bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Queendom Online Test Repository
Authors: Baker J.
Published: May 2011

According to Barak and English (2002), the use of Internet-based psychological tests is an extension of computerized testing which emerged in the 1980s (p. 65). As with computerized testing, online psychological tests provide almost instant results since Likert-style questions can be scored by the computer without additional human intervention. Additionally, customized profiles can be presented along with the resulting scores, enabling the user to draw additional meaning from the selected instrument. An additional benefit of Internet-based measures is the potential for web sites to serve as clearinghouses containing a myriad of instruments, available to online users for free or on a subscription basis. As a result, numerous online repositories have been developed which offer a variety of psychological tests, ranging from fully validated instruments to individually-designed scales. One of the more popular test libraries is the Queendom.com site run by Plumeus, Inc. Since its founding in 1996, over 90 million people have completed over 400 million tests in nine different languages at the Queendom web site (http://www.queendom.com). According to the Queendom home page, the site contains “114 professionally developed and validated psychological tests, 111 Just-for-Fun tests, [and] 230 mind games and quizzes.” The five most popular psychological tests are the Classical Intelligence Test, the Self-Esteem Test, the Emotional Intelligence Test, the Communication Skills Test, and the Type-A Personality Test. Just-for-Fun test include such measures as the Snob Test, the Blind Date Test, and the Party Guest Test. Mind games and quizzes include puzzles, math problems, memory games, and trivia tests.
Digital Rights Management for E-Content and E-Technologies
Authors: Wang Y. , Cheng Q.
Published: May 2011

Digital rights management (DRM) provides digital content creators and owners with a range of controls over how their information resources may be used. It is a fairly young discipline yet is becoming increasingly important as digital content can be copied and distributed so easily that the piracy of them is growing critical. In addition, with the rapid adoption of the Internet as an e-content delivery channel, complex DRM systems are required to protect the digital content besides the distribution channel. Risking their intellectual property (IP) rights, many major e-content providers are relying on DRM to not only protect the packaged digital products, but also to promote the e-content market over the Internet. As a multidisciplinary technology, DRM has advanced innovative research and development in various fields such as biometrics, watermarking, security protocols, smart-card technology, forgery detection, and secure collaboration and data sharing. Commercially, DRM provides the e-content market with a significant impetus to grow, where secure e-content distribution is essential. Despite its short history, many DRM tools have already been developed by IBM, Sony, Real Networks, Intertrust, and Thomson. These products need be compatible with existing standards for contents, consumer electronics, and often times, different DRM systems. Standardization efforts in industry are ongoing to ensure the interoperability of DRM products and services. Another important impetus is the legal and regulatory framework. Technical measures provide an effective hurdle for limiting abuse, but legal actions against violators can prevent organized piracy from infringing. With a properly integrated legal, technological, and commercial framework, we expect that the DRM products and services will greatly foster the growth of the e-content market that is eagerly awaited by content providers and consumers. Without proper DRM technologies and laws, the creative industries that create digital products such as DVDs, business software, music recordings, theatrical films, and digital TV programs will suffer from piracy and would be reluctant to support Web-based commerce. The socioeconomic impact of DRM is huge. In this article, DRM techniques using cryptography, data hiding, and biometrics are discussed. Also covered are the standardization issues, emerging trends, and challenges in DRM-related technologies, commerce, and legislative regulations.
Graphical Content on Mobile Devices
Authors: Rosenbaum René , Tominski Christian , Schumann Heidrun
Published: May 2011

The enthusiasm for mobile computing is still unbroken as a year on year increase of 51% in the overall global shipments of mobile devices in the fourth quarter of 2004 has shown (Canalys.com, 2005). With 300 million new subscribers in 2004 alone, 27% of the world’s population now has access to mobile communications (Svanberg, 2005). A mobile device is a natural multi-functional device and the opportunity to handle multimedia data is only the first step on a long way. Although the development of mobile devices has already made great progress, handling graphical data is still expensive due to the limited resources in mobile environments. Especially if large graphics must be processed limits are quickly reached. However, it is necessary to provide effective and appealing graphical representations for successful m-commerce. The aim of this article is to derive major limitations of current mobile hardware and to show how large graphical content can be appropriately processed on such devices. Since visual content can be described either by vector (SVG, Flash) or raster data (Bmp, Gif), both approaches are explained and particular properties are shown. Based on experimental results, this enables us to give guidelines for the appropriate handling of large graphical contents in m-commerce applications. This contribution is structured as follows: in the section titled “Background”, properties of current mobile devices are reviewed and the displaying pipeline together with basic principles of vector and raster images is explained. These statements form the basis for our tests and comparisons in the “Main Discussions” section and statements for future work in the “Future Trends” section. Since there are huge differences in the performance in the handling of vector and raster images, we close our contribution by giving implementation guidelines for applications presenting large graphical content on mobile devices (“Conclusion”). “References” and “Key Terms” serve to provide sources for cited literature and definitions for related terms.
ICT Applications in Aviation
Authors: Wong T. T.
Published: May 2011

Globalization of the social economy will further increase during the 21st century. The mission of international air transportation will become more important, and all airports around the world will have a significant role to play. Furthermore, it is predicted that air transportation demand in the world will double over the next 15 years. In the meantime, since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, the environment surrounding the aviation industry has become very severe and has caused adverse impact to the entire aviation industry. Security at airports has been reinforced in all aspects, significantly deteriorated on-time performance, caused mass congestion at the airport, and caused a drastic increase in aviation management and operational costs. Owing to these issues, the aviation industry in recent years has seen a need to improve both convenience to passengers and security measures, and at the same time improve on-time performance in the most economical manner. In connection with this trend, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has been promoting the Simplifying Passenger Travel project to facilitate the process of international travel for next-generation air transportation. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have an especially significant role to play here, for it is only with the strategic, widespread, intensive, and innovative use of ICT in future airport development polices and programs that the ambitious agenda of passenger convenience and airport security becomes much more possible to achieve. But this involves the need not only to unleash the potential of ICT per se, but also the need to ensure that an enabling environment and capacities that can facilitate its aviation applications are in place.
Multi-Agent System for Web-Based Customization
Authors: Blecker Thorsten , Abdelkafi Nizar
Published: May 2011

Web-based customization refers to an e-commerce business model whereby customers can individualize their products via the electronic channel. The success of this business model to a great extent depends on the appropriateness of the information system, which supports online interaction between customer and supplier (Franke & Piller, 2003). For example, computer manufacturers offering their products online enable customers to select the type of components to be built in the final product (e.g., type of processor, motherboards, graphic and sound cards, etc.). This type of interaction is referred to as Web-based product configuration. In order to increase the chances that customers find suitable products, Web-based customization offers large variety. However, due to the limited information processing capacity of humans and lack of technical product knowledge, excessive product variety confuses customers (Piller, Koch, Moeslein, & Schubert, 2003). It triggers decision-making difficulties and uncertainty concerning the suitability of choices. In effect, customers are generally unaware of their needs and not capable of making optimal buying decisions. Furthermore, the support provided by common information systems is more consistency check than real assistance, since their main task is to verify the compatibility of components between each other. On the other hand, the resulting variety brings about an increasing complexity of operations and manufacturing-related tasks on the supplier’s side. The complexity that is perceived by customers during the interaction process is called “external complexity,” whereas complexity that is experienced inside manufacturing and operations is referred to as “internal complexity.” Therefore, a suitable information system that supports Web-based customization should simultaneously address both challenges. It should provide customers with appropriate assistance during the search for adequate products and support suppliers in managing variety. In the following, an information system that is capable of coping with both types of complexity will be developed.
Ontology for E-Government Public Services
Authors: Vassilakis Costas , Lepouras George
Published: May 2011

In the past few years, information and communication technologies are increasingly used for provision of public services, improvement of managerial effectiveness and promotion of democracy, a development that is commonly termed as e-government (Gil-Garcia, 2004). Transactional services are an indispensable tool for delivering public services and can additionally be used for democracy promotion (e.g., via questionnaires and polls), thus, playing a central role in e-government. Transactional services development and promotion has also been in the focus of specific projects and initiatives (e.g., European Commission, 2004) or supporting frameworks (e.g., UK online, http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/schemasstandards/egif.asp). E-government services have now been developed to cover the basic services that should be delivered to citizens and enterprises (Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, 2004). Administrations realise however, that besides making new e-services available or enhancing existing ones, a number of issues regarding e-services has to be addressed, including: 1. E-Service Composition: In many cases, different public services need to be combined to fully service the needs of a service consumer (citizen or enterprise) in a particular point in time. This issue is often termed “handling of life events” (Wimmer & Tambouris, 2002). 2. E-Service Cataloguing: Mechanisms enabling service consumers to locate the available e-services should be provided (Gant & Gant, 2002). These mechanisms should cater for the needs of all service consumers, such as incorporation of multiple taxonomies for e-services (e.g., by delivering organisation, life events, by service category, etc.), provision of search facilities, retrieval of relevant legislative information, etc. 3. Change Management: Legislation regarding governmental services is often revised, necessitating changes to the content or procedures of services (Vassilakis, 2003). E-services are more prone to changes since the regulatory framework of e-service provision can also be subject to modifications (e.g., stronger encryption or stricter authentication requirements). Whenever changes occur, the affected services (or service portions) must be located and undergo maintenance activities. Cascading effects may also appear, (e.g., if service A depends on service B and service B is modified, harmonisation actions may be needed for service A). 4. Administrative Responsibility: The administrative responsibility must be clearly reflected in all phases of e-services lifecycle (Cassese & Savino, 2005), since it determines both the authoritative source to define (or revise) requirements and procedures and the canonical bureau for operating the e-service, resolving issues, etc. In some cases, operation of services can be delegated by the administratively responsible authority to other agencies, (e.g., the ministry of internal affairs is administratively responsible for the service “issuance of birth certificates”, but municipalities or citizen service centres can be endorsed to also deliver this service.
Strategic Planning for Distance Training
Authors: Brace Todd , Berge Zane
Published: May 2011

As pressure increases for training to justify itself as an activity with a return on investment (ROI), it needs to align its activities with the strategic objectives of the organization. More importantly, it must position itself in the minds of the organization’s decision makers as a necessary component in the strategic-planning process. In most instances, training is seen as an on-call resource, basically given marching orders after the strategic direction is set. It might occupy a similar position in the process as the purchasing department—that is to say, none. After the strategic plan is set, orders for training are placed with the training function to be filled and delivered as ordered. This article looks at the issue of training, specifically distance training and education (DT&E), as a factor in the business unit’s strategic-planning process. The training function’s historical place in the typical organization will be reviewed briefly, as well as a few of the unique dynamics introduced by the emergence of DT&E. To provide adequate background, a discussion of the strategic-planning process will be presented. Included will be a review of factors contributing to effective strategic planning that moves an organization forward. Additionally, common pitfalls of strategic planning will be discussed. The discussion will then move to training’s role in strategic planning or, too often, the lack of training’s role. The article concludes with a specific look at how distance training and learning is being addressed in the strategic-planning process.
Traditional and Internet EDI Adoption Barriers
Authors: Harris Albert L. , Chen Charlie
Published: May 2011

Electronic data interchange (EDI) is a conduit to innovative ways of conducting e-business processes, as well as facilitating e-business applications and services. EDI is the electronic exchange of business documents using standardized document formats (Blackstone & Cox, 2004). Traditional EDI, based on proprietary value added networks (VANs), went through the early adoption stages in the 1990s (Clinkunbroomer, 1991; Premkumar, Ramamurthy, & Crum, 1997). Many factors caused the slow diffusion of the technology, including, but not limited to, high investment costs (Wilde, 1997), proprietary standards, poor integration capability with existing corporate systems, rigidity, poor scalability (Peters, 2000), poor performance in auditing trails, document certification needs, and the perceived need for hardcopies of the documents (Banerjee & Golhar, 1994). Despite these adoption obstacles, many large and small organizations have been leveraging the open architecture of the Internet to improve their agility and competitiveness. Unlike traditional EDI, Internet EDI adopts an open standard (extensive markup language or XML) and entails higher business agility by integrating the information systems of the business partners. Internet EDI is becoming an alternative to traditional EDI. Their natural differences pose an interesting, timely, relevant, and applicable research question: What would it take to accelerate the adoption of traditional and Internet EDI to support electronic business? This article proposes a theoretical framework based on Rogers’ (1983; 2004) innovation diffusion model and interorganizational theories. Major technological and managerial obstacles confronting widespread adoption of traditional EDI and Internet EDI are addressed. Future trends of these technologies are discussed as a conclusion.
Trust in E-Government Services
Authors: Mezgar István
Published: May 2011

Based on the results of the information and communications technologies (ICTs), a new “digital” economy and society are arising. This new computer- and communication-networked environment needs new set of services and technologies besides new rules and values, which determine the behavior of its actors. In the starting phase of information society the Internet, later on the Internet-based technologies (e.g., the Web) have changed the way business was done the world over, and is now changing the way government interacts with citizens and business sector. With the dramatic increase of the Internet as a business tool and the incredible growth of e-technologies have changed not only the economy but the society as well. According to researchers, early e-government was a form of e-commerce as both used Internet-based technology for the benefit of the information society. Today, e-government can be defined as online government services, that is, any interaction one might have with any government body or agency, using the Internet or World Wide Web. As the mobility is an important characteristic of the information society, new e-government solutions apply wireless/mobile networks as well. The insufficient security of many Internet services is an important limitation of using the Internet. Lack of trustworthy security services is a major obstacle to the use of information systems in private, in business as well as in public services. Trust is intimately linked to citizens’ rights, like security, identification, authentication, privacy, and confidentiality. Secure identification, authentication of the users and communication security are main problems in today’s networked systems. These demands for trust and security are valid in an increased extent in case of digital government applications.
Virtual Communities and E-Business Management
Authors: Flavian Carlos , Guinaliu Miguel
Published: May 2011

As a result of the new possibilities offered by Internet managers are increasing options provided by the new technologies in strategic planning. The virtual community has become one of the more interesting options. The general aim of this article is to explain the concept of virtual community, paying special attention to the most important strategies and management suggestions. Firstly, we will analyze the concept of community from a sociological viewpoint. We then define a virtual community and what causes an individual to belong to one. Secondly, we will show the main strategic implications of the development of virtual communities. Next we will detail a series of recommendations for the proper management of virtual communities. The two final sections present the future trends of research and the main conclusions of the article.
Web Design Dimension and Adaptation
Authors: Tobar Carlos Miguel , de Freitas Ricardo Lui´s , Marques Ricarte Ivan Luiz
Published: May 2011

Recent developments in the World Wide Web infrastructure enabled the development of highly interactive hypermedia systems for e-commerce, e-government, and mobile commerce. Such applications have much to gain exploring adaptation, through the use of adaptable and adaptive mechanisms to customize services and interfaces. Adaptable systems are those that can be configured by the user before or during their use. Adaptive systems automatically acquire input data in order to infer adaptation opportunities and react accordingly. Adaptable and adaptive systems consider three different adaptation targets: human matters, interaction matters, and computer matters. The first target regards preferences, interests, and other personal information to allow system personalization. The second target regards goals and activities that are intended by the user in order to adjust the system according to the dialogue with the human being. The third target regards resource-availability discovery and optimization, such as needed by mobile applications due to limitations in computation and communication infrastructure. The design of modern hypermedia systems requires an integrated approach contemplating modeling principles, evaluation frameworks, and reference models. Several approaches and methods exist, but it is difficult to understand how they complement or interfere among themselves during a design. Fischer (1989) considers that systems with strong interactive requirements, such as those related to usability, lack structure and present design instability. Adaptation aggravates this difficulty. Tobar and Ricarte (2005) believe that one of the main reasons behind the difficulty in developing and evaluating adaptable and adaptive systems is the absence of a reference (normative) model for describing them from different perspectives. They provided some clues toward this missing type of model through the E-ACM (extended abstract categorization map), used to present modeling dimensions. It is a graphical representation to capture different aspects of hypermedia systems and models, considering all types of adaptation. It can be used before system authoring and design to a broad spectrum of hypermedia applications including e-commerce, e-government, and mobile commerce.
Web Services and B2B Collaboration
Authors: Chan Susy S. , Kellen Vince
Published: May 2011

Web service technology is moving into the mainstream. HTTP-based integration is proving more useful than prior approaches for integrating heterogeneous and distributed systems. Web service architectures are quickly advancing beyond and becoming more complex than their initial XML (extensible markup language)/SOAP (simple object access protocol)/UDDI (universal description, discovery, and integration) architectures. With added specifications, Web services are creating a service-oriented computing paradigm with their attendant terms and concepts, such as Web service networks, Web service management platforms, and service-oriented architectures (SOA), among others. Aided by Web services, business-to-business (B2B) integration topologies are growing in diversity to support various options for B2B collaboration. Web services are now the primary technical direction enabling this diversification of B2B collaborations (e-collaboration) among value chain partners and customers. They form the foundation for the development of a new generation of B2B applications and the architecture for integrating enterprise applications (Kreger, 2003). Web services promise to increase these partnering companies’ flexibility, agility, competitiveness, as well as opportunities to reduce development cost and time.
Web-Enabled Potals for E-Business Workplace
Authors: Wojtkowski Wita
Published: May 2011

Portals are information systems that support the user in his or her individual process with information production and communication. The term portal, in information technology terms, appeared in late 1990s at a time of the widespread use of the Internet by individuals and organizations (Finkelstein & Aiken, 1999; Dias, 2001; Bristow, Dickinson, Duke, Henry, & Makey, 2001; Collins, 2001, 2003). There are many types of portals on the Internet: portals for general consumer use and entertainment (my.yahoo.com), for specialized information (www.brint.com), for specific communities (Austrian Academic Portal at www.portal.ac.at/), for business enterprises (NEC global portal at www.nec.com, NEC US portal at www.necus.com/, NEC European portal at www.neceurope.com). In general, portals can be divided into two categories: public and enterprise (Goodman & Kleinschmidt, 2003; Forrester, 2003). Public portals started as Internet directories (Yahoo!) or search engines (Excite, Lycos, AltaVista, and InfoSeek). Services that require user registration such as free e-mail, customization features, and chat rooms were added to allow repeated use, and to make users stay longer at the site. Enterprise portals started as intranets and extranets, the “enterprise webs” that were intended to provide easy-to-use, secure, and personalized sites that may extend to an organization’s employees as well as to its customers and business partners. Enterprise portals evolved to include collaboration tools so that customers, business partners, and employees are empowered to maximize their value to the organization. Portals that combine Web communications and thinking inside large enterprises are considered as both a labor-saving and a cost-saving technology. Enterprise portals are also referred to as corporate portals. Some corporate analysts predict that portals spending will be one of the top five areas for growth in the Internet technologies sector.
Impact of Organisational Intranets on Profitability in Organisations
Authors: Averweg Udo R.
Published: May 2011

Organisations are being forced to invest heavily in the deployment of information systems (IS) to obtain value and benefit in the new knowledge-based environment. Organisational intranets are being used as the platform for developing and deploying critical business applications to support business operations and managerial decision-making across the Internet-worked enterprise. Executive Information Systems (EIS) grew out of the information needs of executives. Web-based technologies are causing a revisit to existing information technology (IT) implementation models, including those for EIS. Some technologies include intranet, Internet, extranet, e-commerce business-to-business (B2B), e-commerce business-to-consumer (B2C), wireless application protocol (WAP), including other mobile technologies. The author conducted a survey of 31 well-established organisations in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, which successfully implemented EIS. A validated survey instrument was administered to an EIS stakeholder in each organisation surveyed to rank Web-based technologies in order of their perceived impact on EIS implementation in organisations surveyed. The author reports that an organisational intranet has the highest level of impact on EIS implementation in organisations surveyed in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Given this impact, justifying investment in such IS and IT should be carefully evaluated and quantified.
Information Technology, Training, and Organizational Learning
Authors: Rocheleau Bruce
Published: May 2011

The development of information technology creates many new opportunities for orga-nizations to acquire and disseminate knowledge and skills among its employees. Due tothe crucial importance of knowledge and skills related to IT, human resource issues havearisen that need to be dealt with. A recent in-depth study (Nelson & Todd, 2004) of severalorganizations identified the following issues as being important to the management ofIT personnel (Adapted from Nelson & Todd, 2004, p. 4):1.How can the organization recruit employees with the needed skills?2.How can IT staff work together with the human resources department?3.How can the organization develop the right mix of skills?4.How can the organization support career development programs that meet theneeds of the organization and the staff?5.How can the organization keep up with new technologies?6.How can employees be compensated fairly?7.How can an effective work environment be developed and maintained?8.How can personnel balance work and personal life?9.How can key personnel be retained?
Object-Oriented Features in Oracle
Authors: Rahayu Johanna Wenny , Tanier David , Pardede Eric
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we will describe Oracle™ features that can be used to support the implementation of an object-oriented model. As an overview, Section 2.1 will outline some of the original features within a standard relational model. The next sections will illustrate the additional object-oriented features. We will use these new features for our implementation in the subsequent chapters.
Technological
Authors: Khan Badrul
Published: May 2011

The purpose of the E-Learning Quick Checklist book is to walk you through the various factors (encompassing these eight dimensions) important to developing, evaluating, and implementing open, flexible and distributed learning environments. This book is designed as a Quick Checklist for e-learning. It contains many practical items that you can use as review criteria to check if e-learning modules, courses and programs provide the level of services that learners (or consumers) should expect. Items in the checklist encompass the critical dimensions of an e-learning environment, including pedagogical, technological, interface design, evaluation, management, resource support, ethical, and institutional. Throughout this book, various critical e-learning and blended-learning factors are presented as questions or items that you can ask yourself when planning, designing, evaluating, and implementing e-learning and/or blended-learning modules, courses, and programs.
Pedagogical
Authors: Khan Badrul
Published: May 2011

The purpose of the E-Learning Quick Checklist book is to walk you through the various factors (encompassing these eight dimensions) important to developing, evaluating, and implementing open, flexible and distributed learning environments. This book is designed as a Quick Checklist for e-learning. It contains many practical items that you can use as review criteria to check if e-learning modules, courses and programs provide the level of services that learners (or consumers) should expect. Items in the checklist encompass the critical dimensions of an e-learning environment, including pedagogical, technological, interface design, evaluation, management, resource support, ethical, and institutional. Throughout this book, various critical e-learning and blended-learning factors are presented as questions or items that you can ask yourself when planning, designing, evaluating, and implementing e-learning and/or blended-learning modules, courses, and programs.
Approaches to Conceptualizing Gender
Authors: Coulthard Darryl , Castletan Tanya
Published: May 2011

When people refer to gender issues in information systems, they draw on an implicit understanding of what this means, but may be unaware of the history of the concept of gender or the theoretical debates that surround its development. A thorough understanding of the conceptual and theoretical issues can, however, add much to the quality of research on the gender patterns that are observed in attitudes to and usage of information technologies and in organisational practices. Similarly, a good conceptual understanding will benefit those seeking to launch practical initiatives, including increasing women’s access to and involvement with information technology. By building on the work of others, especially in the fields of psychology, sociology, women’s studies, and political theory, information-systems researchers will avoid the conceptual pitfalls into which others have fallen. The term gender usually refers to the socially acquired characteristics of men and women. It is distinguished from sex, which has come to be defined as biological characteristics. We now conventionally use the term gender as a variable in empirical research, although this is simply dichotomised into male or female and thus is really used as a proxy for sex. This distinction between sex and gender arose as a result of debates about gender issues in Western society generally, and with the development of feminist thought in the late 20th century, gender is now widely acknowledged as a key structural principle in society and as a topic of study in its own right (Chafetz, 1997; Tong, 1989; Weedon, 1999). In this article, we briefly discuss the issues underpinning the concept of gender and how this concept has developed.
Australian IT Enrollment Trends and Model of Contributing Factors
Authors: Lang Catherine , McKay Judy
Published: May 2011

Australia, like other western nations, is experiencing a downturn in overall enrollments in higher education information technology (IT) degree courses as well as in the proportion of females selecting these courses. The percentage of women enrolled at a university in Australia, as a proportion of all enrolments, has increased steadily over the last decade from 52% of the total student body in 1993, to 54% in 2003 (DEST, 2004). This increasing number of females on campus is not reflected in IT degree course enrollments, where the number of female commencing students is steadily declining.
Cyber/Ecofeminism
Authors: Kailo Kaarina
Published: May 2011

Cyber/ecofeminism is a holistic concept that I have coined and adopted to approach the burning issues of information technology, women’s studies, and the women’s movement in the age of globalization. It serves as an ethno- and gender-sensitive compass towards eco-social sustainability in an era where technology has an increasing impact on all aspects of life. In order to resist the Master identity that women, along with men, risk embracing, as they get plugged, downloaded, and wired into the digital world, one needs to introduce alternatives to the models of “compulsory heteronormativity,” dichotomous and hierarchical sex/gender systems, as well as dysfunctional, exploitative animal/human relations. The dominant worldview is a world of “bits” and pieces—fragmented, atomistic, and hierarchical. It echoes in this like the hidden gender contract with its binary structure, segregation and splitting of male rationality of production and female care and emotional labor. Cyber/ecofeminism is my method and approach also for exploring which of the schools—cyberfeminism OR ecofeminism—promises more hope for a woman-friendly, ecologically, economically, socially, and culturally stable and sustainable future.
Factors Influencing Girls' Choice of Information Technology Careers
Authors: Adya Monica , Kaiser Kate M.
Published: May 2011

Many western nations have experienced declining numbers of women in the information technology (IT) workforce (Trauth, Nielsen, & von Hellens, 2003). Between 1996 and 2002, women in the U.S. IT workforce declined from 41% to 34.9% (ITAA, 2003). This can hamper diversity and reduce the talent pool that can address needs of diverse end-users (Florida & Gates, 2002). Why do women choose IT careers or reject them? Multidisciplinary research on career genderization reveals gender imbalance (Trauth, Nielsen, & von Hellens, 2003). Career decisions against math, science, and technology (MST) are often made as early as age 11 without understanding long-term implications (AAUW, 2000). We examine influences on girls’ choice of IT careers, modeling social, structural, and personal variables that affect IT career choice. Using Ahuja’s (2002) classification of social and structural influences on women’s IT careers, Beise, Myers, VanBrackle, and Chevli-Saroq’s (2003) model of women’s career decisions, and individual differences suggested by Trauth (2002), we extend literature to children and adolescents’ career choices. Social influences bias internal and external gender perceptions and stereotyping, role models, peers, media, and family. Institutional support such as teachers and counselors, access to technology, and same-sex versus coeducational schools are structural influences. While both can influence career decisions, social factors have the most influence on children’s early perceptions. Both factors can introduce gender-stereotyping effects on career choices. Gender stereotyping explains how girls perceive their role in society based on subtle societal cues. It can limit opportunities for both sexes. We also examine personality traits and external influences that make children unique. Their individual differences draw them to activities and content areas such as problem solving and interaction with people. Finally, ethnic culture can exert an influence on social and structural variables. Figure 1 from Adya and Kaiser (2005) presents our career choice model that is discussed in the next section.
Gender and Software Engineering
Authors: Hanappi-Egger Edeltraud
Published: May 2011

The history of software engineering is not very long, but rather intensive. In the beginning of the 40s, programming was seen mainly as manual, electronic engineering job, done by women, in particular mathematicians (compare e.g., Schinzel and Zimmer, 1998). Changing more and more to an intellectual, mathematical, high status task programming started to be male-coded and remained to be done by men.
Gender Identity and Systems Development
Authors: Stepulevage Linda
Published: May 2011

This article draws on interviews and case study research on gender-IT relations to examine the relationship between gender identity and IT development activities. It explores the intertwining of gender and technological identity for women in office work contexts, a location where a boundary between the design and use of IT systems has long been recognised. It is important to explore identity construction within this framework of design and use as separate activities since women’s identity is constrained on both sides of this perceived boundary. The article first explores issues for women as IT professionals, then as users of IT-based work systems and lastly, it discusses the feasibility of constructing gender identities that encompass and recognise the technical work that both developers and users do.
History of Feminist Approaches to Technology Studies
Authors: Brayton Jennifer
Published: May 2011

While women have historically engaged with technological practices and processes as designers, producers, users and consumers, technology itself has been socially constructed as a masculine domain and inherent to male gender identity. As a result, women have not been recognized as technological participants, nor have they had their contributions validated. To understand this exclusion, different feminist approaches have been historically utilized to help situate the framing of technology as a masculine domain that is organized by the social structures of patriarchy, capitalism, and social stratification. Feminist approaches have been used to deconstruct the defining of technology as masculine, to illuminate the historical ways in which women have been part of technological fields, and to give evidence of the pleasure and empowerment women can feel with technology.
Making Executive Mentoring Work in IT
Authors: Pfleeger Shari Lawrence , Mertz Norma T.
Published: May 2011

Although it is a relatively young discipline, information technology has a lack of gender diversity that is similar to many older sciences. For example, the 33rd annual Taulbee survey of computer science graduates indicates only 20% of those enrolling in computer science doctoral programs are women, and only 16.8% of those receive PhDs; these rates have been the same for the last few years (Zweben & Aspray, 2004). Moreover, once women move into computing careers, they can have a difficult time moving up the career ladder. For example, women’s advancement in academia has been disappointing: 19% of the computer science faculty in the United States are female, but only 8.6% of full professors and 12.3% of associate professors are women (Zweben & Aspray). Similar figures are reported for women in industry as they hit the glass ceiling (Morrison, White, & van Velsor, 1987), but women in some countries may be catching up. For example, “pay and prospects for women in IT are the best they have ever been” in the United Kingdom: They achieved higher pay increases than men across all sectors for the 8th year running, but are still behind (Mortleman, 2004). Thus, there is still room for women at the top. According to Corporate Women Directors International (2004), “The glass ceiling in corporate directorships is solidly in place.” Indeed, only 7.5% of Fortune Global 200 boards have three or more women serving on them. Similarly, a recent survey sponsored by the UK Department of Trade and Industry and Shell revealed that a third of the boards of British companies still have no females (Cranfield School of Management, 2004).
A Reflexative Analysis of Questions for Women Entering the IT Workforce
Authors: Pegher Valerie , Quesenberry Jeria L. , Trauth Eileen M.
Published: May 2011

There are many resources available for young college graduates entering the workforce. Colleges and universities have entire departments and buildings dedicated to the process of moving students into the “real world.” Questions such as “what should my salary be?” “which firm is rated the best in the country?” and “how do I fit into the corporate environment?” are typically asked by both male and female students and are answered by the staff. Yet given that business is generally a male dominated field, questions such as “have you encountered a glass ceiling in your career?” are less likely to be answered with the whole truth. Hence, this article seeks to answer some of the questions that women may have upon entering the information technology (IT) workforce. As a woman who is graduating from college and preparing to enter the IT workforce, I1 constantly ask myself questions about what it means to be a minority in a male dominated industry. In order to be prepared for my future career, I synthesized my questions into three central issues of coping strategies, social networking and gender identity: 1. Coping Strategies: How do women cope with being minority, and what do women do when treated unfairly because of their gender? 2. Social Networking: When should social networking begin, and how does a woman form a personal network? 3. Gender Identity: Do women have to display more masculine traits to get ahead in the IT workforce, and does business attire matter? These questions are of importance because they are typical of the kinds of questions that a woman entering the IT field may have. Hence, the purpose of this article is to address these questions through a reflexive analysis in order to better prepare myself and others for careers in the IT workforce.2
The Social Construction of Australian Women in IT
Authors: Nielsen Sue , von Hellens Liisa
Published: May 2011

The declining participation of women in IT education and professional work is now a well-documented research area (Adam, Howcroft, & Richardson, 2004), but the causes and remedies remain puzzling and complex. Studies have indicated that there are signs of the “shrinking pipeline” (Camp, 1997) even in the years between junior and senior high school (i.e., Meredyth, Russell, Blackwood, & Thomas, 1999) when girls’ interest and confidence in the use of computers declines markedly. A lack of clarity as to what constitutes the IT industry and the rapid rate of change complicate attempts to understand the reasons for the declining participation of women in the IT industry, as well as the declining interest in IT degrees. This is despite the fact that IT salaries compare well with other professional salaries and are superior to most traditional female occupations (Megalogenis, 2003). Our research also demonstrates that many people—especially women—enter the IT workforce via other qualifications indicating that traditional IT education is not very successful in attracting either the quantity or quality of students required to meet workforce needs. Furthermore, IT has not matched the rise in female participation in the traditionally male-dominated professions of science, engineering, and medicine.
Student and Faculty Choices that Widen the Experience Gap
Authors: Barker Lecia J. , Jessup Elizabeth R.
Published: May 2011

A major teaching challenge for higher education faculty is students’ wide differences with respect to experience or knowledge with the subject matter or skill set of a class. In computing education research, this is often referred to as the “experience gap.” Research shows that the experience gap contributes to the low participation of women in professional information technology (IT) careers. Women are significantly more likely to enter college-level IT courses with little or no computer programming experience than are their male peers (College Board, 2004). Yet, programming experience is positively associated with success, especially in introductory classes (Taylor & Mounfield, 1994; Bunderson & Christensen, 1995; Brown, 1997; Margolis & Fisher, 2002), and low grades are positively associated with attrition from the major (Strenta, Rogers, Russell, Matier, & Scott, 1994). When women receive low grades due to inexperience, they may be more likely than males to lose confidence and leave the major (Cohoon & Aspray, in press). Another type of experience gap becomes evident in cross-disciplinary teams, where students encounter others whose areas of expertise and knowledge are substantially different, often to the point where students have difficulty understanding each other. According to IEEE Computer Society/ACM Computing Curricula Task force, “Computing education is also affected by changes in the cultural and sociological context in which it occurs” (IEEE and ACM Joint Task Force, 2001, p. 10). For this reason, both Computing Curricula 1991 and 2001 strongly recommend the integration of experiences and opportunities for student understanding of real-world applications and the people who need them. Courses that provide opportunities for collaborative and interdisciplinary learning are also often recommended to increase retention of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses in general (Agogino & Linn, 1992; Felder, Felder, Mauney, Hamrin, & Dietz, 1995) and in computing, in particular (McDowell, Werner, Bullock, & Fernald, 2003; Barker, Garvin-Doxas, & Roberts, 2005). Yet, collaborative learning and, in particular, project-based courses, must be carefully planned and managed for students to have similar learning outcomes. In this article, we demonstrate how students’ choices can reinforce and even widen differences in experience and reduce their ability to develop cross-disciplinary understandings.
Women and the IT Workplace in North West England
Authors: Tattersall Angela , Keogh Claire , Richardson Helen J. , Adam Alison
Published: May 2011

The United Kingdom (UK) information technology (IT) industry is highly male dominated, and women are reported to account for an estimated 15% of the sector’s workforce (EOC, 2004). In Spring 2003 it was estimated that there were 151,000 women working in IT occupations compared to 834,000 men (EOC, 2004) Additionally, it has been reported that these numbers are rapidly declining, as women are haemorrhaging from the industry in disproportionate numbers (George, 2003). Although they are making inroads into senior and technical roles, “vertical segregation” is observable. Overall, women tend to be represented in lower-level IT jobs, with the majority, 30%, in operator and clerical roles; and the minority in technical and managerial roles, 15% of ICT management and 11% of IT strategy and planning professionals (EOC, 2004). This renders a “feminisation” of lower-level IT occupations. Educational statistics have also shown that fewer women are enrolling onto computer-related courses; there was a drop from 24% in 2000 to 20% in 2003 (E-Skills, 2004a)