Inscribing behaviour in information infrastructure standards

Ole Hanseth, and Eric Monteiro

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 3/11/1998)

This paper focuses on the processes producing the standards which make up the technical back-bone of an information infrastructure. These standards are neither ready-made nor neutral. They are currently being developed, and they "inscribe" behaviour in complex and non-transparent ways. We explore how this takes place, identifying by whom, where and how inscriptions are made. Our principal aim is to uncover the socio-technical complexity of establishing an information infrastructure, a complexity which so far has been severely underestimated by those involved. By studying the process of aligning and linking one inscription to other inscriptions, we also hope to learn more about the strength of inscriptions, that is, the degree to which an inscription actually succeeds in enforcing a desired behaviour. The empirical basis of our analysis is a case-study of standardisation processes of health information infrastructure from Norway.