DIWA program (1999-2003)
DIWA web site
The DIWA program (Design and use of Interactive Web-Applications) was supported by the Danish Research Council's Program with a 6,9 million kr. research grant. The theme of the DIWA program was design, management, and the use of interactive web-technologies in distributed work settings, i.e. as an IT platform for collaborative, distributed work inside an organisation (intranet) or between organisations (extranet). We examined how web-technology – as a networked, distributed computing platform – changes IS development and use with the purpose of developing conceptual frameworks and guidelines supporting the practice of designing and managing web-based IT.
The participants in DIWA consisted of a group of 8 Danish senior researchers and 8 Ph.D. students from The Computer Science Department at RUC (hosting 2 seniors and 5 Ph.Ds), Copenhagen University, The Danish Technical University, and The IT University of Copenhagen. The DIWA group worked in cooperation with 6 industrial partners. I was part of the management group establishing, consolidating, and managing the DIWA program. I was economically responsible for RUC’s part of the budget (2 million kr.). I was in charge of establishing and managing the projects in relation to two large international corporations: the multinational Bombardier Transportation A/S and the international financial corporation Nordea A/S. The latter provided the largest body of empirical data within the DIWA program.
While my research approach in the MUST program was action research, my approach in the DIWA program was a case study approach. The research methods applied have been a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches, and have included interviews, surveying, and datamining of http log transactions. My empirical work focused on projects conducted in collaboration with Nordea and on studying organisational implementation of a generic web-based CSCW technology (Lotus QuickPlace) used in settings geographically distributed throughout several countries.