Data Studies in the Information Systems Discipline

Tentative program

Day 1 – Thursday 4 December (at Frost Club & Stage)

9:00-11:30 Introduction and lecture

• Introduction to the Seminar: Making Sense of Data and Data Studies
• The first session introduces data and data studies as an emerging field of research.
  • Why and what is the study of data?
  • Data is or data are? Reflections on the complexities of understanding data
  • The role of data in organizations and organizing
  • Different types of data (personal, trace, financial, synthetic, scientific, etc.)
  • Other perspectives on data (science and technology studies, critical data studies, etc.)
• IMPORTANT! Data studies is an emerging topic without established ‘canon’—I strongly encourage the participants to
  actively engage me and other participants to build understanding of data and data studies together. To this end,
  the first session will include two or three hands-on exercises to stimulate our thinking about data but you are also encouraged
  to interrupt me and ask questions whenever those arise.

11:30-12:30 Lunch
12:30-14:00 Interactive lecture

• The Characteristics of Data: Data Design, Work and Innovation
• The second session deepens our understanding of data themselves: what they are, where they come from, and how they
  work.
  • Goodbye to DIKW
  • Design, production, and use triad
  • Data work and the performativity of data
  • Data innovation

14:00-14:30 Coffee break
14:30 - 16:00 Interactive lecture

• Data in the World: Data Sharing, Governance and AI
• The third session expands our view to how data functions inside and across organizations
  • Data governance and management
  • Data sharing, commodities and commercialization
  • Data and AI

6:00-16:30 Exercise 1 Student presentations of data research streams. Discussion.

17:30-19:30 Seminar dinner

• Tentative place: Rooster (https://rooster.fi/). Details will be announced closer to the seminar.

Day 2 – Friday 5 December (at YT116)

9:00-11:00 Exercise 1 (continued)

• Student presentations of data research streams. Discussion.

11:00-12:00 Lunch

12:00-13:45 Exercise 2

• Student workshop of own research: thinking about data in your research. Discussion.

13:45-14:15 Coffee break
14:15-16:00 Lecture and Summary

• A view from the Journal of Information Technology Deputy Editor-in-Chief: How to Avoid Desk Rejections.
• Summary of the seminar

16:00 The event ends

Pre-seminar preparation
1) Read the three papers in the general reading list. We will discuss them in the seminar.
2) Choose one stream from the broader list. Prepare a ten-minute presentation, including PowerPoint, that captures the key ideas in this stream. This will be much more interesting if you take your perspective on the topic and not just summarize what is said in the papers. Deadline: Submit your PowerPoint file to the shared folder by December 1, 2025. You will receive the folder link after you enroll in the course.
3) Prepare a short (max 2 pages A4) description of your own research project and where it does or could relate to the themes of the seminar or the readings. Identify a data-related problem you have encountered in your work. Ideally, this should focus on your own research, either because your study centers on data as its object or because you use data as empirical evidence. Note: These are distinct approaches!
If you lack a suitable example from your research, you may analyze any other data issue that interests you. However, addressing a problem from your own work will enable me to give you more targeted and valuable feedback.
Deadline: Submit your essay to the shared folder by December 1, 2025. You will receive the folder link after you enroll in the course.

Readings list can be found from Peppi (Registered participants will be provided with access to these readings upon registration.)

For any questions, please contact the course organizer Arto Lanamäki: arto.lanamaki@oulu.fi