- Robin Williams is Professor of Social Research on Technology at The University of Edinburgh, where he is Director of ... moreRobin Williams is Professor of Social Research on Technology at The University of Edinburgh, where he is Director of the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation (ISSTI).
Since his recruitment to Edinburgh in 1986 to lead its Centre under the ESRC Programme on Information and Communications Technologies, he has developed an interdisciplinary research programme into 'the social shaping of technology' through over 50 externally funded projects. His personal research has focused upon the design and use of Enterprise Systems, eCommerce and eHealth, and more recently mobile and web 2.0 technologies. He is developing with co-authors, the Biography of Artefacts perspective to address the design and implementation of information infrastructures.
Recent books include Social Learning in Technological Innovation: Experimenting with Information and Communication Technologies, (Edward Elgar: 2005) with James Stewart and Roger Slack and Software and Organisations: The Biography of the Enterprise-Wide System - Or how SAP Conquered the World (Routledge: 2009) with Neil Pollock and How Industry Analysts Shape the Digital Future (Oxford University Press: 2016) with Neil Pollock.edit
Research Interests:
We live in an age where the number and range of specialist fields of knowledge is burgeoning, and where ‘experts’ from these fields are called on to solve problems and advise in ever more areas of social and economic life. Time and again,... more
We live in an age where the number and range of specialist fields of knowledge is burgeoning, and where ‘experts’ from these fields are called on to solve problems and advise in ever more areas of social and economic life. Time and again, however, our reliance on experts and expertise creates dilemmas which strike at the root of modern society — from the practice of democracy and political change to how companies decide on, and implement strategies for, economic growth. Accordingly, the subject of expertise is becoming a recognized ‘issue’ in a range of scholarly disciplines: not least, science and technology studies, including technology assessment and science and technology policy; gender studies, especially feminist critiques of science and medicine; organizational sociology and behaviour; management, especially strategic management, technology management, and human resource management; and in the various disciplines associated with the development of expert systems and artificial intelligence.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This book reports on the first round of empirical findings from a European study of Social Learning in Multimedia (SLIM).2 The SLIM project seeks to understand the prospects and social significance of the range
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This paper addresses the formation of standards in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce. The contrast between the developing of generic standards and sector specific standards is considered and the argument that users will commit to... more
This paper addresses the formation of standards in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce. The contrast between the developing of generic standards and sector specific standards is considered and the argument that users will commit to developing sectoral standards while IT vendors will direct their resources to generic standards is restated. Specifically, the emergence of the OASIS committee developing a Universal Business Language is considered. The claim that the OASIS process is open and that all interested ...
Research Interests:
The development of the Internet during the last decade has been one of the fastest trends in the business world. In less than ten years, Internet technologies have become a global phenomenon, and have pervaded all organisations regardless... more
The development of the Internet during the last decade has been one of the fastest trends in the business world. In less than ten years, Internet technologies have become a global phenomenon, and have pervaded all organisations regardless of their national and industrial context. At the core of this phenomenon is the development of open Internet based standards that hold out the promise of allowing diverse computers and information systems of different organisations to exchange information more or less seamlessly1. To overcome ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Abstract This paper investigates the increasing trend within organisations and instirdtions of adopting pre-buiit, standardised management and administrative computer systems. The particular focus is on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)... more
Abstract This paper investigates the increasing trend within organisations and instirdtions of adopting pre-buiit, standardised management and administrative computer systems. The particular focus is on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in the context of higher ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
PROSIT 2008 Workshop Organization Workshop Co-organizers Kai Jakobs, RWTH Aachen University, Germany Robin Williams, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland Technical Program Committee Knut Blind, FhG ISI & TU Berlin, Germany Yves Chauvel,... more
PROSIT 2008 Workshop Organization Workshop Co-organizers Kai Jakobs, RWTH Aachen University, Germany Robin Williams, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland Technical Program Committee Knut Blind, FhG ISI & TU Berlin, Germany Yves Chauvel, ETSI, France Tineke Egyedi, TU Delft, The Netherlands Vladislav Fomin, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania Ole Hanseth, University of Oslo, Norway Eric Iversen, NIFU STEP, Norway Ken Krechmer, ICSR, USA Kalle Lyytinen, Case Western Reserve University, USA Roy Rada, University of ...
Research Interests:
This paper addresses the seemingly implausible project of moving the technical support of complex organisational technologies online. We say 'implausible'because from the point of view of micro-sociological approaches the... more
This paper addresses the seemingly implausible project of moving the technical support of complex organisational technologies online. We say 'implausible'because from the point of view of micro-sociological approaches the diagnosis and resolution of technical failures are an intrinsically local affair: problems are seen to be 'context specific'; and their resolution requires support staff to have knowledge of, and close interactions with, the setting where the failure has occurred. However, at the same time, we find IT vendors ...
Disciplines confer many advantages, not least by placing boundaries around bodies of knowledge which facilitates efficient teaching and provides guidance about adequate concepts and methodologies. Quality can often be more readily tested... more
Disciplines confer many advantages, not least by placing boundaries around bodies of knowledge which facilitates efficient teaching and provides guidance about adequate concepts and methodologies. Quality can often be more readily tested against disciplinary criteria. Set against this, there is increasing recognition of the advantages of interdisciplinary approaches. The world of policy and practice transcends disciplinary divides; tackling research challenges which address complex problems necessitates a change to ...
This paper investigates the relation between knowledge and environmental innovations. We start with an exploration of the concept of environmental innovation and knowledge drawing insights from recent work from a technology studies... more
This paper investigates the relation between knowledge and environmental innovations. We start with an exploration of the concept of environmental innovation and knowledge drawing insights from recent work from a technology studies perspective, followed by a discussion of knowledge sources for different types of environmental innovations. Next we look at how knowledge is deployed inside firms as well as across inter-organisational networks. Finally we examine the contributions of public sector research to environmental innovations and ...
· Voluntary standardization bodies regularly issue calls for increased user participation in their work groups. This paper challenges such calls. It suggests that users are not normally in a position to provide meaningful requirements for... more
· Voluntary standardization bodies regularly issue calls for increased user participation in their work groups. This paper challenges such calls. It suggests that users are not normally in a position to provide meaningful requirements for a new IT service from the outset because of a lack of necessary experience. Second, the paper argues that such an unconditional'call for users,'even if it were answered, would probably be counterproductive, in that a simple increase of the number of users on the committees would not necessarily ...
Research Interests:
This paper investigates the development and implementation of a generic off-the-shelf computer package and the competing pressures for standardization and differentiation as this package is made to fit new organizational settings. The... more
This paper investigates the development and implementation of a generic off-the-shelf computer package and the competing pressures for standardization and differentiation as this package is made to fit new organizational settings. The particular focus is on an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and its application within universities. In order for the ERP system to fit this setting a new module called ‘Campus’ is being developed. We followed the module as the current 'generic user’ embodied in the software was translated to a more ‘specific user’ (a number of universities piloting the module) and back once again to a generic form of university user (the potential ‘global university marketplace’). We develop the notion that these systems have a ‘biography’, which helps us to analyse the evolution of software along its life cycle and provides insights into the different dynamics at play as Campus is translated for use in a number of institutions and countries. The study dr...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
We report on our experiences in a participatory design project to develop ICTs in a hospital ward working with deliberate self-harm patients. This project involves the creation and constant re-creation of sociotechnical ensembles in which... more
We report on our experiences in a participatory design project to develop ICTs in a hospital ward working with deliberate self-harm patients. This project involves the creation and constant re-creation of sociotechnical ensembles in which XML-related technologies may come to play vital roles. The importance of these technologies arises from the aim underlying the project of creating systems that are shaped in locally meaningful ways but reach beyond their immediate context to gain wider importance. We argue that XML is well placed to play the role of "glue" that binds multiple such systems together. We analyse the implications of localised systems development for technology supply and argue that inscriptions that are evident in XML-related standards are and will be very important for the uptake of XML technologies.
We report on our experiences in a participatory design project to develop ICTs in a hospital ward working with deliberate self-harm patients. This project involves the creation and constant re-creation of sociotechnical ensembles in which... more
We report on our experiences in a participatory design project to develop ICTs in a hospital ward working with deliberate self-harm patients. This project involves the creation and constant re-creation of sociotechnical ensembles in which XML-related technologies may come to play vital roles. The importance of these technologies arises from the aim underlying the project of creating systems that are shaped in locally meaningful ways but reach beyond their immediate context to gain wider importance. We argue that XML is well placed to play the role of "glue" that binds multiple such systems together. We analyse the implications of localised systems development for technology supply and argue that inscriptions that are evident in XML-related standards are and will be very important for the uptake of XML technologies.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This paper explores the way that increasing engagement in international standardisation processes has enabled Chinese firms to become global players in mobile telecommunications technologies and China to become a major influence in the ...
Research Interests: Business, Engineering, Computer Science, Innovation Policy, China, and 15 moreMobile Communication, Information and Communication technology, Applied Economics, Mobile telephony, Business and Management, Sceince Technology Policy and Management of Innovation, Mobile telecommunication, Innovation process, Next Generation, Large Scale, Social Shaping of Technology, G, Code Division Multiple Access, Science and Technology Studies, and Innovation
An academic directory and search engine.
Research Interests:
Disciplines confer many advantages, not least by placing boundaries around bodies of knowledge which facilitates efficient teaching and provides guidance about adequate concepts and methodologies. Quality can often be more readily tested... more
Disciplines confer many advantages, not least by placing boundaries around bodies of knowledge which facilitates efficient teaching and provides guidance about adequate concepts and methodologies. Quality can often be more readily tested against disciplinary criteria. Set against this, there is increasing recognition of the advantages of interdisciplinary approaches.
The business of technological expectations has yet to be explored thoroughly by scholars interested in the role of expectations and visions in the emergence of technological innovations. However, intermediaries specializing in the... more
The business of technological expectations has yet to be explored thoroughly by scholars interested in the role of expectations and visions in the emergence of technological innovations. However, intermediaries specializing in the production, commodification and selling of future-oriented knowledge have emerged to exert new kinds of influence on the shaping of technology and innovation. We focus on the work of those specialist forms of consultants known as ‘industry analysts’ and consider them as promissory organizations to capture how they are successful in mobilizing and indeed increasingly organizing expectations within procurement and innovation markets. Our aim is to highlight the important role these actors play in shaping technologies and, in so doing, to show how they typically exhibit complex and highly uneven forms of influence. The paper is organized around a central question: Why are certain kinds of promissory behaviour more influential than others? To answer this, we d...
Research Interests:
In this UK study, we investigated the impact of computerised physician order entry (CPOE) and clinical decision support (CDS) implementation on the rate of 78 high-risk prescribing errors amenable to CDS. We conducted a... more
In this UK study, we investigated the impact of computerised physician order entry (CPOE) and clinical decision support (CDS) implementation on the rate of 78 high-risk prescribing errors amenable to CDS. We conducted a preintervention/postintervention study in three acute hospitals in England. A predefined list of prescribing errors was incorporated into an audit tool. At each site, approximately 4000 prescriptions were reviewed both pre-CPOE and 6 months post-CPOE implementation. The number of opportunities for error and the number of errors that occurred were collated. Error rates were then calculated and compared between periods, as well as by the level of CDS. The prescriptions of 1244 patients were audited pre-CPOE and 1178 post-CPOE implementation. A total of 28 526 prescriptions were reviewed, with 21 138 opportunities for error identified based on 78 defined errors. Across the three sites, for those prescriptions where opportunities for error were identified, the error rate...
Research Interests:
Hospital electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) systems offer a wide range of patient safety benefits. Like other hospital health information technology interventions, however, they may also introduce new areas of risk. Despite recent... more
Hospital electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) systems offer a wide range of patient safety benefits. Like other hospital health information technology interventions, however, they may also introduce new areas of risk. Despite recent advances in identifying these risks, the development and use of ePrescribing systems is still leading to numerous unintended consequences, which may undermine improvement and threaten patient safety. These negative consequences need to be analysed in the design, implementation and use of these systems. We therefore aimed to understand the roots of these reported threats and identify candidate avoidance/mitigation strategies. We analysed a longitudinal, qualitative study of the implementation and adoption of ePrescribing systems in six English hospitals, each being conceptualised as a case study. Data included semistructured interviews, observations of implementation meetings and system use, and a collection of relevant documents. We analysed data first ...