Date: Wednesday, January 31; 4:00p - 5:00p

Location: Seminar Rm, 301 College Ave

Note: 3:00 - 4:00p will be our social gathering with refreshments – in the Snap Lab at 301 College Ave.

Abstract:

In this talk I will focus on both understanding and theorizing on the uses and roles of information and communication technologies in supporting information-intensive work. To do so I will draw on nine years of study of computerization in the United States' residential real estate industry, a living laboratory for insight into possible future forms of information-intensive economic activity. The evidence shows that while the take-up and uses of computing are helping reshape the transacting of real estate (e.g., buyers have begun searching for possible homes via internet accessible databases), these changes do not diminish the social activities through which real estate is transacted. These social activities include helping to make sense of all the information now available, guiding buyers/sellers through the purchase/sales process, and resolving unexpected contingencies. Data show information and communication technologies are used in ways that reinforce and support the social conduct of economic activities and I theorize that computerization should be seen as both supporting access to, and gaining value from, the social ties of agents. For example, agents are valued for their ability to use their network of social ties to form the temporary web of participants involved in buying and selling a house. Seen this way, agent’s uses of information and communication technologies are more complex than simply providing alternative data conduits to replace human effort.

Bio:

Sawyer conducts research on social and organizational informatics: studying how people work together and how they use information and communication technologies. His most recent research programs include: Investigating how software development can be improved through attending to the social aspects of working together; studying how people adapt to working with large-scale information systems implementations; and understanding the changes to organizations (and organizational work) due to the increased distribution of computing. Corning, IBM, Sonoco, Xerox, the Lattanze Foundation, and the National Science Foundation have supported his research. Sawyer teaches information systems analysis and design, project management, and implementation; information-technology-enabled organizational change; social informatics; and field-based research methods. Prior to joining Penn State to help start their College of Information Sciences and Technology, Sawyer was a faculty member and Ph.D. program director in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University where he was named Professor of the Year in 1997.

[handout]  [schedule]

For more information, please contact Erica Wagner.

1-29-2007 Sarah