Information Systems

Preparing for Technology-Related Organizational Change

by Alexandre Koloskov

Managing Knowledge or Knowing in Practice?

by Alexandre Koloskov

Tools for Reordering: Commonplacing and the Space of Words in Linnaeus's Philosophia Botanica, Intellectual History Review, 20 (2010), 227-252

by Matthew Daniel Eddy

Author: Matthew Daniel Eddy

Recent studies on commonplacing have shown that it flourished as an important information management tool and, in some... more Recent studies on commonplacing have shown that it flourished as an important information management tool and, in some cases, it functioned as a method (methodus) that facilitated the ordering of natural history systems. In what follows in this essay, I wish to extend this point by examining the role played by heads in the work of Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linné). I address two core questions. First, what were the economies of attention that guided his commonplacing techniques? Second, what type of impact did his note-taking skills have upon the way that he spatially arranged information in texts? Whereas intellectual historians sometimes tend to focus on the role that he played as the unique originator of modern botanical and zoological classification systems, I approach his work merely as one example in a long tradition of commonplacing and graphic design that originated in the Renaissance, but which had become an indispensable organisational tool used to create knowledge systems in the leading research centres of Enlightenment Europe.

New evidence on the interoperability of information systems within UK universities

by Kathleen Menzies

Shaman: D14. 3-Report on demonstration and evaluation activity in the domain of industrial design and engineering

by Kathleen Menzies

The Collaborative Work Concept and the Information Systems Support: Perspectives for and from Manufacturing Industry

by António B. Moniz

Published in: Technikfolgenabschätzung – Theorie und Praxis 2 16 (2007): pp. 49-57.

Most of the discussion and controversy on organisation of work concepts has been referenced to the manufacturing... more Most of the discussion and controversy on organisation of work concepts has been referenced to the manufacturing industry along the 20th century: it started with the concept of “scientific management” from Taylor, and continued with the new ideas on the importance of human factors as Mayo pointed out in the 1930s. Immediately after the 2nd World War Friedmann studied the human problems related to new manufacturing technologies and automation. And the late 1950 and 1960s were decades of strong debate on the socio-technics with the research at Tavistock Institute of London and the emergence of national programmes on new forms of work organisation.
At the end of the last century the concept of collaborative work was developed together with the definition(s) of information systems and organisational design. However, the interest came from other production activities, like the services. This article analyses the approaches developed on these debates on the collaborative work and information system and its application to the manufacturing industry.

Perspektivwechsel auf IS: Von der Systemgestaltung zur Strukturation sozialer Praxis

by Gunnar Stevens

Peter Brödner, Markus Rohde, Gunnar Stevens, Volker Wulf: Perspektivwechsel auf IS: Von der Systemgestaltung zur Strukturation sozialer Praxis, Tagungsband der Mensch und Computer, 2010,

Der Beitrag befasst sich mit der theoretischen Fundierung der zweckmäßigen Gestaltung von Informa- tionssystemen. Er... more Der Beitrag befasst sich mit der theoretischen Fundierung der zweckmäßigen Gestaltung von Informa- tionssystemen. Er trägt zu einem internationalen Diskurs bei, der durch eine grundlegende Arbeit von Hevner et al. (2004) angestoßen wurde. Allerdings wirft deren Perspektive begriffliche und theoreti- sche Schwierigkeiten auf, die in einer eingeschränkten Rezeption pragmatischer Weltsicht wurzeln, auf die sich die Autoren berufen, und die ein unzureichendes Verständnis der Gestaltungsaufgabe zur Folge haben. Abhilfe lässt sich durch eine Erweiterung des theoretischen Rahmens gewinnen, der nicht nur die zu gestaltenden IT-Systeme, sondern vor allem auch deren Wechselwirkungen mit den sozialen Praktiken, die sie modellieren und im Gebrauch zugleich strukturieren, in den Blick nimmt. Diese ontologische und epistemologische Öffnung der Perspektive der Gestaltungswissenschaft hat methodi- sche Konsequenzen, die exemplarisch für die kanonische Aktionsforschung und Unternehmens- Ethnografie als aussichtsreichen neuen Vorgehensweisen erläutert werden.

dataNUTES: Uma Proposta de Sistema de Informações para o Gerenciamento de Serviços de Telessaúde

by Alexandre Luna

DIAS, F. C., DE O LUNA, ALEXANDRE J. H., PINTO, E. R., NOVAES, M. A., MELLO, M. R.(2008) dataNUTES: Uma Proposta de Sistema de Informações para o Gerenciamento de Serviços de Telessaúde. In: CBIS208 – XI Congresso Brasileiro de Informática em Saúde, 2008, Campos do Jordão. ANAIS do XI Congresso Brasileiro de Informática em Saúde (CBIS2008), 2008.

This article presents the strategies and methodologies adopted in the development of a web based information system... more This article presents the strategies and methodologies adopted in the development of a web based information system to manage telehealth services, called dataNUTES. The system aim to  support the deployment and maintenance of a telehealth network, the Telehealth Centers Network of Pernambuco, and is underdevelopment by the UFPE  Telehealth Centre.

Evaluating the cognitive dimmension of FlowiXML

by Josefina Guerrero Garcia

Co-autothed with: Juan Gonzalez-Calleros, Vanderdonckt, J., Muñoz-Arteaga, J.

supporting business processes through the help of workflow systems is a necessary prerequisite for many companies to... more supporting business processes through the help of workflow systems is a necessary prerequisite for many companies to stay competitive. An important task is the specification of workflow, i.e. the parts of a business process that can be supported by a computer-based system. We investigated how to close the gap between the organization requirements and the development of information systems to support them. We introduced FlowiXML a methodology for developing user interfaces for a workflow information system in a systematic way. The methodology provides designers with methodological guidance on how to derive user interfaces of workflow information. We have already experienced the benefits of FlowiXML in several real life case studies conducted at the University. In this paper we report on our evaluation of FlowiXML against the cognitive dimension framework.

A Methodology for Developing User Interfaces to Workflow Information Systems

by Josefina Guerrero Garcia

PhD Thesis Josefina Guerrero García

Supporting business processes through the help of workflow systems is a necessary prerequisite for many companies to... more Supporting business processes through the help of workflow systems is a necessary prerequisite for many companies to stay competitive. An important task is the specification of workflow, i.e. the parts of a business process that can be supported by a computer-based system.
This thesis introduces a methodology for developing user interfaces for a workflow information system in a systematic way. The methodology involves a set of models that capture the various aspects required for this purpose, a user interface description language to specify the corresponding user interface, a method to structure the usage of these models, and software support. The methodology is delineated by a set of requirements that are elicited and motivated by the state of the art and relying on a framework to model workflow. The validation of the proposed methodology is achieved by applying it over different real-world case studies belonging to different domains of human activity. The methodology provides designers with methodological guidance on how to derive user interfaces of workflow information systems from a series of models, which is unprecedented.
For this purpose, a workflow is recursively decomposed into processes that are in turn decomposed into tasks. Each task gives rise to a task model whose structure, ordering, and connection with the domain model allows a semi-automated generation of corresponding user interfaces by model-to-model transformation. Reshuffling tasks within a same process or reordering processes within a same workflow is straightforwardly propagated as a natural consequence of the  mapping model used in the model-driven engineering. The various models involved in the method can be edited in a graphical editor based on Petri Nets and simulated interactively. This editor also contains a set of workflow user interface patterns that are ready to use.

The Politics of a Paradigm Shift: Telecommunications Regulation and the Communications Revolution; by W. Russell Neuman, Lee W. McKnight, and Richard Jay Solomon, in Political Communication, Vol. 10, pp. 77 - 94, 2003.

by Lee McKnight

A Business Model Perspective for ICTs in Public Engagement

by Panos Panagiotopoulos

Paper in press for Government Information Quarterly

Public institutions, in their efforts to promote meaningful citizen engagement, are increasingly looking at the... more Public institutions, in their efforts to promote meaningful citizen engagement, are increasingly looking at the democratic potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Previous studies suggest that such initiatives seem to be impeded by socio-technical integration barriers such as low sustainability, poor citizen acceptance, coordination difficulties, lack of understanding, and failure to assess their impact. Motivated by these shortcomings, the paper develops and applies a business model perspective as an interceding framework for analysis and evaluation. The underlying principle behind this approach is that it is not technology per se which determines success, but rather the way in which the business model of the technological artifact is configured and employed to achieve the strategic goals. The business model perspective is empirically demonstrated with the case of an online petitioning system implemented by a UK local authority. The case illustrates the importance of considering ICTs in public engagement from a holistic view to make them more manageable and assessable.

Systems of Authenticity: A Literary Criticism of Lupton's Thinking With Type & Benjamin's Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

by Elizabeth Sarobhasa

Reading is the result of an organized experience. As the text on a page dictates the reader subconscious experience of... more Reading is the result of an organized experience. As the text on a page dictates the reader subconscious experience of reading, it also demonstrates how to navigate the layout: the grid structure. These standards create a navigational reference of how we interact with the system of the text visually. However, the mechanical duplication of text and artwork share a similar relationship to their initial creation: the separation of the copy and the original. The hierarchy of authenticity maintains the shared context we experience through these connections, however, the different methods of mechanical reproduction do not always guarantee an accurate relationship to the original form.

Trasformace Informačních systémů na FHS UK z Pohledu administrativních a technických pracovníků

by Jan Beseda

Finding the way: improving access to the collections of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.

by Candida Fenton

Program: electronic library and information systems 2007 41(4):pp. 353-364 20

CATEGORY: Case study

PURPOSE: The paper describes the Images for All digitisation project at the Royal... more CATEGORY: Case study

PURPOSE: The paper describes the Images for All digitisation project at the Royal Scottish Geographical
Society and lessons learned from it.

DESIGN: This paper describes the background to the project and collections held. It focuses on the
development of the project website, the digitisation of 100 images from the collection and the nature of
project management in a small scale project.

FINDINGS: There are many potential challenges faced by project managers working in small voluntary
organisations, but these can be overcome.

VALUE: This paper gives a direct insight into some of the challenges facing smaller organisations with
limited full time staff and so reliant on volunteers, which are often overlooked.

KEYWORDS: Project management; Digitisation; Archive management; Digital libraries

El papel de las TIC frente a una renovación curricular

by Gerardo Tibaná

Borrador de trabajo

Transparency work and argumentation design in deliberation about business in society

by Mark Aakhus

Aakhus, M. (2010). Transparency work and argumentation design in deliberation about business in society. In D. Gouran (Ed.), The functions of argument and social context: Selected papers from the 16th Biennial Conference on Argumentation (pp. 11-17). Washington, DC: National Communication Association.

There is considerable contemporary interest in the prospect that corporate responsibility can be fostered through... more There is considerable contemporary interest in the prospect that corporate responsibility can be fostered through practices that make business conduct transparent. The belief is that transparency leads to accountability and that accountability will bring about socially and environmentally desirable business-conduct. Underlying this belief is the assumption about the power of publicity as articulated by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in the early 20th century: Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman. In terms of the emerging field of work in corporate social responsibility (CSR), much attention is given to developing practices for transparency that enable businesses to demonstate their corporate responsibility to their constituencies (e.g., sustainability reports, codes of conduct). Such transparency practice shifts who shines the light and what the light shines on, thus changing the ground and shaping the materials for deliberating about the role and conduct of business in society.

Rather than focusing directly on the transparency practices of business organizations, attention is given here to transparency practices of third-party actors whose work shapes the landscape of accountability. Traditionally this function has been carried out by the business press, investigative journalism, government regulatory agencies, and courts. Over the past several decades, however, shifts in the conduct of business, changes in transnational governance, innovations in communication and information technology, and social trends appear to have changed the ways and means for raising doubts, pursuing opposition, and otherwise making sense of business conduct in society.

Traditional versus Agile: The Tragile Framework for Information Systems development

by Mohammed Seyam

Seyam, M. & Galal-Edeen, G. (2011) "Traditional versus Agile: The Tragile Framework for Information Systems development", the International Journal of Software Engineering (IJSE), Vol. 4, No. 1, Pp. 63-93, ISSN: 1687-6954.

Traditional systems development methodologies sometimes fall short in today’s business environments because they lack... more Traditional systems development methodologies sometimes fall short in today’s business environments because they lack the flexibility required for most of today’s information systems projects. In response to this problem, so called "Agile" software development methodologies have been proposed and put to use. Although agile development appeared as a way to overcome the limitations of the traditional development methodologies, they faced some challenges when applied in specific problem domains. The concept of agility, which emphasizes human role in software development processes, is revolutionizing the systems analysis and design field as well as the software engineering field. However, the question that begs an answer is whether traditional systems development methodologies have no place in today’s fast-paced developments.
This paper demonstrates the extent to which agile software development methodologies can be combined with traditional approaches to information systems development, showing the advantages of combining agile and traditional approaches in the same project. The paper then proposes the "Tragile" framework, which is a hybrid framework that combines both traditional and agile development practices to serve the field of information systems development. The paper then presents a summary of a case study application to show how the Tragile framework had affected the development process in the selected project.

Agility Versus Discipline: Is Reconciliation Possible?

by Mohammed Seyam

Galal-Edeen, G., Riad, A. & Seyam, M. (2007) "Agility Versus Discipline: Is Reconciliation Possible?" IN Fahmy, H., Wahba, A., El-Kharashi, W. & Bahaa El-Din, A. (Eds.), Proceedings of International Conference on Computer Engineering and Systems. Cairo, Egypt, ISBN: 1-4244-1366-4, IEEE.

Software development methodologies have been considered as essential to the production of high quality software,... more Software development methodologies have been considered as essential to the production of high quality software, especially on time and within budget. During the last decade, a new school of practice that labels itself as the agile development school has emerged with a set of concepts that can be seen as diametrically opposed to the tenets of traditional methodologies. Promising effectiveness and efficiency in software development, agile practices are transforming methodologies for developing information systems. This paper discusses whether the two schools are in total contradiction and whether they can be in some way combined within the same project, showing the relation between the agile software development methodologies and the information systems development field.

Agility Versus Discipline: Towards a Middle Ground

by Mohammed Seyam

Galal-Edeen, G., Riad, A. & Seyam, M. (2007) "Agility Versus Discipline: Towards a Middle Ground" IN Elwany, M., Eltawil, A. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 37th International Conference on Computers and Industrial Engineering. Alexandria, Egypt.

For a significant period of time, methodologies for software development have been considered, especially by... more For a significant period of time, methodologies for software development have been considered, especially by researchers, as essential to the production of high quality software, especially on time and within budget. During the last decade, a new school of practice that labels itself as the agile development school has emerged with a set of concepts that can be seen as diametrically opposed to the tenets of traditional methodologies. Promising effectiveness and efficiency in software development, agile practices are transforming methodologies for developing information systems. This paper discusses whether the two schools are in total contradiction and whether they can be in some way combined within the same project, showing the relation between the agile software development methodologies and the information systems development field.