Generification as a strategy: How software producers configure products, manage user communities and segment markets

Neil Pollock, Robin Williams, Luciana D’Adderio

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract / Description of output

This chapter draws from the dissatisfaction with the ways in which the design of information technology applications been conceptualised in early science and technology studies (STS) writings and in related work from what people might call 'socially-oriented computer science'. The critical accounts of 'technocratic' approaches had emphasised the shortcomings of the traditional engineering viewpoint underpinning established systems design methods and their failure to understand the actual needs of the organisations that would adopt them and particularly those of end users. The vast majority of empirical research into enterprise systems involves studies not of their design, however, but of their implementation. Software packages are designed around a basic organisational functionality, what is sometimes described as the 'generic kernel'. The idea is to paint the organisational reality of adopters onto this kernel by developing numerous "templates", which users can then choose between and tailor to meet their local conditions.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe New Production of Users
Subtitle of host publicationChanging Innovation Collectives and Involvement Strategies
EditorsSampsa Hyysalo, Torben Elgaard Jensen, Nelly Oudshoorn
Place of PublicationNew York
PublisherRoutledge
Chapter7
Pages160-189
Number of pages31
Edition1
ISBN (Electronic)9781315648088
ISBN (Print)9781138124561, 9781138218772
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 May 2016

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