Information infrastructure in action

Since the introduction of computers in the middle of the twentieth century, the potential of information technology (IT) to transform organisations has been a constant subject of analysis for both organisation studies and information systems research. Each new generation of technology and every major technological innovation has been followed by strong alleges that organisations, businesses and society in general, would have to be radically and fundamentally transformed to take account of the opportunities opened by the innovations in technological capabilities. The opportunities of change in the organisation of work activities predicted in association with these new technologies have conventionally been discussed in the light of different views on technology, associated with new perspectives on organisation design and management. A very similar debate characterises the dispute about the role of information infrastructures in supporting economic activities in contemporary society. As a consequence of their diffusion, information infrastructures have in fact gained increased attention in the area of information systems research. As a result of the increased diffusion of information technologies in organisation and in society the level of interdependences among single information systems is escalating so that today it is very difficult to think about independent information systems rather than information infrastructures (Hanseth, 2004b). Such information infrastructures are in fact characterised by the interplay in the intricacy of the set of interconnected hardware, software, and procedural configurations deployed to support and enact pre-determined paths of behaviour in organisations and among users. This chapter aims to contribute to this area of research by questioning the nature of information infrastructures to better understand how to design, deploy and manage them. In doing so, it discusses how the traditional distinction between technology and organisation and the analyses based on this assumption are not sufficient to explain the problem associated with information infrastructure design, deployment, and management. This study of information infrastructures focuses on the interplay between technologies and the organisations using them. This interplay is regarded as the main force that shapes information infrastructures and hence the most important fact to be considered to understand the complexity of these structures.