Citation

Hansman RJ, Magee C, Neufville RD, Robins R, Roos D. Int. J. Crit. Infrastruct. 2006; 2(2/3): 146-159.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Inderscience Publishers)

DOI

10.1504/IJCIS.2006.009434

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Building on broad discussions between many universities, this paper presents a research agenda based on a holistic, comprehensive view of the issues. It proposes that our infrastructure is a system of systems involving different technical manifestations and social organisations. The implication is that we need a fundamental reconsideration of how we look at system design, away from traditional disciplinary considerations and toward a multi-domain, multi-disciplinary effort. To this end, it proposes an agenda of: comparative analyses across infrastructures and political structures, that would identify commonalities and larger lessons; creation of integrated socio-technical models that usefully describe the interactions between the technical infrastructure and its social context; methodological efforts, aimed largely at capturing the network characteristics, both technical and social, of the infrastructure system of systems; explicit testing and evaluation of the research through programs of collaboration with practitioners and governmental organisations.