Distributed Agency using Digital Technologies

Description

We examine how digital technologies make it possible for actors who are distributed across time and space to collaborate asynchronously. We use Wikipedia as a research site for our exploration. Our focus in this paper is on the technology of work – in this case, embodied in the concept of a wiki. Our probe of Wikipedia highlights a distinctive property of such technologies: in their very use, they generate a digital trace. This digital trace makes it possible for multiple actors to engage asynchronously with an overall process of cumulative synthesis. We examine the implications of such processes for organizations that embrace technologies that possess properties embodied in Wikipedia.

Period	7 Aug 2009 → 11 Aug 2009
Event title	Academy of Management Annual Meeting
Event type	Unknown
Degree of Recognition	International