Creative Thinking and Modelling for the Decision Support in Water Management

This paper reviews the state of art in knowledge and preferences elicitation techniques. The purpose of the study was to evaluate various cognitive mapping techniques in order to conclude with the identification of the optimal technique for the NetSyMod methodology. Network Analysis – Creative System Modelling (NetSyMod) methodology has been designed for the improvement of decision support systems (DSS) with respect to the environmental problems. In the paper the difference is made between experts and stakeholders knowledge and preference elicitation methods. The suggested technique is very similar to the Nominal Group Techniques (NGT) with the external representation of the analysed problem by means of the Hodgson Hexagons. The evolving methodology is undergoing tests within several EU-funded projects such as: ITAES, IISIM, NostrumDSS.Creative modelling, Cognitive mapping, Preference elicitation techniques, Decision support

Decision making based on quantitative and qualitative evaluations

This study emphasizes mainly on the influence of evaluations, both qualitative and quantitative, on decision making for many occasions that occur in business and technically oriented settings. Decisions made with a certain fuzzy as wen as technical behavior are structured by means of computer-assisted decision-making tools. Decision support tools assist decision makers in making crucial decisions. For instance the tool that has been designed for the purpose of this research will be used for selecting capital-intensive products. It is also intended to prove that with the help of decision support systems decision makers could make decisions by reducing fuzzy decision behavior about capital investments in organizational systems. Such tools consider more than one criterion in making a decision. \u27Me criteria for decision-making will range from the attributes of the system itself to the cost of the system. For each system under consideration for selection, each attribute will be analyzed and rated. Then a cumulative account of all the attributes for each vendor is brought together as a set. Though this set is produced by each decision maker there is little correlation between his decisions and the evaluation of the product. A product\u27s quantitative evaluation may warrant of a different kind of decision than a qualitative evaluation. An evaluation of a system leads to a decision. However when a decision is the one of selection, as is quite often the case, quantitative and qualitative evaluations may be done. Quantitative evaluations generally are performed based on statistical analysis of the system under consideration. A quantitative evaluation may be based also on algorithms designed for specific scenarios. On the other hand a qualitative evaluation may take place in settings that deal with a single system that must be evaluated and it\u27s evaluation recorded in language specific descriptive terms. 11-iis study discusses how decisions can be made using qualitative and quantitative evaluations for the object or situation under consideration

Communications Design for Co-Op: A Group Decision Support System

Decision Support Systems (DSSs), computer-based systems intended to assist managers in preparing and analyzing decisions, have been single-user systems for most of the past decade. Only recently has DSS research begun to study the implications of the fact that most complex managerial decisions involve multiple decision makers and analysts. A number of tools for facilitating group decisions have been proposed under the label Group Decision Support Systems (GDSSs). One of the most important functions of a GDSS is to provide problem-oriented services for communication among decision makers. On the basis of an analysis of the communication requirements in various group decision settings, this paper presents an architecture for defining and enforcing dynamic application-level protocols that organize decision group interaction. The architecture has been implemented on a network of personal computers in Co-oP, a GDSS for cooperative group decision making based on interactive, multiple-criteria decision methods

DESIGN AND EXPLORATION OF NEW MODELS FOR SECURITY AND PRIVACY-SENSITIVE COLLABORATION SYSTEMS

Collaboration has been an area of interest in many domains including education, research, healthcare supply chain, Internet of things, and music etc. It enhances problem solving through expertise sharing, ideas sharing, learning and resource sharing, and improved decision making. To address the limitations in the existing literature, this dissertation presents a design science artifact and a conceptual model for collaborative environment. The first artifact is a blockchain based collaborative information exchange system that utilizes blockchain technology and semi-automated ontology mappings to enable secure and interoperable health information exchange among different health care institutions. The conceptual model proposed in this dissertation explores the factors that influences professionals continued use of video- conferencing applications. The conceptual model investigates the role the perceived risks and benefits play in influencing professionals’ attitude towards VC apps and consequently its active and automatic use

Design and evaluation of a list gathering tool in a web-based collaborative environment

This research focuses on how to build a list structure to combine individual items of information into some sort of structure that converts the individual items of information into a structure of knowledge relative to the problem. Software was designed to provide relationships among and comparisons of the contributions in a list structure, so that individual members of a group process will be able to understand the contributions of information made by the group as a whole. A List Gathering Tool was designed and implemented, which is one component in a Web-based Social Decision Support System (SDSS) Toolkit. Then, a two-by-two factorial design (list tool support vs. no list tool support, and voting tool support vs. no voting tool support, respectively) controlled experiment and several field studies were carried out to assess the effects of this List Gathering Tool in a group problem solving process. Overall, the evaluation results are encouraging. The utilization of the List Gathering Tool or the SDSS Toolkit does tend to improve the ability to discover valid alternatives. An additional set of field trials illustrated how the SDSS Toolkit can be utilized in a collaborative learning environment to improve teaching and students\u27 learning experience. This system will also work for very practical applications in large group settings

Cognition Matters: Enduring Questions in Cognitive IS Research

We explore the history of cognitive research in information systems (IS) across three major research streams in which cognitive processes are of paramount importance: developing software, decision support, and human-computer interaction. Through our historical analysis, we identify “enduring questions” in each area. The enduring questions motivated long-standing areas of inquiry within a particular research stream. These questions, while perhaps unapparent to the authors cited, become evident when one adopts an historical perspective. While research in all three areas was influenced by changes in technologies, research techniques, and the contexts of use, these enduring questions remain fundamental to our understanding of how to develop, reason with, and interact with IS. In synthesizing common themes across the three streams, we draw out four cognitive qualities of information technology: interactivity, fit, cooperativity, and affordances. Together these cognitive qualities reflect IT’s ability to influence cognitive processes and ultimately task performance. Extrapolating from our historical analysis and looking at the operation of these cognitive qualities in concert, we envisage a bright future for cognitive research in IS: a future in which the study of cognition in IS extends beyond the individual to consider cognition distributed across teams, communities and systems, and a future involving the study of rich and dynamic social and organizational contexts in which the interplay between cognition, emotion, and attitudes provides a deeper explanation of behavior with IS

Measuring the Utility of a Cyber Incident Mission Impact Assessment (CIMIA) Process for Mission Assurance

Information is a critical asset on which virtually all modern organizations depend upon to meet their operational mission objectives. Military organizations, in particular, have embedded Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) into their core mission processes as a means to increase their operational efficiency, exploit automation, improve decision quality, and shorten the kill chain. However, the extreme dependence upon ICT results in an environment where a cyber incident can result in severe mission degradation, or possibly failure, with catastrophic consequences to life, limb, and property. These consequences can be minimized by maintaining real-time situational awareness of mission critical resources so appropriate contingency actions can be taken in a timely manner following an incident in order to assure mission success. In this thesis, the design and analysis of an experiment is presented for the purpose of measuring the utility of a Cyber Incident Mission Impact Assessment (CIMIA) notification process, whose goal is to improve the timeliness and relevance of incident notification. In the experiment, subjects are placed into a model environment where they conduct operational tasks in the presence and absence of enhanced CIMIA notifications. The results of the experiment reveal that implementing a CIMIA notification process significantly reduced the response time required for subjects to recognize and take proper contingency actions to assure their organizational mission. The research confirms that timely and relevant notification following a cyber incident is an essential element of mission assurance