Past Seminars

E-Governments and Governing in the Digital Age

Online Seminar

Tuesday 24th November 2020

3.00 – 5.00pm (GMT)

Governments and international organizations have increasingly been adopting digital technologies in the provision of public services in the last decades. The opportunities provided by digital innovations have hugely impacted the way the public sector has been transformed. E-government has been increasingly studied as a way to reach goals of efficiency, production and participation. Despite these improvements, governments seem to be struggling to make sense of the opportunities and challenges provided by digital technologies; they have been blamed for poor governance practices, discarding stakeholder concerns, and failing to consider the social implications of relying on digital technologies. 

With public sectors worldwide likely to be more than ever dependent on technology, there is a need for a nuanced account of how digital technologies impact on the provision of public services, and on the economic, political and social consequences that can result from this. 

In this workshop, we would like to reflect on e-government and governing in the digital age. Topics for discussion include: 

· E-government and the opportunities of digital technologies and platforms for public sectors 

· The potential social implications of implementing digital technologies and the role of policymakers 

· Accountability in the digital age: how to deal with risk, trust, participation and the production of value 

Chairperson: Dr Wendy Günther 

Speakers 

Dr Beth Kewell – Exeter Business School (INDEX): “UKRI Funding for Blockchain Research: Directions of Travel (Both Real and Imagined)” 

Dr Francesco Gualdi – London School of Economics: “Law, technology and policies: a complex negotiation to generate value”. 

Prof Rony Medaglia – Copenhagen Business School: “AI adoption in the public sector: opportunities and challenges”The World Turned Upside Down … The future of digital innovation research post COVID-19

Thursday 25th June 2020

Watch this seminar on YouTube

1:00pm (BST – UK Summer time) until 5:30 pm (includes a 1hr break from around 2:30-3:30)

To register via eventbrite click here!

Venue: Zoom

In 2020 the world turned upside down: one particular consequence has been the most marked shift to digital forms of social interaction we are likely to see in our lifetimes. We would like to hold a workshop to explore how research in Information Systems and related fields might (and perhaps should) change in response, by bringing together a range of information systems researchers to engage in reflection and futurology.

Dr Will Venters
Chairperson:
Dr Will Venters – LSE

We will not dwell on COVID, choosing to focus instead on imagining what sort of changes may ensue – and speculating on how these are likely to affect our disciplines. The workshop will be informed by futures research (Chiasson, Davidson et al. 2018) and consist of short presentations on imagined changes, followed by structured discussion and debate.

.

Speakers

Prof. Michael BarrettJudge Business School

Why IS Practice Essential for Digital Innovation Research

Prof. François-Xavier de Vaujany – Université Paris Dauphine-PSL 

The Birth of Digitality: Computing for a World in Crisis in the 40s

Dr Mareike Möhlmann – Warwick Business School

App-based surveillance – Lessons from the algorithmic management of Uber drivers

Prof. Mark Thompson – University of Exeter Business School

Public services during COVID:  the curious case of a ‘digital’ council

Dr Edgar Whitley – London School of Economics

Managing digital identities online: Public, private and interoperable?

Prof. Mike Chaisson – The University of British Columbia

On recalling the future in information systems research

Dr Wendy Günther – INDEX

Wendy will act as rapporteur and provide a summary at the end of the event.

Topics for discussion include

  1. Methodological innovations.
  2. Changes to Privacy and Identity.
  3. Digital infrastructure and the emerging role of the state .
  4. Changes in Information Systems development practices.
  5. Digital nomadism and emerging organisational forms.
  6. Globalised supply chains and outsourcing.
  7. Practices, processes and performances.
  8. Materiality in a dematerialising world.

For administrative Questions please contact f.white@lse.ac.uk

Chiasson, M., Davidson, E., and Winter, J. 2018. “Philosophical Foundations for Informing the Future(S) through Is Research,” European Journal of Information Systems (27:3), pp. 367-379.

Image: (Ambubu (cc)) of The World Turned Upside Down, a 2019 sculpture by Mark Wallinger.

  • Innovation in the interface economy – APIs, business value and ecosystems

    Watch the Seminar on YouTube

    Thursday 27th May 2021

    3.00-5.00pm (BST)

    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) arguably sit at the heart of innovating in this digital era. They allow the integration of cloud services, enable containerised applications (e.g. via Docker) to operate in new ways within Cloud environments, allow developers of all levels to innovate new services quickly and at low cost, and enable new business models such as product platforms and service ecosystems. For example, the explosion of AI technologies is, to a significant degree, enabled by APIs connecting cloud-based Machine Learning ‘Lego’ bricks to create ever new services at the point of need. In this way APIs are underpinning ‘combinatorial innovation’ (Yoo, Boland et al. 2012) of the modern cloud-based world.

    Our third DIIESL seminar will bring together insights from academics working on Interfaces, APIs, modularity, and innovation.

    Chairperson:

    Dr Will Venters, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Dr Will Venters is an Assistant Professor in Information Systems and Digital Innovation within the Department of Management at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). His research interests include Cloud Computing, Digital Platforms, and Agile innovation approaches. He has a first-class degree in computer science and a PhD in information systems. His research work has been published in major refereed journals including MIS Quarterly, Journal of Information Technology, the Journal of Management Studies, and the Information Systems Journal. He speaks regularly at practitioner conferences on various digital business issues, particularly around Digital Ecosystems, Digital Innovation and Cloud Computing; has briefed European government policy makers and various company executives; and undertakes wide ranging consultancy in IT strategy and Digital transformation. He co-authored the Palgrave book “Moving to the Cloud Corporation” and is the author of a blog on digital technology www.binaryblurring.com and is an associate editor of the Journal Information Technology and People. www.willventers.com

    Introduction from IRIS, our sponsor

    Professor David Pym, University College London

    Director of IRIS (Interface Reasoning for Interacting Systems), the project funding DIIESL, David will introduce the project’s broad-ranging research into interfacing.

    Biography:

    David Pym is a logician, mathematician, and computer scientist. His research is mainly in logic, where he works in pure logic and on developing logic-based methods as a mathematical modelling technology for reasoning about systems, security, and behaviour (see, for example, the EPSRC-funded project IRIS).

    He also works in information security, with a focus on individual, organizational, and societal security behaviours. He is Editor-in-Chief of OUP’s Journal of Cybersecurity.

    Speakers:

    Professor Nigel Patrick Melville, University of Michigan

    Generating Business Value from Machine Interfaces: Models of Efficiency, Focus, & Transformation

    Machine interfaces enable cost savings, revenue enhancement, and new business models, exemplified by such born-digital companies as Amazon and Salesforce. Firms outside the tech sector are also leveraging machine interfaces to generate business value, but little is known about how this is accomplished. To address this gap in knowledge, we collected primary data from a large educational services provider, a distribution organization, and a healthcare system. Analysis reveals three models of business value enabled by machine interfaces: efficiency, focused, & transformed. Each model requires a different combination of people, process, and technology investment, and offers a unique value proposition. We provide recommendations for management as they consider how best to leverage significant business value opportunities of machine interfaces within their own organizational and competitive contexts.

    Biography

    Nigel Patrick Melville is an award-winning scholar, educator, and consultant. He has published more than 45 peer-reviewed journal and conference articles examining the organizational and ecological implications of digital systems, which have been cited more than 7500 times. Before entering academia, Nigel worked in new product development and R&D with Motorola and co-founded a customer relationship management software company. His academic background includes electrical and computer engineering, information systems, and business management. Link to Homepage

    Dr Roser Pujadas, London School of Economics

    The role of interfaces in fostering digital ecosystems: A study of the online travel service ecosystem Pujadas, R., Valderrama, E., Venters, W. (under review)

    Interfaces play a key role in structuring relationships in innovation ecosystems. They facilitate, through the definition of standards, the integration of complementary innovation and coordinate the contribution of distributed, self-interested actors. As such, they have been shown to hold strategic value for platforms to orchestrate complementary innovation. Contributing to this structural understanding of digital ecosystems, our research develops a conceptualization of interfaces as diverse, active, and sometimes contested, participants in a dynamic ecosystem, in which complex and changing relations for value creation develop over time. Through this alternative perspective we show how interfaces are implicated in the establishment of multilateral interdependencies among actors in digital business ecosystems. Crucially, digital interfaces, not only involve the definition of standards, but allow for the on-time circulation and repurposing of data. We show how actors leverage data assets of other firms for the creation of new, interdependent, services through a range of active practices of interfacing. We evidence these contributions through a longitudinal study of the online travel ecosystem. Our empirical research explores the role of interfaces and the dynamics of interfacing in fostering the ecosystem. We show that new hubs, intermediaries, and peripheral actors emerged over time offering new services in an unfolding process of ecosystem growth. 

    Biography

    Dr Roser Pujadas is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Information Systems at the London School of Economics (LSE). She is broadly interested in the study of digital infrastructures, and the social and organisational implications of digital innovation. She is currently undertaking research on the role of digital interfaces in the constitution of complex distributed systems, as part of the EPSRC-funded project Interface Reasoning for Interacting Systems (IRIS). Roser is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), and has many years of teaching experience in various institutions. She been a course leader, lecturer and seminar teacher of BSc and MSc courses in the Department of Management at the LSE, where she has worked as an LSE Fellow and as a GTA.

    Professor Hans Berends, KIN Center for Digital Innovation, VU

    Innovation ecosystems and systems of use: the role of intermediary platforms and users in creating complementary value

    Biography

    Hans Berends (1972) is Professor of Innovation and Organization at the Knowledge, Information and Innovation Research Group, School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is an organization scientist with a background in philosophy and industrial engineering, and received a PhD from Eindhoven University of Technology for a dissertation on knowledge sharing in industrial research. His work has been published in leading journals including Organization Science, Organization Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Human Relations, and Journal of Product Innovation Management.

  • E-Governments and Governing in the Digital Age

    Online Seminar – to register your attendance please click here

    Tuesday 24th November 2020

    3.00 – 5.00pm (GMT)

    Governments and international organizations have increasingly been adopting digital technologies in the provision of public services in the last decades. The opportunities provided by digital innovations have hugely impacted the way the public sector has been transformed. E-government has been increasingly studied as a way to reach goals of efficiency, production and participation. Despite these improvements, governments seem to be struggling to make sense of the opportunities and challenges provided by digital technologies; they have been blamed for poor governance practices, discarding stakeholder concerns, and failing to consider the social implications of relying on digital technologies. 

    With public sectors worldwide likely to be more than ever dependent on technology, there is a need for a nuanced account of how digital technologies impact on the provision of public services, and on the economic, political and social consequences that can result from this. 

    In this workshop, we would like to reflect on e-government and governing in the digital age. Topics for discussion include: 

    · E-government and the opportunities of digital technologies and platforms for public sectors 

    · The potential social implications of implementing digital technologies and the role of policymakers 

    · Accountability in the digital age: how to deal with risk, trust, participation and the production of value 

    Chairperson: Dr Wendy Günther 

    Speakers 

    Dr Beth Kewell – Exeter Business School (INDEX): “UKRI Funding for Blockchain Research: Directions of Travel (Both Real and Imagined)” 

    Dr Francesco Gualdi – London School of Economics: “Law, technology and policies: a complex negotiation to generate value”. 

    Prof Rony Medaglia – Copenhagen Business School: “AI adoption in the public sector: opportunities and challenges”

  • The World Turned Upside Down … The future of digital innovation research post COVID-19

    Thursday 25th June 2020

    Watch this seminar on YouTube

    1:00pm (BST – UK Summer time) until 5:30 pm (includes a 1hr break from around 2:30-3:30)

    To register via eventbrite click here!

    Venue: Zoom

    In 2020 the world turned upside down: one particular consequence has been the most marked shift to digital forms of social interaction we are likely to see in our lifetimes. We would like to hold a workshop to explore how research in Information Systems and related fields might (and perhaps should) change in response, by bringing together a range of information systems researchers to engage in reflection and futurology.

    Dr Will Venters
    Chairperson:
    Dr Will Venters – LSE

    We will not dwell on COVID, choosing to focus instead on imagining what sort of changes may ensue – and speculating on how these are likely to affect our disciplines. The workshop will be informed by futures research (Chiasson, Davidson et al. 2018) and consist of short presentations on imagined changes, followed by structured discussion and debate.

    .

    .

    .

    Speakers

    Prof. Michael BarrettJudge Business School

    Why IS Practice Essential for Digital Innovation Research

    Prof. François-Xavier de Vaujany – Université Paris Dauphine-PSL 

    The Birth of Digitality: Computing for a World in Crisis in the 40s

    Dr Mareike Möhlmann – Warwick Business School

    App-based surveillance – Lessons from the algorithmic management of Uber drivers

    Prof. Mark Thompson – University of Exeter Business School

    Public services during COVID:  the curious case of a ‘digital’ council

    Dr Edgar Whitley – London School of Economics

    Managing digital identities online: Public, private and interoperable?

    Prof. Mike Chaisson – The University of British Columbia

    On recalling the future in information systems research

    Dr Wendy Günther – INDEX

    Wendy will act as rapporteur and provide a summary at the end of the event.

    Topics for discussion include

    1. Methodological innovations.
    2. Changes to Privacy and Identity.
    3. Digital infrastructure and the emerging role of the state .
    4. Changes in Information Systems development practices.
    5. Digital nomadism and emerging organisational forms.
    6. Globalised supply chains and outsourcing.
    7. Practices, processes and performances.
    8. Materiality in a dematerialising world.

    For administrative Questions please contact f.white@lse.ac.uk

    Chiasson, M., Davidson, E., and Winter, J. 2018. “Philosophical Foundations for Informing the Future(S) through Is Research,” European Journal of Information Systems (27:3), pp. 367-379.

    Image: (Ambubu (cc)) of The World Turned Upside Down, a 2019 sculpture by Mark Wallinger.

  • The perils of technology implementation: politics, resistance, and breakdowns

    Thursday 19 March, 2 – 4pm

    • Will Venters and Mark Thompson talk about customer relationships management and politics and technology buy-in.

    London School of Economics (Room: 32.L. G.24)
    To attend please email: f.white@lse.ac.uk

    Will Venters presents:

    The  breakdown of process in Customer Relationships Management Infrastructure: Examining coupling between customer and advisor

    Most large telecommunications companies with millions of customers have developed highly complex customer relationship infrastructures (centred around customer relationship management software) to manage their customer interaction. Such infrastructures have been built to efficiently process vast numbers of transactional encounters. Yet with any complex infrastructure of this scale problems are bound to occur, which are often disproportionate in their cost and effect on the reputation of the business. Understanding such breakdown is therefore important.  This talk will use a case study of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) breakdown which unfolded over 100 days to explore how processes are coupled within complex CRM infrastructure. Extending our understanding of coupling, and of infrastructure breakdown, the talk aims to contribute understanding on the customer and advisors’ role within CRM infrastructure, and to provide practical lessons for those developing such infrastructure.

    Dr Will Venters is an Assistant Professor in Information Systems and Digital Innovation within the Department of Management at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). His research interests include Cloud Computing, Digital Platforms, and Agile innovation approaches. He has a first-class degree in computer science and a PhD in information systems. His research work has been published in major refereed journals including MIS Quarterly, Journal of Information Technology, the Journal of Management Studies, and the Information Systems Journal. He speaks regularly at practitioner conferences on various digital business issues, particularly around Digital Ecosystems, Digital Innovation and Cloud Computing; has briefed European government policy makers and various company executives; and undertakes wide ranging consultancy in IT strategy and Digital transformation. He co-authored the Palgrave book “Moving to the Cloud Corporation” and is the author of a blog on digital technology www.binaryblurring.com and is an associate editor of the Journal Information Technology and People. www.willventers.com

    Mark Thompson presents:

    Affective Politics and Technology Buy-In: A Framework of Social, Political and Fantasmatic Logics

    We propose a socially-informed explanation of technology framing, by examining technology ‘buy-in’: actors’ relative susceptibility to such framing. We draw on the field of critical social theory to introduce the ‘Logics’, a new framework to the IS discipline, that reveals a performative relationship between collective framing, power, and affect. The Logics enable us to study buy-in, by revealing the differing degrees of affective self-identification that underpin and colour social practices, showing their inherently political nature. We exemplify the affective, as well as social, politics of buy-in with an account of Unity 3D, a market-leading game engine which underwent a major repositioning from ‘fringe’ to ‘mainstream’ markets. We discuss four poles of affective positioning with which to conceptualize technology buy-in. We conclude by highlighting the consequent need for greater political and ethical awareness about the framing of IS, proposing a framework for conceptualizing actors’ orientations towards, and thus possible buy-in, or resistance, to technology framing.

    Mark is Professor in the DIgital Economy at the London-based Initiative for the Digital Economy, Exeter (INDEX). Mark is acknowledged in the public domain as one of the architects of Digital service redesign within the UK public sector. He chairs several of the large annual conferences on Digital, including the National Digital Conference, Digital Leaders Conference, and is a recognised thought leader on digital matters for Computer Weekly and other publications. Blending the roles of academic, practitioner, and policy commentator, Mark is also 40% shareholder and Strategy Director at the £110m Methods Group, specialising in the application of cloud-based and emerging technologies to the public sector, where he has led three successful start-ups, including a data science business.
    Mark has published peer-reviewed articles in a broad range of academic journals including Information and Organization, Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Government Information Quarterly, Public Administration, Human Relations, Journal of International Development, Journal of the Association of Information Systems, etc., and has been a reviewer for a broad range of journals. Mark’s co-authored book, Digitizing Government, appeared in December 2014, and Manifesto for Better Public Services launched at the Institute for Government in April 2018. He tweets at @markthompson1.
     Mark delivers executive education on digital to a broad range of audiences.  These have included Indian, UK, Canadian, Italian, Malaysian, and Israeli Governments, Roche, Pfizer, global banks, insurance companies, and Chinese conglomerates, to name a few; he developed and is currently delivering Amazon Web Services (AWS)’ flagship Global Government Education Programme. More broadly, he has designed and delivered a range of courses on information systems, technology, and digital at PhD, MBA, Masters, and Undergraduate level.

  • Scaling in the Digital Age: Moving Beyond Isolated Approaches

    Held on February 13, 2020, 3 – 5 pm

    • Stavros Polykarpou and Dave Chatterjee talked about 3D printing in healthcare and cyber-warfare.

    Stavros Polykarpou presented the work: The Role of Place in Organizing the Emerging Technology of 3D Printing in a Hospital 

    This paper examines how the role of place shapes the way emerging technologies scale across hospital organizations. Through a five year ethnographic field study, which focuses on how 3D printing was being organized to scale across a major UK National Health Service (NHS) hospital, we extend theory on how places shape the organizing of emerging technologies. Informed by a practice lens and a process research approach, we develop a model that theorizes the constitutive role of place in terms of its resources, materiality and location meaning, which taken together, explain how and why 3D printing failed to scale up in three different situated places. Moreover, we unpack place dynamics, which entail processes of place bending, place extending and place framing to theorize the role of place in scaling an emerging technology. We conclude by discussing the implications for the organizing of emerging technologies and how place is integral in shaping the process of scaling. 

    Dave Chatterjee presented the work: High-Performance Security Culture is Essential in Cyber Warfare 

    To effectively prepare and respond to the ever increasing and evolving cyberattacks, organizations must not only have a comprehensive plan but also execute with great precision and consistency. There is little room for errors or mistakes. The battle has to be fought at all levels – technological, process, and people – and with the help of all organizational members and business partners. For everyone to be on board and playing their respective parts requires among other things a security mindset, high loyalty towards the employing organization, a deep sense of responsibility towards all stakeholders, and commitment to leaving no stone unturned. The United States Nuclear Navy Program’s culture is used as an exemplar to highlight and empirically examine the key elements of a high-performance security culture. 

    A multi-method approach of literature review, focus groups, and expert interviews is used to examine the validity of high-performance cultural traits of commitment, preparedness, and discipline, from the standpoint of inspiring appropriate cybersecurity practices. To ensure a rich and diverse perspective, information security experts from technology user and technology provider firms were interviewed. Industries ranging from healthcare and public health to supply-chain management, higher education, security and information management solutions and financial technology (fintech) were in the surveyed sample. Qualitative analyses techniques were used to validate the relevancy of the three high performance cultural traits by identifying cybersecurity success factors and practices that reflect those traits.

  • New Patterns Driven by Digital Innovation

    Held on October 24, 2019, 3 – 5 pm

    • Beth Kewell and Roser Pujadas talked about Data-as-Money and strategizing within digital ecosystems.

    Beth Kewell presented the work: Can I Pay with Me? The Rise of Data-as-Money Payment Options and their Implications for Sociology 

    The importance of acquiring a good level of monetary literacy has been underlined consistently within the Sociology of Money and Sociology of Finance literatures, particularly in relation to the management of household incomes, wages, debt, and savings. The links between literacy and economic well-being have also been issues of past concern among analysts of the ‘digital divide.’ 

    New patterns of exchange are emerging within the economy as a deliberate challenge to the institutions and ontological precepts of money. Such challenges seem arguably destined to unsettle established patterns of digital literacy. Cryptocurrencies are primarily viewed as the main source of provocation for these changes. A little-known facet of this disruption involves the use of personal data as a substitute for money. The likely implications of ‘me payments’ were extemporised in and by a 2017 art exhibition that provided visitors with the option to pay for souvenirs and artworks using their personal data. 

    The paper explores the challenge this development raises for Sociologists, with a view to specifically identifying its implications for the ontology of money. The paper subsequently argues that if extended beyond the simulation stage, the ‘me-payment’ phenomena will open-up a fresh ‘digital literacy divide’ between consumers who acquire the skills to use their personal data as a form of payment and those who may be potentially disadvantaged by this change in the currency and mediation of transactions. 

    Roser Pujadas presented the work: Strategizing within digital ecosystems: Achieving situational awareness through mapping

    Digital innovation has resulted in a progressive dis-integration of monolithic IT systems and increased permeability of organisational boundaries, with system components spread across digital ecosystems. In this context, strategic decisions regarding selection, integration, and decommissioning of IT resources for value creation can become extremely complex. In this paper we present the little-explored construct of situational awareness, which we argue is of growing relevance for strategic decision-making in the context of distributed service ecosystems. We investigate the potential utility of this construct via a mapping artefact, the Wardley Map, which is said to enhance situational awareness within, and across, value chains, and we offer an empirical study of its use for strategizing. The map appears to enable practitioners to make sense of the open-ended digital ecosystem by developing an awareness of their own situated positioning vis-a-vis the positioning of other components, enabling better-informed decision-making. We then exemplify how mapping is done in practice, and make suggestions for further research into both the construct and the mapping device.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.