THE ROLE OF COLLABORATIVE SOFTWARE AND DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN THE SMARTER CITIES

The transition from the traditional city to the smart city is made by supported efforts regarding the achievement of a more steady, more efficient, more responsible city, through convergent strategies that deal with Smart Transportation Systems, Energy and Utilities Management, Water Management, Smart Public Safety, Healthcare Systems, Environmental Management, Educational Systems, Telecommunications (ITC Support),etc. and Positive Thinking. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) meets the customers’ needs and the administration, the management of data, information, knowledge and decisions through Collaborative Systems and Decision Support Systems have a major impact both at the level of the smart city and the level of subsystems/services, and the information technology within smart cities becomes a major direction of research in the field of ITC.Smart City, Collaborative Systems, Decision Support Systems (DSS), Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Portal technology

Managing ubiquitous eco cities: the role of urban telecommunication infrastructure networks and convergence technologies

A successful urban management system for a Ubiquitous Eco City requires an integrated approach. This integration includes bringing together economic, socio-cultural and urban development with a well orchestrated, transparent and open decision making mechanism and necessary infrastructure and technologies. Rapidly developing information and telecommunication technologies and their platforms in the late 20th Century improves urban management and enhances the quality of life and place. Telecommunication technologies provide an important base for monitoring and managing activities over wired, wireless or fibre-optic networks. Particularly technology convergence creates new ways in which the information and telecommunication technologies are used. The 21st Century is an era where information has converged, in which people are able to access a variety of services, including internet and location based services, through multi-functional devices such as mobile phones and provides opportunities in the management of Ubiquitous Eco Cities. This paper discusses the recent developments in telecommunication networks and trends in convergence technologies and their implications on the management of Ubiquitous Eco Cities and how this technological shift is likely to be beneficial in improving the quality of life and place. The paper also introduces recent approaches on urban management systems, such as intelligent urban management systems, that are suitable for Ubiquitous Eco Cities

Outsourcing information systems: Drawing lessons from a banking case study

Financial and costs benefits are often put forward as the reasons why organisations decide to outsource. Emerging patterns and trends indicate that today’s outsourcing decisions are often motivated by factors other than cost. Thus, the decision-making process is more complex than it may at first appear. This paper presents findings from a case study from an organisation in the UK banking sector that was motivated to outsource aspects of its information technology/information system (IT/IS). The underlying motives and decision-making process that influenced the bank outsource its IT/IS are presented and discussed. Findings from the case study suggest political perspectives, as well as human and organisational issues influenced the bank’s strategic decision-making to outsource certain aspects of its business. An examination of the case study findings suggests that cost alone is not always responsible for decisions to outsource, as it was found the bank’s outsourcing decision was driven by a series of complex, interrelated motives in a bid to reduce the risks and uncertainties of managing its own technology. Considering the complex nature of the outsourcing process a frame of reference that can be used to assist managers with their decision to outsource IT/IS is propagated. The case study is used to present an organisation’s experiences as to how and why it decided to outsource its IS and thus offers a learning opportunity for other organisations facing similar difficulties. In addition, the case study findings highlight the need to focus greater attention on discriminating between the short and long-term consequences of IT/IS decision-makin

World radiocommunication conference 12 : implications for the spectrum eco-system

Spectrum allocation is once more a key issue facing the global telecommunications industry. Largely overlooked in current debates, however, is the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC). Decisions taken by WRC shape the future roadmap of the telecommunications industry, not least because it has the ability to shape the global spectrum allocation framework. In the debates of WRC-12 it is possible to identify three main issues: enhancement of the international spectrum regulatory framework, regulatory measures required to introduce Cognitive Radio Systems (CRS) technologies; and, additional spectrum allocation to mobile service. WRC-12 eventually decided not to change the current international radio regulations with regard to the first two issues and agreed to the third issue. The main implications of WRC-12 on the spectrum ecosystem are that most of actors are not in support of the concept of spectrum flexibility associated with trading and that the concept of spectrum open access is not under consideration. This is explained by the observation that spectrum trading and spectrum commons weaken state control over spectrum and challenge the main principles and norms of the international spectrum management regime. In addition, the mobile allocation issue has shown the lack of conformity with the main rules of the regime: regional spectrum allocation in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) three regions, and the resistance to the slow decision making procedures. In conclusion, while the rules and decision-making procedures of the international spectrum management regime were challenged in the WRC-12, the main principles and norms are still accepted by the majority of countries

Delivering knowledge in the field: A telecommunications service provision and maintenance case

This paper proposes a novel approach to providing knowledge management services in a business process wherein field engineers are the main process actors, providing and maintaining telecommunications services. Cooperating multi-agents play a central role for the provision of knowledge management services by integrating heterogeneous systems to collect related knowledge for the execution of mobile tasks. The proposed system is expected to increase both the performance of the mobile workforce and customer satisfaction by supporting and encouraging knowledge sharing

"The global telecommunications infrastructure: European Community (Union) telecommunications developments"

[From the Introduction]. Information, electronics, and telecommunication technologies promise to create communications networks of greatly expanded capacity capable of moving messages across interconnected wired and wireless systems almost anywhere in the world. Such global systems will profoundly affect the economic and social life of all countries. For those countries and economic sectors with a history of significant involvement in electronics, computers, multimedia, and telecommunications, early and timely deployment of state-of-the-art infrastructure may be a matter of prime importance. Many individual countries have made or are making changes intended to accelerate movement toward an information society, in large part because they recognize that a strategic competitive edge in the world economy will likely depend increasingly upon the availability, use, and exploitation of information. A major participant in the information race is the European Union (EU), formerly the European Community. The Commission of the European Union (Commission) has launched a strong push to adopt a common strategy for the creation of a European information society driven by a European information infrastructure. This strategy is aimed at bridging individual initiatives being pursued by EU Member States. [1. Member States now in the Union include the following: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom, Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the Union on January 1, 1995.1