At last I’ve found something eminently sensible on positivism in IS research - and it was extremely close to home!
Thanks to Dermot for pointing me to the recent MIS Quarterly editorial by Ron Weber, “The Rhetoric of Positivism Versus Interpretivism: A Personal View” (a free download). Ron was recently appointed dean of the Faculty of […]

I’ve just been perusing Michael D. Myers’ essential guide to “Qualitative Research in Information Systems“, and working through his excellent page of References on Interpretive Research. Usually I wouldn’t take a single source as gospel, but in this case it seems that Myers presents a thoroughly comprehensive guide to research methodology in IS, incorporating the […]

To some people my previous blog entry What is “Positivism” in KM/IS research? may have sounded ridiculously naive. But there were good reasons for this approach.
Firstly, it was supposed to be a fishing exercise, to gather some opinions on this matter (and it was obviously quite unsuccessful so far - so if you read […]

This may reveal the true extent of my ignorance, but precisely what does positivism refer to in KM/IS circles? It is obviously used to refer to a particular research methodology and/or attitude, but I’m afraid it isn’t that clear to me how to characterise that approach.
Does what I’ll call “IS-Positivism” just refer to the social […]

I finally saw the film “Touching the Void” last night. Looking at my photo albums you should know I have an interest in mountains and climbing, and the film did remind me of my trips to the Himalaya and Karakoram (as does Danny Yee’s impressive travel narrative). Anyway, although the basic elements of the story […]

Two weeks since my last blog entry - time can sometimes pass so quickly. I finished my “Epistemology and Knowledge Management” discussion for the Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management, but I won’t put it up on my Papers and Publications page just yet. I’m not entirely happy with it in its present form, and want a […]

I’ve been pretty much alone at work this last week. Most of my colleagues are traipsing around Italy, at the IFIP Decision Support Conference in Prato, and more. It is a bit frustrating, because I’d really like to throw some ideas at them - especially regarding what I can work on next year and how […]