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The study of computing infrastructures has grown significantly due to the rapid proliferation and ubiquity of large-scale IT-based installations. At the same time, recognition has also grown of the usefulness of such studies as a means for understanding computing infrastructures as material complements of practical action. Subsequently the concept of “infrastructure” (or “information infrastructures,” “cyberinfrastructures,” and “infrastructuring”) has gained increasing importance in the area of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) as well as in neighboring areas such as Information Systems research (IS) and Science and Technology Studies (STS). However, as such studies have unfolded, the very concept of “infrastructure” is being applied in different discourses, for different purposes, in myriad different senses. Consequently, the concept of “infrastructure” has become increasingly muddled and needs clarification. The chapter presents a critical investigation of the vicissitudes of the concept of “infrastructure” over the last 35 years.

This chapter focuses on the different ways in which the digital landscape is promoting collaborative endeavors that not only impact the work life but also the social sphere by promoting a sense of compassion and willingness to respond to needs of other individuals, to assist others, and to use technology as means to help others. The chapter suggests that tools for collaboration are essential for enabling the formation of caring networks. This chapter discusses how technologically-supported collaboration can be a positive factor in development. Technology can play the role of a coordinator, a supporter, and a meeting place.

Areas of research such as Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Information Systems (IS), and Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) are interdisciplinary by virtue of their particular research questions and destined to venture beyond the conceptual and methodological sanctuaries of institutionalized disciplines. Researchers in such areas therefore face a constant temptation to import conceptual innovations or theories that might make it less taxing and troublesome to venture outside the disciplinary habitat. In the case of practice-centered computing, so-called practice theory, developed over the last few decades in the philosophy of sociology by Bourdieu, Giddens, Schatzki, and others, obviously poses such a temptation but should not be imported unexamined. The aim of this chapter is to subject this body of theory to critical scrutiny. In so doing, the argument draws on Wittgenstein’s analysis of normative regularity or “rule-following.”

Research on human information interaction (HII) focuses on people’ s relationship with information, rather than with technology (as in human-computer interaction) or with the information agency (as in librarianship). HII is inherently a multidisciplinary field, encompassing areas ranging from human-computer interaction to computer-supported cooperative work, human factors, social informatics, management, and library and information science (LIS). LIS is the only field that has given HII a significant position among its areas as the field of human information behavior (HIB). This chapter provides an overview of HII and some of its research disciplines. It discusses relevance judgment in information seeking and presents examples of current and potential areas of research related to HII, including knowledge organization, information retrieval, and information and communication technologies.