David Ing | Aalto University (original) (raw)

Papers by David Ing

<jats:p>Organizations embark on open innovation initiatives to sweep in external knowledge,... more <jats:p>Organizations embark on open innovation initiatives to sweep in external knowledge, practices and resources in cooperation with partners. This contrasts to the mainstream private innovation approach of in-house research and development sponsored solely by an incorporated funder, with intellectual property protected by copyright. Few organizations simultaneously engage in both approaches. How does learning occur in such an organization -- and the communities of members within the organization -- in both cumulative and distributed ways? The open innovation learning exhibited by IBM in the decade of 2001-2011 provides a foundation for building both descriptive theories and normative theories. Legal protocols for open source licensing began in 1998, and "open innovation" became popular in the business press from 2003. At the beginning of the 2001-2011 period, a behaviour of open sourcing by commercial enterprises departed from a tradition of private sourcing that presumes trade secrets for competitive advantage that maintaining economic viability. After a decade, Open Sourcing while Private Sourcing (OSwPS) had been demonstrated as a successful way of doing business at IBM, and had also become adopted by other companies and institutions. The primary method employed to appreciate the phenomenon of OSwPS is multiparadigm inquiry. Theories are developed inductively from seven case studies, characterized in five containing contexts over the period, in a process orientation observing events, activities and choices ordered over time. Three descriptive theories have been built in parallel perspectives based on contrasting philosophies. Pursuit of a normative theory subsequently led to the proposal of additional hypotheses. Emerging theories of open innovation learning challenge a presumption that commercial and non-commercial interests are incompatible. Open sourcing while private sourcing is a demonstrable way of conducting a viable business.</jats:p>

Human civilization is served by systems in technical, organizational and socio-political form • T... more Human civilization is served by systems in technical, organizational and socio-political form • Transportation K • Water and waste management • Food and global supply chain • Energy and energy grid • Information and communications (ICT) infrastructure

The sense-and-respond organization, as described in Haeckel (1999), is an approach to designing a... more The sense-and-respond organization, as described in Haeckel (1999), is an approach to designing adaptive enterprises. One part of the design requires a shift from an orientation towards activities to an orientation towards outcomes. This "context-and-coordination" approach is suggested as an alternative to the traditional "command-and-control" model which is common in many businesses.

This paper explores how to design and deploy information technology support for accountability in... more This paper explores how to design and deploy information technology support for accountability in general, and for the case of bounded empowerment in particular. Explicitness and disambiguation would both appear to be laudable goals. However, deeper accounts of the nature of organizational work and its computer-based support --- such as Wenger's maxim that "practice is not the result of design but rather a response to it" --- suggest that caution is appropriate. We review the literature on work practice, accounts and accountability, and "technologies of accountability" to suggest directions for the transformation of enterprise information technology support systems

Most information systems requirements approaches mirror the techniques of business planning metho... more Most information systems requirements approaches mirror the techniques of business planning methods prevalent in the 1960s and 1970s. This was a period in which requirements, like plans, could be established in advance, and then implemented. Gradual changes in requirements could be analyzed and foreseen, and could result in slight modification requests.

Russelll. Ackoff Conference, Villanova University, 1999

Toronto: (416) 410-5958 Internet: daviding@ca.ibm.com ... Extracted from the Proceedings of the C... more Toronto: (416) 410-5958 Internet: daviding@ca.ibm.com ... Extracted from the Proceedings of the Conference to Celebrate Russell L. Ackoff, and the Advent of Systems Thinking, Villanova University, May 4-6, 1999, pp. 111-119. ... Full conference proceedings are available at ...

Behavioral specifications of businesses and systems. …, 1999

"Most information systems requirements approaches mirror the techniques of business planning... more "Most information systems requirements approaches mirror the techniques of business planning methods prevalent in the 1960s and 1970s. This was a period in which requirements, like plans, could be established in advance, and then implemented. Gradual changes in requirements could be analyzed and foreseen, and could result in slight modification requests. Today, businesses operate in an increasingly complex, networked economy. They face changes that are discontinuous and increasingly less predictable. In contrast to the mechanistic, production-line view of work, enterprise processes are now considered as social activities founded in organizational knowledge. More and more business professionals perform information-intensive work within empowered work groups. A new perspective is required. Firstly, enterprises which seek to be adaptive are finding their informational support systems to be mission-critical. The need for change in the enterprise outstrips the pace of change in existing information systems. Secondly, many traditional approaches to capturing requirements are inadequate. As the human-computer interaction and management information systems communities have long known, there are deep epistemological reasons why detailed system requirements cannot be simply captured into a static document prior to development. We seek to develop practices, technologies and underlying theory that will ease change in information systems as enterprises adapt to changes in their environments. From Stewart Brand's study of built environments we borrow a model of change as layers that shear against each other at different rates. We follow the development of ideas by Christopher Alexander best known in software circles for his 1970s work on patterns towards a greater understanding of design and construction practice. At the center of our approach are concepts of 'context,' 'context support,' 'context support machine' and 'mutual awareness.' We describe how these enable an enterprise to render its information technologies more adaptable."

Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science, 1999

Citeseer, 2000

We are particularly interested in finding more valuable criteria for separating concerns in infor... more We are particularly interested in finding more valuable criteria for separating concerns in information systems development. Two strongly related areas in which we are trying to make valuable contributions are: ▪ providing ever more adaptable information technology in support of adaptive ...

The conversation began with self-reflections on personal experiences leading each of the individu... more The conversation began with self-reflections on personal experiences leading each of the individuals to the systems sciences, acknowledging the influence of those trajectories on their perspectives on service systems. In recognition of this science of service systems as a potentially a new paradigm, much of the time together was spent in sensemaking about the intersection between ongoing services research and systems sciences perspectives. This sensemaking led the team to focus the dialogue more on posing the right questions to clarify thinking broadly, as opposed to diving deeply towards solutions that would be tied up as issues within a problematique. During the conversation, the progress on ideas was recorded on flipcharts. Nearing the end of our time together, the team cut up the flipcharts with scissors, and collated the discussion threads into five clusters: (i) philosophy; (ii) science; (iii) models; (iv) education; (v) development. With service systems as a new domain, the team found all five clusters underdeveloped. Recognizing that all five clusters are coevolving, the phenomenon of service systems was listed in order from the most concrete (i.e. development) through the most abstract (i.e. philosophy). Each of the five clusters was then summarized by a meta-question. 1. Development: How do we transition from the current paradigm? 2. Education: How do we help others learn about service systems? 3. Models: How do we understand and decribe service systems? 4. Science: What do we know about service systems? 5. Philosophy: Why do (or should) we care about services systems? Each of the meta-questions is described below, with some of the dialogue content associated with the question clusters.

INCOSE Insight, Oct 1, 2010

ABSTRACT On 14 July at the INCOSE International Symposium in Chicago, four delegates from the Int... more ABSTRACT On 14 July at the INCOSE International Symposium in Chicago, four delegates from the International Society for the Systems Sciences described their joint research in a panel on “Service Systems and Systems Sciences in the Twenty-First Century.” The format included an introductory overview, three position presentations, and a discussion.

Su g g e s t e d citat i o n : Khan, Zaid and Ing, David (2019) Paying atte n tio n to whe r e at... more Su g g e s t e d citat i o n : Khan, Zaid and Ing, David (2019) Paying atte n tio n to whe r e att e n tio n is place d in the rise of syste m (s) chan g e (s). In: Relating Syste m s Thinking and Design (RSD8) 2019 Sympo siu m , Oct 13-15 2019, Chica go, USA.

Virtual communities can be described as a modern extension of traditional communities, through a ... more Virtual communities can be described as a modern extension of traditional communities, through a new medium-information technology. The mediation of communications through computers does, however, have systemic effects on the behaviors of the members of the community. Many of the shortcomings of virtual communities may be resolved through a better understanding of their nature and purposes. This paper outlines some of the differences between virtual communities and traditional communities which result from use of the intermediating technology. The purpose of the virtual community as a social system is then described in terms of the four ideals suggested by Ackoff & Emery (1972), applied both to the community in its parts (i.e., the members) and of the whole (i.e., the community). The "five ways of knowing"-categorizations of inquiring systems, as suggested by Mitroff & Linstone (1993)-are then applied to describe the interaction, development and maturity of purpose for virtual communities.

FormAkademisk - forskningstidsskrift for design og designdidaktikk, 2018

Since 2014, an international collaborative of design leaders has been exploring ways in which met... more Since 2014, an international collaborative of design leaders has been exploring ways in which methods can be augmented, transitioning from the heritage legacy focus on products and services towards a broad range of complex sociotechnical systems and contemporary societal problems issues. At the RSD4 Symposium (2015), DesignX co-founder Don Norman presented a keynote talk on the frontiers of design practice and necessity for advanced design education for highly complex sociotechnical problems. He identified the qualities of these systems as relevant to DesignX problems, and called for systemics, transdisciplinarity and the need for high-quality observations (or evidence) in these design problems. Initial directions found were proposed in the first DesignX workshop in October 2015, which were published in the design journal Shè Jì. In October 2016, another DesignX workshop was held at Tongji University in Shanghai, overlapping with the timing of the RSD5 Symposium where this worksho...

IBM Research Report, Oct 1, 2000

early dissemination of its contents. In view of the transfer of copyright to the outside publishe... more early dissemination of its contents. In view of the transfer of copyright to the outside publisher, its distribution outside of IBM prior to publication should be limited to peer communications and specific requests. After outside publication, requests should be filled only by reprints or legally obtained copies of the article (e.g., payment of royalties). Some reports are available at http://domino.watson.ibm.com/library/CyberDig.nsf/home. Copies may requested from IBM T.

IBM Advanced Business Institute White Paper, May 1, 2000

The concept of managing by wire was introduced in 1993 to the strategic management and informatio... more The concept of managing by wire was introduced in 1993 to the strategic management and information systems communities (Haeckel & Nolan 1993). The key idea was that" corporate IQ" could be improved by systematically enabling an institutional ability to deal with the complexity of change in the marketplace. Managing by wire was compared to flying by wire in modern aircraft, as software mediates the interaction between the pilot and the airplane itself. Through the increased adaptiveness introduced by this enabler," a manage-by-wire ...

Proceedings, May 19, 2004

For companies, adopting initiatives of business relations is one method of survival in an economi... more For companies, adopting initiatives of business relations is one method of survival in an economic environment, where there is an increasingly higher demand on strategic sharing of resources. Therefore, it is common for large companies to engage in plans to pursue their interests in inter-organizational relations among their distinct internal groups. However, in cases where engagement in such relations is imposed by decisions from above, the fact that sustainability of an inter-organizational relation depends upon the ...

Proceedings of the 46th Annual Meeting of the …, Aug 3, 2002

We propose a framework for designers of business organizations and designers of information syste... more We propose a framework for designers of business organizations and designers of information systems that portrays three forms of “space” that mediate social interactions: physical space, social space and informatic space. The framework aids organizational designers and information technology designers to understand some of the complexities of enabling knowledge work, by contrasting the properties of the spaces and their interactions:• Social interaction enabled by physical spaces is the focus of architects of buildings and ...