bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Justifying Data Warehousing Investments
Authors: Kumar Ram L.
Published: May 2011

Organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of information technology. Many large IT projects in the area of data warehousing and data mining have been taken up in the last few years. While many data warehousing and data mining projects have resulted in interesting business benefits, there are also many examples of cost and schedule overruns and dissatisfaction regarding the results from these projects. A recent issue of Information Week (May 24, 1999) reported that organizations are carefully scrutinizing the returns from large data warehousing projects. This makes it increasingly important for information systems professionals to understand the payoff from data warehousing investments. It is also extremely important for information systems professionals to articulate the business benefits of data warehousing and other big ticket information technology projects in terms that senior managers in general and finance executives in particular can relate to. This article outlines an approach to justifying data warehousing investments that is based on the concept of options in finance. This approach to justifying investments is being increasingly recognized as being superior to traditional methods by finance professionals (Business Week, June 7, 1999).
Assessing and Improving the Quality of Knowledge Discovery Data
Authors: Viktor Herna L. , du Plooy Niek F.
Published: May 2011

Data quality has a substantial impact on the quality of the results of a Knowledge Discovery from Data (KDD) effort. The poor quality of real-world data, as contained in many large data repositories, poses a serious threat to the future adoption of this new technology. Unfortunately, data quality assessment and improvement are often ignored in many KDD efforts, leading to disappointing results. This chapter discusses the use of data mining and data generation techniques, including feature selection, case selection and outlier detection, to assess and improve the quality of the data. In this approach, redundant low quality data are removed from the data repository and new high quality data patterns are dynamically added to the data set. We also point out that data capturing is part of the social practices of office work, and this fact must be taken into account in designing the data capturing processes.
Complementing the Data Warehouse with Information Filtered from the Web
Authors: Abramowicz Witold , Kalczynski Pawel Jan , Wecel Krzysztof
Published: May 2011

The data warehouse is considered to be the best way to organize transactional data. However, as many researches claim data warehouse should be augmented with external textual information. The objective of this chapter is to examine the requirements for profiling in the data warehouse environment. Profiles created in the data warehouse are then utilized to filter information. The goal of the sketched system is to support users in his situated actions. We explore many issues concerning personalization, such as information overflow, user models, and situatedness. We also analyze the factors that influence the filtering process. Finally, we draw some conclusions that should be considered during extension of the evaluated system.
The Development of Ordered SQL Packages to Support Data Warehousing
Authors: Ng Wilfred , Levene Mark
Published: May 2011

Data warehousing is a corporate strategy that needs to integrate information from several sources of separately developed Database Management Systems (DBMSs). A future DBMS of a data warehouse should provide adequate facilities to manage a wide range of information arising from such integration. We propose that the capabilities of database languages should be enhanced to manipulate user-defined data orderings, since business queries in an enterprise usually involve order. We extend the relational model to incorporate partial orderings into data domains and describe the ordered relational model. We have already defined and implemented a minimal extension of SQL, called OSQL, which allows querying over ordered relational databases. One of the important facilities provided by OSQL is that it allows users to capture the underlying semantics of the ordering of the data for a given application. Herein we demonstrate that OSQL aided with a package discipline can be an effective means to manage the inter-related operations and the underlying data domains of a wide range of advanced applications that are vital in data warehousing, such as temporal, incomplete and fuzzy information. We present the details of the generic operations arising from these applications in the form of three OSQL packages called: OSQL_TIME, OSQL_INCOMP and OSQL_FUZZY.
Can National Information Infrastructures Enhance Social Development in the Least Developed Countries? An Empirical Investigation
Authors: Meso Peter , Duncan Nancy
Published: May 2011

The need for national information infrastructures (NII) in the world’s least developed countries (LDCs) tends to be overshadowed by the nation’s severe deficiencies in physical infrastructure. Consequently NII may be inadequately addressed by governments and supporting agencies in their plans for stimulating social growth. The example of Singapore’s TradeNet and other lesser-developed countries developing national, electronic information infrastructures, suggests that information technology infrastructure may enable an LDC to develop at a particularly advanced rate. This paper studies the relationship of information infrastructure and social development. It establishes a clear correlation between 1) levels of information infrastructure and social development, and 2) growth rates of information infrastructure and social development. The findings suggest that governments of LDCs may enhance their countries’ growth by developing strategic plans for NII development.
Sticking to the Basics
Authors: Dykman Charlene A. , Davis Charles K.
Published: May 2011

M.K. Mikels and Company is a manufacturer that serves mainly as a supplier for the building industry in Israel. The company makes glues and related products used to construct buildings. To begin with, several factors have contributed to the current high price of housing in Israel, including waves of immigration from Russia and Ethiopia during the 1990s, demand created by young couples for housing, and heavy population density in the main cities. These factors particularly accelerated demand for construction of new apartments in this decade, giving rise to an increase in activity for the Israeli construction industry and its suppliers, including M.K. Mikels.
Information Technology for Knowledge Management in China
Authors: Fong Michelle W.L.
Published: May 2011

Knowledge management concerns integrating, sharing, accessing and accumulating information for action throughout the organisation (Pelton, 1999; Porter, 1998). It has been receiving increasing attention as the latest information technology based system to improve organisational efficiencies, which may be in the forms of successful implementation of innovations (Huber, 1990), sustainable competitive advantage (Grant, 1996a, 1996b) or productivity gains (Davenport et al., 1996). In knowledge management, information technology is an essential enabling tool because of the latter’s unprecedented technological power in information processing, storing and transmission (Hanley, 1999; Porter, 1998). Information technology provides the technological infrastructure for knowledge management (Davenport et al.,1998). However, the effective use of information technology for knowledge management requires the managers to take cognisant of the factors that influence the information technology adoption process as well as the implementation of knowledge management practices. These factors could be external or/and internal to the organisation.
Developing an Expert System to Software Selection in Small Business
Authors: Colmenares Leopoldo
Published: May 2011

The expert system discussed in this chapter, the Expert System to Software Package Selection (ESSS), was developed motivated by the needs of small bussines to support the software packages selection task. ESSS, is a rule based expert system designed to evaluate software packages using the ranking approach. ESSS evaluates software packages using six factors, and point values appropiate for each factors. The factors includes: Users requirements, technical requirements, vendor support, documentation, user considerations and costs. Tasks to ESSS developing and its architecture are showed in this paper.
Using Lotus Learning Space to Enhance Student Learning of Data Communication
Authors: Dixon Michael W. , Karlsson Johan M. , McGill Tanya J.
Published: May 2011

Online delivery of courses has become a viable option because of the Internet. This paper describes how we deliver and manage part of a postgraduate degree in telecommunications. We aim to foster learner-centered education while providing sufficient teacher centered activities to counter some of the known concerns with entirely learner-centered education. We use the Internet as the communication infrastructure to deliver teaching material globally and Lotus LearningSpace to provide the learning environment.
An Action Learning Approach for the Development of Technology Skills
Authors: Peterson Richard L. , Mahoney Joan D.
Published: May 2011

Information technology provides a unique challenge to universities to maintain the relevance of their offerings as the rate of technical change far out paces curricular reforms. What is needed for students of information technology are opportunities that provide real world, hands-on experiences for developing necessary skills and understandings in a relatively “safe” environments. This article is a case study of the experiences of students in a course that required them to complete action learning technology projects for social services clients. Results suggest a generalizable model for improving relevance within the universities of the 21st century.
The Evolution of ERP Systems
Authors: Rashid Mohammad A. , Hossain Liaquat , Patrick Jon David
Published: May 2011

ERP systems are now ubiquitous in large businesses and the current move by vendors is to repackage them for small to medium enterprises (SMEs). This migration has many consequences that have to be addressed through understanding the history and evolution of ERP systems and their current architectures. The advantages and disadvantages of the ERP systems will impact their penetration in this new market. The market position and general strategy of the major systems providers in preparation for this push are described. The chapter concludes that the growth and success of ERP adoption and development in the new millennium will depend on the legacy ERP system’s capability of extending to Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and other extended modules, and integration with the Internet-enabled applications.
ERP Systems in Universities
Authors: Oliver Dave , Romm Celia T.
Published: May 2011

This chapter outlines the significance of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and analyses the rationale used for their adoption. This study is structured around a theory of the motivations for investment in information technology (IT) to support core business operations. The data used for the study are documents published electronically on the Internet by universities. A content analysis was applied to this data. The chapter employs frequent use of quotes from the sources selected to assist the reader to understand the context and to verify the analysis. The findings are that the main reasons for adopting ERP are the modernization of systems, greater usability and flexibility, integration of data and systems, business process reengineering, an increase in the degree of electronic data interchange including the provision of Web-based interfaces to application systems, reduced maintenance and risk avoidance.
A Collaborative Design-by-Sketching Conceptual Design Tool for Multimedia Application Development
Authors: Li K.-Y. R. , Ong T. , Willis R. J.
Published: May 2011

Multimedia technology is advancing at a significant rate and is now revolutionizing the way in which computers are being used in business. Multimedia technology can only benefit a company when applications are properly developed to exploit technology, in order to enhance the company’s operation. Unfortunately, to develop high-quality, cost-effective multimedia applications is not an easy task. There are many issues and challenges that developers are currently facing. Issues such as the difficulties in defining the project scope, communication difficulties amongst the development team, and estimate difficulties, making the development process both labour-intensive and time-consuming (Li and Willis, 1998). Sponsors of multimedia projects are often unsure of their requirements at the start of the project. Sponsor/user involvement in the abstract (conceptual) design stage of the project is therefore important. This chapter presents a computer assisted design-by-sketching tool to help with the conceptual design of multimedia applications. The tool helps sponsors to define their requirement incrementally and the design team to prototype their ideas interactively and collaboratively. It assists the developer to define the balance between consistency, which helps the readers (users) to understand the overall structure, and diversity, which gives freshness to the design. This tool will also enable re-usability of the designed components in future projects and maintainability of the application that it has developed.
Cyber Shopping and Privacy
Authors: Gupta Jatinder N.D. , Sharma Sushil K.
Published: May 2011

As we enter a new millennium, we find cyber shopping has become the order of the day. Consumers find it easier to cyber shop than to take time from their schedules to visit malls. One can shop any time depending upon availability of time. Many working couples order the items as they leave from their workplaces and receive deliveries right when they reach home. Some people shop late at night and receive items the very next morning. Cyber shopping is exciting because: 1) one can shop directly from home or the workplace, and 2) the cost of items may be cheaper than the traditional buying. Considering these conveniences, many people prefer cyber shopping. Also, there are very many exciting sites such as E-auction etc. on the Net which otherwise are not available.
Electronic Commerce and Strategic Change within Organizations
Authors: Galliers Robert D. , Newell Sue
Published: May 2011

This article reviews and contrasts the experiences of two major companies in attempting significant change projects incorporating information and communication technologies. It does so by utilizing and critiquing the MIT “Management in the 1990s” model and by reflecting on socio-technical approaches to organizational change. It makes the point that while much of current attention is on electronic commerce as it pertains to industry transformation and inter-organizational relations, it is nonetheless a phenomenon that can impact complex internal relations and communication in addition. Additionally, conclusions are drawn with respect to the process of change and the need for further longitudinal studies when researching change projects of this kind.
Electronic Commerce Acceptance
Authors: McCloskey Donna W. , Whiteley David
Published: May 2011

The popularization of the Internet and the rise of Internet electronic commerce (e-commerce) has been one of the major social and business developments of the last few years. Much is made of the rapid development of, for instance, amazon.com and there seems to be an assumption that what has started to happen in the retail book trade will continue and spread with similar effect to all other sectors of the retail market.
Categorizing the Supplier Content of Public Web Sites
Authors: Young Dale
Published: May 2011

Web-based supplier communication and supplier diversity efforts have received little research attention to date. This study identifies the supplier communication and supplier diversity content on the public Web sites of the firms on the 2000 Fortune 500 list and creates a categorization scheme for that content. Just over a quarter (27.1%) of these large firms’ public Web sites mention majority (i.e., primary) supplier issues or supplier diversity. Only 28.4% of Fortune 500 firms with supplier content actually describe a formal supplier diversity program on their public Web site. Therefore, public Web sites are largely underutilized as a means of interacting with potential suppliers from a diverse population. The most common supplier diversity content for prospective suppliers on Fortune 500 public Web sites is: certification requirements, on-line applications, and a contact name/title for the diversity manager.
The Everyday Practice of Information
Authors: Wenn Andrew
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses the nature of information, the way it appears in everyday life. However, the way information is presented and discussed in this chapter is also a little unconventional in that it uses rather a large amount of interview and other document transcripts (in Times italic font). The interview texts are largely unedited because I want to retain some of the flavour of the conversations that took place. Moreover, the limits of a conventional conference chapter are pushed even further because the text is also littered with comments from several other voices (represented in a sans serif font). Doing so allows a degree of reflexivity, albeit in the limited format of a conference paper, where we can explore things contained within the text that directly relate to the topic (Woolgar & Ashmore, 1991).
Theoretical Classification of Technological Frames
Authors: Cano Jeimy J.
Published: May 2011

Social construction of technological artifacts has been put forward by science sociologists as an alternative to understand how technology has been created and developed all along the human activities. Particularly, in the last decades, and given the exponential technology breakthroughs and the repercussion on business processes, it has been critical to understand how this technology has generated a differentiating factor to positioning a company in a market segment or in a particular context. In this sense, several researches (King and Teo, 1994; Lederer and Sethi, 1992; Lederer and Mendelow, 1988) have been addressed to review the possible ways to identify technology the influence and impact on contemporary businesses, many of them based on psychological, causal, and systematic effects, all of them offering fundamental findings. To date, however, there are few technology studies reviewing the individual relations context as a critical factor for technology understanding. For such a reason, this paper–supported by the foundation of systemic and cybernetic theories- (Flood, 1999; Flood and Carson, 1993; Beer, 1994; Espejo et al., 1996; Reyes, 1995; Mateus, 1996)–makes a structural analysis about relations among individuals, technology, and organization, reviewing those implications of technological understanding; putting forward a technological frame classification establishing a practical knowledge base for both practitioners and academics about the analysis of individual relations and its way to understanding technology; looking for new alternatives to be integrated into business strategies supported by information technology; and technological understanding impact of organizational players.
Getting the Spirit of Office Technologies! Does the Internal Organization Environment Support or Constrain?
Authors: Ruel Huub J.M.
Published: May 2011

The relationship between Advanced Information Technologies (AIT) and organization is complex. Several theories and approaches try to get grip on this complex relationship. Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST) (DeSanctis and Poole, 1994) is one of them. It introduces the concept of spirit of AIT as an important determinant of AIT appropriation. AIT with a clear, coherent spirit will lead to a high level of AIT appropriation. But what about the role of the internal organizational environment? Does this constrain or support the role of the AIT’s spirit regarding AIT appropriation? This paper presents a study that aims to find an answer to this question. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested in four offices where employees used office technologies. Results confirm that a clear spirit is positively related to the level of appropriation as distinguished by DeSanctis and Poole (1994) and Poole and DeSanctis (1990). The results also make clear that this relationship is more positive among users who experienced a low level of change in the internal organizational environment along with the office technology implementation than among users who experienced a high level of change. Furthermore, the relationship is more positive among users with a low level of work autonomy than among users with a high level of work autonomy. This is not fully in line with our expectations. However, we think an explanation is available. We suppose that the answer lies in the office technology development process. All office technologies in this study’s offices were probably developed without anticipating the changes that office technology implementations might bring about in the internal organizational environment and with the aim to build systems that “reconfirm” the current “restrictive” work procedures. This study’s results once again indicate that office technology and other organizational components are interrelated.
Emerging Research Themes in Global Information Management
Authors: Gallupe R. Brent , Tan Felix B.
Published: May 2011

Research in the field of global information management (GIM) is an area of information systems research that has grown tremendously in the 1990s. A large number of research studies have been published that have examined issues relating to the development, use and management of information systems in a global context. In an attempt to better understand the types of research that has been conducted, the research methodologies employed and the emerging research themes being addressed in the field, an in-depth study of the GIM literature was conducted. This chapter reports on one aspect of this wider study – emerging GIM research themes. The purpose of this chapter is to identify the themes distinct to GIM research that are emerging from the literature with the aim of highlighting potential areas of future research in the field.
European Electronic Service Infrastructure Building - Drifting into the Future?
Authors: Gronlund Ake
Published: May 2011

Delivery of electronic services requires a service infrastructure including organisational solutions for logistics and client-organisation interactions. We report a study covering three years of efforts by nine cities in eight European countries in developing such solutions. We found twelve distinct “crises,” situations where goals, environment, and actors changed, and the process was found in a stage of improvisation. The overall process was largely unstructured and improvised. Stabilising factors were central government policies (national, EU), the general technical development, and market demands. The Web was in practice a “cuckoo in the nest,” intruding in ever more activities and introducing unexpected new demands. Web projects were seen as technical projects; more important success factors pertaining to users and organisation were largely neglected. There was typically an infrastructure link missing, a body competent of managing the whole process of bundling services from different service providers.
Comparative Study of the Usefulness of Online Technologies in a Global Virtual Business Project Team Environment
Authors: Poon Simpson , Rai Shri
Published: May 2011

Lifelong learning is quickly becoming an integrated part of today’s working life because of the demand for keeping up to date with latest developments due to rapid change in technology and business. To maintain flexibility and quality, online technology is often used as a medium of educational service delivery. In this chapter, we examine a case where online technology has been used to coordinate virtual project teams (in an educational setting) around the world. The experience from the case study is that although online technology promises to offer an independent learning environment anytime and anywhere, only some aspects of the technology are useful depending on the nature of the task. In addition, there are behavioural and cultural issues, which can be exacerbated by underdeveloped personal relationships due to constraints imposed by online technology. The case study also shows that synchronous communication is not necessarily a better means to coordinate than its asynchronous counterpart. A challenge faced by online education providers is to find the right mix and how to come up with a framework that will provide optimal results.
Turning E-Commerce Theory into Action in Ireland
Authors: Yermish Ira , Bondanza Dale A.
Published: May 2011

E-Europe is not a place or a group of countries but the philosophy of an emerging region within the scope of a technological revolution. E-Europe can be viewed from many perspectives including Euro currency makeup, European Union membership, or technological contributions to the region. Ireland, the “Celtic Tiger,” presents an interesting opportunity of entrepreneurial activity. As Evans and Wurster (2000) have pointed out, the traditional value chains may be redefined. The availability of the Internet as an enabling communications technology has markedly changed the possibilities for countries far from the centers of economic power. On the other hand, the realities of the Internet have been obvious. Porter (2001) and Kanter (2001) have identified many of the realistic strategies for traditional and new businesses. Yet there will always be room for new ventures provided, of course, that entrepreneurs understand these issues and this challenging environment. Joshi and Yermish (2000) have summarized the challenges facing the entrepreneur in this kind of environment. This case will examine a possible strategy for entrepreneurial consultants seeking to provide expertise to rising e-businesses. Readers of this case will be encouraged to explore the issues further, filling in the missing details and developing a full-fledged business plan for action for a pair of young entrepreneurs.
The Context of Introducing IT/IS-Based Innovation into Local Government in Colombia
Authors: Watad Mahmoud M.
Published: May 2011

Information technologies (IT) and information systems (IS) provide opportunities for organizations to improve their productivity and effectiveness. Considerable research has been conducted to study the factors and determinants of the adoption and diffusion of IT/IS into organizations’ operations (a sampling: Kwon & Zmud, 1987; Markus & Robey, 1988; Borton & Branchau, 1994; Nidumolu et al., 1996). Most studies support the notion that managerial decisions of IT/IS adoption, and the outcomes of IT/IS introduction in an organization are moderated by the context in which these technologies are introduced (Zmud, 1982; Fichman and Kemere; 1993, Watad and Ospina, 1996). This article adds to this line of research and draws upon theories from the technological innovation literature to explore the contextual factors that shape organizational decisions to adopt IT/IS into Latin American municipalities. A review of the published literature shows that there has been very little research on the determinants of IT adoption in local government (municipalities), in Latin America. Most studies have tended to focus on the national level and have dealt with transfer and implementation of information technologies or with technology policies (Robey and Rodriquez-Diaz, 1996; Montealegre and Applegate 1994; Correa, 1995; Pers-Nunez, 1994). Another line of research has been growing which focuses on technical applications development, such as databases tools and software engineering (see proceedings, SCI 97). Overall, this paper provides a model expounding the contextual factors that facilitate the process of adopting IT/IS-based innovation in local government. There are two main constructs in this study: the adoption decision of an innovation and the context of its adoption. This study analyzes adoption cases in which the decision to adopt was positive. While context itself is a difficult construct to operationalize, it is possible to study particular cases under which decisions are made and analyze the contextual factors that affected the dynamic of the adoption decision.
On-Line User Interaction with Electronic Catalogs
Authors: Gangopadhyay Aryya , Huang Zhensen
Published: May 2011

In this paper we study the behavior and performance of bilingual users in using an electronic catalog. The purpose of this research is to further the knowledge required for building electronic commerce systems that operate in multiple languages in global settings. We describe a bilingual electronic catalog that can be used by online retailers for selling products and/or services to customers interacting in either English or Chinese. We investigate into the nature of user interactions in multilingual electronic catalogs. We have defined three different groups of users: only Chinese speaking, only English speaking, and bilingual. We are specifically interested in investigating into the language preferences of the third group of users. In order to test language preferences, we have selected two types of products: office supplies and ethnic food. We hypothesize that bilingual users will exhibit differential language preferences for the type of products and the tasks performed in using the electronic catalog. Furthermore, learning curves and interaction effects are also tested. Three different task categories have been designed: browsing, directed search, and exact matches. In the first case, the user is a general browser who is looking for what is available in the catalog. In the second case, the user is looking for a class of products but is unsure of the exact item. In the third case the user knows exactly what item he/she is looking for. We propose to test the efficiency of usage by measuring the time as well as studying the path followed by the user in retrieving product information. This research will shed light on the important issue of designing multilingual electronic catalogs for both local and global applications.
Strategies for Managing EUC on the Web
Authors: Nelson R. Ryan , Todd Peter
Published: May 2011

Beginning in the early 1980s, end-user computing (EUC) began to permeate organizations following the advent of the personal computer and a host of applications directed at the non-IS professional. Along with EUC came a whole new set of organizational opportunities and risks. Ten years later, the World Wide Web has opened the door to a yet more powerful set of EUC applications capable of reaching well beyond the boundaries of the organization. Indeed, Web technology permits end users to design applications that are immediately accessible by unlimited numbers of people from anywhere in the world. As a result, EUC using Web technology has introduced a whole new set of opportunities and risks for organizations. The purpose of this research is to examine what strategies organizations are using in their attempt to maximize the benefits of the Web for end users while mitigating the inherent risks. To this end, individuals from 12 major organizations were surveyed via the Web. The results indicate that while organizations seem to be doing an adequate job of establishing roles and standards, mechanisms for resource allocation, development management, and maintenance appear to be lacking. In fact, most firms seem to be relying on a monopolist control strategy at this point in time. While such a strategy may be the best approach given the relative infancy of Web technology, it could prove to be an unstable strategy in the long run given the reach, range and flexibility of access that Web technology provides. Organizations are encouraged to take a proactive, formal posture toward EUC development on the Web.
Exploring the Measurement of End User Computing Success
Authors: Shayo Conrad , Guthrie Ruth , Igbaria Magid
Published: May 2011

As end user computing (EUC) becomes more pervasive in organizations, a need arises to measure and understand the factors that make EUC successful. EUC success is viewed as a subclass of organizational information system (IS) success, having distinct characteristics that distinguish it from other sources of organizational computing success. Namely, the success of applications developed by the information systems department (ISD), software vendors, or outsourcing companies. The literature shows that despite the volitional nature of end user computing, end user satisfaction is the most popular measure EUC success. Moreover, despite known limitations reported in the literature, self-reported scales are the instruments of choice by most researchers. This paper explores the literature on EUC success measurement and discusses the main issues and concerns researchers face. While alluding to the difficulty of devising economic and quantitative measures of EUC success, recommendations are made including the use of unobtrusive measures of success, take into account contextual factors, use well-defined concepts and measures and seek a comprehensive integrated model that incorporates a global view.
The Effects of Using a Triangulation Approach of Evaluation Methodologies to Examine the Usability of a University Website
Authors: Smith Dana H. , Huang Zhensen , Preece Jennifer , Sears Andrew
Published: May 2011

The objective of this study was to evaluate the current University of Maryland, Baltimore County website and identify problems that could be addressed in an upcoming re-design project. In meeting this objective, we used a combination of evaluation methods in order to triangulate and collect different perspectives on the problems. Heuristic evaluations were performed to gain an overview of the problems with the website. A total of fifty-four Information Systems students participated in this particular portion of the study. Next, focus group sessions were conducted to seek out what individuals want and need from the site, along with specific problems encountered. And finally, thirteen subjects performed usability testing to examine specific issues concerning navigation. Together, these methods provide three different but synergistic perspectives. By gathering test data, observing users, and interviewing a range of individuals on campus, we were able to collect a wide variety of information that was compiled, analyzed, and formally reported to the design group. The analysis of the data collected from the three techniques revealed several key issues in which expert recommendations were made for website redesign. But more importantly, the result of using a triangulation approach in this research illustrates the value of combining inspection methods and testing to identify usability problems on a University website.
Facilitating End User Database Development by Working with Users' Natural Representations of Data
Authors: Hobbs Valerie J. , Pigott Diarmuid J.
Published: May 2011

One of the main advantages of user-developed applications is considered to be the greater familiarity the users themselves have with the problem domain, and hence the greater likelihood of their creating an application that meets their needs. However, it is equally frequently reported that many end users lack the skills to develop applications that are of a high quality. Database modelling and relational database design, in particular, are known to be problematic for novices. We present two case studies in which the first stage of the development process was completed entirely by the end user, making use of their own understanding of the dataset, the problem domain, and tools that were familiar to them. In each case, they had represented the data in the form of lists. An IT expert then facilitated the conversion of the dataset to a relational database, with the participation of the end users throughout the process. The end users were able to see the concepts of database design emerge naturally from a problem that was already familiar to them, and to understand their importance in a practical manner.
Fitting EMS to Organizations
Authors: Costa Carlos J. , Aparicio Manuela
Published: May 2011

A major purpose of an electronic meeting system (EMS) is recording data, which allows the production of an immediate and unbiased report. But reports produced by commercial EMSs have some weaknesses that make difficult the organisational integration of meeting results. In order to contribute to the solution of this problem, it was developed a new system supported in the concept of communication genre and genre system. A prototype was implemented and used in corporate environment. Preliminary results from its application showed that this approach contribute to a better fit to organisational needs than the traditional EMS.
Overcoming Barriers in the Planning of a Virtual Library
Authors: Hanson Ardis
Published: May 2011

The University of South Florida (USF) Libraries consist of five separate entities, two located at regional campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota and three libraries located on the main campus in Tampa. These libraries operate in a collegial, cooperative way yet each operates independently of the others. This arrangement allows the individual missions of each of the Libraries to be met while ensuring collaboration and cooperation. The many initiatives within and among the USF Libraries depend upon a reliable and advanced networked infrastructure and on staff, facility and financial decisions focussed on true programmatic cooperation. This paper addresses the interaction between the USF Libraries in defining and realising institutional commitment to its virtual library plan.
Inspecting Spam
Authors: Foxman Ellen R. , Schiano William T.
Published: May 2011

Much coverage of the Internet focuses on undesirable, sometimes intrusive, communication, often referred to as “spam.” Spam has been decried as antisocial, wasteful, and/or fraudulent, with individuals, organizations, and media reports widely advocating regulation or outright banning of the practice, yet no uniform definition exists. Participants in the electronic communication and commerce process generally operate on an “I know it when I see it” basis that is shaped by their personal experience and expectations. This chapter begins with a brief history of this new medium, then defines spam within a typology of undesirable Internet communications. Conflicting definitions of spam are examined in light of their implications for suggested remedies. The paper concludes with recommendations on controlling spam for individuals, managers, and policy makers.
Ten Lessons that Internet Auction Markets Can Learn from Securities Market Automation
Authors: Westland J. Christopher
Published: May 2011

Internet auction markets offer customers a compelling new model for price discovery. This model places much more power in the hands of the consumer than a retail model that assumes price taking, while giving consumers choice of vendor and product. Models of auction market automation has been evolving for some time. Securities markets in most countries over the past decade have invested significantly in automating various components with database and communications technologies. This paper explores the automation of three emerging market exchanges ( The Commercial Exchange of Santiago, The Moscow Central Stock Exchange, and Shanghai’s Stock Exchange ( with the intention of drawing parallels between new Internet models of retailing and the older proprietary networked markets for financial securities.
Ethics Authenticity and Emancipation in Information Systems Development
Authors: Probert Stephen K.
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes research in progress on the philosophical concept of authenticity – used as a framing device for providing an interpretation of aspects of both ethical and practical action on the part of information systems (IS) professionals. Ethical codes and prescriptive IS development methods for IS professionals can be found in most developed countries in the world. Here it is argued that ethical codes and IS methods may be of limited value in IS work. One key problem here is that IS analysts and designers have to intervene in organisations (and thereby intervene in the lives of the members of those organisations). It is argued that an important issue for IS research is whether they choose to do so in (what will be characterised as) an authentic manner, rather than doing so in sincere adherence with either a code of professional ethics or with a series of methodological precepts.
The Development of Trust in Virtual Communities
Authors: Ridings Catherin , Gefen David
Published: May 2011

This empirical study applies an existing scale to measure trust in the context of virtual communities on the Internet, and explores factors that build trust in this unique environment. The results show that trust is composed of two dimensions: trust in others’ abilities and trust in benevolence/integrity. In addition, this research found that trust has relationships with perceived responsiveness, disposition to trust, and perceptions regarding the degree to which others confide personal information. Trust itself affected participants’ desire to get and to provide information to others in the online community.
Library Web Site Assessment
Authors: White Ray , Maj S. P.
Published: May 2011

Libraries must increasingly compete as providers of information. Most, if not all, libraries now have a Web page that serves a variety of functions. Increasingly for some users the library web page may be their first introduction to a library. Furthermore, on-line use of library resources is becoming increasingly common. Accordingly an effective Web page design is essential. This chapter presents a Web page assessment tool, developed by the authors, based on a model used in the e-commerce sector. This tool was used to analyze the Web pages of libraries in the Australian Vocational Education & Training sector. The results clearly show both the strengths and weaknesses of Web pages. The lack of a standard method and guidelines for web page authoring is discussed.
Citizen Access and Use of Government Data
Authors: Heeks Richard
Published: May 2011

Government data has a value to citizens. That value may be economic – helping citizens improve their employment or income-generation potential – or it can be personal/social – helping the citizen to improve their home or community. Citizen access to government data can therefore be seen as an important component of both economic and social development. Yet that access can be a problematic process. This chapter, therefore, analyses the barriers that need to be understood and addressed if citizen access to government data is to become a more widespread reality.
Intelligent Transport Systems for Electronic Commerce - A Preliminary Discussion in the Australian Context
Authors: Krishnaswamy Girija
Published: May 2011

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) refers to transportation systems which apply emerging hard and soft information systems technologies to enhance the overall performance of transport system, presenting a paradigm shift in transportation. Electronic commerce (e-commerce) with its ability to conduct business transactions through open networks and deliver products and services in a global market in which geographical boundaries and location lose their meaning, is creating a paradigm shift in commerce. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is the unifying element in ITS and e-commerce. This chapter analyses the significance of ITS as an enabler to effective e-commerce by supporting logistics and improving supply chain management.
Outline of a Design Tool for Analysis and Visual Quality Control of Urban Environments
Authors: Sidjanin Predrag , Gerhardt Waltraud
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, the main idea about a design tool and its object database system will be described. The design tool should improve design practice with respect to analysis and improving existing and planned urban environments. Preconditions for defining the design tool’s purpose are the determination of the “well-situated” urban elements, their impact on cognitive mapping, and the exploitation of the knowledge on cognitive mapping for the improvement of urban environments. This leads to the conclusion that an urban environment design, which takes of the process of cognitive mapping into consideration, will be experienced by most of the people in the same way. Investigations of this process result in a conceptual model of the tool by using elements of urban environments, their relationships and their dependencies. The theoretical background of the tool is based on design theory, cognitive science and computer science. Design theory and cognitive science will be used to develop the conceptual model. This conceptual model together with computer science will be the basis platform for tool development. The tool uses a schematic representation of urban environment, based on Lynch’s theory of “urban forms.” Lynch’s theory is crucial for the tool development because it explains elements of urban environments. Systematic investigation of urban environments and their characteristics are also important for the object schema of the tool. The tool will use an object database system, which help to represent and to handle the urban elements with their properties and relationships, with their natural semantics. The information represented in the database will be used to analyze urban environment with the aim to improve and control their visual quality.
A Conceptual Model of Collaborative Information Seeking
Authors: Jentzsch Ric , Prekop Paul
Published: May 2011

Past research into information seeking has generally focused on the information seeker as an individual, and examined the activities, roles, behaviours, methods and processes an individual uses to locate and gather information. Little work has been done examining the information seeker as a group, that is, collaborative information seeking. The goal of the research described in this paper is to examine collaborative information seeking, suggest a conceptual model for collaborative information seeking and relate that model to current information technology initiatives. The potential value of collaborative information seeking can be seen (not limited to) in such information technology initiatives as computer supported collaborative work (CSCW), knowledge management, and electronic commerce.
The Innovation Link Between Organization Knowledge and Customer Knowledge
Authors: Mitchell Helen J.
Published: May 2011

The knowledge economy is the future. Organisations need to harness their knowledge and put it to advantage if they are to survive in the new age. Innovative approaches to the market place through the products and services offered will become critical for survival. While some of the knowledge they need is held within the organisation’s systems, it also resides in employees and customers. Linking that knowledge together will provide an innovative approach to the future. Research was carried out to identify whether organisations recognise, and utilise the knowledge of their customers. It is important to identify whether they analyse the information gathered about their customers, and whether they value their customer relationships. The potential to be innovative is considerably enhanced when the accumulated knowledge of organisations, and their customers is brought together for the purpose of providing satisfaction and success in the future for all those involved. The way of the future is to link knowledge and become innovative.