Revisiting Socio-technical System Design

Meanwhile, socio-technical system design has a long tradition in system's engineering and development. As many social systems, such as organizations, (need to) rely on technical systems, socio-technical system design techniques have become part of curricula and the body of system development knowledge. With the advent of semantic technology the meaningfulness of designs in socio-technical systems becomes an issue, in particular when work for stakeholders should make sense and allow for reflection and participatory (re-)design. New challenges have to be met since the boundaries of many organizations dissolve when they become parts of larger networks and are tied together via technical infrastructure and organizational process. Under these conditions, a system and the corresponding unit cannot be clearly identified. This can also be observed in the context of Web 2.0 applications which are based on a culture of participation but do more evolve than being designed.

The workshop should be an open space for developing a common understanding of the origin and objectives of socio-technical design while challenging current cognitive engineering practices for sensemaking and meaningful design or meta-design. Researchers involved in either discipline are invited to present their position and discuss interfaces, commonalties, and practicable interactions for human-centered design approaches.