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Extant literature has increased our understanding of the multifaceted nature of the digital divide, showing that it entails more than access to information and communication resources. Research indicates that digital inequality mirrors to a significant extent offline inequality related to socioeconomic resources. Bridging digital divides is critical for sustainable digitalized societies. Ιn this paper, we present a literature review of Information Systems research on the digital divide within settings with advanced technological infrastructures and economies over the last decade (2010–2020). The review results are organized in a concept matrix mapping contributing factors and measures for crossing the divides. Building on the results, we elaborate a research agenda that proposes [1] extending established models of digital inequalities with new variables and use of theory, [2] critically examining the effects of digital divide interventions, and [3] better linking digital divide research with research on sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the design of hybrid information spaces supporting patients and healthcare providers to have information in common and also, patients to manage privately personal health information. We studied efforts to develop such information spaces by following the design of two Personal Health Record applications and focusing particularly on design tensions that relate to their hybrid role. We identified and grouped tensions along three key themes: control allocation, content origination and user environment localization. For the resolution of tensions, functionality-related decisions were taken by professional design teams during the early design phases. These included the introduction of functionality that enables end-users to create regions with custom characteristics and dynamically adjust the regional boundaries. Delegating to end-users some of the regionalization work entailed in the design of such hybrid spaces points to a design strategy of providing generic enabling environments instead of configuring solutions “a priori” by designers that are external to use settings. Prior research on Personal Health Records mostly emphasizes the challenges of bridging patient and provider perspectives, in our research we shift attention to enabling hybridity and to the roles of designers and end-users for regionalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine infrastructuring in the context of developing national, public eHealth services in Norway. Specifically, we analyze the work of a project team engaged in the design and development of new web-based capabilities for communication between citizens and primary healthcare practitioners. We frame the case as a study of re-infrastructuring to signify a particular occasion of infrastructuring that entails facilitating a new logic within established social and technological networks. To make sense of the particularities of re-infrastructuring, we draw from research in infrastructure studies which considers embeddedness as a resource in infrastructure evolution. We analyze how actors worked to re-infrastructure through adapting primary care information systems, information flows and representations of patient data. Our findings show how the work of re-infrastructuring revolves around addressing two key design concerns: a) bringing novelty without being trapped in the existing arrangements or harming what is in place, b) bringing changes that are within a specific direction although they happen through distributed decision taking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the normative and intentional issues of ensuring quality-in-use of large-scale information systems (IS) in the services sector. A descriptive model for observing the dynamics between key actors during system acquisition is proposed. The model supports the conceptualization of project dynamics in terms of different actors’ capability (power, capacity and knowledge) and perspectives (business, technical and human activity). A retrospective analysis of two case studies is performed using this model: different actors involved are identified and the interplay between them is analysed. Interpreting from the case studies, it is argued that ensuring a balance among perspectives is instrumental in arriving at usable systems. This paper contends that ensuring quality-in-use entails a normative part, which can be dealt with by methods and tools and an intentional part which cannot be prescribed, but can be influenced by facilitating the discourse between perspectives from the procurement stage and as the project unfolds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]