Deliberate Individual Change Framework for Understanding Programming Practices in four Oceanography Groups

Computing affects how scientific knowledge is constructed, verified, and validated. Rapid changes in hardware capability, and software flexibility, are coupled with a volatile tool and skill set, particularly in the interdisciplinary scientific contexts of oceanography. Existing research considers t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inComputer supported cooperative work Vol. 26; no. 4-6; pp. 663 - 691
Main Authors Kuksenok, Kateryna, Aragon, Cecilia, Fogarty, James, Lee, Charlotte P., Neff, Gina
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.12.2017
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Computer Science
Data science
Lenses
Oceanography
Programming
Psychology
Qualitative analysis
Scientists
Social Sciences
Software
User Interfaces and Human Computer Interaction
Programming practice
Data science
Qualitative analysis
Oceanography
Sociotechnical infrastructure
Scientific software
Software engineering
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Summary:Computing affects how scientific knowledge is constructed, verified, and validated. Rapid changes in hardware capability, and software flexibility, are coupled with a volatile tool and skill set, particularly in the interdisciplinary scientific contexts of oceanography. Existing research considers the role of scientists as both users and producers of code. We focus on how an intentional, individually-initiated but socially-situated, process of uptake influences code written by scientists. We present an 18-month interview and observation study of four oceanography teams, with a focus on ethnographic shadowing of individuals undertaking code work. Through qualitative analysis, we developed a framework of deliberate individual change, which builds upon prior work on programming practices in science through the lens of sociotechnical infrastructures. We use qualitative vignettes to illustrate how our theoretical framework helps to understand changing programming practices. Our findings suggest that scientists use and produce software in a way that deliberately mitigates the potential pitfalls of their programming practice. In particular, the object and method of visualization is subject to restraint intended to prevent accidental misuse.
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ISSN:0925-9724
1573-7551
DOI:10.1007/s10606-017-9285-x