時空情境、科技意會與工作實務：以計程車實務社群為例

Time-Place Context, Technology Sense-making, and Work Practice: A Study on Communities of Practice of Cabby

本研究從時間－－空間角度出發，探討科技使用情境所衍生的在地知識，對科技意會與工作實務之影響。研究設計上，係結合了科技結構化理論與科技意會觀點，利用質性研究方法，深入於台灣大車隊計程車司機與其中一個實務社群個案的長期田野調查，追蹤科技使用者如何在不同的時空情境下，交織出有趣的科技意會與工作實務相互衍生的社會化歷程。研究發現，計程車司機在使用衛星派遣科技過程中，時間－－空間情境結合衛星派遣科技，會誘發科技使用者形成五大類別的在地知識（分別為：人、事、時、地、物等知識），進而對於科技產生多樣化的意義詮釋，並形成多元的工作實務與科技採納。本研究從時間－－空間情境切入，藉由微觀的動態意會觀點，呈現出科技工作實務的結構化歷程，不僅豐富了傳統的科技使用文獻，也對科技結構化理論中，使用者、科技、工作情境三者間的互動、漸衍關係，有了更清晰細膩的瞭解。

This paper investigates how people’s local knowledge drawn from temporal and spatial context may affect how they make sense out of technology and the subsequent adoption patterns. The literatures on technology sensemaking and technology structuration perspective have explored how people’s cognitive processes and social enactment may affect the adoption of new technologies. It helps us examine how situational context may trigger how the user interprets, and gives meaning to, a new technology. However, further research is needed to investigate the process of ongoing sense-making toward a technology that is familiar to them. This omission may impede our understanding of technology deployment over a long period of time, as experience users may perceive and appropriate technology in a very different manner than those of novice users. This study addresses this issue and examines the adoption of a technology that has been institutionalized into users’ work practices. Particularly, it analyzes how users make sense from their time-space contexts which then affect their work practices. This analysis is anchored in the six cabbies’ adoption experience of iCall, which is a GPS (Global Positioning Systems) enabled vehicle dispatching system, implemented by Taiwan High-tech Taxi. This research provides an alternative way of technology sensemaking to understand multiple patterns of technology deployment. Theoretical and practical implications on technology sensemaking and the roles of time and space in technology adoption are discussed.