Back to practice, a decade of research in E-government

E-government is a multidisciplinary field of research based initially on empirical insights from practice. Efforts to theoretically found the field have opened perspectives from multiple research domains. The goal of this chapter is to review evolution of the e-government field from an institutional and an academic point of view. Our position is that e-government is an emergent multidisciplinary field of research in which focus on practice is a prominent characteristic. Each chapter of the book is then briefly presented and is positioned according to a vision of the e-government domain of research.E-government, Case study, E-administration, Public domain

Educating Students in Healthcare Information Technology: IS Community Barriers, Challenges, and Paths Forward

Healthcare information technology (HIT) is an exciting field to which information systems (IS) scholars have much to contribute. As the IS community continues to tackle enrollment and growth issues across the nation, HIT becomes an attractive topic for the IS educators to embrace. Careful consideration and domain understanding are needed to ensure a suitable depth and balance in curricula. The intent of this article is to provide guidance to the IS community to support and promote successful HIT educational courses and programs by investigating three important questions: (1) Does IS have a role in HIT? (2) Where does an IS educator look to begin with HIT education? (3) How do IS educators frame their vision for HIT curricula leveraging the discipline’s strengths? Our hope is that this article will illuminate HIT curriculum matters for the general IS faculty and generate purposeful debate regarding how best to position HIT education within the IS discipline if IS faculty want to join in the quest to successfully educate and place graduates in the growing health technology sector

Digital technology and the conservation of nature.

Digital technology is changing nature conservation in increasingly profound ways. We describe this impact and its significance through the concept of 'digital conservation', which we found to comprise five pivotal dimensions: data on nature, data on people, data integration and analysis, communication and experience, and participatory governance. Examining digital innovation in nature conservation and addressing how its development, implementation and diffusion may be steered, we warn against hypes, techno-fix thinking, good news narratives and unverified assumptions. We identify a need for rigorous evaluation, more comprehensive consideration of social exclusion, frameworks for regulation and increased multi-sector as well as multi-discipline awareness and cooperation. Along the way, digital technology may best be reconceptualised by conservationists from something that is either good or bad, to a dual-faced force in need of guidance.RCUKThis is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-015-0705-

Research and Education in Computational Science and Engineering

Over the past two decades the field of computational science and engineering (CSE) has penetrated both basic and applied research in academia, industry, and laboratories to advance discovery, optimize systems, support decision-makers, and educate the scientific and engineering workforce. Informed by centuries of theory and experiment, CSE performs computational experiments to answer questions that neither theory nor experiment alone is equipped to answer. CSE provides scientists and engineers of all persuasions with algorithmic inventions and software systems that transcend disciplines and scales. Carried on a wave of digital technology, CSE brings the power of parallelism to bear on troves of data. Mathematics-based advanced computing has become a prevalent means of discovery and innovation in essentially all areas of science, engineering, technology, and society; and the CSE community is at the core of this transformation. However, a combination of disruptive developments---including the architectural complexity of extreme-scale computing, the data revolution that engulfs the planet, and the specialization required to follow the applications to new frontiers---is redefining the scope and reach of the CSE endeavor. This report describes the rapid expansion of CSE and the challenges to sustaining its bold advances. The report also presents strategies and directions for CSE research and education for the next decade.Comment: Major revision, to appear in SIAM Revie

See no evil? Ethics in an interventionist ICTD

This paper considers some of the ethical questions that arise in conducting interventionist ICTD research, and examines the ethical advice and guidance that is readily available to researchers. Recent years have seen a growing interest from technology researchers in applying their skills to address the needs and aspirations of people in developing regions. In contrast to much previous research in Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD) which has sought to study and understand processes surrounding technologies, technology researchers are interested in finding ways to change the forms of these technologies in order to promote desirable social aims. These more interventionist research encounters raise distinctive ethical challenges. This paper explores the discussions that have been presented in the major ICTD journals and conferences and major development studies journals as well as examining codes of conduct from related fields of research. Exploration of this literature shows that the quantity, quality and detail of advice that directly addresses the challenges of interventionist ICTD is actually very limited. This paper argues that the there is an urgent need for the ICTD research community to investigate and debate this subject

Umbrella Terms as Mediators in the Governance of emerging Science and Technology

Umbrella terms like ‘nanotechnology’ and ‘sustainability research’ have emerged as part of the new regime of Strategic Science. As mediators between science and society they have a dual role. Their overall promise allows resources to be mobilised for new fields which can then be productive in their own right. At the same time, however, they also put pressure on these fields to take relevance considerations into account. The process of emergence and stabilisation of umbrella terms is outlined and traced in detail in the cases of nanotechnology and sustainability research. What we see is interesting de facto governance of science, as well as new forms of involvement of STS scholars

The Sociology of the Life Course and Life Span Psychology: Integrated Paradigm or Complementing Pathways?

The psychology of the life span and the sociology of the life course share the same object of scientific inquiry - the lives of women and men from birth to death. Both are part of an interdisciplinary field focused on individual development and life course patterns which also includes social demography and human capital economics. However, a closer look shows that life span psychology and life course sociology now to stand further apart than in the seventies. In this paper we reassess how this divergence can be understood in terms of necessary and legitimate strengths of both approaches, as well as avoidable weaknesses which could be overcome in the future by more re-combination and integration.