*Note: Submission Deadline for first version of papers: September 8, 2008
Guest editors:
Amir Naghsh, Dr., Faculty of Art, Computing, Engineering and Science, Sheffield Hallam University, England. a.naghsh@shu.ac.uk
Karin Danielsson, PhD-student , Department of Informatics, Umea University, Sweden. kdson@informatik.umu.se
Dorina Gumm, Researcher, effective webwork GmbH / Department of Informatics, University of Hamburg, Germany. gumm@effective-webwork.de
Representative of the editorial board of SJIS:
Prof Matti Rossi, Helsinki School of Economics, matti.rossi@hse.fi
Theme
This Special Issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems invites submissions addressing the challenges and opportunities of conducting Participatory Design (PD) in distributed projects, here referred to as This Special Issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems invites submissions addressing the challenges and opportunities of conducting Participatory Design (PD) in distributed projects, namely Distributed PD.
One of the most important contributions of Scandinavian researchers to Information Systems is PD, also known as Collaborative Collective Design. For a considerable amount of time the importance and usefulness of the approach has been illustrated during the design of computer systems for work (cf. Bjerknes, Ehn and Kyng, 1987; Greenbaum & Kyng, 1991; Schuler and Namioka, 1993; Kyng, 1998; Bødker, Kensing and Simonsen, 2004). The approach focuses on the relationship between designers and users, as well as the involvement of users in the design process itself. PD approaches aim at decreasing the physical and professional distance of users and designers, so that designers can participate in the users' world and users can directly participate in design activities (Muller et al. 1993). Similar notions of user involvement can be found in user-centered design, ethnography and contextual design (Kujala 2003). Within PD, focus groups and workshops are commonly used, where designers and users meet and jointly work with prototypes, mock-ups and/or scenarios. These meetings provide the opportunity to engage in hands on activities, resolving conflicts and specifying design issues (Kensing, 2003).
Originally, PD was developed with a focus on co-located design activities, where the users and designers meet face-to-face in order to establish some common ground. As such, PD becomes challenging in projects that involve a large number of users and stakeholders, who may be distributed across space, time and organizational structures.
Some research in the field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) has considered how to support such distributed projects. Although little research in the CSCW community has explicitly focused on PD, the two communities could benefit from each other (Kensing and Blomberg, 1998). For example, researchers in the area of CSCW have studied how to effectively facilitate communication and knowledge sharing. However, the focus here lies on the software for collaborative work rather than supporting participatory design approaches across spatial, temporal and organizational distances. Moreover, PD does not necessarily argue for, or include, computers in order to support group work during design (Bannon, 1993). In addition to this, the area of distributed software development (DSD) provides research on communication and coordination in (globally) distributed software development (e.g. Heeks et al. 2001; Bhat et al. 2006; ز Conchْir et al. 2006; O'Leary et al. 2007). Yet, such research lacks consideration of participation between stakeholders. Today, the number of complex web-based information systems is increasing, which brings new challenges. For example, a possible breakdown of division of labor between new types of distributed specialists entering the design process (Bødker & Carstensen, 2004).
PD is undeniably challenged PD is undeniable challenged by distributed project settings, although PD has already been applied in distributed projects (cf. presented work at the workshops on DPD at NordiCHI 2006 and at CHI 2008, or Farshchian & Divitini, 1999). This Special Issue recognizes and promotes the relevance of PD in distributed project settings. The objective of the Special Issue is to unify the successes and failures of processes, methods and tools used to facilitate PD in distributed settings.
Recommended topics for papers to be included in this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:
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Tools to enable direct user participation.
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Methods and processes to enable direct user participation.
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Methods, processes, tools to study Distributed PD.
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Evaluation of distributed PD processes and methods.
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Evaluation of PD approaches for distributed contexts.
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Methodological considerations for studying Distributed PD.
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Theoretical research on Distributed PD.
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Case studies of Distributed PD.
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Distributed PD in different application domains.
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The submissions should follow the guidelines of the general-level SJIS submissions: http://www.e-sjis.org/authors/submission.htm and be submitted to matti.rossi@hse.fi
Address that your submission is targeted to the special issue.
Time-table for the Special Issue
First version of papers submitted: September 8, 2008
First version reviewed: November 10th 2008
Second version of paper submitted: January 25th 2009
Second version reviewed: March 25th 2009
Final, polished articles submitted: April 30th 2009
Special Issue published: June 2009
References:
Bannon, L. (1993) CSCW: An initial exploration, in Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 5, pp. 3-24.
Bhat, J. M., Gupta, M. and Murthy, S. N. (2006), Overcoming requirements engineering challenges: Lessons learned from offshore outsourcing, IEEE Software Special Issue on GSD Vol. 23, No. 5, pp. 38-44.
Bjerknes, G., Ehn, P. and Kyng, M. (Eds.) (1987) Computers and Democracy: A Scandinavian Challenge, Gower Press, Brookfield, VT.
Bødker, K. and Carstensen, P. (2004) Special Issue Editorial: Development and Use of Web-based Information Systems, in Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 16, pp. 3-10.
Bødker K., Kensing, F. and Simonsen, J, (2004) Participatory IT Design: Designing for Business and Workplace Realities, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Farshchian, B. A. and Divitini, M. (1999) Using Email and WWW in a Distributed Participatory Design Project, ACM SIGGROUP Bulletin, Vol. 20, Issue 1 (April 1999), pp. 10-15.
Greenbaum J. and Kyng, M. (Eds.) (1991) Design at Work, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Heeks, R., Krishna, S., Nicholson, B., and Sahay, S. (2001), Synching or sinking: Global software outsourcing relationships, IEEE Software - IEEE Software Special Issue on GSD Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 54-60.
Kensing, F. (2003) Methods and Practices in Participatory Design, ITU Press, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Kensing, F. and Blomberg, J. (1998) Participatory Design; Issues and Concerns, In Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Vol. 7, pp. 167-184.
Kujala, S. (2003), User involvement: a review of the benefits and challenges, Behaviour and Information Technology Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 1-16.
Kyng, M. (1998), Users and computers: A contextual approach to design of computer artifacts, in Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 10, No. 1&2, pp. 7-44.
Muller, M. J., Wildman, D. M. and White, E. A. (1993), Taxonomy of PD practices: A brief practitioner's guide, Communications of the ACM Vol. 36, No. 6, pp. 26-27.
ز Conchْir, E., Holmstّm, H., إgerfalk, P. and Fitzgerald, B. (2006), Exploring the assumed benefits of global software development, in Proceedings of the ICGSE Internaltional Conference on Global Software Engineering, IEEE, pp. 159-68.
O'Leary, M. B. and Cummings, J. N. (2007), The spatial, temporal, and configurational characteristics of geographic dispersion in teams, MIS Quarterly pp. 433-452.
Schuler, D. and Namioka, A. (Eds.) (1993) Participatory Design. Principles and Practices, Lawrence Erlbaum.
