Projects per year
Personal profile
Professional Information
Carsten Østerlund is an associate professor at the School of Information Studies, Syracuse University. I received my Ph.D. from MIT's Sloan School of Management (2003) and a M.A. in social psychology and social anthropology from University of Aarhus and University of Copenhagen, Denmark. During my MA studies I spent two years as a Fulbright scholar at UC Berkeley, Department of Social and Cultural Studies. Subsequently, I worked in the Work Practice and Technology Group at Xerox PARC.
My larger areas of interest include distributed & virtual work, organizational learning and knowledge, communication practices, and medical informatics. My research explores the organizational implications of information systems. More specifically, I study the organization, creation, and use of documents in distributed work environments where peoples daily practices are characterized by high mobility. Empirically, I approach these issues through in-depth qualitative and quantitative studies of everyday work practices in organizations including among others: Healtcare, eScience, free/libre/open source software development, game design, sales, citizen science.
As modern organizations have become more global and distributed, organizational life is increasingly dependent on those who are distant in time and space. How to incorporate the concerns and contributions of absent others is an important consideration for organizational members. The organization, creation, and use of information systems serve as one strategy to capture and stand for the interests and work of others. My current research focuses on the practices that go into documenting work - which I refer to as documenting practices. This includes the activity of capturing knowledge in any media whether paper based, electronic or wall mounted. Studies of tangible documenting practices allow me to articulate the temporal and spatial dimensions of distributed and mobile work in organizational settings. In short, my research explores the question: how do people use documents to manage their movements and interactions in time and space?
Research Interests
New forms of work associated with information and communication technology.
My research program focuses on the organization, creation, and use of documents and other sociomaterial practices in distributed work environments, with an emphasis on learning and knowledge dynamics in new forms of work. Empirically I study these issues through in-depth qualitative studies of everyday work practices in a range of settings including citizen science, crowdsourcing, distributed science teams, and healthcare. Recently, I have been particularly interested in how we can merge qualitative and quantitative methodologies to study trace data.
Education
Management/Organization Studies, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1996 → 2002
Social Psychology & Anthropology, M.A.
1993 → 1996
Psychology, B.A., University of Copenhagen
1989 → 1993
External positions
Visiting Scholar, Technology in Practice, IT University of Copenhagen
2010 → 2012
Visiting Scholar, Institute of Organization, Copenhagen Business School
2006 → 2007
Adjunct Professor, Pediatrics (Courtesy Appointment), SUNY Upstate Medical University
2003 → …
Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen
2002
Research Assistant, Center for Innovation and Product Development, MIT
1997 → 2001
Research Assistant, Center for Organizational Learning, MIT
1997
Researcher, System and Practices Laboratory, Palo Alto Research Center
1994 → 1995
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Network
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Collaborative Research: HCC: Medium: Intelligent support for non-experts to navigate large information spaces
Crowston, K. G. & Oesterlund, C.
10/1/21 → 9/30/24
Project: Research project
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Trackable Reasoning and Analysis for Collaboration and Evaluation
Stromer-Galley, J., Oesterlund, C. & Xiao, L.
Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity
1/3/17 → 9/30/17
Project: Research project
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VOSS: Documents and the Doing of Science: Studying Cyberinfrastructures in Use
Sawyer, S. B. & Oesterlund, C.
9/1/12 → 8/31/16
Project: Research project
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Artificial intelligence and the world of work, a co-constitutive relationship
Østerlund, C., Jarrahi, M. H., Willis, M., Boyd, K. & T. Wolf, C., Jan 2021, In: Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. 72, 1, p. 128-135 8 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
10 Scopus citations -
Discovering features in gravitational-wave data through detector characterization, citizen science and machine learning
Soni, S., Berry, C. P. L., Coughlin, S. B., Harandi, M., Jackson, C. B., Crowston, K., Osterlund, C., Patane, O., Katsaggelos, A. K., Trouille, L., Baranowski, V. G., Domainko, W. F., Kaminski, K., Rodriguez, M. A. L., Marciniak, U., Nauta, P., Niklasch, G., Rote, R. R., Téglás, B., Unsworth, C., & 1 others , Oct 2021, In: Classical and Quantum Gravity. 38, 19, 195016.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
7 Scopus citations -
Flexible versus structured support for reasoning: enhancing analytical reasoning through a flexible analytic technique
Stromer-Galley, J., Rossini, P., Kenski, K., McKernan, B., Clegg, B., Folkestad, J., Østerlund, C., Schooler, L., Boichak, O., Canzonetta, J., Martey, R. M., Pavlich, C., Tsetsi, E. & McCracken, N., 2021, In: Intelligence and National Security. 36, 2, p. 279-298 20 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
1 Scopus citations -
"jol" or "pani"? How Does Governance Shape a Platform's Identity?
Das, DI., Østerlund, C. & Semaan, B., Oct 18 2021, In: Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. 5, CSCW2, 473.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access3 Scopus citations -
Building an apparatus: Refractive, reflective, and diffractive readings of trace data
Østerlund, C., Crowston, K. & Jackson, C., 2020, In: Journal of the Association for Information Systems. 21, 1, 10.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
20 Scopus citations
Activities
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IFIP 8.2 Working Conference: Living with Monsters? Social Implications of Algorithmic Phenomena, Hybrid Agency and the Performativity of Technology
Carsten Oesterlund (Chair), M. Aanestad (Chair), M. Mahring (Chair), K. Riemer (Chair) & Ulrike Schultze (Chair)
Dec 2018Activity: Attendance types › Participation in conference
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Open online community health and sustainability
Carsten Oesterlund (Invited speaker)
Apr 16 2018 → Apr 17 2018Activity: Talk types › Invited talk
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Documenting Practices: Methodological Considerations
Carsten Oesterlund (Speaker)
Dec 12 2017 → Dec 14 2017Activity: Talk types › Invited talk
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Theory transfers? Social theory and CSCW research
Carsten Oesterlund (Organizer)
2017Activity: Attendance types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
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Documenting Work: Beyond the notion of information technology
Carsten Oesterlund (Invited speaker)
May 23 2017Activity: Talk types › Invited talk
Press and Media
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NASA Education Express Message -- March 23, 2017
Kevin G Crowston & Carsten Oesterlund
3/26/17
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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CSU researchers part of $11.5 million project to improve complex decision-making
Lael Schooler, Carsten Oesterlund, David van der Kellen Mendes, Lael Schooler, Jennifer Stromer-Galley & Lu Xiao
2/2/17
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Expert Comment
Prizes
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Best Paper in Minitrack in the Genres of Digital Documents Minitrack
Oesterlund, Carsten (Recipient), 2006
Prize
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Emil and Therese Hjort's Award for Distinguished Students
Oesterlund, Carsten (Recipient), 1996
Prize: Honorary award
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Højgaard's Travel Award & University of Aarhus Travel Award for Distinguished Students
Oesterlund, Carsten (Recipient), 1993
Prize: Honorary award
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Jeffrey Katzer Professor of the Year, Outstanding Teaching and Advising Award
Oesterlund, Carsten (Recipient), 2009
Prize: Honorary award