Sociotechnical research increasingly includes the social sub-networks that emerge from large-scale sociotechnical infrastructure, including the infrastructure for building open source software. This paper addresses these numerous sub-networks as advantageous for researchers. It provides a methodological synthesis focusing on how researchers can best span adjacent social sub-networks during engaged field research. Specifically, we describe practices and artifacts that aid movement from one social subsystem within a more extensive technical infrastructure to another. To surface the importance of spanning sub-networks, we incorporate a discussion of social capital and the role of technical infrastructure in its development for sociotechnical researchers. We then characterize a five-step process for spanning social sub-networks during engaged field research: commitment, context mapping, jargon competence, returning value, and bridging. We then present our experience studying corporate open source software projects and the role of that experience in accelerating our work in open source scientific software research as described through the lens of bridging social capital. Based on our analysis, we offer recommendations for engaging in fieldwork in adjacent social sub-networks that share a technical context and discussion of how the relationship between social and technically acquired social capital is a missing but critical methodological dimension for research on large-scale sociotechnical research.

翻译：社会技术研究日益关注大规模社会技术基础设施（包括构建开源软件的基础设施）中涌现的社交子网络。本文将这些众多子网络视为研究人员的优势，提供了一种方法论综合，聚焦于研究人员如何在参与式实地研究中有效跨越相邻的社交子网络。具体而言，我们描述了有助于在更广泛技术基础设施内的社交子系统之间移动的实践与工件。为凸显跨越子网络的重要性，我们融入了对社会资本及其在技术基础设施中发展作用的探讨，以服务于社会技术研究人员。随后，我们刻画了在参与式实地研究中跨越社交子网络的五步流程：承诺建立、情境映射、行话能力、价值回馈与桥梁搭建。接着，我们分享了研究企业开源软件项目的经验，以及该经验如何加速我们在开源科学软件研究中的工作——这一过程通过桥梁性社会资本的视角进行了阐述。基于分析，我们提出了在共享技术背景的相邻社交子网络中开展田野调查的建议，并讨论了社交资本与技术获取型社会资本之间的关系如何成为大规模社会技术研究中缺失但关键的方法论维度。