Steps Toward an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and Access for Large Information Spaces

TLDR

The Worm Community System, a large custom software for geographically dispersed geneticists, was developed amid rapid Internet growth and faced resource, organizational, and communication challenges. The study examines how systems designed to support collaborative knowledge work drive local organizational transformation and large‑scale infrastructural change. The authors apply Bateson's levels of learning to analyze infrastructural complexity in system access and designer‑user communication. Although users reported high satisfaction with the system’s interface, many still struggled to sign on and use the platform.

Abstract

We analyze a large-scale custom software effort, the Worm Community System (WCS), a collaborative system designed for a geographically dispersed community of geneticists. There were complex challenges in creating this infrastructural tool, ranging from simple lack of resources to complex organizational and intellectual communication failures and tradeoffs. Despite high user satisfaction with the system and interface, and extensive user needs assessment, feedback, and analysis, many users experienced difficulties in signing on and use. The study was conducted during a time of unprecedented growth in the Internet and its utilities (1991–1994), and many respondents turned to the World Wide Web for their information exchange. Using Bateson's model of levels of learning, we analyze the levels of infrastructural complexity involved in system access and designer-user communication. We analyze the connection between systems development aimed at supporting specific forms of collaborative knowledge work, local organizational transformation, and large-scale infrastructural change.