Privacy vs. information technology

Modern information technology is facilitating the steady disappearance of individual privacy - even under normal circumstances. Add a real or hyped threat to the common good, and the erosion of individual privacy is further accelerated.     

Exploring information technology outsourcing relationships: theory and practice

A growing concern among the organisations who are actively involved in Information Technology outsourcing is post-contract management and the ensuing development of what many practitioners and scholars have coined the ‘outsourcing partnership’. This paper integrates theoretical concepts from organisation theory, social exchange theory, and relational contract theory with existing research on IT outsourcing, to develop a conceptual model for understanding the relationship. In particular, we conceptually elaborate and then address the relationship's properties — identified as interactions, contract, context, structure, and behavioural dimensions. Preliminary exploratory research into relationship practice in twelve organisations involved in outsourcing presents some interesting findings that advance the thinking about the outsourcing relationship. We found the conceptual model useful in elucidating important relationship management areas, highlighting not only the outsourcing relationship's contractual, social, and economic characteristics, but also many additional elements found to have relevance in practice.     

Exploring relationships in information technology outsourcing: the interaction approach

Information technology (IT) outsourcing ventures have been termed successful or less successful in achieving their expected outsourcing objectives according to the operational effectiveness of the ensuing client–upplier relationship. Yet researchers and practitioners share no consistent understanding of the actual operational characteristics of these IT outsourcing relationships. The paper bridges this gap by adopting the International Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) group's dyadic ‘interaction Approach’, which delineates carefully the context, parties, interaction and behavioural dimensions of buyer–supplier-type relationships. Applied to outsourcing, this ‘approach’ enables us to shed some light on the crucial dimensions of IT outsourcing relationships. Exploratory research into 12 organisations identifies the potential of the ‘interaction approach’, in providing a comprehensive, consistent, holistic set of constructs to guide analysis. The constructs of ‘interaction’ and ‘atmosphere’ proved particularly useful in providing in-depth insights. However, other interaction constructs of ‘environment’, ‘parties’ and ‘institutionalisation and adaptation’ were limited in their operationalisability. The paper suggests how these can be supplemented, and how IT outsourcing relationships can then be studied over time more satisfactorily. The interaction approach, as applied to the qualitative research data, also helped to identify a number of management issues that warrant careful consideration if IT outsourcing relationship management is to be improved. At the same time, the research identified certain factors in IT outsourcing relationships not captured satisfactorily by the interaction approach, namely the centrality of the contract, the importance of formal processes, and the hidden costs of relationship management. One suggested way forward is to combine interaction, contract and transaction cost perspectives.     

Inter-organizational relationships and information technology: a conceptual synthesis and a research framework

Inter-organizational strategies that leverage information technology capabilities are becoming more widespread but the degree of research attention is limited. This paper integrates theoretical concepts from transaction cost economics, organization theory and political economy to develop a conceptual framework to understand inter-organizational relationships, particularly those that explicitly leverage information technology capabilities. Further, we develop research directions and approaches to bridge the requirements of theory building and theory testing.     

Personal information retrieval: smartphones vs. computers,emails vs. files

Millions of people retrieve their emails and files using their smartphones, yet smartphone retrieval of such personal information has never been studied or compared to retrievals from PCs. In our within-subjects study, we compared the retrievals of our 57 participants in four conditions: files using PCs, emails using PCs, files using smartphones, and emails using smartphones. Our results indicate that when using smartphones, retrievals were significantly less successful and efficient than when using PCs, casting doubt on the implicit assumption that the use of these devices is equivalent. Our results also indicate that participants used the search facility for emails about seven times more than for files, which can encourage vendors to invest more efforts in improving email search engines and file navigation systems. Finally, we found that the tendency to search shows interpersonal differences but consistency across different situations for the same individual and therefore can be regarded as a personal trait. Future research can attempt to explain the search tendency trait in terms of cognitive abilities and personality traits, incorporating it to well-established theories. This may pave the way to a new trait-related theory in the field of information science.     

Early vs. late adoption of radical information technology innovations across software development organizations: an extension of the disruptive information technology innovation model

This paper extends the disruptive information technology innovation model (DITIM) by exploring the impact of adoption timing on innovation outcomes within software development organizations during a disruptive innovation cycle. The DITIM suggests that radical changes in computing platforms result in pervasive and radical innovations in software development organizations across three innovation types: base technologies adopted, services produced and processes adopted. Upstream attributes (amount and radicalness) of the base innovations impact effects in‐kind downstream (a.k.a., strong order effects) on services and processes. Extending these tenets of the DITIM, we posit that during disruptive information technology (IT) innovation, the temporal stage of innovation activity (early vs. late) by software development organizations will significantly impact four innovation characteristics: (1) adoption rate of radical IT innovations, (2) strong order effects on downstream innovations related to the amount of innovation, (3) perceived radicalness of innovations and (4) strong order effects on downstream innovations related to the amount of perceived radicalness of innovation. We examine these impacts by reanalysing a cross‐sectional study of 121 software development organizations that adopted internet computing as reported in the original data analysis of the DITIM. By splitting the data into early and late adopter groups, our moderation analysis shows significant differences between early and late adopting groups in each of the four hypothesized impacts. Specifically, the adoption rate of radical IT innovations, strong order effects on the amount of innovation, perceived radicalness of innovations and strong order effects on perceived radicalness were each found to differ between early and late adopters. However, it is also important to consider innovation type as three significant effects were in the opposite direction for process innovations. These findings suggest that IT‐innovation scholars and practitioners should carefully consider innovation timing and type when studying or managing radical IT innovation.     

Examining common information technology addictions and their relationships with non-technology-related addictions

A number of novel problematic behaviors have emerged in the information technology era, and corresponding addictions have been proposed for some of these behaviors. Scholars have speculated that a common factor may underlie these information technology addictions, but this theoretical notion has yet to be tested empirically. The present study tested this notion and also investigated the relationships of information technology addictions with other behavioral addictions as well as substance addictions. We conducted an online survey in 1001 US adults (56% female; mean age = 35.0 years, range = 18–83). Two conceptual models were formulated and tested. Moreover, correlations of the information technology addictions with both problematic gambling and alcohol use disorder were examined. The confirmatory factor analysis showed that there was a common factor underlying various types of information technology addiction. In addition, problematic gambling was more strongly correlated with information technology addiction than alcohol use disorder was. Our findings are interpreted in light of a spectrum approach, which conceptualizes information technology addiction as a cluster of disorders comprising not only shared risk factors and symptoms but also distinct characteristics. The findings further reveal that information technology addiction is more similar to other behavioral addictions than substance-related addictions. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

Love on the Internet: involvement and misrepresentation in romantic relationships in cyberspace vs. realspace

This study compares reported romantic relationships of chat room users in cyberspace vs. in face-to-face relationships in everyday contexts (“realspace”). As hypothesized, involvement — particularly commitment and seriousness — tended to be lower in cyberspace than in realspace romantic relationships, and misrepresentation — specifically of age and physical attributes — tended to be higher in cyberspace than in realspace relationships. A causal analysis indicated that space affected level of involvement which in turn affected amount of misrepresentation. Cyberspace respondents were older than realspace respondents. Few differences were evident for gender or education. Possibilities for future research regarding romantic relationships and cyberspace are briefly discussed.     

Information technology,information systems and information management: definition and development

The growth and development of the information and communication technologies has led to a parallel profusion of different terminologies and literature. It is becoming increasingly difficult for managers and academics to find their way through the confusion and develop a common understanding of terminology. In an attempt at clarification, this paper looks at the main terms and definitions from a management perspective. Their overall use is assessed by an analysis of their usage in general management literature. It is clearly shown that although there are major overlaps and confusions, the term ‘information systems’ is the one in most widespread use. Finally we suggest a framework which may be helpful to those working in this field of research.     

Hypertext: A new information technology

The hypertext technology is described, including a survey of hypertext systems and their artificial-intelligence tools. The design principles of the first Ukrainian hypertext system HYPSY are discussed.Translated from Kibernetika i Sistemnyi Analiz, No. 5, pp. 116–135, September–October, 1992.     

Asimov's laws of robotics: Implications for information technology.2

For part 1 see ibid., Dec 1993, p53-61. Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics, first formulated in 1940. were primarily a literary device intended to support a series of stories about robot behavior. Over time, he found that the three Laws included enough apparent inconsistencies, ambiguity. and uncertainty to provide the conflicts required for a great many stories. In examining the ramifications of these laws. Asimov revealed problems that might later confront real roboticists and information technologists attempting to establish rules for the behavior of intelligent machines. As information technology evolves and machines begin to design and build other machines, the issue of human control gains greater significance. In time, human values tend to change; the rules reflecting these values, and embedded in existing robotic devices, may need to be modified. But if they are implicit rather than explicit, with their effects scattered widely across a system, they may not be easily replaceable. Asimov himself discovered many contradictions and eventually revised the Laws of Robotics     

An Alvey survey: Advanced information technology in the U.K.

AIT is a serious object of Governmental concern in the U.K. This survey shows how.     

The philosophical view of information and information technology

Various approaches to the definition of the concept “information,” viz., mathematical-physical, semantic, pragmatic, hermeneutic-existential, and angeletic, are considered. The relevance of the study of the history of philosophy in terms of information technology (IT) is noted. Two contradictory views of information technology, that is, engineering and anthropocentric, are addressed. The future promising lines in IT philosophy are considered.     

浅论信息技术与信息技术课程教学的全面整合

信息技术与信息技术课程教学的整合为信息技术与其他课程教学整合提供技术支持。本文从论述信息技术与信息技术课程教学整合的地位入手,分析了当前信息技术与信息技术课程教学的整合的问题之所在,并尝试着提出了解决问题的办法。     

Lord woolf and information technology

‘Access to Justice’ envisages an important role for information technology in its proposed new regime for the civil justice system in England, this paper considers the main areas where information technology may be of assistance, the less controversial areas of case management, administration of the courts and access to justice, and also the highly contentious area of the conduct of litigation itself, and in particular the possibility of evidence in court being given by live television link or PC‐based conference facility. A number of questions are raised as to the impact of such developments on the quality of evidence and the nature of civil proceedings. It is argued that there is a need for substantial further research, on a much wider scale than is suggested in the Report, but that if this is duly and thoroughly undertaken there are some areas where the use of information technology could be bolder and more imaginative than the Report suggests.