Operating within the framework of cultural-historical activity theory, I map the positions of different actors in relationship to the new information system being developed. I adopt Bowker's and Star's concept of boundary infrastructure (Bowker & Star, 1999) to emphasize the multi-perspective nature this object. I study the social construction of this technology by examining the process by which the object is constantly challenged and redefined in talk. Since the research was carried out when the infrastructure was still in the design phase, I studied the methods that actors used to discuss the future and deal with uncertainty. I compare the different perspectives through identifying interpretative repertoires that the actors expressed in their talk. In the final section of this paper, I analyze emerging contradictions between these perspectives.

The Heights district is undergoing transformation. Having remained sufficiently remote from the busy downtown of the city, the plan of the district did not undergo major modifications for several decades. Situated in a cove in the Baltic Sea, the district stretches along a parkway following the coastline. The area covers 85 hectares and has historical importance as some of the oldest remains of settlement in the region are found there. The district ends in a rivermouth, which was the original birthplace of the city. This brings special symbolic significance to the area. Rapids in the river were used to create power for early industry, and this industrial heritage has marked the historic development of the district. In the 19^th century, the rivermouth became the site of the city's hydroelectric plant and the waterworks, which now serve as a museum. Out of the 2000 residents a good part inhabit a quarter originally built by the workforce of a bygone ceramics factory. The factory complex, dating from the 1930's, has been largely preserved and the imposing main building was taken over by an arts and design university in 1985. Adjacent buildings now house a music conservatory and several small companies. The head offices of the design ceramics and utilities manufacturer still remain in these buildings, although the original factory ceased operating some 15 years ago. The ceramics corporation is still the sole large business located in the area. A smaller historic complex now houses an institute for the media arts, which brings the total number of students in the district to 2200.

According to Morris, a city urban planning official, the district's old residential area is the product of history of a small, enclosed factory workers' community.

Art and design was taken as the starting point for development of the Heights by the city in 1995, since the district is characterized by a collection of institutions specializing in culture, industrial design and the arts. The city's ambitious vision is to transform the Heights district into the leading center for applied arts in the Baltic region. A commercial enterprise, which I refer to as the Heights Development Agency, was founded in 1997 to coordinate the development activities. Representatives from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the city, property owners and the major commercial and educational institutions of the district form the board of this company.

According to Peter, a key spokesman at the Heights Development Agency, the mission of the project is to create competitive advantage for the district. He emphasizes that the key is in supporting local enterprises, since success stories will help the area become more attractive to new business.

About 400 companies now operate in the Heights district, most of them in the sectors of design, new media, culture, and tourism. An incubation program for new enterprises serves to encourage university graduates to stay and found their own businesses here. Most of the small companies born this way operate in the field of design, but the development vision coined by the Heights Development Agency also embraces media, culture and travel as the district's profiling industries. According to the vision paper of the district's strategy program for 2005, prepared by the Heights Development Agency,

The most radical terrestrial transformation is taking place by the sea, where the new residential neighborhood mentioned above is destined to stand. In spring 2000, stretches of undeveloped land remain of what used to be a landfill of the former ceramics plant. During the course of the following years, five to seven-story high apartment buildings will be constructed on this one square kilometer area, which the city's urban planners expect to house some 1000 companies and 5000 residents by 2005.

The board of Heights Development Agency decided early on to focus on new communications technology as the key to gaining competitive advantage for the district. This led the company to define "information services" as a main focus point.

In a memo from January 2000, the project objective is recited as follows:

The first task that the Information Services project set out to accomplish was to install a fiber-optic network in the area. This work was carried out in 1997—1998 by the local energy company. The goal was to provide a network connection from all homes, offices and institutions in the area, but the present network only serves the south side of the district, where only businesses, institutions and the construction site of the future seaside neighborhood are located. The connection can be used to access the Internet, but the fiber-optic cabling enables exceptionally high data transfer speeds within the local area network. A single pair of fiber provides bandwidth for up to 600 000 simultaneous telephone calls or 800 HDTV-quality television signals. Why invest in all this bandwidth? A main objective was to gain competitive advantage for the area by offering low-cost network connections. Says Donald at NetMedia, a developer of digital services for the network:

An important political decision made by the Heights Development Agency was to purchase the network from an energy company instead of a telecommunications operator. The energy company now leases the network to operators, enabling competition between the services. No single operator is in a position to monopolize the network.

Yet a year after its completion, it is difficult to find evidence that the fiber-optic network as such would have had much of an impact on the businesses, residents or institutions in the area. Many buildings already had ATM-type network connections in place before the fiber-optic cabling was installed, and customers continue to subscribe to Internet connections from various providers. Without local services that take advantage of the extra bandwidth available in the area, the temporarily unique infrastructure remains unexploited.

Since 1997, The Heights Development Agency had been crafting a strategy for creating the services that would provide added value to the network. This project was dubbed the Heights Virtual Village. In a memo from January 2000 the Virtual Village is defined as follows:

It was clear that the Heights Development Agency could not develop or manage the needed services alone, so in 1998 the board decided to partner with a telecommunications operator, TelCo. Peter describes the situation:

The Heights Development Agency and TelCo have agreed to create a local service provider company to host the Heights Virtual Village. The enterprise was yet to materialize during the time of this research, but once there, it would coordinate the further development of the services and start offering the Virtual Village as a package to customers. According to Donald at NetMedia,

In summer 1999, the Heights Development Agency applied for government funding from the National Technology Agency for the development of these digital services. Two of the district's local application developers, NetMedia and TechPlace were chosen as the main contractors. NetMedia is partly owned by TelCo, and was assigned a leading role in the development of the Virtual Village interface. TechPlace, a small independent company, was chosen to collaborate in the development of the services. The Heights Development Agency decided to start the project in the summer of 1999 although government funding was not yet certain. The National Technology Agency did finally reach a positive decision to fund the project with 20 million FIM (about 3.3 million US dollars) in December that same year.

What are the elements that make up the Virtual Village? According to Donald,

A steering group consisting of a senior representative from TelCo, the Heights Development Agency, NetMedia and TechPlace was formed in 1999 to direct the Virtual Village project. The group ratified a phased strategy for the development of the services. In the first phase, the Virtual Village would be targeted for local businesses and institutions. Therefore, many of the first 25 services are built with the local small business customers in mind.

The developers set as their target to create a portal that knows the customer. In NetMedia's presentation material, the Virtual Village is described as "A portal, but instead of just surfing through and advertising, a personalized service knowing the user, user preferences and the user environment". Customers log on to the system in one of four modes: "working", "home", "free time", or "mobile". They may access the Virtual Village with different devices, like the office PC at work, the digital TV at home, or the mobile phone while on the move. Each mode offers a tailored set of services, which are displayed in figure 1.

Third parties could also offer their digital services through the Virtual Village. An example would be a business leasing software over the broadband network, where instead of having to purchase the entire package, customers can operate the software through a remote interface and pay only for the time that they need to use it for.

The developers aim to overcome the complexity of such a multitude of services by designing a unified interface for everything the Virtual Village has to offer. According to Donald,

The design of the Virtual Village also includes customer profiling. The system is designed to collect information based on customer transactions, but the designers emphasize that the user is to remain in total control of her profile. In Donald's view, profiling information can be used to bring people together:

The launch of the Virtual Village is scheduled for spring 2000. In March it was still somewhat unclear which services would be operational on D-day. The rollout of all phase 1 services should be completed by the end of the year. Phase 2, the development and implementation of a corresponding number of consumer services, is scheduled to be completed in 2001.

The Virtual Village will compete with offerings from other service providers on the open network, but Donald believes the affordable connection bundled with the custom services will make the Virtual Village a winning combination:

Several years have passed since the original plans of the Virtual Village were laid out. During this time, the focus in new technology has somewhat shifted from broadband to wireless services in the European market. The shift in market interest has created dynamics within the Virtual Village project as well. Wireless access to the services had been on the mission statement from the start, but development has focused on leveraging the investment in the wired network. Another dynamic emerged as a large technology corporation acquired TechPlace, the smaller of the two main contractors in October 1999. This led to a conflict of interest regarding the platform of choice for the Virtual Village software, and in March 2000 TechPlace withdrew from the project.

At the same time, new players were entering the project. An effort to develop the wireless aspect of the Virtual Village bore fruit as several large international technology corporations announced plans to support the construction of what was now dubbed "The Heights wireless Virtual Village". The announcements gained media attention, and the Heights district became labeled by the press as being developed into a genuine new hotbed for testing and development of next generation wireless communications technology. At the time of the writing of this paper, the leading Finnish newspaper writes,

A key driver in the wireless development of the project is TelCo, which will host the next generation network to provide broadband wireless access and positioning information for the wireless Virtual Village. In addition to TelCo, a very large international technology conglomerate, a software developer and a global mobile communications giant have agreed to link their technology development with the project.

In principle, these partnerships would enable the developers of the Virtual Village to be among the first to build and test services on third generation wireless networks, devices and software. What kind of services does this entail? According to Donald,

Services also include plans for "Personal Navigation", which could be used to find your way around or do narrated sightseeing, where arriving at a certain location triggers a pre-recorded audio narration on the mobile phone.

The Virtual Village is part of an effort to alter the infrastructure of the Heights district on various levels. The demographics of the area will be completely transfigured. Material infrastructure will be reshaped, from the purification of contaminated soil to erection of modern office and apartment buildings. New roads and waterways will redirect the flow of traffic. New businesses are envisioned to restructure the economy. Amidst this upheaval, developers of the Virtual Village aspire to create a ubiquitous information network for the businesses, institutions and citizens.

Bowker and Star point out that infrastructures tend to fade into the background in everyday life, and we routinely take their existence for granted unless they break down or are under construction. These qualities apply particularly well to information infrastructures.

According to Bowker and Star, infrastructures emerge in a historical process of the development of many tools, arranged for a variety of users, and made to work in concert. They are a practical match among routines of work practice, technology, and a wider scale of organizational and technical resources; and they are characterized by a rich set of negotiated compromises (Bowker & Star, 1999, p. 34). The Heights Virtual Village is potentially becoming an infrastructure shared by various communities of practice, which operate within and across institutions like local businesses and schools.

Bowker and Star have developed the concept of boundary infrastructure to highlight how any working infrastructure serves multiple communities of practice simultaneously (Bowker & Star, 1999, p. 313). In order to analyze the construction of the Virtual Village as a boundary infrastructure, we need to understand how the different actors create a perspective on this object. By establishing a perspective, actors define their own "subject-position" and simultaneously pin down a conception of the object — in this case, the Virtual Village. Holland and Reeves refer to Goodwin and Goodwin's account of the airport to illustrate how different perspectives are integral parts of the division of labor between different actors.

For the Heights Development Agency, the Virtual Village represents an infrastructure enabling actors — businesses and institutions first and foremost — to create and distribute their own content. The fiber-optic network represents a channel that needs to be filled, much like a telephone line is useless if no one has anything to say. From this perspective, the Virtual Village is meant to become an instrument for the local actors to further their own ends.

Perspectives can be used to sort out different points of view or interpretations, and to see whether it is possible to group them into tangible categories. The key here is what ties a collection of statements together into a true perspective — do the points of view of the actors really differ in a way that is possible to conceptualize and model? In fact, the notion of perspective does not seem powerful enough for detailed analysis of talk. It could be elaborated and enriched with other analytical tools like interpretative repertoires (Suoninen, 1997; Wetherell & Potter, 1988) and cultural models (Gee, 1999). We could study, for example, whether certain interpretative repertoires or cultural models are common for specific perspectives.

Interpretative repertoires can be thought of as collections of fairly compatible statements that apply similar terms and metaphors. These terms are often drawn from one or more key metaphors (Wetherell & Potter, 1988). Boland and Tenkasi define perspective making as communication that strengthens the unique knowledge of a community (Boland & Tenkasi, 1995, p. 351). Perspective making could be viewed as the process of taking a certain interpretative repertoire, and using it to call forth a subject and an object through enacting or articulating a relationship between them. In this way, actors create "A view from somewhere".

As Donald describes how the Virtual Village enables local businesses to communicate with each other, he contrives a perspective with regard to the small companies and the Virtual Village system.

In the above passages, the Heights Development Agency and NetMedia adopt what I call a rationalist interpretative repertoire to construct their own subject-positions as developers and the object as a shared instrument, and the local companies as small, active networkers. I use the term rationalist in the manner described by Mintzberg (1990) as assuming predictability, clear intentions, thought independent of action, full understanding throughout the organization, and that reasonable people will do reasonable things (van der Heijden, 1996, p. 24). Within this repertoire, the adoption of the Virtual Village is seen as a rational choice for local businesses. But the construction of these actors is based on the conception of a shared need for instruments to facilitate collaboration — something that the companies themselves do not arrive at without problems.

Jeff manages a program at one of the local educational institutions. He remains somewhat unsure about what real possibilities the Virtual Village will offer.

Jeff adopts what I refer to as an evolutionary interpretative repertoire to define the educational institution as a likely user with a "wait and see" approach. van der Heijden (1996, 34) describes the evolutionary approach to management as having no grand strategy, only "just one thing after another". Lindblom (1959) has called this "the approach of muddling through". Within this repertoire, the Virtual Village is represented as a potentially valuable complementary distribution channel.

Ben operates a small business out of the Heights district. He is highly knowledgeable about new communications technology and the Internet, and he relies heavily on email to communicate. He has also created a simple Web site for his firm. He emphasizes that the small businesses of the area may need other practical resources more urgently than an information system.

Steve co-runs a program at another major educational institution in the district. The first thing that comes to his mind about the Virtual Village is the rhetoric.

The entrepreneur and educational institution 2 implemented what I call the skeptical interpretative repertoire to articulate themselves as subjects and the Virtual Village as object. They question whether the Virtual Village will ultimately prove valuable for their own activities. Using the skeptical repertoire, both define the Virtual Village as an instrument which may turn out to be well suited to further the ends of other actors, such as the developers themselves, but fail to deliver substantial value for the intended end users.

Actors are not confined to using a single interpretative repertoire — on the contrary, discussion is characterized by constant switching between different repertoires. This switching of repertoires draws attention to the interview as situated conversation, and the subject's interpretations of the interviewer's reactions like facial expressions (Suoninen, 1997). For example, Steve at the Educational institution 2 switched between the skeptical and the evolutionary interpretative repertoire, to the point of seemingly contradicting himself.

In the previous section, I concentrated on analyzing the different actors' perspectives through identifying three main types of interpretative repertoires: the rationalist, evolutionist and skeptic. It seems the terms and expressions of these interpretative repertoires exemplify certain underlying tensions between the perspectives. Boland and Tenkasi (1995, 362) note that boundary objects or boundary infrastructure can become a center of intense conflict as easily as one of cooperative effort. "Creating and reshaping boundary objects is an exercise of power that can be collaborative or unilateral." But how can we model such tensions? The notion of contradiction developed in the framework of cultural-historical activity theory may prove useful. Holland and Reeves (1994, p. 18) compare the notions of perspective and contradiction in their study on student programming teams.

Contradictions manifest themselves in the context of human practice, which can be studied in the form of activity systems (Engeström, 1997). Taking the activity system as a unit of analysis draws our attention from the more traditional focus on the individual, or conversely from abstract organizing principles like norms and values, to the interplay between the subject (the individual or group whose point of view is adopted); the instruments (both physical and symbolic); the explicit and implicit rules; the larger community of individuals who distinct themselves from other communities; and finally the division of labor (both the horizontal division of tasks and the vertical division of power and status), all defined by a common object. The object can be described as the 'raw material' or 'problem space' at which the activity is directed and which is molded and transformed into outcomes. The basic model of the human activity system is depicted in figure 2.

When analyzing contradictions as manifested in language, we face the problem of distinguishing contradictions from mere shifts in emphasis. Contradictions are generated in a dialectic of two forces, where both require the other but simultaneously oppose it. Contradictions are the source of the inner dynamic within the activity system, fueling its development. According to Engeström (1997), "The activity system is constantly working through contradictions within and between its elements. In this sense, an activity system is a virtual disturbance- and innovation-producing machine."

An emergent contradiction can be observed in the construction of the potential adopters of the technology from the perspective of a developer and a local educational institution.

However, the perspective of educational institution 2 speaks against the impression of consensus among potential users.

Boland and Tenkasi (1995, p. 358) point out that "the ready availability of the actor's own perspective may lead the actor to overestimate that the perspective will be shared by others." This causes a false consensus effect (Ross et al. 1977) where subjects assume that others are more similar to themselves than is actually the case.

Both the Heights Development Agency and NetMedia employed the rationalist interpretative repertoire in constructing a representation of the intended users of the system. However, their motives regarding the Heights Virtual Village are markedly different. NetMedia's subject-position is that of contractor and technology producer.

In the end, the technology producers are in this to create a product that can be packaged and exported elsewhere. It is important for them that the product succeeds in the Heights area, but unlike the Heights Development Agency, their performance is not entirely dependent on value the Virtual Village will bring to local customers in the district. Is there reason to accentuate this discrepancy as an underlying contradiction? What distinguishes contradictions from trivial disparities?

The key contradiction in activity systems in capitalist societies is that of the double nature of commodity within each component. "The primary contradiction of all activities in capitalist socio-economic formations is that between the exchange value and the use value within each element of the activity system" (Engeström, 1997). The Heights Development Agency defines as its object the construction of a medium for local actors to produce communal content. This emphasizes the significance of use value, which the system is expected to deliver to its intended users: most importantly the small businesses, then educational institutions and finally private residents. However, NetMedia's object is to develop a globally transferable product by virtue of its motive as a commercial technology developer. This can be expected for any of the for-profit companies who occupy the subject-position of contractor in the network of activity systems around the Heights Virtual Village. Figure 3 depicts these emergent contradictions.

In Figure 3, the Heights Virtual Village emerges as an outcome of the activity systems of the developers: The Heights Development Agency on the one hand, technology developers such as NetMedia on the other. The internal contradiction between use value and exchange value within the object becomes articulated in the differing definition of the object as medium for communal content versus the object as a globally transferable product. Furthermore, the Virtual Village is intended to become an instrument in the respective activity systems of the local small businesses, educational institutions and private residents. The weight of the downward arrows depicts the developers prioritizing businesses, and to a lesser degree institutions over private residents. Lightning symbols locate the contradictions within these transitions or relationships.

The virtual village metaphor is contested time and again in the talk of both the developers and the potential users. Early documents describe the virtual village as a digital representation of the district's key material artifacts like buildings. Ben notes this as something of a bygone fad, a dead metaphor:

Steve and Christy at educational institution 2 consider the Virtual Village title a mismatch between terms denoting a romanticized, traditional community and "something completely different".

The village metaphor is replaced in the contractors' talk with the metaphor of a portal — a collection of services offered through a single access point. The ambivalence between the village and portal metaphors is evident in the previously quoted section of a memo from January 2000, where the official project title is followed by the elaborations "virtual service center" and "portal". This can be viewed as an attempt to translate the project definition from one metaphor to another: from the waning virtual village metaphor into the service portal metaphor favored by the contractors. Notice that the word "community" remains absent from the definition:

Boland and Tenkasi (1995, p. 356) discuss the role of metaphors in Bradshaw's (1992) analysis of the Wright brothers' invention of the airplane:

It could be argued that the search for a collectively accepted metaphor to denote the information system is a sign of the internal contradiction between use value and the exchange value within the object of the activity. This contradiction becomes articulated in language through the choice of a metaphor to depict the system. Turbulence created by the double nature of the object becomes reified in the metaphor because it remains the most tangible shared manifestation of the object for the various actors. At this point the information system remains unreleased, veiling the outcome behind a curtain of uncertainty. Perhaps once the system ships, this level of metaphor becomes trivial as people shift to deal with other handy, more concrete representations of the object. However, a shift from metaphor to some other manifestation doesn't mean that the contradiction within the object would disappear. In fact, the contradiction can be viewed as a source of potential innovations.

Jaeger (1999, p. 12—13) notes that "When the users themselves are not directly present in the process of development, the designers must design the technology on the basis of their own hypotheses concerning the users." This can lead to problems, since it is often easier for designers to supplement the inconsistent, ambivalent slew of people who rarely share the same language games with the designers for what Wodak (1996, 54—55) refers to as myths. The creation of myths is one strategy to cover up contradictions. Myths serve to distance the actor from contradictions, providing for temporary comfort in seeming predictability.

The new inhabitants and businesses expected to flock to the area with the construction of new apartments and office space may become a potential mythical representation of the users that replaces the existing actors. When discussing private users, developers consistently refer to the future inhabitants of the new seaside neighborhood.

The idea of designing the service for a nonexistent user group may inadvertently legitimize a top-down approach to design of the system. A year after its initial installment, the fiber-optic network, for one, has not been extended to the existing residential area on the north side of the parkway. Currently the network only covers the south side of the main road, where businesses and educational institutions reside. A rule set by the city ensures that all new homes of the future seaside neighborhood must be equipped with connections to the fiber-optic network. However, almost all of the 2000 current residents live on the north side of the parkway, where no cabling has been installed at the moment.

Reverting to a self-constructed representation of the user may save the designer from bewildering complexity, but in projects where engagement of a community of users is critical the top-down approach does not bear a history of successful reception. Boland & Tenkasi (1995, P. 361) use Schön's example of how town planners were forced to reformulate their top-down approach and build on pre-existing patterns of communication.

Already over a quarter of a century ago, Lucas (1975) noted the importance in understanding the social context of use of information systems.

This is also reflected in Jaeger's study of urban information systems ("digital cities") in seven major cities in Europe. She remarks that "When considering the seven cases together, it is clear that it is the technical expertise and competence that have been made the highest priority, whereas the users' wishes and competence do not appear to have played any significant role" (Jaeger, 1999, p. 13).

The redefining of the metaphor for the system may provide the potential for innovations. On the other hand, the shift from a village metaphor to a service portal metaphor may reify a top-down approach where the system appears more as a one way distribution channel rather than two-way communication. The Heights development Agency occupies the key role of an intermediary for maintaining collaboration and knowledge flow between the various actors, including the present inhabitants and the city officials. Jaeger (1999, p. 1) points out that the most important outcomes of an experiment like the Heights Virtual Village may not be rendered visible by the most obvious material or economic measures of success.

The crucial issue seems to be whether or not the Heights Virtual Village manages to become integrated into the pre-existing communication of the actors in the district as a new but integral aspect of the shifting infrastructure. Much depends on whether the digital infrastructure manages to support other services that function as platforms for communication and social networking like cafés and cinemas, which remain practically nonexistent in the area presently. It seems that social capital, after all, easily becomes the number one "competitive advantage" of any local area over another. This interplay between the development of new digital and material infrastructure promises to be an enticing topic of further research in the Heights district.