School of Information Management & Systems

Date

Seminar Topic

Presenter

Date: Friday, 23rd July 2004

Time: 3.00 - 4.30 pm

Location: Monash Caulfield Campus, Room N1.22 (Ground Floor, building N)

Caulfield campus map

Communities of Records

Jeannette Bastian, in her recent book Owning Memory. How a Caribbean Community Lost its Archives and Found Its History, enriched archival discourse with the notion of a 'community of records', referring to a community both as a record-creating entity and as a memory frame that contextualizes the records it creates. To what extent are records constructive in creating and maintaining communities and identities – imagined or real – of families, corporate bodies, social groups, nations? Could we use the concept of a 'community of records' in making the fourth dimension of the records continuum model more vigorous and its impact on shaping the three other dimensions more productive?

Eric Ketelaar is Professor of Archivistics in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam, and an Honorary Professor in the School of Information Management and Systems at Monash University. His current teaching and research are concerned mainly with the social and cultural contexts of records creation and use. In 2000/2001 he was The Netherlands Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan (School of Information). He was General State Archivist (National Archivist) of The Netherlands from 1989-1997. From 1992-2002 he held the chair of archivistics in the Department of History of the University of Leiden. He has served the International Council on Archives (ICA) in different capacities over a period of twenty years and in 2000 ICA elected him Honorary President. He has written some 250 articles mainly in Dutch, English, French and German and has written or co-authored several books, including two general introductions on archival research and a handbook on Dutch archives and records management law. He is one of the three editors-in-chief of 'Archival Science. International Journal on Recorded Information'.

Friday, June 18, 3 - 5 pm

Lecture theatre G 01,
Victoria University,
295 Queen Street, Melbourne.
(NOTE CHANGE TO USUAL VENUE)

Networking Communities: New opportunities, challenge, directions.

This forum will provide a unique opportunity to discuss the following questions with two of the leading international researchers and activists in the field of community networking.

How can information and communication technologies be best used to interconnect and empower communities in a globalising world?
What are the possibilities and limitations of information and communication technologies in supporting participatory community development, planning and research?
What are the key implications for debates about the ownership, regulation and governance of community networking technologies?
What actions can governments and communities take to maximise the progressive potential of community networking technologies and processes?
What constitutes a healthy community?

This forum has been jointly auspiced and organised by:
The Institute for Community Engagement and Policy Alternatives, the Faculty of Arts, and The Centre for Community Networking Research, Monash University.

Contacts
Professor John Wiseman: john.wiseman@vu.edu.au
Dr Graeme Johanson: graeme.johanson@monash.edu.au
Ben O Mara: ben.omara@vu.edu.au

Professor Randy Stoecker, University of Toledo, U.S.A. Randy is the moderator and editor of COMM-ORG: The Online Conference on Community Organizing and Development, and author of Defending Community: The Struggle for Alternative Redevelopment in Cedar-Riverside. http://comm-org.utoledo.edu/

Professor Scott S. Robinson, University Metropolitana, Mexico City. Scott has coordinated a Community Telecentre project in Mexico for the Canadian International Development Research Centre. He writes about community informatics issues and has made films and nowadays videos about social development questions (most recently,Telecentros en America Latina).http://www.uam-antropologia.info/profesores/robinson4.html

Friday, June 11, 3.30 - 4.30pm

Venue: Room S2.32, Caulfield Campus, Monash University. (refreshments
afterwards in Room S7.20 - DSS Lab)

SMALL CAN BE HUGE: DIVERSITY IN RESEARCH INTO SMALLBUSINESS AND ITS USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Numerically, small businesses make up the vast majority of worldwide businesses. Only recently has there been an increase in the level of research that targets small business (and its use of information technology). Both of the presenters have an interest in this type of research. This seminar showcases some of their activities and goes some way to highlighting the diversity of research that is being carried out in the area. Even with this diversity, the presenters will show that often the conclusions associated with these research projects can be related back to the unique traits that small businesses exhibit.

Stephen Burgess: (PhD Monash) is a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems at Victoria University, Australia. His PhD is in the area of small business to consumer interactions on the Internet. He has recently edited a book through Idea Group Publishing, Managing Information Technology in Small Business: Challenges and Solutions. Stephen is founder of the IRMA Special Research Cluster on Small Business and Information Technology (www.businessandlaw.vu.edu.au/sbirit/) and a Research-in-Progress chair at ISOneWorld in Las Vegas (www.IsOneWorld.org).

M Gordon Hunter: (PhD Strathclyde) is an Associate Professor in Information Systems in the Faculty of Management at The University of Lethbridge. Gordon has previously held academic positions in Canada, Hong Kong, and Singapore and visiting positions in USA and New Zealand, and is currently a visiting professor at Victoria University, Australia. He has extensive experience as a systems analyst and manager in industry andgovernment organizations in Canada. Gordon serves on the editorial board of a number of leading journals.

Friday, May 28, 3.30 - 4.30pm

Venue: Room S2.32, Caulfield Campus, Monash University. (refreshments
afterwards in Room S7.20 - DSS Lab)

Research Student Understandings of Information Literacy

This seminar will report upon fieldwork conducted in 2003, when fifteen research students in the Monash Faculty of Information Technology were interviewed about their use of information within the research process. The aims of the project include:

investigating the ways in which students are required to be information-literate in their research;
examining the strategies they develop to meet information literacy requirements;
evaluating the ways in which the growing accessibility of electronic materials has changed the manner in which they seek information; and -
considering the implications that the growing accessibility of electronic materials hold for students¹ handling of more traditional information sources.

The study is a joint project with the Monash Library, funded by a Monash University Faculty of Information Technology Small Grant with Library financial and in-kind support.

	Kirsty Williamson is Director of a research group, ITNR, which is a joint initiative of SIMS at Monash University and School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University. ITNR undertakes a wide range of funded research focussing on information-seeking behaviour, often in relation to Internet use.
	Steve Wright lectures in SIMS, where he is a member of the ITNR and CCNR research groups. He has researched and published on information seeking, social movements, workplace politics and social theory.
	Jen Sullivan is a Research Associate with ITNR. She worked in university administration until 2002, and since then has been enjoying part-time research. She is particularly interested in user needs.
	Vivienne Bernath is the Information Literacy and Reference Librarian at Monash University Library. She is a member of the CAUL Information Literacy Working Group project team investigating the educative role of librarians. Her recent research and publication experience is in the area of evidence-based clinical practice.

Friday, May 14, 3.30 - 4.30pm

Venue: Room B2.24, Caulfield Campus, Monash University. (refreshments
afterwards in Room S7.20 - DSS Lab)

Design of decision technologies in 'ill structured' environments: the case of a system for option based stock market portfolio

How to make sure that a new technology will be performing as needed while at the same time gaining new insights for its design and acceptance from endusers as part of their live experience? This modern one million dollar question is attempted here with an offer of a new one million dollar system as a reward. Though humoristic at its foundation the presentation aims at demonstrating and analyzing a system that will eventually assist a non financial expert in making expert-level stock market decisions .The justification of the system is based on cognitive limitations in human information processing. It combines data largely available from on-line trading and current advances in DSS technologies by adding reasoning and business intelligence and at the extreme attempting full automation. The typical `random walk' ill structured stock market behavior is used as a challenging experimental context that a priori defies use of advanced modeling and forecasting techniques. Yet the programmed solution stance is part of a continuing debate, sparkled initially by Herbert Simon, that a thinking and creative machine, can be used in place of humans, even in the case of 'ill structured' decision processes. The current design of such a machine is based on an architecture composed of multi agents that cooperate in real time stock market data analysis and information retrieval, reasoning, business intelligence, optimization and finally in a robot-like order processing of an automatically generated recommendation. In aiming at ideally pervasive system the proposition made here takes initially an engineering approach relying on a better control mechanism to respond to stock market chaotic behavior by using derived instruments in the form of equity options.

Considering past results indicate that with a minimum investment, the system has generated huge profits are you willing to accept it as part of your financial strategy? Starting with the introduction to the system components the presentation addresses this very question debated along the frameworks of pervasive systems with design based on both ubiquitous and culturally embedded computing.

Jacques Ajenstat is a professor at the Department of Management and
Technology of the Business School at the University of Quebec at Montreal.
His research interests and publications are mainly in the area of design and early testing of new decision support technologies for non-expert users. His past implications range from text - intensive regulatory and legal systems to assist in the interpretation by non-legal experts, collaborative project management and more recently to data rich stock market environments to assist novices in expert- like strategies. His research approach combines a purely scientific and engineering Œlab¹ based perspective applied to what is called today ubiquitous computing with an alternative interpretative field based perspective of self reflection by potential users better known as critical technical practice and culturally embedded computing. Dr Ajenstat has a dual training first in science with an engineering degree in physics, master in electronics and advanced studies diploma in automation and second in Business administration with a MBA and a PhD in information systems

Venue: Room S2.32, Caulfield Campus, Monash University. (refreshments
afterwards in Room S7.20 - DSS Lab)

Time: Friday, April 30, 3.30 - 4.30pm

Enablers and Inhibitors of EC in Large Organizations

Abstract:
This presentation reports on an investigation into relationships between challenges and success factors in e-commerce, from the perspective of the acknowledged benefits achieved by large organizations operating within the Australian context.

To enable organisations to achieve benefits from e-business, it is imperative for companies to recognise the challenges before them as well as to identify critical success factors necessary for success in e-business. The outcome of the research reported here is a key set of critical success factors, challenges and benefits that can be used as a modus operandi to overcome problems by applying appropriate solutions in order to achieve benefits in this area.

Even though this research focused on Australia¹s large corporations, because the nature of electronic commerce is global, the findings from this research should also be applicable to businesses over a much wider scope, as well as to SMEs.

Joze Kuzic gained his DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) from Victoria University, Melbourne, in 2002. He is currently Lecturer in School of Information Management and Systems, as Monash University. Joze Kuzic has been involved in teaching at the tertiary level for 4 years. His current research interests include electronic commerce issues in large corporations, influence of various web site features on company¹s image, and application of quantitative methodologies in research in the area of Information Systems. He is the author/co-author of a number of publications and, in particular, is a regular supporter of and contributor to information systems conferences worldwide (where, in recent years, he has presented papers at the International, and European Conferences on Information Systems).

Monday, April 19, 3.00 - 4.30pm

Venue: Room B2.24, Caulfield Campus, Monash University. (refreshments
afterwards in Room S7.20 - DSS Lab)

New Trends in Bank IT the Swiss Perspective

Industrialization has finally reached the banking sector. Traditional banking industry structures are inflexible, labor- intensive and depend too much on in-sourcing. Moving towards increased market orientation and rationalization of business processes requires a migration from the old banking sytems of the 1970s to modern component based architectures. Several large Swiss banks are currently in the middle of this move and a hot debate of the future banking industry is taking place. The talk focusses on changes in the Swiss banking industry and the ensuing challenges to the IT-Systems. It shows how innovative banking systems can induce structural change in the banking.

Gerhard Schwabe is (full) Professor in Information Systems at the University of Zurich, Switzerland,(ranked among the top 50 universities worldwide and among the top ten European universities according to a recent worldwide study of Shanghaii University). His research interests include collaborative technologies, Bank IT, E-Government and Mobile Learning. Gerhard received his academic education at the Technical University of Darmstadt and the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, both in Germany. He was Professor at the University of Koblenz-Landau for four years before moving to Zurich in 2002. He heads a research group of seven fulltime research assistants. Gerhard spends seven weeks of his sabbatical leave in Australia and - besides giving research talks - is looking forward to interesting discussions that may lead to joint research ventures.

Thursday, April 1, 2.00 pm

Venue: Room B2.22, Caulfield Campus, Monash University

Raising the Bar: Barcode-Enabled M-Commerce Solutions

One pertinent area of recent m-commerce development is in methods forpersonal transaction and information transfer. Several companies around the world have begun to use barcodes for the provision of m-commerce services. This paper provides background on the enabling technological
platform for providing such services. It then continues with three cases where mobile barcodes have been used in Japan, New Zealand and the UK. Subsequently, these are used as the basis for a discussion and analysis of the key business models, and implications for particular markets. The paper concludes with predictions for the market and directions for future research.

Stuart Barnes is Associate Professor at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
He has been teaching and researching in the information systems field for over a decade. His academic background includes a first class degree in Economics from University College London, and a PhD in Business Administration from Manchester Business School. Stuart's current research interests include evaluating web site and e-commerce quality, e-commerce strategy, information systems implementation, knowledge management systems, and business applications of wireless information technologies. He has published and presented more than eighty articles including those in journals such as Communications of the ACM, the International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Electronic Markets, the eService Journal, and the Journal of Electronic Commerce Research. He is on the editorial board of Information & Management and six other journals. He has also published three books: E-Commerce and V-Business in 2001, a best-seller for Butterworth Heinemann, Knowledge Management Systems in 2002, and M-Business in 2003. Two new books are currently in progress.
Stuart, along with other VUW staff, was part of the recent Medici ICT Consortium Bid, successful in April 2003 (estimated funding of $16m). He also has grants for several other projects including mobile advertising, wireless in SMEs, and is project manager of a project on business usability for mobile collaboration in the construction industry. Recent consulting assignments have included those for the UK Inland Revenue, UK Customs and Excise, and the OECD.

Thursday, March 18, 3.00 pm

Venue: Room B2.22, Caulfield Campus, Monash University (Drinks and nibbles
afterwards in Room S7.20 - DSS Lab)

The World and Business Computing in 2051: from LEO to RUR?

Abstract: It is now a little over 50 years since the deployment of LEO the first business computer and application in 1951. This presentation will attempt to look 50 years ahead in order to discern the nature and effects of
business computing in 2051.

Scenarios will be offered of some possible business applications fifty years hence. These include business information systems in space, the nature of manufacturing, and social effects.

The scenarios will serve as a basis for addressing a number of issues. These include the availability of technology to support the scenarios presented, the nature of organizations shaped by future information systems, the nature of employment in the new organizational structure, consumer-vendor relations in the new economy, the effects of the new information technology on the nature of national governments, and the effect of information technologies
on the structure of the global economy.

In 1998, Dr. Ein-Dor was appointed founding editor of the Journal of the Association for Information Systems , which began publication in March 2000. He has been an Associate Editor of MIS Quarterly and member of the Editorial Board of the Information Resource Management Journal and is currently a member of the Advisory Board of Information Technology and Management and of the Editorial Boards of Information & Management ,Internet
Research, Journal of MIS, and Management Science and Regional Development. He has published four books and some 50 papers on various aspects of information systems and their management. He has held visiting appointments at various universities, including New York University, National University of Singapore, Claremont Graduate University, CMC Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town, and the Naval Postgraduate School .

In 2000, Phillip Ein-Dor was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Information Systems and in 2001 was elected President-Elect of that organization. His term as president of AIS began May 1, 2002.