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James Stewart

University of Edinburgh, Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation, Faculty Member

European Commission Joint Research Centre, Prospective Technological Studies, Faculty Member

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Work on innovation, information society, internet studies, mobile internet, design, space, web2.0, locative media, users and representations of users, digital inclusion, interdisciplinarity, science and technology studies, social shaping, media, policy, social networks, social networking, consumption, domestication, social learning, telecommunications
Address: STIS Old Surgeons Hall, Edinburgh

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University of Edinburgh

Liverpool John Moores University

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Dimitrios Panagiotakopoulos

University of West Attica / Πανεπιστήμιο Δυτικής Αττικής

Rainer Wasinger

Zwickau University of Applied Sciences

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Teaching Documents by James Stewart

Internet and Society

Papers by James Stewart

ACM SIGGRAPH 2007 posters

Spellbinder is a new interactive digital medium based on camera phones and image matching. Using ... more Spellbinder is a new interactive digital medium based on camera phones and image matching. Using Spellbinder, digital content can be embedded in the real world by taking a photograph of an object or place. The digital content can be released by another user by taking another photograph of the same location. Spellbinder does not require special markers or barcodes to be placed in the world. Unlike tracking technologies such as global positioning systems, the focus is on what specifically is being looked at rather than where the user is. The Branded Tribes research project is exploring uses of this technology for social interaction in city spaces using an approach of research by design. Graphics of real world brandscapes are used as placeholders for virtual computer graphics.We report innovative outcomes from the first phase of this research.

Social Collective Intelligence

A series of authored and edited monographs that utilize quantitative and computational methods to... more A series of authored and edited monographs that utilize quantitative and computational methods to model, analyze, and interpret large-scale social phenomena. Titles within the series contain methods and practices that test and develop theories of complex social processes through bottom-up modeling of social interactions. Of particular interest is the study of the co-evolution of modern communication technology and social behavior and norms, in connection with emerging issues such as trust, risk, security, and privacy in novel socio-technical environments. Computational Social Sciences is explicitly transdisciplinary: quantitative methods from fields such as dynamical systems, artificial intelligence, network theory, agent-based modeling, and statistical mechanics are invoked and combined with state-of-the-art mining and analysis of large data sets to help us understand social agents, their interactions on and offline, and the effect of these interactions at the macro level. Topics include, but are not limited to social networks and media, dynamics of opinions, cultures and conflicts, socio-technical co-evolution, and social psychology. Computational Social Sciences will also publish monographs and selected edited contributions from specialized conferences and workshops specifically aimed at communicating new findings to a large transdisciplinary audience. A fundamental goal of the series is to provide a single forum within which commonalities and differences in the workings of this field may be discerned, hence leading to deeper insight and understanding.

Changing technology and the payment system

Current Issues in Economics and Finance, 2000

From 3G to 4G: standards and the development of mobile broadband in China

Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 2011

This paper explores the way that increasing engagement in international standardisation processes... more

The Coevolution of Society and Multimedia Technology

Social Science Computer Review, 1998

Multimedia technology is becoming ubiquitous in modem society, and it is having profound effects ... more Multimedia technology is becoming ubiquitous in modem society, and it is having profound effects on institutions and expectations. The technology is very fluid, and development is shaped by a great many social factors. Prediction of the coevolution of multimedia technology and society needs to be informed by a research framework that focuses attention on the key social, psychological, political, and economic influences on technology and technology use as well as on the emergence of stable uses, infrastructures, standards, and development paths. This article criticizes "technologically deterministic" approaches, which simply seek to extrapolate social change from technological potential. It shows how a three-layer model of component, system, and application technologies can be used to integrate findings from the use and development of technology in specific sectors. Three cases of technology-based predictions are examined from education, retailing, and work organization, an...

Adoption and use of Web 2.0 in scholarly communications

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 2010

Sharing research resources of different kinds, in new ways, and on an increasing scale, is a cent... more Sharing research resources of different kinds, in new ways, and on an increasing scale, is a central element of the unfolding e-Research vision. Web 2.0 is seen as providing the technical platform to enable these new forms of scholarly communications. We report findings from a study of the use of Web 2.0 services by UK researchers and their use in novel forms of scholarly communication. We document the contours of adoption, the barriers and enablers, and the dynamics of innovation in Web services and scholarly practices. We conclude by considering the steps that different stakeholders might take to encourage greater experimentation and uptake.

The role of academic publishers in shaping the development of Web 2.0 services for scholarly communication

New Media & Society, 2012

This paper examines how two contrasting academic publishers are responding to the opportunities a... more This paper examines how two contrasting academic publishers are responding to the opportunities and challenges of Web 2.0 to innovate their services. Our findings highlight the need to take seriously the role of publishers in the move towards a vision of more rapid and open scholarly communication and to understand the factors that shape their role as intermediaries in the innovation pathways that may be needed to achieve it.

Intermediaries, Users and Social Learning in Technological Innovation

International Journal of Innovation Management, 2008

This paper explores the role of intermediaries in the development and appropriation of new techno... more This paper explores the role of intermediaries in the development and appropriation of new technologies. We focus on intermediaries that facilitate user innovation, and the linking of user innovation into supply side activities. We review findings on intermediaries in some of our studies and other available literature to build a framework to explore of how intermediaries work in making innovation happen. We make sense of these processes by taking a long-term view of the dynamics of technology and market development using the social learning in technological innovation (SLTI) framework. Our primary concern is with innovation intermediaries and their core roles of configuring, facilitating and brokering technologies, uses and relationships in uncertain and emerging markets. We show the range of positions and influence they have along the supply-use axis in a number of different innovation contexts, and how they are able to bridge the user-developer innovation domains. Equipped with th...

The Memory Space–Exploring Future Uses of WEB2. 0 and Mobile Internet Though Design Interventions

Conference Proceedings, COST, 2009

New digital media offers use many opportunities to record, organise and review our activities, co... more New digital media offers use many opportunities to record, organise and review our activities, communications and thoughts. Much of this activity is conceived of in terms of 'real-time'communication, or abstract, disembodied information access. However, we propose that Web2. 0 and personal mobile media are having important implications for collective memory practices. We need to understand how this is happening, and how ICT can design to support memory practices within the context of particular of communities and localities. ...

From 3G to 4G : standards and the development of mobile broadband in China

by James Stewart and Ian Graham

This paper explores the way that increasing engagement in international standardisation processes... more This paper explores the way that increasing engagement in international standardisation processes has enabled Chinese ﬁrms to become global players in mobile telecommunications technologies and China to become a major inﬂuence in the international information and communications technology (ICT) standards arena. From a ‘social shaping of technology’ perspective it examines the development of the third generation (3G) TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access) mobile telephony standard (TD) and the path laid towards the next generation of mobile broadband standards and technologies. The paper highlights the complex interactions between a wide array of players involved, including national and foreign ﬁrms, and different sections and levels of the Chinese state. TD’s success was by no means predetermined. China eventually adopted a pragmatic approach implementing TD and the two established Western standards. This complex history and interplay between Chinese and foreign players calls into question the idea of national or indigenous technologies for large-scale infrastructures, and highlights the limitations of national strategies in globalised innovation processes.

Local Experts in the Domestication of Information and Communication Technologies

Research into the adoption and use of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) pays ... more Research into the adoption and use of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) pays increasing attention to social context; however, the social fabric of contexts of use is often poorly theorized. This paper presents an investigation into the formation and operation of informal local networks of collaboration and knowledge exchange. It highlights the role of local experts in sustaining these informal networks and helping individuals and groups adopt and cope with new ICTs. The paper draws on a range of analytic traditions, including domestication and consumer research, to assess how local experts transfer knowledge, ideas of use and even new technologies across social networks and across the boundaries between home, work and education and other domains of life. The methodology deployed attempts to overcome the limitations of many studies of the adoption and diffusion of innovations in sample selection, especially the inclusion of non-adopters. It addresses the social dynamics of engagement with new technologies and proposes a move beyond a simple individualistic adopter/non-adopter model, with consequent implications for understanding digital inclusion and exclusion.

Internet and Society

ACM SIGGRAPH 2007 posters

Spellbinder is a new interactive digital medium based on camera phones and image matching. Using ... more Spellbinder is a new interactive digital medium based on camera phones and image matching. Using Spellbinder, digital content can be embedded in the real world by taking a photograph of an object or place. The digital content can be released by another user by taking another photograph of the same location. Spellbinder does not require special markers or barcodes to be placed in the world. Unlike tracking technologies such as global positioning systems, the focus is on what specifically is being looked at rather than where the user is. The Branded Tribes research project is exploring uses of this technology for social interaction in city spaces using an approach of research by design. Graphics of real world brandscapes are used as placeholders for virtual computer graphics.We report innovative outcomes from the first phase of this research.

Social Collective Intelligence

A series of authored and edited monographs that utilize quantitative and computational methods to... more A series of authored and edited monographs that utilize quantitative and computational methods to model, analyze, and interpret large-scale social phenomena. Titles within the series contain methods and practices that test and develop theories of complex social processes through bottom-up modeling of social interactions. Of particular interest is the study of the co-evolution of modern communication technology and social behavior and norms, in connection with emerging issues such as trust, risk, security, and privacy in novel socio-technical environments. Computational Social Sciences is explicitly transdisciplinary: quantitative methods from fields such as dynamical systems, artificial intelligence, network theory, agent-based modeling, and statistical mechanics are invoked and combined with state-of-the-art mining and analysis of large data sets to help us understand social agents, their interactions on and offline, and the effect of these interactions at the macro level. Topics include, but are not limited to social networks and media, dynamics of opinions, cultures and conflicts, socio-technical co-evolution, and social psychology. Computational Social Sciences will also publish monographs and selected edited contributions from specialized conferences and workshops specifically aimed at communicating new findings to a large transdisciplinary audience. A fundamental goal of the series is to provide a single forum within which commonalities and differences in the workings of this field may be discerned, hence leading to deeper insight and understanding.

Changing technology and the payment system

Current Issues in Economics and Finance, 2000

From 3G to 4G: standards and the development of mobile broadband in China

Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 2011

This paper explores the way that increasing engagement in international standardisation processes... more

The Coevolution of Society and Multimedia Technology

Social Science Computer Review, 1998

Multimedia technology is becoming ubiquitous in modem society, and it is having profound effects ... more Multimedia technology is becoming ubiquitous in modem society, and it is having profound effects on institutions and expectations. The technology is very fluid, and development is shaped by a great many social factors. Prediction of the coevolution of multimedia technology and society needs to be informed by a research framework that focuses attention on the key social, psychological, political, and economic influences on technology and technology use as well as on the emergence of stable uses, infrastructures, standards, and development paths. This article criticizes "technologically deterministic" approaches, which simply seek to extrapolate social change from technological potential. It shows how a three-layer model of component, system, and application technologies can be used to integrate findings from the use and development of technology in specific sectors. Three cases of technology-based predictions are examined from education, retailing, and work organization, an...

Adoption and use of Web 2.0 in scholarly communications

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 2010

Sharing research resources of different kinds, in new ways, and on an increasing scale, is a cent... more Sharing research resources of different kinds, in new ways, and on an increasing scale, is a central element of the unfolding e-Research vision. Web 2.0 is seen as providing the technical platform to enable these new forms of scholarly communications. We report findings from a study of the use of Web 2.0 services by UK researchers and their use in novel forms of scholarly communication. We document the contours of adoption, the barriers and enablers, and the dynamics of innovation in Web services and scholarly practices. We conclude by considering the steps that different stakeholders might take to encourage greater experimentation and uptake.

The role of academic publishers in shaping the development of Web 2.0 services for scholarly communication

New Media & Society, 2012

This paper examines how two contrasting academic publishers are responding to the opportunities a... more This paper examines how two contrasting academic publishers are responding to the opportunities and challenges of Web 2.0 to innovate their services. Our findings highlight the need to take seriously the role of publishers in the move towards a vision of more rapid and open scholarly communication and to understand the factors that shape their role as intermediaries in the innovation pathways that may be needed to achieve it.

Intermediaries, Users and Social Learning in Technological Innovation

International Journal of Innovation Management, 2008

This paper explores the role of intermediaries in the development and appropriation of new techno... more This paper explores the role of intermediaries in the development and appropriation of new technologies. We focus on intermediaries that facilitate user innovation, and the linking of user innovation into supply side activities. We review findings on intermediaries in some of our studies and other available literature to build a framework to explore of how intermediaries work in making innovation happen. We make sense of these processes by taking a long-term view of the dynamics of technology and market development using the social learning in technological innovation (SLTI) framework. Our primary concern is with innovation intermediaries and their core roles of configuring, facilitating and brokering technologies, uses and relationships in uncertain and emerging markets. We show the range of positions and influence they have along the supply-use axis in a number of different innovation contexts, and how they are able to bridge the user-developer innovation domains. Equipped with th...

The Memory Space–Exploring Future Uses of WEB2. 0 and Mobile Internet Though Design Interventions

Conference Proceedings, COST, 2009

New digital media offers use many opportunities to record, organise and review our activities, co... more New digital media offers use many opportunities to record, organise and review our activities, communications and thoughts. Much of this activity is conceived of in terms of 'real-time'communication, or abstract, disembodied information access. However, we propose that Web2. 0 and personal mobile media are having important implications for collective memory practices. We need to understand how this is happening, and how ICT can design to support memory practices within the context of particular of communities and localities. ...

From 3G to 4G : standards and the development of mobile broadband in China

by James Stewart and Ian Graham

This paper explores the way that increasing engagement in international standardisation processes... more This paper explores the way that increasing engagement in international standardisation processes has enabled Chinese ﬁrms to become global players in mobile telecommunications technologies and China to become a major inﬂuence in the international information and communications technology (ICT) standards arena. From a ‘social shaping of technology’ perspective it examines the development of the third generation (3G) TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access) mobile telephony standard (TD) and the path laid towards the next generation of mobile broadband standards and technologies. The paper highlights the complex interactions between a wide array of players involved, including national and foreign ﬁrms, and different sections and levels of the Chinese state. TD’s success was by no means predetermined. China eventually adopted a pragmatic approach implementing TD and the two established Western standards. This complex history and interplay between Chinese and foreign players calls into question the idea of national or indigenous technologies for large-scale infrastructures, and highlights the limitations of national strategies in globalised innovation processes.

Local Experts in the Domestication of Information and Communication Technologies

Research into the adoption and use of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) pays ... more Research into the adoption and use of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) pays increasing attention to social context; however, the social fabric of contexts of use is often poorly theorized. This paper presents an investigation into the formation and operation of informal local networks of collaboration and knowledge exchange. It highlights the role of local experts in sustaining these informal networks and helping individuals and groups adopt and cope with new ICTs. The paper draws on a range of analytic traditions, including domestication and consumer research, to assess how local experts transfer knowledge, ideas of use and even new technologies across social networks and across the boundaries between home, work and education and other domains of life. The methodology deployed attempts to overcome the limitations of many studies of the adoption and diffusion of innovations in sample selection, especially the inclusion of non-adopters. It addresses the social dynamics of engagement with new technologies and proposes a move beyond a simple individualistic adopter/non-adopter model, with consequent implications for understanding digital inclusion and exclusion.