What is Social Informatics and Why Does it Matter?
Center for Social Informatics
Contact info: mailto:kling@indiana.edu
http://www.slis.indiana.edu/kling
December 22, 1998
Version 4.8i
Published January 1999 in D-Lib Magazine
http://www.dlib.org:80/dlib/january99/kling/01kling.html[ Back to PUBLICATIONS page ]
1.0 INTRODUCTION
A serviceable working conception of ‘social informatics" is that it identifies a body of research that examines the social aspects of computerization. A more formal definition is "the interdisciplinary study of the design, uses and consequences of information technologies that takes into account their interaction with institutional and cultural contexts."
It is a field that is defined by its topic (and fundamental questions about it) rather than by a family of methods, much like urban studies or gerontology. Social informatics has been a subject of systematic analytical and critical research for the last 25 years. This body of research has developed theories and findings that are pertinent to understanding the design, development, operation of usable information systems, including intranets, electronic forums, digital libraries and electronic journals.
Unfortunately, social informatics studies are scattered in the journals of several different fields, including computer science, information systems, information science and some social sciences. Each of these fields uses somewhat different nomenclature. This diversity of communication outlets and specialized terminologies makes it hard for many non-specialists (and even specialists) to locate important studies. It was one impetus for coining a new term – social informatics – to help make these ideas accessible to non-specialists as well as to strengthen communication among specialists, and to strengthen the dialogs between communities of designers and social analysts.
This article discusses some key ideas from social informatics research and ends with a brief discussion of the character of the field today. Readers who wish to understand social informatics by learning about its origins and influences may wish to start in that later section and then return to the beginning for a more substantive focus. This article serves as a brief introduction to social informatics for IT professionals and researchers, and includes numerous references to help interested readers readily locate more comprehensive resources.
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