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/09814013.pdf}, author = {Roussinov, Dmitri and Kevin Crowston and Nilan, Michael and Kwa{\'s}nik, Barbara H. and Xiaozhong Liu and Cai, J.} } @article {Malone:1999, title = {Tools for inventing organizations: Toward a handbook of organizational processes}, journal = {Management Science}, volume = {45}, number = {3}, year = {1999}, note = {Reprinted in Malone, T. W., Crowston, K. \& Herman, G. (Eds.) Organizing Business Knowledge: The MIT Process Handbook. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003. Reprinted in Malone, T. W., Laubacher, R. \& Scott Morton, M. S. (Eds.). Inventing the Organizations of the 21st Century. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.}, pages = {425{\textendash}443}, abstract = {This paper describes a novel theoretical and empirical approach to tasks such as business process redesign and knowledge management. The project involves collecting examples of how different organizations perform similar processes, and organizing these examples in an on-line "process handbook." The handbook is intended to help people: (1) redesign existing organizational processes, (2) invent new organizational processes (especially ones that take advantage of information technology), and (3) share ideas about organizational practices. A key element of the work is an approach to analyzing processes at various levels of abstraction, thus capturing both the details of specific processes as well as the "deep structure" of their similarities. This approach uses ideas from computer science about inheritance and from coordination theory about managing dependencies. A primary advantage of the approach is that it allows people to explicitly represent the similarities (and differences) among related processes and to easily find or generate sensible alternatives for how a given process could be performed. In addition to describing this new approach, the work reported here demonstrates the basic technical feasibility of these ideas and gives one example of their use in a field study.}, keywords = {Coordination, Handbook, Process}, doi = {10.1287/mnsc.45.3.425}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/ms99.pdf}, author = {Malone, Thomas W. and Kevin Crowston and Lee, Jintae and Pentland, Brian and Dellarocas, Chrysanthos and Wyner, George and Quimby, John and Osborn, Charley and Bernstein, Avi and Herman, George and Klein, Mark and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Elissa} } @proceedings {Chen:1997, title = {Comparative diffusion of the telephone and the world wide web: An analysis of rates of adoption}, year = {1997}, pages = {110{\textendash}115}, publisher = {Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education}, address = {Toronto, Canada}, abstract = {This paper investigates the diffusion process of the World Wide Web technology by means of a comparison with telephone diffusion at the end of the nineteenth century. The Web technology has diffused at exponentially around the world. In contrast, the telephone technology, a similar innovation of interactive communication technology imbued with typical uncertainty and impedance, took several decades to diffuse. This paper diagnoses the fundamental differences between these two innovations by analyzing their innovation perceived attributes, such as relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability, and attempts to explain the determinants of their rates of adoption.}, keywords = {Computer-Mediated Communication}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/webnet97.html}, author = {Chen, H. and Kevin Crowston}, editor = {Lobodzinski, Suave and Tomek, Ivan} } @conference {1994, title = {Using a Process Handbook to design organizational processes}, booktitle = {Computational Organization Design: 1994 AAAI Spring Symposium }, year = {1994}, note = {Technical Report SS-94-07}, pages = {55-56}, publisher = {AAAI Press}, organization = {AAAI Press}, keywords = {Handbook, Process}, isbn = {9780929280806}, author = {Dellarocas, C and Lee, Jintae and Malone, Thomas W. and Kevin Crowston and Pentland, Brian}, editor = {Hulthage, Ingemar} } @proceedings {Mackay:1989, title = {How do experienced Information Lens users use rules?}, year = {1989}, note = {Proceedings Reprinted as ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, Volume 20, Issue SI.}, pages = {211{\textendash}216}, address = {Austin, TX}, abstract = {The Information Lens provides electronic mail users with the ability to write rules that automatically sort, select, and filter their messages. This paper describes preliminary results from an eighteen-month investigation of the use of this system at a corporate test site. We report the experiences of 13 voluntary users who have each had at least three months experience with the most recent version of the system. We found that: 1. People without significant computer experience are able to create and use rules effectively. 2. Useful rules can be created based on the fields present in all messages (e.g., searching for distribution lists or one{\textquoteright}s own name in the address fields or for character strings in the subject field), even without any special message templates. 3. People use rules both to prioritize messages before reading them and to sort messages into folders for storage after reading them. 4. People use delete rules primarily to filter out messages from low-priority distribution lists, not to delete personal messages to themselves.}, keywords = {Computer-Mediated Communication}, doi = {10.1145/67449.67491}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/sigchi89.pdf}, author = {Mackay, Wendy E. and Malone, Thomas W. and Kevin Crowston and Rao, Ramana and Rosenblitt, David and Card, Stuart K.}, editor = {Bice, Ken and Lewis, Clayton} } @article {Crowston:1987, title = {Cognitive science and organizational design: A case study of computer conferencing}, journal = {Human Computer Interaction}, volume = {3}, year = {1987}, note = {Originally appeared in Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW '86) (pp. 43{\textendash}61). Austin, TX: ACM, 1986. Reprinted in I. Grief (Ed.) Computer-supported cooperative work: A book of readings (pp. 713{\textendash}740). San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, 1988.}, pages = {59{\textendash}85}, abstract = {Many researchers have investigated and speculated about the link between information technology and organizational structure with very mixed results. This paper suggests that part of the reason for these mixed results is the coarseness of previous analyses of both technology and structure The paper describes a new and much more detailed perspective for investigating this link. Using concepts of object-oriented programming from artificial intelligence, the information processing that occurs in organizations is characterized in terms of the kinds of messages people exchange and the ways they process those messages The utility of this approach is demonstrated through the analysis of a case in which a reduction in levels of management is coupled with the introduction of a computer conferencing system The detailed model developed for this case helps explain both macro-level data about the changes in the organizational structure, and micro-level data about individuals{\textquoteright} use of the svstem.}, keywords = {Organizational Modelling}, doi = {10.1207/s15327051hci0301_4 }, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/cognitivescience00crow.pdf}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Malone, Thomas W. and Lin, Felix} } @proceedings {1986, title = {Cognitive science and organizational design}, year = {1986}, pages = {43-61}, publisher = {ACM Press}, address = {Austin, Texas}, abstract = {Many researchers have investigated and speculated about the link between information technology and organizational structure with very mixed results. This paper suggests that part of the reason for these mixed results is the coarseness of previous analyses of both technology and structure. The paper describes a new and much more detailed perspective for investigating this link. Using concepts of object-oriented programming from artificial intelligence, the information processing that occurs in organizations is characterized in terms of the kinds of messages people exchange and the ways they process those messages. The utility of this approach is demonstrated through the analysis of a case in which a reduction in levels of management is coupled with the introduction of a computer conferencing system. The detailed model developed for this case helps explain both macro-level data about thd changes in the organizational structure, and micro-level data about individuals{\textquoteright} use of the system.}, keywords = {Organizational Modelling}, isbn = {1234567890}, doi = {10.1145/637069.637076}, attachments = {https://crowston.syr.edu./sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/p43-crowston.pdf}, author = {Kevin Crowston and Malone, Thomas W. and Lin, Felix} }