30 WHAT DO WE MEAN BY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY? PERSPECTIVES ON STUDYING COMPUTING 1. INTRODUCTION Steve Sawyer School of Information Sciences and Technology The Pennsylvania State University U.S.A. Steven Haynes School of Information Sciences and Technology The Pennsylvania State University U.S.A. Duane Truex Robinson College of Business Georgia State University U.S.A. Ojelanki Ngwenyama School of Business Virginia Commonwealth University U.S.A. The current information systems (IS) literature is embracing an increasingly explicit focus on organizational actions and issues relative to the design, con- struction, and use ofIS. However, the socio-technical nature of the issues in IS suggests that this research should also inform those who build computing artifacts. For example, and as we do in this panel, both Morrison and George (1995) and Markus (2000) argue that IS research should be both more connected to, and say more about, the information technologies (IT) that are embedded in the systems being studied. Stated more broadly, what is it about IS that IS researchers study? What can IS researchers say about information technologies that are a central part of their research? This panel contributes to the debate about the definition of IT The original version of this chapter was revised: The copyright line was incorrect. This has been corrected. The Erratum to this chapter is available at DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-35489-7_33 © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2001 N. L. Russo et al. (eds.), Realigning Research and Practice in Information Systems Development