ROC ‘n’ Rule Learning—Towards a Better Understanding of Covering Algorithms

This paper provides an analysis of the behavior of separate-and-conquer or covering rule learning algorithms by visualizing their evaluation metrics and their dynamics in coverage space, a variant of ROC space. Our results show that most commonly used metrics, including accuracy, weighted relative accuracy, entropy, and Gini index, are equivalent to one of two fundamental prototypes: precision, which tries to optimize the area under the ROC curve for unknown costs, and a cost-weighted difference between covered positive and negative examples, which tries to find the optimal point under known or assumed costs. We also show that a straightforward generalization of the m-estimate trades off these two prototypes. Furthermore, our results show that stopping and filtering criteria like CN2s significance test focus on identifying significant deviations from random classification, which does not necessarily avoid overfitting. We also identify a problem with Foils MDL-based encoding length restriction, which proves to be largely equivalent to a variable threshold on the recall of the rule. In general, we interpret these results as evidence that, contrary to common conception, pre-pruning heuristics are not very well understood and deserve more investigation.     

Towards formal open standards: formalizing a standard’s requirements

Open standardization seems to be very popular among software developers as it simplifies the standard’s adoption by the software engineering. Formal specification methods, while very promising, are being adopted slowly as the industry seems to have little motivation to move into this territory. In this paper the authors present (1) the idea of applying formal specification techniques to open standards’ specifications, and (2) an example of a formal specification of the Rich Site Summary (RSS) v2.0 open standard. The authors provide evidence for the advantages of the open standards formal specification over natural language documentations: formal specifications are more concise, less ambiguous, more complete with respect to the original documentation and, when using certain kinds of specification languages, executable and reusable as they support module inheritance. The merging of formal specification methods and open standards allows (1) a more concrete standard design; (2) an improved understanding of the environment under design; (3) an enforced certain level of precision into the specification, and also (4) provides software engineers with extended property checking/verification capabilities, especially if they opt to use any algebraic specification language. The authors showcase how the RSS standard can be formally specified using an algebraic specification language and demonstrate how can that be beneficial.     

The acceptance of ‘intelligent trade shows’: Visitors’ evaluations of IS innovation

Trade Shows (TSs) provide “high-quality information,” as thousands of specialists and experts are gathered in one place at one time. Thus, information technology systems become essential for TSs. This study explores the characteristics of TSs’ onsite Information Technology (IT). This study aim to explore the relationships among onsite IT usage, visitors’ effectiveness and perception through the innovation characteristics (i.e., relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity). The study was conducted at a representative TS in Korea and used a survey approach to empirically understand the perception of onsite IT usage. The findings suggest that the four characteristics of product intelligence are influential factors of TSs’ onsite IT. Among them, relative advantage and compatibility had positive impacts on TS effectiveness, while complexity did not. In addition, discussions of the results, theoretical and practical implications for practitioners, limitations, and suggestions for future studies are presented.     

A ‘sweet spot’ change strategy for a least developed country: leveraging e-Government in Bangladesh

Information systems have the potential to improve societal conditions in developing countries, and yet design theory to inform interventions to encourage uptake and use of these systems is sparse. This paper reports on an action design research project that addressed the problem of limited adoption of e-Government in Bangladesh. Inadequate knowledge of the nature of e-Government systems had been identified as an underlying cause of many other problems in this ‘wicked’ problem context. The project aimed to reduce knowledge deficiencies among key decision makers through activities that included the delivery of a custom-made training program and a handbook targeted at senior government officers. The project had modest resources and yet yielded significant outcomes. Critical reflection established a number of design principles for a ‘sweet spot change strategy’ for interventions of this type, with the most important principle being to first identify a ‘sweet spot’, a point of maximum leverage, and then to act on it.     

Managing as designing: ‘opportunity knocks’ for the IS field?

In response to anxieties about our discipline's decline, this opinion piece ‘looks to the future’, arguing a strong prospectus for the IS field, based on its direct relevance to general management practice. The thesis set out is inspired by the recent upsurge in interest in ‘managing as designing’. Reformulating management as design, I argue that we have a formidable knowledge-base of tools, theories and critique relevant to any manager, not just the MIS-inclined specialist. A case study of yet another failed information system (in U.K. children's services) is presented to show just how uniquely relevant our discipline is, in the workplace of today. Other pertinent issues are explored, such as synergies with the growing vogue for evidence-based management. The paper concludes by considering implications for research, including the need for a less exclusive approach to publishing and dissemination emphasising the need to make our work more accessible to lay practitioners.     

Rethinking ‘IT/IS use in a technological mature society’ from the actuality point of view: critical learning in reflection on SSM meeting about ‘IT/IS use’

The history of the human-centered system movement (Gill in AI Soc 10(2), 1996) tells us that information technology (referred to as IT below) has come to dominate our life-world or societal functions. Since from 1990s, its streaming influence could be called ‘abnormal.’ Since entering the twenty-first century, the IT system has been on automatic acceleration and has been spreading more and more rapidly to many facets of our lives. In many sectors, this ubiquitous streaming of IT is seen to be central to societal development, and in a Japanese sense, IT could be seen as a resource to realizing technologically a mature society. This trend of IT seems to be unstoppable. In this sense, IT dominance can be regarded as abnormal to the point that IT-centered information systems (referred to as IS below) fall far short of the deep appreciation of the complex and diverse life needs of people and societies, and this leads to the implementation of IT/IS from technological perspective, with a belief that everything, which we can do could be and should be, done now by IT/IS. However, as IT/IS have become to be embedded in many facets of societies and are influencing over our everyday life, we need to examine them not from the point of ‘capability’ but ‘allowability,’ in other words, not from the perspective of technology (cognition), but from the prospective of intuition and feeling of actual life (action). We term reality as seen in the narrow sense of cognition and actuality as seen in terms of action (Uchiyama in Theory and practice of actuality, Daito Bunka University, Tokyo, 2003). We draw a distinction between the two classes of ‘IT/IS’ systems, those which belong to the ‘reality’ and those which belong to the ‘actuality.’ To appreciate this distinction, we propose that this requires not only an understanding of the design of these IT systems but of the methodology of their use and their evaluation. To carry out the process of evaluation of IT/IS systems, we need to develop a new ‘appreciation’ methodology which enables us to rethink ‘IT/IS’ as ‘A system to use IT/IS.’ This idea is similar to the idea of Beck’s (World risk society theory (trans: Shimamura K), Chikuma Scholastic Collection (in Japanese), 2010) reflecting the modern. So, we propose a strict distinction between the two systems classes of ‘IT/IS’ which we call belonging to the ‘reality’ and ‘A system to use IT/IS’ which we call belonging to the ‘actuality.’ The methodology to deal with ‘actuality’ has not yet been developed, but Checkland and Poulter’s (Learning for action, Wiley, New York, 2006) soft systems methodology (referred to as SSM below) intends to deal with this kind of class of systems, that is, ‘human activity systems.’ He uses the key concept of ‘accommodation’ which means ‘to live with different individual world views based on sharing of actuality,’ and thus, he proposes to overcome the idea of consensus which is the agreement with the ‘reality’ level. In this paper, we adopt a methodology based on the SSM’s accommodation and not based on the consensus on the ‘reality’ level. By using such a methodological thinking, we reconsider the problem of evolving technologically a mature society which can be seen as a problem relevant to ‘A system using IT/IS’ rather than the problem of IT/IS itself. In doing so, we could draw some innovative orientations in the field of IT/IS which by traditional methodology could not be drawn. It is not certain whether our attempt could make a difference to the runaway of IT/IS. We illustrate this purpose by studying a workshop process which highlights that even participating experts of IT/IS themselves felt apprehensive about the more and more focus on the implementation of IT/IS solutions both in the present and the future. We believe that the first step toward this purpose is to explore the new orientation of IT/IS use. The aim of this first step is to make a difference to the ‘abnormal’ situation and hope to create a foothold for the reorientation of ‘A system to use IT/IS.’     

How does social software change knowledge management? Toward a strategic research agenda

Knowledge management is commonly understood as IS implementations that enable processes of knowledge creation, sharing, and capture. Knowledge management at the firm level is changing rapidly. Previous approaches included centrally managed, proprietary knowledge repositories, often involving structured and controlled search and access. Today the trend is toward knowledge management by social software, which provides open and inexpensive alternatives to traditional implementations. While social software carries great promise for knowledge management, this also raises fundamental questions about the very essence and value of firm knowledge, the possibility for knowledge protection, firm boundaries, and the sources of competitive advantage. I draft a strategic research agenda consisting of five fundamental issues that should reinvigorate research in knowledge management.     

Visualize classic play’s composing patterns: a weighted motif mining framework

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Given a corpus of western classic plays, how to efficiently mine their potential composing patterns is an open issue in computational linguistics. Several...     

‘Pseudoautomatization’ in manual control: a simulation study

Within the framework of models of central capacity, automatization (as indicated by decreasing dual-task interference over the course of practice) can be attributed to a change of the performance-resource function, such that performance becomes better for a given amount of capacity, and performance decrements become smaller for a given reduction in capacity. In general, automization is considered as a change in human information processing that makes it less susceptible to disturbances by secondary tasks. By way of simulation it is demonstrated that in user-machine systems ‘pseudoautomatization’ can occur. This is a decline of dual-task interference without any alteration of the secondary-task effects on human information processing such as are thought to underlie automatization. Pseudoautomatization is discussed as a potential fallacy in interpreting system-performance measures and as a means by which human operators potentially immunize user-machine systems against disturbances of human information processing.     

Demystifying ‘selfie’: a rampant social media activity

‘Selfie’, the Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year in 2013, has been gaining popularity as a global phenomenon and its usage is growing with technological advancements in front-facing cameras and photo-editing software. Earlier studies hold a lopsided view of either criticising selfies as ‘vain’ and ‘narcissist’ or appreciate them as ‘feel good’ for ‘positive identity formation’. The current study intends to take a fresh look at the act and explores reasons and motivators of young college students in India, as they take selfies and traces the usage pattern and its likely relationship with the motivators of selfie-taking. Qualitative data were gathered through a focused group discussion conducted among graduate students with an average of 23.5 years who volunteered to participate in the discussion. Results show that male and female students have varying reasons for taking selfies and it is often an act of fun and assertion of one’s right to ‘self-depiction’. Selfies have a life-cycle which ends after they receive reviews on the social media platform. Results from the study can aid policy-makers in India and theoretically add to the nascent field of literature in the area.     

Rapid business and IT change: drivers for strategic information systems planning?

Today's organizations increasingly plan new information systems (IS) to better compete. Through such planning, they attempt to align their IS strategy and their business strategy. This study tested the impact of business and information technology (IT) change on strategic information systems planning (SISP) horizon, of horizon on the planning itself, and of the planning on the alignment of IS strategy and business strategy. A questionnaire defined business change, IT change, and alignment as multi-item scaled questions, and planning horizon as a single, nonscaled one. It defined a multi-item scaled SISP measure as both a second-order construct and as single-order constructs for its individual phases. A postal survey collected data from 161 IS executives. Constructs were extensively validated. The analysis used structural equation modeling, and surprisingly found that business change predicted longer SISP horizons, but IT change predicted neither longer nor shorter ones. Planning horizon predicted SISP itself (as a second-order construct and as all of its phases), and such planning (as a second-order construct, and as strategic awareness and strategy conception phases) predicted alignment of IS strategy and business strategy. These findings suggest that practitioners more carefully assess their own degree of caution in setting planning horizons in response to business and IT change. In fact, the findings suggest it may not be necessary for practitioners to shorten planning horizons in a rapidly changing environment.     

‘Model’: a POPLOG package to support model-based vision

A software package to support model-based vision in the poplog environment is described. The package contains a constructive solid geometry instantiated in an extended-depth buffer to yield a representation of the spatial properties of the viewed scene. The geometry constrains its geometrical transformations to make visual search more efficient.     

Coping with client-based ‘people-problems’: the theories-of-action of experienced IS/software project managers

Through interviews with experienced IS and software project managers (PMs), I identify the strategies that they would recommend to others for addressing a range of serious client-based ‘people-problems’. The problems I focus on include: unrealistic customer expectations; lack of real ownership of the project; disagreement on project goals; personal deficiencies on the part of the customer’s PM; reluctant users; and the presence of hidden agendas or ‘nasty’ politics on the customer’s side.Many of the strategies are based on the same underlying principle: ‘Protect yourself through explicitness, clarity and formality’.I show that a number of the strategies are rational when judged in the light of agency theory and the literature on interorganisational trust.     

Understanding consumers’ continuance intention towards mobile advertising: a theoretical framework and empirical study

While issues regarding mobile advertising have captured the interest and attention of both practitioners and academics, in practice success stories are rare. An understanding of the continuance intention to use such services can provide insights into failed mobile marketing campaigns, and help to improve the implementation of future ones. Therefore, it is important to examine the underlying drivers of loyalty with regard to mobile advertising. This study uses the expectation–confirmation model in conjunction with the perspectives of value and trust to derive an integrated model to better understand the motivations behind consumers’ continued use of mobile advertising. We conducted an empirical study consisting of an online survey of 508 consumers who had experience with mobile advertising. The results show that perceived value, perceived usefulness, and satisfaction all directly influence continuance intention. Furthermore, consumer satisfaction has a crucial intervening role in the relationships that perceived value, perceived usefulness, and confirmation have with continuance intention. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. One key limitation of this research is that the majority of respondents were students, although this group is the chief user of mobile advertising. Future research could be extended to consider other drivers of loyalty in this context, such as cultural differences and personal behavioural characteristics.     

Vulnerability,Resilience and ‘Systemic Interest’: a Connectivity Approach

Networks and Spatial Economics - This paper analyzes the socio-economic dimension of vulnerability and resilience from the viewpoint of connectivity. While no consensus has yet emerged on...     

Predicting customer behavior in the market-space: a study of Rayport and Sviokla’s framework

The rapidly evolving phenomenon of the World Wide Web and the creation of a new international arena for electronic commerce have expanded the possibilities for the marketing of products and services. The role played by customer behavior in the market-space is still not entirely understood and calls for investigations into the significance of customer attitudes and loyalty. In this article, a model is developed; it examines the significance of content, context, and infrastructure in determining customer loyalty. An empirical study involving 145 subjects was conducted to test this model and to gain a better understanding of the relationship between customer belief about a Web site (specifically, an e-publishing site) and customer behavior (such as attitudes toward brand and customer loyalty).The results indicate that customer attitude is influenced by belief about brand equity (value), which is affected by the content, context, and infrastructure. Customer loyalty is determined by attitude and belief about the context in which the products or services are offered. These findings provide a better understanding of customer behavior associated with Web sites in the market-space, also confirm the proposition of Rayport and Sviokla that ‘customer loyalty is developed at the context level’.     

CA-FCM: Towards a formal representation of expert’s causal judgements over construction project changes

Aimed at improving the proactive benefits of Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) for predicting construction project changes, this paper presents CA-FCM: a Context-aware Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping approach. CA-FCM’s main functionality is to imitate the intuitive causal judgements of project experts over change causation in different contextual settings. Invoking the logical inference capabilities of semantic web tools, a hybrid inference mechanism is embedded within the proposed framework which enables establishing contextual connections between prospective causal factors through a semi-automated process of generating relevant causal statements. Hence, CA-FCM can assist decision-makers with (1) a shared sense-making of the domain concepts which would significantly facilitate the manual construction of FCM scenarios, (2) providing contextualized recommendations of causal information required for developing FCM scenarios, (3) dynamic modelling of causal inferences, imitating expert reasoning on change causation and propagation. Towards providing a detailed delineation of CA-FCM’s effectiveness on providing assistance in planning for project changes, a partial implementation of the proposed framework was conducted within a real case scenario.