Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Incorporating self into web information system design

  • Chapter
Future Interaction Design

Abstract

Identity construction in computer-mediated environments as in “real life” environments, is influenced by existent social processes. In these virtual environments the computer screen mediates specific experiences of localised physicality; however these computer mediated experiences do not alter the overall sense of being for the individual. To interact with the Web Information System in virtual space the individuals do not leave the essence of themselves on one side of the screen to acquire a new layer of meanings and self-ascription within the virtual space. Identity construction is similarly a complex process in cyberspace as it is in real life. In this chapter we will present a post-structural discussion arguing that electronic identity enables a deconstruction of the mind/body dichotomy. We argue that when individuals interact with a Web information system, in virtual space, they do not leave the essence of themselves on one side of the screen to acquire a new layer of meaning and self-ascription within the virtual space that the system occupies. Further, issues of design are considered in regard to systems development that aim at supporting computer-mediated identity construction.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Abercrombie N, Hill S, Turner B (1988) Sociology dictionary. Penguin Books, London, p 13

    Google Scholar 

  • Argyle M (1969) Social Interaction. Methuen, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Baudrillard J (1988) Jean Baudrillard Selected Writings. Poster M (ed), Stanford University Press, Stanford, p 166

    Google Scholar 

  • Baudrillard J (1994) Simulacra and Simulations. Glaser SF (trans.), Arbor A, The University of Michigan Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Berg PO, Kreiner K (1992) Corporate architecture: Turning physical settings into symbolic resources. In: Gagliardi P (ed) Symbols and Artifacts: Views of the Corporate Landscape. Walter De Gruyter, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger P, Luckmann T (1966) The Social Construction of Reality. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth

    Google Scholar 

  • Beynon-Davies P, Carne C, Mackay H, Tudhope D (1999) Rapid application development (RAD): An empirical review. European Journal of Information Systems 8:211–223

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler J (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Eason K (2001) Changing perspectives on the organizational consequences of information technology. Behaviour & Information Technology 20(5):323–328

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Easthope A, McGowan K (1992) A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader. Open University Press, Buckingham

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards C, Imrie R (2003) Disability and bodies as bearers of value. Sociology 37(2):239–256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eschenfelder KR, Sawyer S (2001) Web information systems management: Proactive or Reactive Emergence. The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Technical Component 8 Working Group 8.2 Working Conference on Realigning Research and Practice in Information Systems Development: The Social and Organisational Perspective. Boise, ID

    Google Scholar 

  • Farganis S (1986) Feminism and the reconstruction of social science. In: Jaggar A, Bordo S (eds) Gender/ Body/ Knowledge. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens A (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity. Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Polity Press, Cambridge, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Gisler P (1997) Does gender still matter? Bodily functions in cyberspace: A feminist approach. In: Grundy AF, Köhler D, Oechtering V, Petersen U (eds) Women, Work and Computerization: Spinning a Web from Past to Future. Proceedings of the sixth International IFIP — Conference. Bonn: May 24–27, pp 219–220

    Google Scholar 

  • Givens DB (2003) Proximics. From http://members.aol.com/doder1/proxemi1.htm

    Google Scholar 

  • Goguen J (1996) Formality and informality in requirements engineering techniques for requirements elicitation. Proceedings of the Fourth International conference on Requirements Engineering. IEEE Computer SocietyPress, CA, pp 102–108

    Google Scholar 

  • Green S (1999) A plague on the panopticon. Information, Communication & Society 2(1):26–44

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenhill A (1999) Blurring the boundaries: Disentangling the implications of virtual space. The International Federation for Information Processing Working Group 8.2 and 8.6 Joint Working Conference on Information Systems: Current Issues and Future Changes. Omnipress, Helsinki, Finland

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenhill A (2001) Using Space to Explore the Development of a Web Information System. Doctoral Thesis, Griffith University, Brisbane

    Google Scholar 

  • Gumpert G, Drucker S (1994) Public space and urban life: Challenges in the communication landscape. Journal of Communication 44(4):169–77

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall ET (1966) The Hidden Dimension. Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hensing T, Larsen B, Malmborg L, Pries-Heje J, Rasmussen T, Tjornov S (1994) Using VR interface techniques for visualization of information mountains. Seventeenth Information systems Research seminar In Scandinavia (IRIS 17), Syote, Sweden. University of Oulu

    Google Scholar 

  • Isomäki H (2002) The Prevailing Conceptions of the Human Being in Information Systems Development: Systems Designers' Reflections. Doctoral Thesis, University of Tampere, Dept. of Computer and Information Sciences, Tampere: Finland. (A-2002-6)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kendall L (1996) MUDer? I Hardly Know ‘Er! Adventures of a Feminist MUDer. In: Cherney L, Weise ER (eds) Wired_Women. Seal Press, Seattle

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein HK, Hirschheim RA (1993) The application of neo-humanist principles in information systems development. In: Avison DE, Kendall TE, DeGross JJ (eds) Human, Organizational, and Social Dimensions of Information Systems Development. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 263–280

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamb R (1996) Interorganizational relationships and online information resources. 29th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Honolulu, Hawaii

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamb R, Kling R (2003) Reconceptualizing users as social actors in information systems research. MIS Quarterly 27(2):197–229

    Google Scholar 

  • Marakas GM, Elam JJ (1998) Semantic structuring in analyst acquisition and representation of facts in requirements analysis. Information Systems Research 9(1):37–63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McRae S (1996) Coming Apart at the Seams: Sex, Text and the Virtual Body. In: Cherney L, Weise ER (eds) Wired_Women. Seal Press, Seattle

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris B (1999) Context and interpretation: Reflections on Nyau rituals in Malawi. In: Dilley R (ed) The Problem of Context. Berghahn Books, New York, pp 145–166

    Google Scholar 

  • Mumford E (1983) Designing Human Systems — The ETHICS method. Manchester Business School, Manchester

    Google Scholar 

  • Negroponte N (1995) Being Digital. Vintage Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Paulos E, Canny J (1997) Ubiquitous tele-embodiment: Applications and implications. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 46(6):861–877

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pawlowski SD, Robey D, Raven A (2000) Supporting shared information systems: Boundary objects, communities and brokering. Twenty-first International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Brisbane, Australia

    Google Scholar 

  • Preece J (1994) Human-Computer Interaction. Addison-Wesley, Harlow, England

    Google Scholar 

  • Preece J (2000) Online Communities: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramey J, Rowberg AH, Robinson C (1996) Adaptation of an ethnographic method for investigation of the task domain in diagnostic radiology. In: Wixon D, Ramey J (eds) Field Methods Casebook for Software Design. John Wiley & Sons, New York, pp 1–195

    Google Scholar 

  • Richardson M (1989) The artefacts as abbreviated act: A social interpretation of material culture. In: Hodder I (ed) The Meaning of Things: Material Culture and Symbolic Expression. Harper Collins Academic, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Rushkoff D (1994) Media Virus. Random House, Sydney

    Google Scholar 

  • Said E (1979) Orientalism. Vintage Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon HA (1991) Models of My Life. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Somers M (1994) The narrative constitution of identity: a relational and network approach. Theory and Society 23:605–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spender D (1995) Nattering on the Net; Women, Power and Cyberspace. Spinifex Press, North Melbourne

    Google Scholar 

  • Standing C, Vasudavan T (2000) Effective Internet cooerce business models in the travel agency sector. The Fourth Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Hong Kong

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanton NA (2001) Introduction: Ubiquitous computing: Anytime, anyplace, anywhere? International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction 13(2):107–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stephanidis C (2001) Human-computer interaction in the age of the disappearing computer. In: Avouris N, Fakotakis N (eds) Advances in Human-Computer Interaction. L. Proceedings of the PC HCI 2001, Athens, Greece, pp 15–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoll C (1995) Silicon Snake Oil. Macmillan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Taysom S (1998) Mountain bike zeitgeist: Implications for a politics of the corporal subject. In: Greenhill A, Fletcher G, De La Fuente E (eds) Rethinking the Social. Griffith University, Brisbane, pp 27–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Vidgen R (1997) Stakeholder analysis, soft systems and eliciting requirements. Information Systems Journal 7:21–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Welch M (2003) Ironies of social control and the criminalization of immigrants. Crime, Law and Social Change 39(4):319–338

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Winograd T (1995) From programming environments to environments for designing. Communications of ACM 38(6):65–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman ME (1993) Heidegger, Buddhism and Deep Ecology. The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger. Guignon C, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Systems, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), UK

    Anita Greenhill

  2. Department of Research Methodology, University of Lapland, Finland

    Hannakaisa Isomäki

Authors
  1. Anita Greenhill
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hannakaisa Isomäki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science & Information Systems, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

    Antti Pirhonen PhD  & Pertti Saariluoma PhD  & 

  2. Department of Research Methodology, University of Lapland, Finland

    Hannakaisa Isomäki PhD

  3. School of Computing and Management Sciences, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

    Chris Roast PhD

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2005 Springer-Verlag London Limited

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Greenhill, A., Isomäki, H. (2005). Incorporating self into web information system design. In: Pirhonen, A., Saariluoma, P., Isomäki, H., Roast, C. (eds) Future Interaction Design. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-84628-089-3_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-84628-089-3_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-85233-791-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-84628-089-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation