•  
•  

Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems

Editorial

The first issue of the SJIS volume 22 features two research articles and a debate section. The overall theme that this issue addresses is information systems development, which is arguably at the heart of the IS discipline. We believe that the issue extends our current understanding of how to deal with the socio-technical challenges that changing IS development practices present to researchers and practitioners alike.

The first article by Annemette Kjærgaard, Peter Axel Nielsen, and Karlheinz Kautz reports an exploration of knowledge sharing behavior in a group of project managers in a Danish software company. Utilizing a sensemaking perspective, it analyzes how project managers engage in collective meaning creation by sharing knowledge in a handbook for software project management.

The analysis reveals how personal knowledge gradually turns into shared knowledge and becomes part of the handbook as a common development resource. In the second article, Benedikte Brincker and Peter Gundelach report a study of the exchange of open source software in a developer community. While the community involves high levels of virtual as well as face-to-face interactions, however, its members do not share common values in relation to neither software production nor generally. Based on the findings, the authors develop the notion of an “a la carte community”. That is, a community where individuals themselves decide about their degree of participation and integration into the community and its values.

The debate section discusses the next practices of participatory design. In his invited article, Morten Kyng reflects on his experiences of conducting PD research over the past 30 years. He presents a framework where different elements of the past, present, and the future of PD are analyzed. Dan Shapiro, Ellen Balka, and Helena Karasti then challenge the ideas behind the framework. Finally, Morten Kyng responds to the their criticism. Together these papers offer a viable platform that can help PD researchers to improve their work. We are grateful and thank Morten, Dan, Ellen, and Helena for their excellent contribution to the journal.

Replacing Bjørn Erik Munkvold, Rikard Lindgren is now serving as the coordinating editor for the SJIS. We would like to take the opportunity to say thank you to Bjørn Erik for his valuable service for the journal as well as the community. The editorial collective is happy to welcome Margunn Aanestad, who will be the Norwegian representative on the board for the next four years. We do look forward to working with Margunn.