r.williams AT ed.ac.uk

Prof Robin Williams

Director of RCSS etc etc

Research Centre for Social Sciences

Robin ran the Edinburgh PICT Centre under the ESRC Programme on Information and Communications Technologies (1987-95). 20 years of interdisciplinary research into 'the social shaping of technology' has focused upon the interplay between 'social' and 'technical' factors in the development and implementation of a range of technologies including EFTPoS, EDI, CAPM/CIM, Banking systems and Multimedia. He led a review of the integration of socio-economic research into the first round of the EC FP5 Information Society Technologies programme, and has participated in many IST projects, for example the ParcelCall project developing an integrated logistics management system, a European study of innovation in multimedia, Social Learning in Multimedia (SLIM), a major IST project on gender and ICTs (SIGIS). He participates in the EPSRC Dependable Computing Project (DIRC) amoung many other UK funded activities. He was a director of SUPRA, and is currently Co-Director, ESRC Innogen Centre.

His books published include

• Social Learning in Multimedia, Edward Elgar, 2005 with Stewart and Slack. Williams, R. et al., 1999 Policies for Cleaner Technology: A New Agenda for Government and Industry, Earthscan
• The Social Shaping of Information Superhighways: European and American Roads to the Information Society, Campus Verlag, 1997(co-edited with Kubicek and Dutton)
• Expertise and innovation: Information technology strategies in the financial services sector : R. Fincham, J. Fleck, R. Proctor, H. Scarbrough, M. Tierney and R. Williams, (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994, 334 pp.)

Projects

ATBEST; Biography; Branded Meeting Places; BREIS; BTG; CHAMELEON; CHINA; DIRC; FLOWS; INDEED; Innogen; INNOGEN II; Innovation Processes in Life Science Industries; INTERACT-IT; ITSAFE; Network Enterprise; Non-Place; RIN; RIN Web2.0; SIGIS; SLL; UK e-Infrastructure for Research

Homepage>>

Working Papers

• Global Software and its Provenance [download]
• Post Local Forms of Repair: The (Extended) Situation of Virtualised Technical Support [download]
• Technology Choice and its Performance [download]
• The Sociology of a Market Analysis Tool: How Industry Analysts Sort Vendors and Organise Markets [download]

Keywords: Bio/Life Sciences;Computer Systems;Dependability;Design;Domestication;e-commerce;Energy;Environment;European;Gender;Governance of S &T;ICT;Policy;R & D;Social Learning;Social Shaping of Technology;software;Standards;Use of Technology