Use of Digital Signage in a Distressed Community: An Example of Community Informatics

Community informatics is emerging as the framework for systematically approaching information systems from a “community” perspective. We discuss how a particular form of information technology, digital signage, was used to solve some of the problems faced by a city and a non-profit association in a distressed community. An analysis of this implementation shows that a community informatics perspective is essential to designing and implementing information and communication technologies systems for communities.     

Reference Service Delivery System in West Africa: Limitations and Prospects as Seen From Kenneth Dike Library,University of Ibadan,Nigeria

This paper focuses on the centrality of reference services to the practice of librarianship. It enumerates the limitations faced by Kenneth Dike Library (KDL) in its bid to deploy Information Communications Technology (ICT) to its reference services delivery system. Being a university library in a developing country, KDL has to cope with the problems confronting universities in Nigeria. The problems that plague the ivory towers and, consequently, the libraries that serve them, include lack of proper funding, infrastructural deficiencies, inability to retain information technology experts, and intra-local politics regarding the control of ICT facilities in the library. The paper also projects on KDL's efforts at establishing the virtual reference suite to complement its present reference services.     

Field experiences with collaboration technology: A comparative study in Tanzania and South Africa

In the field of development, Information & Communication Technology (ICT) is often hailed and cursed at the same time. ICT offers great promise to enhance development activities' efficiency and effectiveness yet the literature is littered with examples of failure. A particular challenge concerns the application of ICT to support collaboration in development contexts. In this paper, we report on field experiences with one particular type of collaboration technology, Group Support Systems (GSS), and its role in supporting groups engaged in development activities. Being an North-American invention, research into GSS is predominantly focused on Western Euro-American settings. GSS field studies in other cultural environments are scarce. The objective of our study is to explore and compare the applicability of GSS in two particular environments: Tanzania and South Africa. Our data suggest that the use of GSS is evaluated positively in both countries, although Tanzanian groups perceived more benefits. In South Africa, top management displayed very open and non-conservative behavior towards the technology, while in Tanzania hesitance from top management can be expected to be the greatest hindrance for GSS acceptance and application. The data further indicate that GSS do not replace existing meeting customs, but rather introduce new ones that co-exist next to the traditional ones. A key difference between application of GSS in western and African environments is a stronger focus on the electronic part of discussions in Africa. Anonymity is perceived as the key feature.     

Technology-aided participative methods in environmental assessment: An international perspective

Provisions for citizen involvement in the assessment of potential environmental effects of certain plans, programmes and projects are present in current legislation. An international survey revealed that public participation is common practice in European and some other countries worldwide. However, a number of issues are observed to affect public involvement in EIA/SEA processes and expert opinion differs when evaluating the effectiveness of existing participative methods.Results suggest that technology-aided methods can improve traditional participation processes. In particular, GIS has the potential to increase community knowledge and enhance involvement by communicating information more effectively. Variable accessibility to technology and data quality remain issues. Combining technology with more conventional ways of gathering, evaluating and presenting data are seen as offering a solution to the need to promote the integration of public perceptions in environmental assessment procedures. Recommendations to improve current public participation methods and measures for making GIS available to the general public are provided.     

The role of identity in health information systems development: A case analysis from Mozambique

There is a need to look beyond the immediate process of implementation of computerized information systems to understand the broader social context in which the information and communication technology is being implemented. Using an interpretive approach to the implementation of a computerized health information system in a rural district in Mozambique we reconstruct an important aspect of this context from our interviews and observations—how the process of collective identity formation and information systems implementation are interconnected. Using this understanding of collective identity, we emphasize the importance of communication and shared meanings in developing and extending the primary health care network and in the successful implementation of a computerized health information system. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Enhancing Workflow Management in the Manufacturing Information System of a Small-Medium Enterprise: An Agent-Based Approach

One shortcoming of manufacturing information systems is their inability to integrate and to enhance different information and related functionalities, such as those found in workflow management. Software agents, once added as a new software layer to an existing system, can overcome this problem. Of the fields applying software agent technology, manufacturing, and especially workflow management, is perhaps the most promising for the development of distributed systems. This potential is reflected in the several ongoing research projects that focus on workflow management and share the final aim of integrating and coordinating plant and business activities.The approach presented in this paper can be regarded as an agent-based architecture applied to an existing workflow management system in order to manage new functionalities, e.g., customer relationship management in electronic commerce. This approach is particularly suitable for small medium enterprises with simple manufacturing information requirements and simple or nonexistent computer based workflow management.The model and some important features of system implementation, such as the knowledge modeling graphical user interface, the communication model, and a simple practical example of the architecture's use, are described.     

The role of communication practices in the strengthening of counter networks: Case experiences from the health care sector of Mozambique

In this article we provide a theoretically informed empirical analysis of the introduction and use of information and communication technology (ICT) within the primary health care (PHC) sector of Mozambique. The theoretical lens for this analysis is developed from Manuel Castells' (1996, 1997, 2001) ideas on the network society and counter domination. These ideas help us to conceptualize the communicative action required to strengthen the PHC sector as a “counter network,” which has the normative aim to strengthen the health information system (HIS) as a key strategy to improve health care delivery. Taking an informational perspective, the role of communication is highlighted as playing an important constitutive basis in the strengthening of this network. These conceptual ideas are applied to the empirical analysis of an ongoing project (the Health Information Systems Programme or HISP), and to analyze some key constraints and strategies for strengthening these networks. This study makes key contributions to both the theoretical and practical domains of HIS in developing countries. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Bridging the IT Adoption Gap for Small Physician Practices: An Action Research Study on Electronic Health Records

This article reports on an action research project to investigate the barriers to adoption and assimilation of electronic health records (EHRs) in small physician practices. The project draws on theories of technology-use mediation and communities of practice to develop interventions to promote adoption and integration of EHRs into chronic care management processes in these practice settings. The field results suggest that developing community-based knowledge and resources to assist physician organizations one-on-one may be essential for their effective utilization of EHRs.     

Health information privacy concerns,antecedents, and information disclosure intention in online health communities

This study explores the antecedents and consequences of health information privacy concerns in online health communities by integrating the dual calculus and protection motivation theories. On the basis of survey data from 337 users, health information privacy concerns, together with informational and emotional support, significantly influence personal health information (PHI) disclosure intention. Privacy concerns are negatively influenced by two coping appraisals (i.e., response efficacy and self-efficacy) and positively affected by two threat appraisals (i.e., perceived vulnerability and perceived severity). The perceived health status differentially moderates the effects of privacy concerns and informational support on the PHI disclosure intention.     

Information Alignment and Task Coordination in Organizations: An 'Information Clutch' Metaphor

Despite their rising popularity, distributed teams face a number of collaboration challenges that may potentially hinder their ability to productively coordinate their resources, activities, and information, often in dynamic and uncertain task environments. In this paper, we focus principally on the criticality of information alignment for supporting coordinated task performance in complex operational environments. As organizations become more expertise, geographically, and temporally distributed, appropriate alignment and coordination among distributed team members becomes more critical for minimizing the occurrence of information flow failures, poor decision-making, and degraded team performance. We first describe these coordination processes using the metaphor of an 'information clutch' that allows for smooth transitions of task priorities and activities in expert teams. We then present two case study examples that illustrate the potentially significant impact of information sharing and information alignment on productivity and coordination in organizations. We conclude with a discussion of future directions in this area.     

Modeling the risk for a new invasive forest disease in the United States: An evaluation of five environmental niche models

Efforts to model the potential habitat and risk for spread of invasive diseases such as Sudden Oak Death (SOD) are important for disease regulation and management. However, spatially referenced risk models using identical data can have differing results, making decision-making based on the mapped results problematic. We examined the results from five spatial risk models generated from common input parameters, and investigated model agreement for mapping risk for the causal pathogen for SOD, Phytophthora ramorum across the conterminous United States. We examined five models: Expert-driven Rule-based, Logistic Regression, Classification and Regression Trees, Genetic Algorithms, and Support Vector Machines. All models were consistent in their prediction of some SOD risk in coastal California, Oregon and Washington states, and in the northern foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, and in an east–west oriented band including eastern Oklahoma, central Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, northern Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, parts of central North Carolina, and eastern Virginia, Delaware and Maryland states. The SVM model was the most accurate model, and had several advantages over the other models. Although theoretical in nature, this paper presents results that have practical, applied value for managers and regulators of this disease, and discusses common challenges in modeling invasive species niches over large scales.     

OBSERVER: An Approach for Query Processing in Global Information Systems Based on Interoperation Across Pre-Existing Ontologies

There has been an explosion in the types, availability and volume of data accessible in an information system, thanks to the World Wide Web (the Web) and related inter-networking technologies. In this environment, there is a critical need to replace or complement earlier database integration approaches and current browsing and keyword-based techniques with concept-based approaches. Ontologies are increasingly becoming accepted as an important part of any concept or semantics based solution, and there is increasing realization that any viable solution will need to support multiple ontologies that may be independently developed and managed. In particular, we consider the use of concepts from pre-existing real world domain ontologies for describing the content of the underlying data repositories. The most challenging issue in this approach is that of vocabulary sharing, which involves dealing with the use of different terms or concepts to describe similar information. In this paper, we describe the architecture, design and implementation of the OBSERVER system. Brokering across the domain ontologies is enabled by representing and utilizing interontology relationships such as (but not limited to) synonyms, hyponyms and hypernyms across terms in different ontologies. User queries are rewritten by using these relationships to obtain translations across ontologies. Well established metrics like precision and recall based on the extensions underlying the concepts are used to estimate the loss of information, if any.     

Multi-dimensional students’ evaluation of e-learning systems in the higher education context: An empirical investigation

There has been little research on assessment of learning management systems (LMS) within educational organizations as both a web-based learning system for e-learning and as a supportive tool for blended learning environments. This study proposes a conceptual e-learning assessment model, hexagonal e-learning assessment model (HELAM) suggesting a multi-dimensional approach for LMS evaluation via six dimensions: (1) system quality, (2) service quality, (3) content quality, (4) learner perspective, (5) instructor attitudes, and (6) supportive issues. A survey instrument based on HELAM has been developed and applied to 84 learners. This sample consists of students at both undergraduate and graduate levels who are users of a web-based learning management system, U-Link, at Brunel University, UK. The survey instrument has been tested for content validity, reliability, and criterion-based predictive validity. The analytical results strongly support the appropriateness of the proposed model in evaluating LMSs through learners’ satisfaction. The explanatory factor analysis showed that each of the six dimensions of the proposed model had a significant effect on the learners’ perceived satisfaction. Findings of this research will be valuable for both academics and practitioners of e-learning systems.     

Lose Fat, Not Muscle: An Examination of Supervisor Reduction in Discrete-Event Systems

This paper is concerned with the elimination of unnecessary states in discrete-event system control agents. Several approaches to supervisor reduction are studied and a new relation between agents, comparability, is defined to encapsulate most of the concepts found in the aforementioned methods. This relation is also proven to be preserved under conjunction, which is commonly employed to determine the centralized representation of two decentralized DES supervisors.

Assessing roles of people,technology and structure in emergency management systems: a public sector perspective

Emergency management systems are a critical factor in successful mitigation of natural and man-made disasters, facilitating responder decision making in complex situations. Based on socio-technical systems, have which four components (people, technology, structure and task), this study develops a research framework of factors affecting effective emergency management. People factors include psychological factors such as responders' self-efficacy, support from family, peers and community, and training. Technology factors are task technology and information sharing. The structure factors are leadership, labour and logistics. Finally, the task factor refers to effective emergency management. This study empirically tests this framework by collecting surveys from emergency responders who participated in the 2006 Buffalo October Storm. The research results demonstrate that training and support positively affect emergency management self-efficacy which, in turn, has a positive significant relationship with effective emergency management. Task technology and information sharing also have a positive impact on effective emergency management. However, findings suggest that the structure factors do not show a significant relationship with effective emergency management. This research presents that human factors in emergency management are essential to conduct effective operations. More importantly, investing in technology to assist responders in performing their jobs during the emergency is crucial during the emergency operations.     

An integrating view on the viewing abstraction: Contexts and perspectives in software development,AI, and databases

Viewing entities from different situations and representing and processing them in different contexts constitutes a fundamental concern in various disciplines of computer science. Not surprisingly, the viewing abstraction is supported by many languages and techniques employed either for programming or world modelling. This paper presents an overview on various manifestations of viewing mechanisms in formal notations including software development techniques, knowledge representation languages, and data models. The concepts of context and perspective are introduced in form of a language-independent framework in order to capture and systematically discuss features that characterize viewing mechanisms, such as the relationship between the two, the relation between different perspectives on the same conceptual entity, or operations supporting effective construction of contexts. In addition, it is argued that the full power of viewing can be exploited by supporting both notions: contexts as well as perspectives. In order to achieve this support, any formal notation has to fulfill a number of general requirements which are stated as a result of the investigation and the survey.     

Information technology and structural change in the paper and pulp industry : Some technological, organizational and managerial implications

The paper and pulp industry has experienced a structural change during the last 15 years. The products have differentiated and completely new paper types have been introduced. The standard and classical products, like news print paper, are often specialized and customized versions from the standard product in order to fulfill the specific needs of different printing processes better. These changes have impacted on the production organization and structures of enterprises. The key companies have acquired more production capacity in different countries and have become really international companies. These trends are likely to continue. One of the technological driving forces has been the applying of information technology. The digital process automation systems as well as the mill wide information systems have been strategic tools and technological corner stones in the structural change. However, it is only technology which matters. Also new organisational forms as well as new implementation methods of systems are needed.     

Analyzing the problem of unsustainable health information systems in less-developed economies: Case studies from Tanzania and Mozambique

Most of donor-supported information technology (IT)–based projects developed or implemented in less-developed economies (LDEs) end up as complete or partial failures or unsustainable. Notably, a number of intra-organizational and external factors are associated with this problem, including inadequate infrastructure and human resource capacity, fragmented donor policy, and lack of policies to manage the sustainability problem. Accordingly, IT initiatives are often donor-driven, top-down, and hijacked by top managers who (normally) do not have adequate skills, but have enormous power to enforce such initiatives across organizational hierarchies.

In analyzing the concepts from sustainability and institutionalization, key insights towards a better understanding of the problem of unsustainability are developed. It is argued that health information systems (HISs) become sustainable if they are institutionalized in the sense of being integrated into the everyday routine of the user organization. However, a sustainable HIS should also be flexible enough to allow changes as the user needs change. Moreover, introduction of a new HIS is not only a technical change, but requires the cultivation and institutionalization of a new kind of culture.

Through a comparative case analysis of the HIS development and implementation processes in Tanzania and Mozambique, we have identified two sets of relationships, between the Ministry of Health (MoH) and donor agencies and between the MoH and software development agencies as critical and contributing factors to the unsustainability of a HIS. Given this setting, we highlight three key strategies for dealing with the problem of unsustainability in LDEs: (a) integration of a HIS, (b) local shaping of new cultures, and (c) cultivation approach to systems development. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Daktari: An interactive,multi-media tool for knowledge transfer among poor livestock keepers in Kenya

This article describes the findings from the assessment of a touch-screen, multi-media learning program on livestock health and production: The Daktari. The program was tested on a sample of 62 livestock keepers in the Nairobi slums of Kariobangi and Kibera. The study examined prior knowledge regarding three livestock diseases (liver fluke, mastitis and mange) and compared this to newly acquired knowledge after exposure to the software. The results demonstrated a significant difference between pre- and post-knowledge assessments confirming that use of the program led to learning. Learning occurred among a variety of demographic/social groups (i.e. age, gender and education) with a range of abilities. Indeed, by utilising an audio–visual interface developed with relevant content for the population in question, it was found that the program could support and enhance participant understanding of livestock disease causation, diagnosis, treatment and prevention.     

Integrating scientific modeling and supporting dynamic hazard management with a GeoAgent-based representation of human–environment interactions: A drought example in Central Pennsylvania, USA

Recent natural disasters indicate that modern technologies for environmental monitoring, modeling, and forecasting are not well integrated with cross-level social responses in many hazard-management systems. This research addresses this problem through a Java-based multi-agent prototype system, GeoAgent-based Knowledge System (GeoAgentKS). This system allows: (1) computer representation of institutional regulations and behavioral rules used by multiple social institutions and individuals in cross-level human–environment interactions, (2) integration of this representation with scientific modeling of dynamic hazard development, and (3) application of automated reasoning that suggests to users the appropriate actions for supporting cooperative social responses. This paper demonstrates the software architecture of GeoAgentKS and presents such an integrated approach by modeling the drought management processes in Central Pennsylvania, USA. The results show that it is possible to use GeoAgentKS to represent multilevel human–environment interactions and to use those interactions as input to decision making in hazard management.