Cultivating practice & shepherding technology use

Previous work has shown that the successful appropriation of technology into practice depends heavily on users' understandings and narratives around the technology's use. Who drives the successful appropriation process is still ill-defined within the literature. In this paper, we present a case study conducted in a research university, using interviews to understand staff practices and technology appropriation within their work contexts. We found that the successful appropriation of collaborative IT relies on the invisible work conducted by those people within groups who formally or informally aid their colleagues in the successful 'cultivation' of practices and sensemaking around technology-people we call shepherds. We draw parallels to other work that suggest the need for similar types of agents and close with a dialog concerning the challenge of establishing shepherding practices within large organizations.