An observer’s information dynamics: Acquisition of information and the origin of the cognitive dynamics

Conventional information science considers an information process, but traditionally uses the probability measure for random states and Shannon’s entropy as the uncertainty function of these states.This paper presents a new approach, based on an integral information measure of the random process.An entropy functional (EF) on the trajectories of the process accumulates and encodes the process’ inner connections between the information states.The application of a variation principle (VP) to the EF determines the process’ information path functional (IPF), whose extremal trajectories describe the informational dynamics of this process.Information dynamics with the VP invariant relations evaluate the information content of a random process, expose its information code and reveal a conserved (hidden) information, produced at an acquisition of the process information.By introducing both objective and subjective information observers, we consider the observers information cognitive dynamics and neurodynamics, based on the EF–IPF approach.The universal nature of information process’ dynamics and regularities, discovered in the information observers, have many applications not only in cognitive and intelligent systems, but also in different biological, social and economic systems.     

What do we mean by “information security”?

This is really a rather interesting question and, I believe, not one that we bother to ask ourselves nearly often enough. This may be because, suspiciously enough, for many of us it often just means “job security”. More importantly, we really need to consider what is understood by “information security” by the various stakeholders¹ we engage with.     

Where’s the competitive advantage in strategic information systems research? Making the case for boundary-spanning research based on the German business and information systems engineering tradition

During the last decades, strategic information systems (SIS) research has become an influential stream within the information systems discipline. The success story of the Journal of Strategic Information Systems provides strong evidence. Yet, we believe that there is still a lot of untapped potential in the interaction of SIS research and industry. Put bluntly, it is impossible that results of SIS research are publicly available, reconstructable by subject matter experts, and valid beyond the single or very few cases and at the same time constitute the foundation of competitive advantage. We argue that SIS researchers need to become boundary spanners who actively engage in industry collaboration to help create competitive advantage and who disseminate their insights later on to advance the scientific knowledge base. We outline challenges of boundary-spanning SIS research and provide some ideas and recommendations. Wherever sensible, we draw on our experiences from the traditionally strong industry collaboration of the business and information systems engineering community from the German-speaking countries.     

Niklas Luhmann’s concept of social communication and documentary information theory: Cross points

Niklas Luhman’s concept of social communication is considered. The relationship between communication concepts and information theory is shown. The heuristic potential of Luhmann’s theory with respect to the document and information disciplines is analyzed.     

Tomorrow’s ethics and today’s response: An investigation into the ways information systems professionals perceive and address emerging ethical issues

This paper explores the question of how foresight and futures research can identify and address ethical issues in the field of Information Systems (IS). Starting from the premise that such IS are part of socio-technical systems, the interaction between technology and human actors raise ethical concerns. Early recognition of these concerns can address ethical issues and improve the use of the technology for a range of social and organisational goals. This paper discusses research conducted in two futures research projects. Both projects investigated emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs) and ethics. The first project established approaches for identifying future technologies and their related ethical concerns. This led to the identification of 11 emerging ICTs and their associated ethical concerns. The second project took these general ethical concerns and focused on their role in IS. Specifically, how IS professionals view future emerging technologies, their associated ethical concerns, and how they think these concerns could be addressed. The key findings are that IS professionals are primarily interested in the job at hand and less so in the ethical concerns that the job might bring; ethics is a concern that is best left for others to deal with. This paper considers the implications of research on ethics in emerging ICTs and draws general conclusions about the relevance of future technologies research in IS.     

What are a Location’s “File” and “Edit” Menus?

The promise of mobile devices lies not in their capacity to duplicate the capabilities of desktop machines, but rather in their promise of enabling location-specific tasks. One of the challenges that must be addressed if they are to be used in this way is how intuitive interfaces for mobile devices can be designed that enable access to location-specific services usable across locations. We are developing a prototype mobile valet application that presents location-specific services organised around the tasks associated with a location. The basic elements of the interface exploits commonalties in the way we address tasks at various locations just as the familiar “file” and “edit” menus in various software applications exploit regularities in software tasks.     

Crafting Board and Committee Agendas: What’s on Your Agenda?

Effective board and board committee meetings start with a well-built agenda. The agenda outlines the intended flow of the meeting or call. While there is great diversity in how they are crafted and by whom, every agenda should advance the board of director’s effort in meeting their strategic and oversight responsibilities. Ideally, it is the outside directors who have the loudest voice regarding the board’s oversight responsibilities. Outside directors must position themselves to make well-informed decisions to fulfill their fiduciary duties without assuming the role of management.     

Collision with friction; Part B: Poisson’s and Stornge’s hypotheses

In Part B of this paper, planar collision theories, counterparts of the theory associated with Newton’s hypotheses described in Part A, are developed in connection with Poisson’s and Stronge’s hypotheses. First, expressions for the normal and tangential impulses, the normal and tangential velocities of separation, and the change of the system mechanical energy are written for five types of collision. These together with Routh’s semigraphical method and Coulomb’s coefficient of friction are used to show that the algebraic signs of the four parameters introduced in Part A span the same five cases of system configuration of Part A. For each, α determines the type of collision which once found allows the evaluation of the normal and tangential impulses and ultimately the changes in the motion variables. The analysis of the indicated cases shows that for Poisson’s hypothesis, a solution always exists which is unique, coherent and energy-consistent. The same applies to Stronge’s hypothesis, however, for a narrower range of application. It is thus concluded that Poisson’s hypothesis is superior as compared with Newton’s and Stronge’s hypotheses.     

On Smoothed Analysis of?Quicksort?and?Hoare’s Find

We provide a smoothed analysis of Hoare’s find algorithm, and we revisit the smoothed analysis of quicksort. Hoare’s find algorithm—often called quickselect or one-sided quicksort—is an easy-to-implement algorithm for finding the k-th smallest element of a sequence. While the worst-case number of comparisons that Hoare’s find needs is Θ(n ²), the average-case number is Θ(n). We analyze what happens between these two extremes by providing a smoothed analysis. In the first perturbation model, an adversary specifies a sequence of n numbers of [0,1], and then, to each number of the sequence, we add a random number drawn independently from the interval [0,d]. We prove that Hoare’s find needs $\Theta(\frac{n}{d+1} \sqrt{n/d} + n)$ comparisons in expectation if the adversary may also specify the target element (even after seeing the perturbed sequence) and slightly fewer comparisons for finding the median. In the second perturbation model, each element is marked with a probability of p, and then a random permutation is applied to the marked elements. We prove that the expected number of comparisons to find the median is $\Omega((1-p) \frac{n}{p} \log n)$ . Finally, we provide lower bounds for the smoothed number of comparisons of quicksort and Hoare’s find for the median-of-three pivot rule, which usually yields faster algorithms than always selecting the first element: The pivot is the median of the first, middle, and last element of the sequence. We show that median-of-three does not yield a significant improvement over the classic rule.     

Coopetitive relationships in cross-functional software development teams: How to model and measure?

Understanding simultaneous cooperative and competitive (coopetitive) dynamics in cross-functional software development teams is fundamental to the success of software development process. The recent coopetition research is, however, hampered by a lack of conceptual focus, and the corresponding inconsistent treatment of the constructs associated with cross-functional coopetitive relationships. This study conceptualizes and operationalizes the multi-dimensional construct of cross-functional coopetition, and then presents an instrument for measuring this construct. Cross-functional coopetition is conceptualized with 5 distinct and independent constructs; 3 of them are related to cross-functional cooperation, and 2 are associated with cross-functional competition. The data collected from 115 software development project managers in Australia confirms the applicability of the constructs and their measures. This study contributes to the extant literature by providing a consensus on the conceptualization of cross-functional coopetitive behaviors, particularly in multi-party software development teams. The conceptual basis for cross-functional coopetition and its instrument will aid researchers and project managers interested in understanding coopetition in cross-functional collaborative contexts. Research and practical implications are discussed.     

XML and PKI — What’s the story?

This article discusses how XML technology relates to public key infrastructure, PKI. The bottom line is that today XML doesn’t replace what PKI does, but will provide a new set of ways of interfacing with existing PKI technology via XKMS. Current PKI will remain the technology of choice for certain types of applications, in particular wireless infrastructure, whereas, in perhaps a year or so, a new type of XML security infrastructure will evolve to cater for XML-oriented applications.     

Ties with government,strategic capability,and organizational ambidexterity: evidence from China’s information communication technology industry

Organizations that are capable of pursuing exploration and exploitative innovation strategies simultaneously have demonstrated superior performance. For information and communication technology (ICT) firms, it is especially critical to achieve such organizational ambidexterity in order to both allocate limited resources and pursue different innovation strategies appropriately. As the ICT industry in China faces higher environmental uncertainty, a less developed institutional framework, and increased power of market competition, we explore the antecedents of ambidexterity conjointly, considering the effects of institutions and organizational capabilities. Building on ambidexterity literature, we develop a capability-building framework to explore firms’ strategic choice-making between exploratory innovation strategy versus exploitation innovation strategy, and their orientation to pursuit one, or both. With survey data from China’s ICT industry, we find that ties with government promote an ambidextrous focus on both types of innovation strategies. In addition, we find that strategic capability partially mediates the main effects of ties with government on both exploratory and exploitative innovation strategies. Implications for organizational ambidexterity in China’s ICT industry are discussed.     

Relevant Information and Relevant Questions: Comment on Floridi’s “Understanding Epistemic Relevance”

Floridi’s chapter on relevant information bridges the analysis of “being informed” with the analysis of knowledge as “relevant information that is accounted for” by analysing subjective or epistemic relevance in terms of the questions that an agent might ask in certain circumstances. In this paper, I scrutinise this analysis, identify a number of problems with it, and finally propose an improvement. By way of epilogue, I offer some more general remarks on the relation between (bounded) rationality, the need to ask the right questions, and the ability to ask the right questions.     

Knowledge discovery and system-user partnership: On a production “adversarial partnership” approach

We examine the relationship between systems and their users from the knowledge discovery perspective. Recently knowledge discovery in databases has made important progress, but it may also bring some potential problems to database design, such as issues related to database security, because an unauthorised user may derive highly sensitive knowledge from unclassified data. In this paper we point out that there is a need for a comprehensive study on knowledge discovery in human-computer symbiosis. Borrowing terms from algorithm design and artificial intelligence literature, we propose a notion called database-user adversarial partnership. We point out that this notion is general enough to cover various knowledge discovery and security of issues related to databases and their users. Furthermore, we point out the notion of database-user adversarial partnership can be further generalised into system-user adversarial partnership. Opportunities provided by knowledge discovery techniques and potential social implications are also discussed.     

Asimov’s “three laws of robotics” and machine metaethics

Using Asimov’s “Bicentennial Man” as a springboard, a number of metaethical issues concerning the emerging field of machine ethics are discussed. Although the ultimate goal of machine ethics is to create autonomous ethical machines, this presents a number of challenges. A good way to begin the task of making ethics computable is to create a program that enables a machine to act an ethical advisor to human beings. This project, unlike creating an autonomous ethical machine, will not require that we make a judgment about the ethical status of the machine itself, a judgment that will be particularly difficult to make. Finally, it is argued that Asimov’s “three laws of robotics” are an unsatisfactory basis for machine ethics, regardless of the status of the machine.

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Mobile information systems and organisational control: beyond the panopticon metaphor?

With their ubiquity, mobile information systems (IS) may be used in ways that challenge the dynamics of organisational control, forcing IS scholars to revisit the panopticon metaphor and possibly offer new conceptual tools for theorising about information technology (IT)-based organisational control. Yet little IS research has offered critical reflections on the use of the panopticon to represent the control potential of mobile IS. This study investigates whether the way mobile IS are engaged in the workplace reinforce panoptic control systems or generate other types of control logics, requiring another conceptual lens. A qualitative exploratory case study investigated a consulting company whose professionals equipped themselves with mobile IS. The study reveals the emergence of a subtle, invisible form of ‘free control’ through mobile IS. Although consultants are mobile, flexible, and autonomous, a powerful communication and information network keeps them in a position of ‘allowed subjection’. Free control is characterised by a shift in the location of authority, a time-related discipline, a deep sense of trust, and adherence to organisational norms that the professionals themselves co-construct. These characteristics, which render such control even more pernicious than panoptic arrangements, deserve more attention in further IS research.     

Datification,Organizational Strategy,and IS Research: What’s the Score?

This commentary on the JSIS Special Issue on datification focuses on two key themes selected from among the many topics discussed by Special Issue authors: 1) the debate over algorithmic intelligence versus human intelligence, and 2) the consequences of strategic performance systems.The current algorithmic versus human intelligence debate echoes earlier discussions in our field about whether expert systems should replace or support human experts. As appealing as it is to assume that algorithms support expert workers, research suggests that people are not very effective at monitoring and overriding automation. In addition, post-automation work tends to evolve toward lower human knowledge and skill. These observations should caution datification researchers against simplistic theories and should guide researchers to study the multilevel sociotechnical conditions and stakeholders involved in the design, use, and consequences of algorithms in organizations.Strategic performance measurement and ranking systems are also not new, but what is new is the belief that they will not just inform, but also transform, human behavior. In this respect, performance systems resemble the career tournaments that promote intense competition and create great inequality in executive pay and promotion. In addition, performance systems increasing serve as infrastructures, operating at multiple levels of analysis simultaneously. These observations imply that designing and studying such systems involve ethical choices, intensifying the demands on datification researchers.     

“What are We Missing?” Usability’s Indexical Ground

In this paper, we describe how usability provides the indexical ground upon which design work in a surgery is achieved. Indexical and deictic referential practices are used (1) to constitute participation frameworks and work sites in an instructional surgery and (2) to encode and manage participants’ differential access to the relevancies and background knowledge required for the achievement of a successful surgical outcome. As a site for both learning and work, the operating room afforded us the opportunity to examine how usability, which is a critical design consideration, can be used as a resource for learning in interaction. In our detailed analysis of the interaction among participants (both co-present and projected) we sought to describe a particular case of how usability was produced as a relevant consideration for surgical education in the operating room. In doing so, we demonstrate a set of members’ methods by which actors worked to establish and provide for the relevance of the anticipated needs of projected users as part of developing an understanding of their current activity.