The Dimension of Time: Historiography in Information Systems Research

There is much to be learned from the study of history yet, as a form of research, historical studies have been largely overlooked by the IS community. It is argued that many current information systems can be best understood in terms of decisions taken in a particular temporal context and that by ignoring history, IS research is overlooking a powerful source of insights into the nature of such systems. Based on work in IS and from elsewhere, an outline for a historiographical research method in IS is presented and some issued related to this are discussed.