Dissertation Research: ICT Development in the NGO Sector: The Case of Greenpeace

论文研究：非政府组织部门的信息通信技术发展：绿色和平案例

• 批准号: 0453855
• 负责人: Kim Fortun
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-01-01 至 2006-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0453855&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; ICT; Development; NGO

This Science and Technology Studies Dissertation Improvement Grant will provide funds to document and analyze the development of information systems at Greenpeace, a prominent, transnational environmental organization. Greenpeace grew to prominence largely from its successes in using mass media for environmental advocacy, and the organization has traditionally emphasized technical innovation in the service of environmental advocacy. It is unique among the larger environmental organizations in incorporating confrontational tactics, technical sophistication, and a relatively hierarchical governance structure. This combination of traits makes it an ideal setting for investigating the synergies and discordances between institutions and practices proper to advocacy and those found in commercial settings. Over the past decade, ICT development has emerged as a strategic area for Greenpeace, as is witnessed by increased management attention and a three-fold increase in investment. At present, there are clear indications that technical innovation is being rethought by senior managers, who see promise in models borrowed from commercial settings as means of adaptation to external change. This project will analyze the implications of the organization's efforts to develop shared, geographically distributed information systems. It will use participant observation, ethnographic interviews, and archival research as the basis for detailed histories of three information system projects. The primary conceptual problem of the study will be relating the development and use of the information systems to their successively larger organizational and societal contexts. Extended participant observation of central office IT support work has been conducted at the study's main research site, Greenpeace International. Subsequent phases of research will focus on the distributedenvironment in which the information systems are used-the organization's many national offices. By examining socio-technical systems in an advocacy context, this study will contribute to research on organizational informatics, social movements, and globalization. Conclusions of this research will be presented as a dissertation that explores the strategic and operational dimensions of information systems development by large environmental organizations. The dissertation will be reworked into a book manuscript. Portions of this work will be presented at Greenpeace International with the primary goals of informing strategic planning for ICT investment and management of information systems projects, and the secondary goal of demonstrating how the insights of contextual inquiry can inform socio-technical design within the organization.

这项科学与技术研究论文改进赠款将提供资金来记录和分析一个著名的跨国环境组织GreenPeace的信息系统的开发。绿色和平组织在将大众媒体用于环境宣传方面的成功越来越重要，并且该组织传统上强调了在环境倡导服务方面的技术创新。在较大的环境组织中，它在结合对抗性策略，技术成熟和相对层次的治理结构中是独一无二的。这种特征的结合使其成为研究机构和适当倡导和在商业环境中发现的机构和实践之间的协同和不和谐的理想场所。在过去的十年中，ICT开发已成为绿色和平方面的战略领域，这是管理人员的注意力增加和投资增长三倍。目前，有明确的迹象表明，高级管理人员正在重新考虑技术创新，他们在商业环境中借来的模型中看到了作为适应外部变革的手段的诺言。该项目将分析组织开发共享的，地理分布式信息系统的努力的含义。它将使用参与者的观察，人种学访谈和档案研究作为三个信息系统项目详细历史的基础。该研究的主要概念问题将是将信息系统的开发和使用与它们依次更大的组织和社会背景联系起来。参与者对中央办公室IT支持工作的扩展观察已在该研究的主要研究网站GreenPeace International进行。随后的研究阶段将重点关注分布式环境，在该环境中，信息系统被组织的许多国家办公室使用。通过在倡导环境中检查社会技术系统，这项研究将有助于研究组织信息学，社会运动和全球化。这项研究的结论将作为论文介绍，探讨大型环境组织信息系统开发的战略和运营维度。论文将被重新编写为一本书手稿。这项工作的一部分将在Greeneepeace International介绍，其主要目标是为ICT投资和信息系统项目的战略计划提供信息，以及证明情境询问的见解如何为组织内部的社会技术设计提供信息的次要目标。