A Philosophy of Technology for Information Systems

Abstract
The philosophy of science has been important to research in the information systems discipline; however, as important as it is, the philosophy of science is not the only philosophy relevant to information systems. There is also the philosophy of technology. This seminar will be conducted as a workshop in which participants express their thoughts on the ways in which evidence, reasoning, and theory are dealt with in the natural sciences, in the social sciences, in technology, and in information systems. The workshop will work towards the development of a philosophy of technology with value for the information systems discipline.

Biography
Jonathan Liebenau is in the Department of Management of the London School of Economics where he teaches and researches on management, economic and policy aspects of the digital economy.  He is the author of numerous books and scholarly articles including, with James Backhouse, Understanding Information and with Allen Lee & J. DeGross (eds) Information Systems and Qualitative Methods. Most recently he has published a series of studies with Danny Gozman on fintech and regtech strategies and prospects (for example the forthcoming: “The role of blockchain in regulatory technology”, MISQ Exec. 2019). He has longstanding interests in the philosophy of science and technology, in information and communications technology policy and economics, and in IT and development.  In addition to financial technology studies, his current focus is on digital economy businesses in China. He has held major research grants from the UK research councils, from industry associations and charitable bodies and was a 3-year Leverhulme Fellow. He has consulted or done applied research for numerous companies including Google, Dell, Microsoft, Telefonica, BT, Nokia, Huawei and various government bodies in the UK, the EU and the USA. He holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and has been visiting professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Business and the Fu School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine, Boston University, The American University in Cairo School of Management, Yonsei University (Seoul), Istanbul Bilgi University, and currently at the University of Sydney Business School.

Allen S. Lee is Professor Emeritus of Information Systems at Virginia Commonwealth University.  He served as associate dean at both VCU and McGill University, as editor-in-chief of MIS Quarterly, and as a founding senior editor of MIS Quarterly Executive. His research program over more than three decades has involved identifying basic lessons from the philosophy and history of science and extending them, in the information systems discipline, to show not only how qualitative research can be done rigorously, but also how quantitative research equally needs to live up to the requirements of science. He is a Fellow of the Association for Information Systems, a member of the Circle of Compadres of the Information Systems Doctoral Students Association (ISDSA) of the KPMG Ph.D. Project, and a founder of Chinese American Professors of Information Systems.  In 2015, he received the LEO Award for “lifetime exceptional achievement in information systems” from the Association for Information Systems.