research-article

Officers Never Type: Examining the Persistence of Paper in e-Governance

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Priyank ChandraAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 1 - 13

https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376216

Published: 23 April 2020 Publication History

Abstract

The Global South has seen a proliferation of e-governance initiatives aimed at digitizing governmental service delivery. However, paper continues to remain the primary medium of bureaucracy. During ethnographic fieldwork at the CM Helpline, a state-wide e-governance initiative in central India, we observed that even tech-savvy bureaucrats who fully supported both the initiative and its paper-to-electronic transition ensured that paper continues to persist in abundance. Drawing upon scholarship from HCI, anthropology, and science & technology studies, we theorize this contradiction to uncover the circulations of power between people, paper, and electronic systems. We suggest that designers should recognize that new systems often disempower existing actors. The process of transition should integrate new systems into the existing ecosystem and plan for the graceful retirement of older technologies. In addition to machine errors, systems should be resilient to human errors. Finally, new systems should attend to sociocultural and historical specificities.

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Campos-Castillo CChesley NAsan O(2022)Professionals as Change Agents or Instruments of Reproduction? Medical Residents’ Reasoning for Not Sharing the Electronic Health Record Screen with PatientsFuture Internet10.3390/fi1412036714:12(367)Online publication date: 7-Dec-2022
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Index Terms

Officers Never Type: Examining the Persistence of Paper in e-Governance
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
    1. Collaborative and social computing design and evaluation methods
      1. Ethnographic studies
  2. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Empirical studies in HCI

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2020

10688 pages

ISBN:9781450367080

DOI:10.1145/3313831

General Chairs:
Regina Bernhaupt
Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
,
Florian 'Floyd' Mueller
Monash University, Australia
,
David Verweij
Newcastle University, UK
,
Josh Andres
RMIT, Australia
,
Program Chairs:
Joanna McGrenere
University of British Columbia, Canada
,
Andy Cockburn
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
,
Ignacio Avellino
University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA
,
Alix Goguey
Grenoble Alpes University, France
,
Pernille Bjørn
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
,
Shengdong (Shen) Zhao
National University of Singapore, Singapore
,
Briane Paul Samson
Future University Hakodate, Japan & De La Salle University, Philippines
,
Rafal Kocielnik
University of Washington, USA

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Published: 23 April 2020

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https://doi.org/10.3390/fi14120367
Ismail AYadav DGupta MDabas KSingh PKumar N(2022)Imagining Caring Futures for Frontline Health WorkProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35555816:CSCW2(1-30)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3555581
Rohanifar YSultana SHasan SChandra PAhmed S(2022)"Kabootar": Towards Informal, Trustworthy, and Community-Based FinTech for Marginalized ImmigrantsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35551096:CSCW2(1-32)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2022
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