Information Technology Research Update by Diomidis Spinellis Department of Management Science and Technology Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) http://www.dmst.aueb.gr/dds/ Volume 2 Issue 2 April 11th, 2002 A free periodic newsletter providing summaries, analyses, insights, and commentaries on information technology research brough to you by the Information Systems Technology laboratory http://istlab.dmst.aueb.gr In this issue: - Dennis Tsichritzis on eGovernance - The Design Challenge of Pervasive Computing - Internet Firms - Magazine Focus: EContent, Content 100, and its Taxonomy - Research Outlet: ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems - Electronic Journals - Senior Executives' use of Information Technology Dennis Tsichritzis on eGovernance --------------------------------- Prof. Tsichritzis is a member of the Executive Board of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. He was the keynote speaker at the eGovernance workshop that took place under the auspices of Oracle, e-Gov Lab, and eLTRUN on March 4th. The following is our summary of his speech's salient points. eGovernance is not the introduction of IT using the government's existing organisational model, but the optimisation of government processes using IT. Interestingly for a monopoly such as a government, an important facilitating role will be competition; consider for example different regional entities such as municipalities competing to attract new investment. The main technological challenges, infrastructure, security, reliability, and availability, seem to be solvable. On the other hand, socio-cultural challenges are more difficult to tackle. These include social exclusion, adaptation of legal standards, and user / employee skills. eGovernemnt's target groups include citizens (as customers), businesses, and NGOs. An important aspect is the participation of citizens and interest groups as members of a fledging eDemocracy. Prof. Tsichritzis equated the demonstrations and civil disobedience actions against voted laws in Greece with "participatory democracy"; eDemocracy could provide answers to this problem. eGovernance involves access to information and services. These include legal information systems, access to geographic information, patent information, e-democracy, e-procurement, workflow and knowledge management. Many of those can be implemented in an anywhere-anytime fashion (e.g. through WAP phones) and personalised to the needs of the individual citizen. As an interesting exemplar application, consider an electronic building permit platform. This allows all persons working on a building (architect, civil engineer, local authorities) to cooperate on-line so as to issue the final permit. Current eGovernance realisations suffer from a number of drawbacks. They are based on proprietary solutions, their contents are static rather than dynamic, transactions are seldom supported, and many existing applications are not integrated with others. The root behind this problem is government's chronic under-investment in organisation and IT. New bold initiatives are needed; as an example, the German federal government has targeted over 380 applications to move online by 2005. Governments should move swiftly to avoid being overtaken by private sector actions. The Design Challenge of Pervasive Computing ------------------------------------------- What happens to society when there are hundreds of microchips for every man, woman, and child on the planet? (In 1998 some 4.8 billion microprocessors were sold.) What cultural consequences follow when every object around us is "smart" and connected? (Your correspondent regularly carries around 6-10 microprocessors inside various devices with him). These controversial questions were the focus of the keynote speech by John Thackara, director of Doors of Perception, at the opening of the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (www.interaction-ivrea.it) last December. John's talk develops ideas first explored in his keynote speech to the 2000 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI2000) in The Hague. >From the related article appearing as "The Design Challenge of Pervasive Computing" in ACM Interactions 8(3):46-52 (May 2001) we have singled-out the following "Articles of Association Between Design, Technology, and The People Formerly Known As Users". They affect all of us working on technological frontier. 1. We cherish the fact that people are innately curious, playful, and creative. We therefore suspect that technology is not going to go away; it's too much fun. 2. We will deliver value to people, not deliver people to systems. We will give priority to human agency and will not treat humans as a "factor" in some bigger picture. 3. We will not presume to design your experiences for you, but we will do so with you, if asked. 4. We do not believe in idiot-proof technology, because we are not idiots and neither are you. We will use language with care and will search for less patronizing words than "user'' and "consumer." 5. We will focus on services, not on things. We will not flood the world with pointless devices. 6. We believe that "content" is something you do, not something you are given. 7. We will consider material end energy flows in all the systems we design. We will think about the consequences of technology before we act, not after. 8. We will not pretend things are simple when they are complex. We value the fact that by acting inside a system, you will probably improve it. 9. We believe that place matters, and we will look after it. 10. We believe that speed and time matter, too, but that sometimes you need more, and sometimes you need less. We will not fill up all time with content. The above text may be copied and distributed as long as you mention Doors of Perception (www.doorsofperception.com). Internet Firms -------------- The successful initial public offering by PayPal may have given the impression that .com firms are again in the vogue. An article in a recent issue of the Economist (February 23rd) examines successful Internet firms and outlines the attributes that distinguish them from the average failed .com firm. These attributes include the ability to exploit the Internet's very low cost of information exchange and a business model based on the "network effects" of the Internet: an offering's value increasing with the number of users. A crucial success factor is related to the barriers prohibiting end-users to switch between competitors. As an example, users with an established reputation on eBay will be reluctant to switch to a competing on-line auction provider where they would need to establish a new reputation. Magazine Focus: EContent, Content 100, and its Taxonomy ------------------------------------------------------- The ECONTENT magazine addresses digital content strategies and resources. In its December 2001 issue, it contains columns dealing with electronic access to scientific journals, online personals, subscription based services, and the "Content 100" guide outlining content companies to watch. An interesting and authoritative feature of the guide is the company taxonomy it uses. Companies are classified into the following categories: content aggregator (split into general, hybrid, subject-oriented and into free and fee-based), content collaboration solutions, content delivery, content management, content production, content syndication, digital asset management, digital rights management, intellectual property law firms, market research & consulting firms, media investment bankers, rich media delivery, wireless technology, and web search engine. Research Outlet: ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems --------------------------------------------------------------- ACM recently launched the ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems. TECS, the ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems, is a new journal established to publish research articles in all aspects of embedded computing. Embedded computers are used in all aspects of life (cars, mobile phones, TV set-top boxes, sound systems, PDAs, shopping carts, banknotes). The design of embedded computing systems, both software and hardware, increasingly relies on sophisticated algorithms, analytical models, and methodologies. TECS aims to present the leading work relating to the analysis, design, behavior, and experience with embedded computing systems. http://www.acm.org/tecs/ (currently http://www.ee.princeton.edu/~tecs/) Electronic Journals ------------------- As the electronic delivery of journals is reaching maturity, the problems of the existing technologies and business models become clear. In an article in the EContent magazine (also presented in this issue) Martin White outlines the main problems publishers and libraries face: a steep technological learning curve, licensing issues concerning large and global campuses (consider pharmaceutical firms), archiving, and access to statistical data. The last one is quite interesting. Internet-based access provides libraries with the ability to get detailed usage statistics for journals and articles. Publishers are naturally reluctant to release this information to libraries. More details on the current practices can be found in a special issue of the "Information Services and Use" journal (volume 21, numbers 3/4, 2001) dealing with electronic journals. In this issue you will find more than 20 reports on adoption strategies and use of electronic journals in a number of academic and research environments. Senior Executives' Use of Information Technology ------------------------------------------------ In an article with the same title published following a PhD study (Pijpers, Bemelans, Heemstra, and van Montfort. Informations and Software Technology 43(2001):959-971) the authors examine the technology adoption model for the use of IT by senior executives. The most significant finding is the role that fun and enjoyment play in influencing their beliefs, attitude, and usage. The other two important driving factors were organisational support, and computer self-efficacy. These findings offer guidance on the attributes of IT systems and their support organisations for fostering their adoption by senior management. They also explain why senior executives use gadgets like personal organisers and mobile phones, while eschewing the use of personal computers in their office.