LOS BIENES DEL DOMINIO PÚBLICO

This section provides a reflection of the communication difficulties encountered during website design and construction by the student web technologists between February and June, 2013. There was an understanding that their role was that of the ‘service provider’, with one student taking the specific task of website construction (web

technologist) and the other the design role (designer). My role as the researcher was

that of the ‘client’, representing and acting on behalf of other stakeholders, developing and discovering content, considering design, the look and feel of the website and suggesting potential features.

In general, academics are thought to be good collaborators and adept at seeking help from other disciplines (Costello & Green, 2012), thus an inter-disciplinary team was not considered an issue as website development commenced. However, whilst there is immense value in multidisciplinary social research that utilises information and communication technologies, it is known that the ‘gulf’ that can develop between computer scientists and social scientists during project development can be a crucial factor in the success of the project (Dutton et al., 2006). As a means of mitigating these ‘gulfs’, it is important to consider the differing cultural attitudes towards technology (Camara & Abdelnour-Nocera, 2010), in this case between myself as a social scientist, and the students as the web technologist and web designer. My personal cultural attitudes towards IT have been influenced by several factors - learning keyboard skills on a manual typewriter, not studying IT at high school and being accustomed to having technical assistance available when confronted with IT issues. In contrast, my perceptions of the web and design technologist’s cultural attitudes towards IT were that as part of the younger ‘i generation’ and having learned IT at high school, they were far

153 more ‘tech savvy’ than I, corroborated by their pursuit of an IT career through university studies.

In light of these differing cultural attitudes towards IT, communication was a key part of the relationship between myself as the researcher, possessing minimal IT programming skills and knowledge, and the students as the ‘expert’ web technologist and web designer. It was therefore vital that team members shared a ‘common language’ (Costello & Green, 2012). However, this was not a ‘normal’ working relationship due to their student status, being members of this team by default rather than choice, relative inexperience in communicating professionally and limited customer relationship skills. Their roles as ‘expert’ web technologist and web designer came under pressure due to my perception that they were unable to interpret what was required, and were restricted by their limited ability to communicate appropriately, due to generational and discipline differences. It is common that team members from differing backgrounds (in this case, social and computing science) might not have “shared histories and meanings …. thus information must be recontextualised to reuse experience or knowledge” (Ackerman, 2000, p. 182).

For example, it appeared that the web technologist was keen on developing a ‘blog’ or Facebook style of website, which the research team did not consider appropriate, as it did not represent the professional ‘feel’ being sought. On reflection, and now with a far greater understanding of website design and construction, I contemplated if this push towards a more ‘social media’ style of website was because it would have been easier to build than a traditional website design. So without ‘shared histories and meanings’, understanding had to be negotiated, and in this case, perhaps some ‘context’ had been lost as boundaries between social and computing science were crossed (Ackerman, 2000).

154 Moreover, it is important to remember that different team members may have different goals, depending on their role within the team. To me as the researcher, the website was an essential building block on which to ‘construct’ my PhD project, but to the web and design technologist’s, this was a project they needed to complete to meet university unit requirements and enable graduation. Thus it is important to acknowledge these differences of opinion that may be necessary when resolving developmental or design disputes (Ackerman, 2000).

Web design can typically begin with many unclear components, and only some imprecise constraint information such as budget, time and available resources being provided by the client to the designers (Beatty & Ball, 2010). However, in this project, I was very precise about what I wanted the site to look like, what it needed to host and the specific functions required. Moreover, it was also made very clear that funds were limited and a definite launch date was advised at the outset of the build. There was, however, a ‘grey’ area around the initial registration process, as initially it was thought that new members would be directed to one of two sites - either the actual intervention or a comparator site. The decision to build only one active website, early in the process, proved to be a defining event that further demonstrated the communication issues experienced, although the potential workload had been significantly reduced. Up until this point, the team were meeting weekly, but once this significant decision was made, the web technologist declared there was no need for continued weekly meetings and website construction would proceed without further consultation with the team. Firstly, this method of website construction did not compliment the tenet of the STAR model being used to manage this project – an iterative approach involving key stakeholders, that is, the child care staff for who this website was being developed, at every stage (H. Skinner et al., 2006). Secondly, it demonstrated a lack of teamwork skills expected of

155 IT students, and in particular, professional conduct and effective communication skills. However, whilst potential employers and industry accreditation agencies expect IT students to develop these skills, these are often not explicitly ‘taught’ and some universities anticipate students will naturally acquire them through team activities (Barkataki & Lingard, 2011). Supervisor intervention by email assured that weekly meetings continued as it was vital that progress was monitored regularly.

As semester progressed, it became apparent that the website may not be ready for the intended launch date, thus the web technologist and I agreed to meet more regularly to force progress. By this time the design remit was complete, and the responsibility to meet the deadline lay with me and the web technologist, by building functionality and providing site content. Despite our best efforts, and the web technologist’s assurances that the site was ‘technically’ ready for launch on the scheduled date, I was not satisfied that it was a ‘launch ready’ product, especially at a professional industry forum. Thus it was decided to delay the launch for a month, and a new date of 1st August 2013 was agreed, allowing additional time to complete the technical aspects of the site and to develop, produce and load content, whilst prioritising the most important features and content.

The web technologist continued to work on the site past the launch date, fixing up minor glitches and providing some instructions for administration tasks. However, the functionality to enable the downloading ‘backend’ data, which had been stressed from the initial meeting, was still not in place at the end of his tenure on the project.

On reflection, it is important to reiterate that together, the web and design technologists constructed a website that met almost all initial requirements, and having reviewed the numerous notes and minutes of our meetings and conversations, I can appreciate that a great deal was achieved in a short period of time with limited resources. My moments

156 of dread and despair were most definitely towards the end of website construction when it became apparent it would not be ready for the original launch date, and euphoria when we finally launched, albeit a little late.

Website Launch, Recruitment and Engagement