Research Method - philosophy of science

The Relativity of Wrong
by Isaac Asimov

Key concepts 
"All theories are proven wrong in time "

"When people thought the Earth was flat, there were wrong.  When people thought the Earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth was spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together. "

"Right and wrong are fuzzy concepts"

"In great abstraction over which human beings debate, one should start without preconceived, unexamined notions and that he alone knew this. "

"How wrong are they?"

"it is because the geological formations of the Earth change so slowly and the living things upon it evolve so slowly that it seemed reasonable at first to suppose that there was no change and that Earth and life always existed as they do today"

Earth is not flat nor sphere, it is oblate spheroid because of rotation. The faster the rotation, the less likely to be sphere.

--> "Earth as sphere is wrong, but it is not as wrong as the notion of the Earth as flat. "

Comments
This essay is prominent in that it concretely emphasized the difference between relative and absolute wrong/right and provide clear evidence to prove the author's argument.

It is interesting that the author argued that there is no absolute wrong and believe that right and wrong and fuzzy concepts. This argument gives us the idea of importance of relativity but, to me, it overemphasized the relativity, ignoring the existence  of absolute right/wrong.
Contrary to the author's argument, it seems that relative and absolute right/wrong are both exist and highly correlated. i.e my argument there is no absolute relativity.
For example: 1+1= 3 or 9 are all absolutely wrong, based on this fact. We can further know that 3 is much closer than 9. Thus, 9 is relatively wronger than 3.  Thus, there are correlated and step by step.
I mean: step 1: it is absolute wrong. Step 2: it is relative wrong compared with what.

Additionally, if we think the right side, interestingly, it appears that there is no room for the relative right. 2+2=5 is relatively right? it is wrong absolutely.

article source
http://hermiene.net/essays-trans/relativity_of_wrong.html

Virtual Team - Virtual Team Theories and Theoretical Frameworks

Dennis, A.R., Fuller, R.M., and Valacich, J.S. 2008. Media, Tasks, and Communication Processes: A Theory of Media Synchronicity, MIS Quarterly (32:3), pp 575-600.

Comments: 

1.The results of table 2 show that the mechanical characteristics of media influence information transmission, which reflects theory of social presence and media richness theory. 

2. This table also reminds me two very essential theories used in the context of media. These two theories are " theory of social presence" and "Media richness theory". These two theories can be used as additional theories to explain and understand the proposition proposed by this research. 

DeSanctis, G. and Poole, M.S. 1994 Capturing Complexity in Advanced Technology Use: Adaptive Structuration Theory, Organization Science, 5(2) 121-147.

Research Questions:

What changes do these systems actually bring to the workplace?

What technology impacts should we anticipate and how can we interpret the changes that we observe? 

Concepts

There is a duality of structure whereby there is an interplay between the types of structures that are inherent to advanced technologies and the structures that emerge in human action as people interact with these technologies

Theoretical Roots of AST

1. the decision-making school

2. Social Technology school

3. Institutional School 

AST provides a detailed account of both the structure of advanced technologies as well as the unfolding of social interaction as these technologies are used.

Propositions of Adaptive Structuration Theory (AIT: action, institution and technology)

• Technologies
• Institution
• human activity 

AIT influence social structures in two ways: (technology <-->institution)

• features (rule and resources)
• spirit ( value and goal underlying a given set of structural features)

Propositions: 

PI. AITs provide social structures that can be described in terms of their features and spirit. To the extent that AITs vary in their spirit and structural features sets, different forms of social interaction are encouraged by the technology.

P2. Use of AIT structures may vary depending on the 

task, the environment, and other contingencies that offer 

alternative sources of social structures.

P3. New sources of structure emerge as the technology, task, and environmental structures are applied during the course of social interaction.

P4. New social structures emerge in group interac

tion as the rules and resources of an AIT are appropri

ated in a given context and then reproduced in group 

interaction over time.

P5. Group decision processes will vary depending on 

the nature of AIT appropriations.

P6. The nature of ALT appropriations will vary de

pending on the group's internal system.

P7. Given AIT and other sources of social structure 

n, • • • ni., and ideal appropriation processes, and deci

sion processes that fit the task at hand, then desired 

outcomes of AIT use will result.

Value 

"A major strength of AST is that it expounds the nature of social structures within advanced information technologies and the key interaction processes that figure in their use."

"AST can also enhanee our understanding of groups in general, not just those using technology."

"One strength of AST and the method outlined here is that they facilitate analysis of between-group differences. "

"A second strength of AST is that it accounts for the structural potential of technology and at the same time focuses squarely on technology use as a key determinant of technology impacts.  "  

Questions : 

the authors emphasize on AIT, such as GDSS. However, is it really necessary to separate IT into AIT and IT? Also, what are other examples of AIT? Twitter, Facebook or app Store are AIT? no clear at all. Finally, GDSS may become not AIT  one day because the pace of IT development changes dramatically. In other words, GDSS may not be the case of AIT in the near future.  

McGrath, J. E. 1991. Time, Interaction and Performance, Small Group Research, 22(2), 147-174.

Special emphasis to temporal processes in group interaction and task performance