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Modeling the Dynamics of an Information System
Get PDFThe article concentrates on the nature of a social subsystem of an information system. It analyzes the nature of information processes of collectivity within an IS and introduces a model of IS dynamics. The model is based on the assumption that a social subsystem of an information system works as a nonlinear dynamic system. The model of IS dynamics is verified on the indexes of the stock market. It arises from the basic assumption of the technical analysis of the markets, that is, the index chart reflects the play of demand and supply, which in turn represents the crowd sentiment on the market
Challenging Dualisms in Female Perceptions of IT Work
Get PDFThis paper explores the way that professional women working in the IT industry discuss the nature of their work and it is suggested that the way women talk about their work reinforces widely held impressions of the Information Technology industry. Structuration theory illuminated how this talk is not always consistent with the womens' lived experiences. The interview data revealed contradictions in these dualisms, indicating that these polarised views of women and IT work are being undermined by women in the IT industry. This paper suggests that mentoring, interactions with professional IT organisations, and professional IT women talking to females in their IT education years can give new ideas to the perceptions of IT and thus challenge these dualisms. The interviews were coded using NUD*IST, which allowed the researchers to explore the interviewees perceptions of IT work. In this paper, the perceptions of the interviewees are discussed as structures of signification that need to be altered in order to successfully challenge these dualisms. It is suggested that exposing females in their IT education years to the professional IT women who are challenging these dualisms is an essential part of transforming these structures of signification. This research is part of an ongoing project (WinIT) commenced in 1995, which seeks to understand the declining female participation in IT education and work. In order to have a better understanding of the way women help configure the institutional realm of IT work, we propose that more qualitative studies of women at work in IT as well as women talking about IT are needed
The Systems Approach to Innovation Studies
Get PDFThe academic literature, and business practice, reveals a shift in the way analysts understand innovation processes. This shift is not revealed as a cohesive trend, rather it comprises contributions from a wide range of academic disciplines and empirical evidence. Building on Edquist (1997) this paper ties together the diverse new ideas which stress a systems approach to successful innovation. The paper presents an up-to-date overview of this fast moving field, with a view to assisting public policy makers and business managers in designing more effective innovation processes
A Virtual Organisation Model for E-Government
Get PDFThis paper looks at the implementation of a new customer value alliance model in e-govemment. Firstly we review the issues of e-govemment and the drive towards customer centric organisations in the context of multiple government agencies. A model of e-Government is introduced and examined within the context of a virtual organisation model which can be applied along the customer value chain across multiple service agencies. A case study is used to demonstrate how this concept of a virtual organisation as a customer value-alliance model can effect a successful transition to e-Govemment from a traditional Government model. Finally, we examine how the Aboriginal Affairs Department, a Western Australian Government agency is implementing this model for improved customer service and the implications of this model for the management of change in a developing e-community
Ownership as an Issue in Data and Information Sharing: a philosophically based review
Get PDFIt has long been an aim of information management and information systems development to enable more effective and efficient data and information sharing within organisations. A commonplace assertion has been that data and information belong, or should belong, to the organisation as a whole as opposed to any individual or stakeholder within it. Nevertheless, despite the potential benefits of data and information sharing within organisations, efforts to achieve it have typically run into more difficulty than expected and have frequently been less successful than the technological capabilities would, at least prima facie, allow. This paper is based on the proposition that perceptions of ownership can have an important influence on data and information sharing behaviour, and explores philosophical theories of ownership and property with the aim of better understanding the origins of such behaviour. It is further proposed that what are here called “implicit” theories of information ownership on the part of different individuals or parties within an organisation can lead to varying perceptions as to who is the legitimate owner of particular data or information, and that this view is illuminating of the difficulties that have often been experienced in trying to achieve effective organisational data and information sharing
Information Systems as Dialectic, Tool - Mediated Activity
Get PDFInformation Systems (IS) draws its significance from the uniqueness of computer-based information and communications tools and their place in shaping recent human history. Advances in the field come from a better understanding of how to develop and use these tools and what impact they have on the way we work, and live. As IS is still an evolving field of study, two views, the objective and the subjective, are in constant tension and, though these may be considered complementary, it is rare that they come together as a unified whole. A more balanced, and integrated, foundation for IS may be found in the subject-object dialectic arising out of the German philosophical tradition. An extension of this approach from the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory is presented in this paper. This theory views all human endeavour as a purposeful, dynamic, dialectic relationship between subject and object, mediated by tools, such as technology and information, and by the social environment or community. An adaptation of this holistic theory, to incorporate the best of other theoretical approaches used by IS researchers, could span and integrate the breadth of the field IS providing it with unity and identity
The Viewpoint Paradigm: a semiotic based approach for the intelligibility of a cooperative designing process
Get PDFThe concept of viewpoint is studied in the field of the modelling and the knowledge management concerned in the upstream phases of a designing process. The concept is approached by semiotics, i.e. in dealing with the requirements so that an actor gives sense to an object. This gives means to transform the intuitive concepts of viewpoint and relation between viewpoints into the Viewpoint Paradigm: the sense of an object is the integration of the viewpoints which exert on it. The elements of this paradigm are integrated in a general model, which defines two concepts formally: Viewpoint and Correlation of viewpoints. The Viewpoint Paradigm is then implemented in operational concerns which are related with the intelligibility of the designing process. Two models of viewpoint and correlation are proposed. They raise of viewpoints management such as one can identify them in the written documents of a project
Information Warfare: using the viable system model as a framework to attack organisations
Get PDFInformation is the glue in any organization. It is needed for policy, decision-making, control, and co-ordination. If an organisation's information systems are disrupted or destroyed, then damage to the whole inevitably follows. This paper uses a proven systemic, analytic framework the Viable System Model (VSM) - in a functionalist mode, to analyse the vulnerabilities of an organisation's information resources to this form of aggression. It examines the tactics available, and where they can be used to effectively attack an organisation