|
The Institutionalization
of NSDL:
Multi-Institutional IT Systems in Evaluative Research
PI: Juan D. Rogers
This project addresses the question of the
process of institutionalization of NSDL that has already begun even as the
system has been online for a few years. It will provide an account of this
process showing how the main contextual factors, such as the cultures and
priorities of the participating organizations, interact with the technical
development of the NSDL to create a new institutional reality with its
technological underpinnings.
The project will
contribute to evaluative research that is needed to provide a framework to
assess the NSDL during its formative period. It will do so by characterizing a
type of socio-technical system of increasing importance: large information
technology initiatives that bridge organizational boundaries created in the
context of government programs in a multi-agency, multi-institutional effort.
The special focus of this study is on the process of institutionalization as it
relates to the co-evolution of technology and social structures. It will
highlight both the impact of technology on institutional shape and the
formulation of organizational and institutional priorities, goals and style
into technical specifications and implementation. The special features of this
type of socio-technical evolution are the central interest of this research.
The assessment question of evaluative research will then have to do with
contrasting the practices and expectations of program evaluation with the
dynamics created by initiatives that implement these large-scale IT systems.
The program is the main catalyst for the institutional process, however, the
latter's scope transcends program boundaries and the overall shape of an
institutionalized system cannot be anticipated or stated amongst the program's
goals.
This project uses
a comparative case study research strategy. The case of the Internet during the
process of consolidation toward a global information infrastructure will be
used as a comparison. The assumption is that the Internet is a clear
illustration of the type of process outlined above. The evolution of computer
communication protocols and applications plus the institutionalization of a new
communication environment or “cyberspace” reflect an emergent socio-technical
reality that must be assessed on its own terms. Taking the usual approach of
adding the adoption by users to an autonomous set of technical features does
not account for the absorption of institutional dynamics into the evolution of
the technical systems themselves.
The central research question in this project has to
do with determining the nature of the institutionalization dynamic of NSDL. In
other words, what is the particular set of priorities, goals, and styles of the
participants that is shaping the overall institutional landscape of the
comprehensive IT system? Secondly, how are they reflected in the technical
formulation of the problem of a NSDL and what sorts of boundary spanning
patterns of use and interaction is it generating? On the basis of an answer to
this question, we will pose the evaluation research question as it pertains to
a type of initiative that leads to multi-institutional IT systems. What values
are being realized in this process and what are the means available to projects
and programs in attaining them? The Internet, for example, has been evaluated
both as a technical innovation, equating it with a device and as a special sort
of knowledge creating community. The project is an attempt to fill the void
left by the fact that there is no agreed upon evaluation framework for these
entities coupled with the importance of these emergent institutional
environments. |
