STS Roundtable
From STS Roundtable
An international association of STS theorists and practitioners
Welcome to the Internet home of STS/RT, Inc., the Socio-technical Systems Roundtable, where STS theorists and practitioners come together as a professional learning community. We are a global network of business leaders, researchers, trade unionists, academics, managers, and consultants who share the principles and practices of Socio-technical systems theory, and a common interest in developing more humane and effective organizations.
The STS/RT, Inc. is committed to creating and holding space for sharing information and expanding knowledge about Sociotechnical Systems Theory and its application around the globe. We use a Wiki as the primary feature of our website to stimulate discourse about topics of interest to the broad community of sociotechnical systems thinkers and users. We believe that we learn through sharing information and knowledge with others, and through posing questions to be answered by a broad community of colleagues throughout the world. We wish to provide and protect a space in which discourse matters, in which real-time learning can occur, and in which we can stimulate thoughtful and respectful collaboration among peers.
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Participate in the Roundtable
STS/RT, Inc. creates a space where STS students, theorists, practitioners, believers, and even skeptics can come together as a professional learning community (both live and virtual). The membership experience is open, active, interactive, engaged and egalitarian. Members have similar motivations and find inspiration and collegiality to help them in their individual professions. We encourage your participation and invite you to join our organization. Membership
Membership in the STS/RT is open to all interested individuals who pay the annual membership fee and participate in Roundtable activities. Members are committed to:
For more information on the benefits of being a member, and to apply to become a member, visit the membership page. Meetings
The STS/RT, Inc. sponsors a variety of meetings during the year. The Annual Meeting is held in North America, at a different location each year. Recent meetings include Chicago, Illinois in May 2005, Montreal, Quebec in October 2005, Portland, Oregon in October 2006, Ottawa, Ontario in October 2007, Memphis, Tennessee in October 2008, and Chicago, Illinois, USA, October 14 - 17, 2009. Plans are well underway for our 2010 annual meeting; we will convene in Vancouver, B.C., Canada from September 29 through October 2nd! Every annual gathering is an inclusive learning community that actively involves members and prospective members from around the globe. Meetings are characterized by a pervading sense of community, trusting relationships and intimacy that encourages a high level of openness and active engagement. This fosters an open exchange of ideas, tools and concepts that advances the purpose of the STS/RT and the quality of our members’ own work. The positive experience of our annual meetings compels people to remain actively engaged in projects, research and learning throughout the year to advance the mission of the STS/RT and continue their own professional growth. In addition to the Annual Meeting, the STS/RT holds virtual meetings focused on specific topics of importance and interest to the membership. Small groups of members occasionally meet between the annual and virtual meetings in regional groups to explore topics of mutual interest.
Contribute your time
Members of the Roundtable are encouraged to maintain an active role in the organization. This is an association operated by volunteers. Our leadership group is an elected Board of Directors known as Stewards. Participation on the Board is a 2-year commitment, and members new and old are encouraged to stand for election to openings on the Board. There are opportunities to participate in ongoing initiatives of the Roundtable also. Our Discovery Team is working to push the envelope on our understanding of STS in the context of challenges faced by organizations today and tomorrow. Another team is engaged in alliance building efforts with educational and other institutions to help enhance educational efforts around Sociotechnical Systems Theory. There are many opportunities to become actively involved in the work of the Roundtable, whether you are interested in internal governance, meeting planning, education and research, or outreach activities. Membership is typically viewed as active engagement, not passive observation.
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Contributing to the wiki
The purpose of the Sociotechnical Systems Roundtable wiki is to create space for knowledge sharing and knowledge building about sociotechnical systems theory and its application around the globe. This wiki promotes and adheres to the values of direct democracy, active participation, and consensus building … values that are entirely consistent with sociotechnical systems design principles. We invite you to share your insights and your experiences, and to be a part of creating a collaboratively edited knowledge base on sociotechnical systems principles and practices. The wiki uses the same wiki-technology as Wikipedia to make it comfortable for everyone to contribute easily. You can contribute your work – articles, thought pieces, tools, questions, case studies … anything that reflects sociotechnical principles and practices. You can also contribute your expertise and your time – editing articles, creating new linkages, providing organizing frameworks, etc. We encourage frequent and active participation in this collaborative knowledge building process: the higher the level of involvement, the stronger our knowledge base becomes. Please see our guidelines for an overview of how to contribute appropriately to the wiki. Registering on the wiki
To register on the wiki, you need to create a user account. You do not have to register to read the STS Roundtable wiki, but you will need to register in order to create or edit articles on the wiki. Having an account gives you the option to edit existing content, add new pages, as well as 'watch' pages to be notified of changes to pages in which you are interested. To register, click the Log in / create account link at the top right corner of any page. You won't be able to (easily) change your username once you choose it, so reading the username policy before creating a username is highly recommended. Tutorial on the wiki
A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis. To learn more about wikis, and how to contribute to the STS Roundtable wiki, please take the tutorial. Additional help
If, like some members, you feel this is all too complicated for you, or if you want to help but aren't sure how to contribute, you can contact the STS/RT, Inc. directly. For organizational and governance questions, contact the Stewards at stewards@stsroundtable.com. For administrative questions, contact the Secretary-Treasurer at admin@stsroundtable.com. For technical questions about this wiki, contact our technical support person at wikitech@stsroundtable.com. Or use our general email address stsrt@stsroundtable.com. We will respond as quickly as we can! Come join us. Explore the wiki. Add your opinions and commentaries. Most of all, come learn, enjoy, and have fun collaborating in the STS Roundtable Wiki. |
If you have any other questions about how to use the test site or things that you have noticed that are missing or need to be changed, you may also put them on the Administration Questions page.
