Post on 27-Jan-2015
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How to improve information flow in organizations (c) 2011 Clay Spinuzzi
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Chapter 1. Networks, Genres, and Four Little Disruptions
Clay SpinuzziClay.spinuzzi@mail.utexas.edu
How to improve information flow in organizations (c) 2011 Clay Spinuzzi
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Value
• Understand concept of genre• Examine genre developmentally• Examine genre at different levels of activity• Examine how genres interact in an activity• Learn to map relationships among genres
How to improve information flow in organizations (c) 2011 Clay Spinuzzi
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WHAT IS GENRE?
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Spinuzzi 2008, p.17
• “not just text types”• “typified rhetorical responses to recurring
social situations”• “tools-in-use”• “a behavioral descriptor rather than a formal
one”• Through their use, genres “weave together”
networks
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…rhetoric?
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“typified rhetorical responses to recurring social situations”
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NOT just structure
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NOT Medium
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A “Tool-In-Use”
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TWO WAYS TO EXAMINE GENRE
DevelopmentLevels of activity
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GENRE DEVELOPMENT
“Genre (from French, genre, "kind" or "sort", from Latin: genus (stem gener-), Greek: genos, γένος)” – WikipediaSame root word as gene, genealogy, Genesis.
How to improve information flow in organizations (c) 2011 Clay Spinuzzi
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Case: Accident Location and Analysis System (ALAS)
• Based on Spinuzzi (2003), Tracing Genres through Organizations.
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ALAS Evolved…
• Before 1974• 1974• 1989• 1996
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Before 1974
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1974 – Mainframe-ALAS
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1974 – Mainframe-ALAS
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1989: PC-ALAS
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1989: PC-ALAS
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1996: GIS-ALAS
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1996: GIS-ALAS
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Accidents in the Cornfield
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Genres Developed Over Iterations
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Case: LinkedIn
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Case: Facebook
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LEVELS OF ACTIVITYGenre functions at three different levels.
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Genre at three levelsLevel Focus Chars Timescale Aware? Disruption
Macro Activity Culture, history; social action, social memory
Year, decades
No Contradiction
Meso Goal Tool-in-use; tactics
Minutes, hours
Yes Discoordination
Micro Operation Rules, habits Seconds No Breakdown
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Genre: The Macro LevelLevel Focus Chars Timescale Aware? Disruption
Macro Activity Culture, history; social action, social memory
Year, decades
No Contradiction
Meso Goal Tool-in-use; tactics
Minutes, hours
Yes Discoordination
Micro Operation Rules, habits Seconds No Breakdown
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Genre: The Macro Level
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Case 2: “Darrel thinks Gil is being Unreasonable”
• Different genres focus on different aspects and make different assumptions.
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Genre: The Meso LevelLevel Focus Chars Timescale Aware? Disruption
Macro Activity Culture, history; social action, social memory
Year, decades
No Contradiction
Meso Goal Tool-in-use; tactics
Minutes, hours
Yes Discoordination
Micro Operation Rules, habits Seconds No Breakdown
How to improve information flow in organizations (c) 2011 Clay Spinuzzi
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Genre: The Meso Level
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Case 3: “Abraham Threatens to Fire Workers”
• A freeform genre becomes more structured and oriented to a specific goal.
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Genre: The Micro LevelLevel Focus Chars Timescale Aware? Disruption
Macro Activity Culture, history; social action, social memory
Year, decades
No Contradiction
Meso Goal Tool-in-use; tactics
Minutes, hours
Yes Discoordination
Micro Operation Rules, habits Seconds No Breakdown
How to improve information flow in organizations (c) 2011 Clay Spinuzzi
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Genre: The Micro Level
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Case 4: “Jeannie Talks Past Local Provisioners”
• The two groups of provisioners encounter breakdowns over the common term “prem-to-prem,” which means different things to them.
• As they repair the breakdown, they realize differences at other levels.
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Genre tracing
Development
Leve
ls
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Genre Tracing
• Genre tracing involves examining genres across these two dimensions:
• Development. How did a genre develop? What assumptions are bundled into it, from the designer’s side and from the user’s?
• Levels of activity. How is the genre used at each level? What disruptions occur, and how are they manifested at each level?
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Genre Tracing
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Genre Tracing
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Genre & Social Media: Development
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Genre & Social Media: Levels of Activity
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GENRE ECOLOGIESExamining how genres relate to each other
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Genre Ecologies
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Kinds of relationships among genres
• juxtaposition (two texts attached to or overlapping each other)
• placing (two texts placed side by side, in a stack, or in regular places)
• annotation (writing or altering a text)• transfer (using one text as source for filling in another)• modeling (using one text as a model for another)• reference (using one text to interpret or operate
another)• And ???
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Genre Ecology Models
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Case 1: “Anita Thinks Geraldine is Slacking”
• Participants sometimes think there are connections when there aren’t.
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Genre Ecologies & Social Media
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Takeaways
• Genre as social action• Genre development• Genre at different levels of activity• Genre ecologies
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Applications
• Determining what genres are being used.• Determining what they’re for.• Determining where they’re from.• Examining how they’re used at different levels.• Examining how they connect.
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Exercise: Genre Development (5 minutes)
• Identify genres that have developed in your project, especially in social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• Select one. How has it developed over time? Can you identify preexisting genres from which it developed?
• How is it perceived by users? Do they associate it with other familiar genres?
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Exercise: Levels of Activity (5 minutes)
• Select a genre from a work example.• Macro: Where did this genre come from and to
what sort of problem was it originally oriented? Think in terms of originating activities (ex: LinkedIn profile: based on job search)
• Meso: What conscious goals might users identify as they use it?
• Micro: What sorts of unconscious habits of interpretation and use are involved in using it?
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Exercise: Genre Ecologies (5 minutes)
• Identify sets of genres in a work example, especially unofficial, improvised innovations.
• How are they related in use? Think in terms of relationships such as juxtaposition, placing, annotation, transfer, modeling, and reference.
• If you must speculate, that’s okay – but observed relationships are better.