Little is New Under the Sun But …

Thomas W. Davenport. Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performance and Results from Knowledge Workers. Harvard Business School Press, 2005, 227 pp.

Erran Carmel and Paul Tjia. Offshoring Information Technology: Out-sourcing to a Global Workforce. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005, 282 pp.

Wayne W. Eckerson. Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2006, 301 pp.

Murray E. Jennex (ed.). Case Studies in Knowledge Management. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing, 2005, 372 pp.     

It is 11 O'Clock. Do You Know What Your Competitor is Doing?

From Knowledge to Intelligence: Creating Competitive Advantage in the New Economy by Helen N. Rothberg and

G. Scott Erickson, Amsterdam: Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann (2005), 365 pp.

Competitive Intelligence and Global Business edited by David L. Blenkhorn and Craig S. Fleischer, Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers (2005), 292 pp.

Outsource: Competing in the Global Productivity Race by Edward Yourdon, Boston: Prentice Hall PTR (2005), 251 pp.

Digital Infrastructures: Enabling Civil and Environmental Systems through Information Technology edited by Rae Zimmerman and Thomas Horan, London: Routledge (2005), 254 pp.

Decision Support Systems: Frequently Asked Questions by Daniel J. Power, New York: iUniverse Inc. (2005), 232 pp.     

Emotional Intelligence

Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee, Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence, Boston: Harvard Business School Press (2002), 306 pp.

Dennis N.T. Perkins, with Margaret P. Holtman, Paul R. Kessler, and Catherine McCarthy, Leading at the Edge: Leadership Lessons from the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition, New York: AMACOM (2000), 268 pp.

Charles C. Manz, Emotional Discipline: the Power to Choose How You Feel, San Francisco: Barrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. (2003), 234 pp.

Cliff Hakim, We Are All Self-Employed: How to Take Control of Your Career, San Francisco: Barrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. (2003), 261 pp.     

Innovating then and Now

Steven Alter. the Work System Method: Combining People, Processes, and IT for Business Results. Larkspur, CA: Work System Press, 2006, 280 pp.

Stanley Bing. Rome Inc.: the Rise and Fall of the First Multinational Corporation. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2006, 197 pp.

Victor Fey and Eugene Rivin. Innovation on Demand: New Product Development Using TRIZ. Cambridge University Press, 2005, 242 pp.

Jay Liebowitz. Strategic Intelligence: Business Intelligence, Competitive Intelligence, and Knowledge Management. Boca Raton, FL: Auerbach Publications, 2006, 223 pp.     

Rapid-Development Application Approaches to Design

Abstract

Thomas W. Davenport. Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performance and Results from Knowledge Workers. Harvard Business School Press, 2005, 227 pp.

Erran Carmel and Paul Tjia. Offshoring Information Technology: Out-sourcing to a Global Workforce. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005, 282 pp.

Wayne W. Eckerson. Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley &; Sons, 2006, 301 pp.

Murray E. Jennex (ed.). Case Studies in Knowledge Management. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing, 2005, 372 pp.     

The Leading Edge in is Management

Jean Lipman-Blumen and Harold J. Leavitt, Hot Groups: Seeding Them, Feeding Them, and Using Them to Ignite Your Organization, New York: Oxford University Press (1999) 296 pp.

Thomas H. Davenport, Mission Critical: Realizing the Promise of Enterprise Systems, Boston: Harvard Business School Press (2000) 336 pp.

W.H. Inmon, Ken. Rudin, Christopher K. Buss, and Ryan Sousa, Data Warehouse Performance, New York: Wiley (1999) 444 pp.

Jay Liebowitz (ed.) Knowledge Management Handbook, CRC Press (1999) 312 pp.     

Economic Visions

Jason Dedrick and Kenneth L. Kraemer, Asia's Computer Challenge: Threat or Opportunity for the United States and the World? New York: Oxford University Press (1998) 364 pp. ISBN 0-19-512201-1

Bill Gates with Collins Hemingway, Business the Speed of Thought, New York: Warner Books (1999) 470 pp. ISBN 0-446-52568-5

Henry C. Lucas, Jr., Information Technology and the Productivity Paradox: Assessing the Value of Investing in IT, New York: Oxford University Press (1999) 225 pp. ISBN 0-19-512159-7

Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian, Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press (1999) 384 pp. ISBN 0-87584-863-X     

The New Business Currency

Thomas H. Davenport and John C. Beck, The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press (2001), 253 pp.

Brad Hansen, The Dictionary of Computing and Digital Media: Terms and Acronyms, Wilsonville, OR: Franklin, Beedle, and Associates (1999), 543 pp.

Piotr Jankowski and Timothy Nyerges, Geographic Information Systems for Group Decision Making: Towards a Participatory Geographic Information Science, New York: Taylor and Francis (2001), 273 pp.

Jeffrey A. Rohlfs, Bandwagon Effects in High Technology Industries, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (2001), 256 pp.     

Commerce by Any Other Name

D.F. Aldrich, Mastering the Digital Marketplace: Practical Strategies for Competitiveness in the New Economy, New York, NY: Wiley (2000) 309 pp.

R. Kalakota and M. Robinson, e-Business: Roadmap for Success, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley (1999) 378 pp.

R. Murch and T. Johnson, Intelligent Software Agents, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR, (1999) 210 pp.

R. T. Watson, P. Berthon, L.F. Pitt, and G.M. Zinkhan, Electronic Commerce: the Strategic Perspective, Ft. Worth, TX: the Dryden Press (2000) 162 pp.

J. Christopher Westland and T.K.H. Clark, Global Electronic Commerce: Theory and Cases, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (2000) 585 pp.     

E-Commerce Overviews and Close-Ups

Soon-Yong Choi, Dale O. Stahl, and Andrew B. Whinston, The Economics of Electronic Commerce: the Essential Economics of Doing Business in the Electronic Marketplace. Indianapolis: Macmillan Technical Publishing, 1997, 626 pp.

Mellanie Hills, Intranet Business Strategies. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997, 396 pp.

David Hudson, Rewired. Indianapolis, IN: Macmillan Technical Publishing, 1997, 327 pp.

Ravi Kalakota and Andrew B. Whinston, Electronic Commerce, A Manager's Guide. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1998, 431 pp.

Ravi Kalakota and Andrew B. Whinston (eds.), Readings in Electronic Commerce, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1997, 340 pp.

Ravi Kalakota and Andrew B. Whinston, Frontiers of Electronic Commerce, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1996, 850 pp.

Lee W. McNight and Joseph P. Bailey (eds.), Internet Economics. Cambridge, MA: the MIT Press, 525 pp.     

Fighting Malware and Other Unspeakable Threats

John Gantz and Jack M. Rochester. Pirates of the Digital Millennium: How the Intellectual Property Wars Damage

Our Personal Freedoms, Our Jobs, and the World Economy, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Financial Times (2005), 294 pp.

Thomas R. Peltier, Justin Peltier, and John Blackley. Information Security Fundamentals, Boca Raton, FL: Auerbach Publications (2005), 262 pp.

Paul Reid. Biometrics for Network Security, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR (2004), 252 pp.

Robert M. Slade. Software Forensics, New York: McGraw-Hill (2004), 215 pp.     

Past, Present, and Future

Thomas L. Friedman. the World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. N ew York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005, 488 pp.

Nicholas G. Carr. Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004, 193 pp.

John Hagel III and John Seely Brown. the Only Sustainable Edge: Why Business Strategy Depends on Productive Friction and Dynamic Specialization. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2005, 218 pp.

John Markoff. What the Dormouse Said. New York: Viking, 2005, 301 pp.     

From Leo to it Value and Security

Martin Curley, Managing Information Technology for Business Value: Practical Strategies for IT and Business Managers, Hillsboro, Oregon: Intel Press (2004), 288pp.

Linda Volonino and Stephen R. Robinson, Principles and Practice of Information Security: Protecting Computers from Hackers and Lawyers, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall (2004), 232 pp.

Georgina Ferry, A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Teashops and the World's First Office Computer, London: Fourth Estate (2003), 221pp.     

Bundles from Britain

Ciborra, Claudio U., ed., Groupware and Teamwork: Invisible Aid or Technical Hindrance? (Chichester, U.K.: John Wiley & Sons, 1996), 240 pp.

Galliers, Robert D. and Walter J. Bates, eds., Information Technology and Organizational Transformation: Innovation for the 21st Century (Chichester, U.K.: John Wiley & Sons, 1996), 240 pp.

Klepper, Robert and Wendell O. Jones, Outsourcing Information Technology, Systems, and Services (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall PTR, 1998), 392 pp.

Remenyi, Dan, Michael Sherwood-Smith, with Terry White, Achieving Maximum Value from Information Systems: A Process Approach (Chichester, U.K.: John Wiley & Sons, 1997). 262 pp.

Wigand, Rolf, Arnold Picot, and Ralf Reichwald, Information, Organization, and Management: Expanding Markets and Corporate Boundaries (Chichester, U.K.: John Wiley & Sons, 1997), 458 pp.

Willcocks, Leslie P. and Mary C. Lacity, eds., Strategic Sourcing of Information Systems: Perspectives and Practices (Chichester, U.K.: John Wiley & Sons, 1997), 262 pp.     

An ergonomic evaluation of VDTs“”

Eight VDTs of different trademarks were analysed in relation to the following properties:

( a) Contrasts of luminance between the screens on the one hand and source documents, as well as other surfaces of the VDT, on the other.

(b) Oscillation degree, sharpness and stability of characters.

( c) Face and legibility of characters.

( d) Dimensions, mobility and reflection degrees of the keyboards.

Special equipment was developed and standardized conditions were applied to the measurements.

The eight VDTs showed essential differences for all the parameters, which might be partially responsible for eye strain and postural complaints. It can be concluded that customers should pay more attention to ergonomic qualities when choosing a VDT. But such an endeavour remains useless if the customer does not, at the same time, look for a proper design of the whole workstation including the working environment.     

Taking Charge

D. Ciampa and M. Watkins, Right from the Start: Taking Charge in a New Leadership Role, Boston: Harvard Business School Press (1999), 316 pp.

W. T. Gallwey, the Inner Game of Golf (revised edition), New York: Random House (1998), 213 pp.

C.C. Manz and H.P. Sims, Jr., the New SuperLeadership: Leading Others to Lead Themselves, San Francisco: Barrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. (2001), 256 pp.

J.-F. Manzone and J.-L. Barsoux, the Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome: How Good Managers Cause Great People to Fail, Boston: Harvard Business School Press (2002), 280 pp.     

Four that Belong on Your Bookshelf

T. DeMarco and T. Lister, Waltzing with Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects, New York: Dorset House Publishing (2003), 196 pp.

M.W. Doll, S. Rai, and J. Granado, Defending the Digital Frontier: A Security Agenda, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons (2003), 238 pp.

.J.D. McKeen and H.A. Smith, Making IT Happen: Critical Issues in IT Management, Chichester, UK: Wiley (2003), 366 pp.

D.J. Power, Decision Support Systems: Concepts and Resources for Managers, Westport, CT: Quorum (2002), 251 pp.     

Taskmaster: an interactive, graphical environment for task specification, execution and monitoring

Taskmaster is an interactive environment that employs a unique blend of graphic technologies and iconic images to support user task specification. In this environment, problem solving is based on the selection, specification, and composition of tools that correspond to natural sets of ordered operations. The Taskmaster environment is novel in that it

(provides an interactive, visual-based approach to user task specification;

(encourages and supports task specification and refinement processes from both the top-down and bottom-up perspectives; and

(enables one to specify parallel tasks in a natural and convenient manner

To “program” a given task within the Taskmaster environment, one decomposes it into an ordered set of conceptually simple, high-level operations, and then combines (composes) a corresponding network of software tools that implements these operations. Execution of the specified network provides a task solution. Major system components supporting user task specification include a network editor, a tools database and a network execution monitor.     

Visual discrimination on colour VDTs at two viewing distances

The paper describes a research study on visual discrimination of textual and graphic symbols on a visual display terminal (VDT) screen when viewed at eye-lo-screen distances of 61 cm and 152 cm (24 and 60 ins). Conducted as part of a development programme at McDonnell Douglas Corporation's St. Louis Aircraft Company for an Integrated Manufacturing Composites Centre (ICC), the study investigated symbol shapes, symbol sizes, symbol colours and background colours at the two viewing distances. The longer distance is representative of required placements of the VDTs at some manufacturing workstations to avoid interference with process or control equipment. Knowledge gained from the study was incorporated in the selection of the manufacturing computer information system (CIS) terminals.

All four treatments showed significant effects on visual discrimination at both viewing distances and, particularly at the 152 cm distance, the mix of symbol and background colours was highly significant. A black screen background colour with more luminous symbols such as orange, green, yellow provided much better visual discrimination at the extended viewing distance than less luminous symbols such as red and blue on a white background. Visual discrimination at the extended viewing distance, when compared with the shorter viewing distance and using symbols of equal size, was better than the loss in visual angle would suggest.

Sex and age (to age 65) did not significantly affect visual discrimination mean scores, but the variance among individuals in the 51-65 years age group was greater than for the younger age groups.

The visual discrimination scores for symbol sizes of 4 mm² were not significantly different from the 6 mm² symbols at the 61 cm viewing distance. The 4 mm² symbol size was therefore adequate for visual discrimination of standalone symbols at this distance. Although 8 mm symbols were not used in this study, projections from the data indicate that such symbol sizes at 152 cm would provide comparable discrimination scores to the 4 mm² at 61 cm.

Improved visual discrimination of standalone symbols occurs with gaps or changes in the angles of symbols, such as sets 'C' versus 'O' and 'Xl' versus'+'.     

Modelling consumer intention to use gambling technologies: an innovative approach

This paper reports the results of a study that sought to analyse the attributes of gambling technologies that affect consumer intention to use card-based gambling in Australia. A 23-item questionnaire was developed from an analysis of interviews with 20 key industry stakeholders, adapted to a modified version of existing technology acceptance model (TAM) questions (Davis 1989, Wang et al. 2003), then administered to 134 patrons of two gambling venues.

Data reduction yielded three constructs consistent with the TAM: 'ease-of-use', 'perceived usefulness' and 'intention to use' the technology. Significant correlation was found in each component, and each set of component items exhibited high internal reliability. Further analysis using structural equation modelling revealed that 'usefulness' is a significant predictor of 'intention to use' card-based gambling systems, and that 'ease-of-use' also has a positive effect on intention. Replication of these results, complemented by actual usage data, will enhance understanding of the benefits.