Papers by Diane Spencer-Scarr
Proceedings from the Document Academy, May 27, 2019
Social Science Research Network, 2009
The term ‘Web 2.0’ emerged in 2004 simply as a marketing phrase for a conference to discuss post ... more The term ‘Web 2.0’ emerged in 2004 simply as a marketing phrase for a conference to discuss post dotcom trends in the Internet. It became popular with the media to label something new that was as yet undefined. The term is mostly used in association with social applications it is however more complex. The term properly embraces emerging social trends of collaboration effecting social structures. This essay provides a historical outline of Web 2.0, how it is perceived by the media and academia. It looks at the deeper meanings such as the change in power interaction between participants and the contradictions in open information systems. This leads to evaluating its impact on society and role as an emerging social order. This essay is an open ended discussion on what has been, and muses over what possibly could be, considering the journey of Web 2.0 since July 2004.
Proceedings from the Document Academy, 2016
This paper examines digital-technology as a tool and an environment with the individuals’ persona... more This paper examines digital-technology as a tool and an environment with the individuals’ personality at the intersection of the two: Its impact on social memory and the unbound document. With the ubiquitous embedding of digital networked technology in society and the emergence of the unbounded document, humans increasingly obtain information by grasping snippets of decontextualized text sourced through non-human entities from globally dispersed databases that have stripped out context. Then in a Kafkian way humans’ have to build from the middle to make sense of the information snippets. The paper explores how the inherent nature of the individual can be amplified or diminished by the technology and concludes that only through awareness of the digital-engagement process individuals can hope to resist or appropriate technology to their advantage. It highlights that custodians and gatekeepers of the unbounded document carry a far greater burden, as their awareness has to extend to soc...
The ‘Fifth Estate’ is a direct result of the digital networked environment and practitioners in t... more The ‘Fifth Estate’ is a direct result of the digital networked environment and practitioners in the ‘Fifth Estate’ are now compelled to operate within a duality of environments (digital and physical) whether they understand the duality or not. This paper examines digital-engagement, the complex relationship between humans and digital networked technology, a relationship that can be explained as a second order cybernetic system. I propose that the source of issues rising from digital-engagement is humans’ understanding of their relationship to technology and its effect on their internal physiology, which alters behaviours and thus society. This research found that digital-engagement involves communication-feedback-loops, which is in essence a cybernetic system and that self-awareness is a significant part of digital-engagement making second-order cybernetics more appropriate for developing an understanding of the engagement process because it accommodates both observation and partici...
Some individuals actively appropriate and resist the impact of digital network technology while o... more Some individuals actively appropriate and resist the impact of digital network technology while others passively accept. Understanding this complex process of human-technology engagement provides insights to its effect: amplifying or diminishing human behavior. Correlations between personality, decision-making style and engagement have been identified from in-depth interviews and self-reporting surveys, revealing two major groups; 'engaged-but-unaware' and 'engaged-and-aware'. The distinction was established by utilizing an ecological approach to 'digital networks' as a tool where the human-tool as a synthesized unit is evaluated within its environment. Engagement was found to involve a suite of behaviors 1) intensity and embededness, 2) responsiveness to feedback, 3) decision-management and 4) motivators. When taken together they form a conceptual model explaining why some individuals resist and appropriate digital network technology to their advantage while...
The emergence of a growing long tail has added complexity to organisational leadership. Trends af... more The emergence of a growing long tail has added complexity to organisational leadership. Trends affecting the individual come from social, economic and technological sources and affect leadership behaviours and this in turn affects society. In order to understand this interconnection, lower level influences and how they affect the higher-level visible signs are discussed. These lead to influences on behaviour. Influences which are felt as intensity and embededness of engagement, decision-management, feedback ability and motivators. This chapter begins with a discussion of causes for this phenomenon and concludes with ways to work with the long tail, either from within as a member, or externally as a leader. The chapter ends with a brief comment on future research based on findings discussed in this chapter.
Advances in Business Information Systems and Analytics
The increased weighting of digital natives in a fattening long tail has added complexity to organ... more The increased weighting of digital natives in a fattening long tail has added complexity to organizational leadership, particularly during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Trends affecting the individual come from social, economic, and technological sources and affect leadership behaviors, and this in turn affects society. In order to understand this interconnection, lower-level influences and how they affect the higher-level visible signs are discussed. These lead to influences on behavior. Influences are felt as intensity and embeddedness of engagement, decision-management, feedback ability, and motivators. This chapter begins with a discussion of causes for this phenomenon and concludes with ways to work with the long tail, either from within as a member or externally as a leader. The chapter ends with a brief comment on future research based on findings discussed in this chapter.
ijt.cgpublisher.com
Educators, supervisors and mentors strive for the 'eureka moment', the moment when some... more Educators, supervisors and mentors strive for the 'eureka moment', the moment when someone,“gets it”. As we move more of our lives into online interaction and collaboration, there has never been a more important time to 'get it'than now. Teamwork between humans has provided an advantage to groups and societies which profoundly affect their levels of achievement. Online collaboration opens avenues for people to leverage themselves. Those who fall behind will be disadvantaged. The theme of this paper is assisting the 'eureka ...
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Papers by Diane Spencer-Scarr