Professional Digital Encyclopaedias as Socio-Technical Systems
Författare
Summary, in English
This paper presents on-going research on the production of knowledge in contemporary professional digital encyclopaedias. By adopting a theoretical perspective that considers the interplay of humans, non-humans and practices at the same level, it develops further a socio-technical perspective on knowledge production. Methodologically, the project involves an ethnographic study staring from two editorial sites – the Swedish Nationalencyklopedin and the Norwegian Store Norske Leksikon. The empirical material consists of participatory observations, semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, internal documents, as well as the two encyclopaedias appearance on the web, in social and legacy media. The preliminary results point to a co-existence of old and new orders of knowledge. Traditional taxonomies and formal expertise blend with social media, Google Analytics and new orders of work. The way encyclopaedias adjust to Google exemplifies, albeit in different ways, the fundamental role of ‘management by Google’ in contemporary networked society. It is concluded that digital encyclopaedias, Wikipedia as well as Nationalencyklopedin and Norwegian Store Norske Leksikon, constitute interesting arenas for investigating changing demands on the production of public knowledge.
Avdelning/ar
- Avdelningen för ABM, digitala kulturer samt förlags- och bokmarknadskunskap
- Information Practices: Communication, Culture and Society
Publiceringsår
2013
Språk
Engelska
Fulltext
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Dokumenttyp
Konferensbidrag
Ämne
- Information Studies
Nyckelord
- knowledge production
- trust
- digital encyclopaedias
- ethnography
- socio-technical theory
- information studies
Conference name
International Conference on Conceptions of Library and information Science, 2013
Conference date
2013-08-19 - 2013-08-22
Conference place
Copenhagen, Denmark
Status
Published
Projekt
- Knowledge in a Digital World: Trust, Credibility and Relevance on the Web
- Encyclopaedias' Trustworthiness in the Digital Media Landscape
Forskningsgrupp
- Information Studies
- Information Practices: Communication, Culture and Society