This article examines the creation and stabilization of early-stage boundary objects by voluntary teams spanning divergent professional and scientific fields. Cross-disciplinary collaborators can share similar goals, yet nonetheless face frictions from differences in professional expertise, practices, and technical systems. Yet if boundary objects help to span disciplinary divides, the same challenges are likely to hinder initial boundary object development. Comparative ethnography of three projects adapting Grid computing technology to fields of science highlights challenges for boundary object creation, including a “mind-set shift” before the technology could stabilize. Enriching our knowledge of boundary object beginnings, we find successful stabilization requires both appropriate localization and further resources, which enable the simultaneously global–local nature of boundary objects. This essential feature is understudied in management research. Developing the boundary object concept on its own terms enhances empirical and theoretical application, particularly when researchers prefer one main theory of objects, rather than a “pluralist” approach.

This paper examines the adaptation of innovations to suit new fields and user communities. We argue that this early-stage work to adapt a technology to a new context is essential for later diffusion, particularly with complex technological innovations—a topic less examined in marketing. Through the case of grid computing, a precursor to today’s Cloud computing, we examine the structure and process of this essential adaptation work for diffusion across boundaries, and the enabling role of government funding. Grid computing was adapted via cross-boundary collaborations by innovators and collaborators in other fields. Integrating the work of various actors and elements in the market systems tradition, we provide a process model of co-linking for cross-field adaptation and diffusion. This contributes new insight into the diffusion of complex technologies, with a focus on early non-buyer roles enhancing later diffusion across boundaries, and adaptation work occurring prior to traditional consumer adoption.

How can diverse organizational participants in emerging fields coalesce around a collective identity when they are embedded in different cultures, traditions, and institutional logics? Specifically, what factors can enhance the emergence of a collective identity within a nascent field and what issues can cause such an identity to break down? This paper examines these questions using the case of Grid computing, a field that developed the technological precursor of today’s disruptive Cloud Computing technology. Drawing on field work conducted at the Open Grid Forum – a major voluntary standards institution within the Grid field – as well as interviews, historical documents, and participation indicators, this paper suggests that fields composed of organizations that hold widely different perspectives use a form of flexible standards development that we call ‘dance patterns’ to coordinate the construction of a pluralistic collective identity. Moreover, this paper show this pluralistic identity can fragment in response to pressures originating from competing fields.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewTwo Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software. By Christopher M. Kelty. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2008. Pp. xvi+378. $84.95 (cloth); $23.95 (paper).Zack KertcherZack KertcherUniversity of Chicago Search for more articles by this author University of ChicagoPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmailPrint SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 115, Number 4January 2010 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/651977 Views: 26Total views on this site © 2010 by the University of Chicago Press. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected].PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

1 Introduction and objectives e-Infrastructure plays a pivotal role in the research landscape of today and fosters the creation of global virtual research communities. This study researches a variety of types of einfrastructure, their state of development and their role in supporting productive research in Europe and beyond.The field of e-Infrastructure is very heterogeneous. It ranges from the physical supply of research networks (a prominent example being the operating and development of the backbone as supplied by GEANT) to providing access to data for virtual research communities in single fields. e-Infrastructures include organisations and services as diverse as national and international multi-purpose grids, supercomputer infrastructure, data grids and repositories, tools for visualization, simulation, data management, storage, analysis and collection, tools for support with regard to methods or analysis as well as remote access to research instruments and very large research facilities.

By definition, e-Research is one of the largest and most diverse laboratories pursuing interdisciplinary knowledge integration. Using a qualitative analysis of a prototypical e-Research collaboration, this chapter presents a theoretical model of knowledge integration across professional cultures. This model, supported by the theory of epistemic cultures, highlights three types of "gaps": a collaborative gap results from cultural differences among innovators and entrepreneurial users, an entrepreneurial gap stemming from cognitive discrepancies between entrepreneurial users and mainstream adopters; and a systemic gap that is rooted in paradigmatic differences across fields of practice. Accommodating these gaps are three "bridges", individuals, organizations and technologies that connect the otherwise separate cultures and facilitate the transfer of knowledge. Implications of gaps and bridges to e-Research and recommendations to technology development are suggested.

In this paper, we present selected results of a systematic study of different types of e-Research infrastructures. The paper is based on ongoing research to compare a range of eInfrastructures of broad diversity focusing on: geographical diversity, representing efforts from around the globe; disciplinary diversity, including the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities; organizational diversity, for example, multi-institutional or federated; diverse levels of maturity, from those in the planning stage to those with a well-established user base; and diverse types of target user communities such as specialized niche, discipline-wide, or generic infrastructures. In presenting six initial cases, we discuss some general features that distinguish between different types of infrastructures across different fields of research. Previous analyses of e-Infrastructures have focused on the parallels between these infrastructures and the major infrastructures in society that support national populations. What our cases highlight instead is that e-Infrastructures consist of multiple types of overlapping and intersecting socio-technical configurations that serve quite diverse needs and groups of users. Indeed, the very term ‘infrastructures’ may be misleading insofar as it connotes support of whole communities of researchers on a large scale, which is currently still premature. The paper derives implications of this heterogeneity for the future outlook on e-Infrastructures.

This article reports results from a study of e-Infrastructure adoption in the social sciences and humanities (SSH). The authors find that bridging barriers between computer and domain scientists is of key importance. In particular, SSH communities have to be accepted as being distinct and not suited to a ‘‘one size fits all’’ strategy of e-Infrastructure diffusion. Sustainability was also a core issue, whereas barriers to resource sharing could mostly be resolved with technological solutions, and skills and training activities are a reflection of the general ‘‘user dilemma.’’ The authors’ recommendations to European Union (EU) policy makers point the way to promoting e-Infrastructure development and wider application in the SSH.

Understanding how technologies become disruptive has served as a source of conceptual inspiration to students of technological innovation. In this paper, I broaden the scope of these formulations by proposing to focus on what I refer to as the frontier, as opposed to the boundary of innovation, and by examining solutions in search of problems instead of the more common alternative. Based on unique interview, archival and secondary data on the early development and adoption of Grid computing, I elaborate the process of frontier generation, as well as the related institutional consequences. This analysis casts doubt on a number of core hypotheses in the innovation literature, including the notion of institutional lock-in and the mechanisms commonly cited for innovation diffusion. Implications for studies of technology innovation and institutional theory are considered.

This paper presents the first results of a survey and case study analysis of early adopters of e-Infrastructure across the world, focusing on continental Europe, the UK and the USA. Information was gathered on a number of possible influences on the adoption and level of usage of e-Infrastructure in the social sciences and humanities, and comparisons are made by region. We find that the most important influences affecting whether and where e- Infrastructure is adopted in these disciplines is the availability of the necessary qualified staff and of the required funding are the most important influences on whether and where e-Infrastructure. There are indications that adoption could be accelerated were the most eminent scientists from the social sciences and humanities to more widely promote the benefits to research of e-Infrastructure adoption to their colleagues in the discipline. Last but not least, we see different types of projects in continental Europe, the UK and the US.

My dissertation study examines the social mechanism s that shape the paths of an open technological field. The primary focus is on internal and external transformations. I tudy internal changes to the technology as it is adopted by diverse institutional actors—across different scien tific communities and national boundaries, and from acade mic to the business sector. External transformations ar e examined by analyzing the relationship between developments in related technological domains with path setting of the studied field. Grid computing—a larg ely open technological field, key to the Cyberinfrastructure and eScience paradigm and to some of the largest scient ific collaborations to date—is used as a case study. Mul tiple methods including participant observations, intervi ws, content analysis and examination of a dynamic participation network over time, are used to invest igate the impact of different levels of socio-technical dynam ics on the studied technology.

ABSTRACT The Internet is often regarded as a challenge to the nation-state's ability to regulate flows of finance, information, and symbols. Rather than examining whether it is possible to enforce regulation on such a media, this paper addresses two additional fundamental questions: (1) what do regulatory discourses and attempts to regulate reveal about the nation-state's political authority under globalization, and (2) how does this authority vary across social, political, and cultural contexts? In order to address these challenging queries we follow a unique path, both empirically and theoretically. Theoretically, we argue that political authority is a pivotal common denominator that undergirds diverse understandings of globalization. We then critically examine different conceptions of political authority and construct a typology that orients our study. Empirically, we follow our typology by comparing two historical phenomena: attempts by the Catholic Church to regulate the printing press during the 15th and 16th centuries, and attempts by China, Malaysia and the United States to regulate the Internet. Despite certain important commonalities, we posit that each of these cases illustrates a different model of the legitimization processes and transformations in political authority that occur under globalization. I. INTRODUCTION: THE INTERNET AND POLITICAL AUTHORITY 3 II. CONCEPTUALISING POLITICAL AUTHORITY 8 A. PERFORMANCE-BASED LEGITIMACY AND THE CHANGING ROLE OF 12 THE STATE B. CONSTRUCTED LEGITIMACY AND UNIFYING MYTHS 13 C. LEGAL-FORMAL LEGITIMACY 14 III. THE PRINTING PRESS 15 A. THE INVENTION OF THE PRINTING PRESS 16 B. CENTRAL AUTHORITIES' POLICIES TOWARDS THE PRINTING PRESS 17 IV. INTERNET REGULATION 20 A. CHINA 21 B. MALAYSIA 24 C. THE UNITED STATES 26 V. CONCLUSION 28 I. INTRODUCTION: THE INTERNET AND POLITICAL AUTHORITY The globalization debate crosses disciplinary boundaries and transcends academic circles. Participants in this debate typically share a mutual interest in the scope of globalization, its effects, and the expected outcomes. But different disciplines emphasize their specific perspective in this debate. Economists, for example, would most likely highlight questions of economy and finance, while anthropologists are more likely to view globalization from the standpoint of culture and identity. Consequently, the terminologies employed in the study of globalization often differ. Furthermore, the definition of globalization, and its interpretation by students of globalization, varies. The differences can be considerable. (2) Despite greatly divergent conceptions of the studied phenomenon, some underlying common denominators can be found. Central to these are questions related to a nation-state's sovereignty, and more specifically, its capacity to regulate social, economic, and political activity within its defined territory. The relevance of sovereignty in this debate is evident considering that sovereignty is perceived as a chief marker of the modern territorial nationstate and the system of nation-states. (3) Therefore, an analysis of this debate would also include examination of the different views and their validity in relation to the sovereignty yardstick. The most widely accepted view of sovereignty generally perceives it as a given condition of the post-Westphalian political arrangements, constituting territorial states that enjoy an exclusive authority inwardly and outwardly. …