Implications of the Information Technology Revolution for People with Disabilities

The paper focuses on opportunities for the integration of persons with different types of disabilities in the information technology (IT) labour market. Recent IT developments are identified and examined for their potentially harmful or beneficial effects on access to the IT labour market for persons with disabilities. The opportunities created by new job creation, new forms of training, teleworking, and the role of assistive technologies in facilitating workplace accommodations are briefly described. The focus is on new options for the design and implementation of computer-related assistive technologies in the workplace, and the impact of teleworking and the World Wide Web on employability and work-related training of persons with disabilities. The paper closes with a brief discussion of the roles that government agencies, business firms, labour unions, non-governmental organisations and education can play to help people with disabilities join the IT revolution and share its benefits

Attitude, aptitude, ability and autonomy: ther emergence of "off-roaders", a special class of nomadic worker

This is an electronic version of an article published in Harmer, B. M., & Pauleen, D. J. (2010). Attitude, aptitude, ability and autonomy: the emergence of ‘offroaders’, a special class of nomadic worker. Behaviour & Information Technology, 1-13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2010.489117 Behaviour & Information Technology is available online at: www.tandfonline.comFreedom to choose when, where and on what to work might be viewed as mere telework. However, when we mix the adoption of ubiquitous technologies with personalities that take pleasure in problem solving and achievement for its own sake, a strong need for autonomy, the freedom to work wherever and whenever the mood strikes, and add a dash of entrepreneurial spirit, then perhaps we are seeing an emergent class of worker, and even the possibility of new organisational forms. This research draws on adaptive structuration theory to search for evidence of a different way of working, hidden among otherwise familiar patterns. It concludes by considering what implications the employment of such individuals might have for management processes with organisations

Educating for professional capability in the field of information technology: integrating industry-based learning with the academic curriculum

In response to the forces of globalisation, societies and organisations have had to adapt and even proactively transform themselves. Universities, as knowledge-based organisations, have recognised that there are now many other important sites of knowledge construction and use. The apparent monopoly over valued forms of knowledge making and knowledge certification is disappearing. Universities have had to recognise the value of practical working knowledge developed in workplace settings beyond university domains, and promote the value of academic forms of knowledge making to the practical concerns of everyday learning. It is within this broader systems view that professional curriculum development undertaken by universities needs to be examined.University educational planning responds to these external forces in ways that are drawing together formal academic capability/competence and practice-based capability/competence. Both forms of academic and practice-based knowledge and knowing are being equally valued and related one to the other. University planning in turn gives impetus to the development of new forms of professional education curricula. This paper presents a contemporary case of a designed professional curriculum in the field of information technology that situates workplace learning as a central element in the education of Information Technology (IT)/Information Systems (IS) professionals.The key dimensions of the learning environment of Deakin University&rsquo;s BIT (Hons) program are considered with a view to identifying areas of strong integration between the worlds of academic and workplace learning from the perspectives of major stakeholders. The dynamic interplay between forms of theorising and practising is seen as critical in educating students for professional capability in their chosen field. From this analysis, an applied research agenda, relating to desired forms of professional learning in higher education, is outlined, with specific reference to the information and communication technology professions.<br /

The impact of blockchain technology on information technology governance

Abstract : This dissertation forms a hypothesis that Blockchain technology is giving rise to a new form of enterprise IT governance. Blockchain is a computational design that first emerged as the technology underpinning the popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Despite its use in cryptocurrency, it has an array of different use cases that may significantly impact the global economy. Some areas that Blockchain will affect were never truly re-engineered by the internet era, namely Economics and Governance. This dissertation is a qualitative exploration and analysis of blockchain’s impact on Information Technology Governance. The research unpacks these implications by comparing governance in hierarchical organisations and decentralised autonomous organisations. The primary data is attained through a questionnaire and the secondary data from a case study. The research contains two literature reviews on Blockchain and IT governance. The primary finding of this research reveals that although conventional IT Governance will still be used in the future, fifty percent of the sentiments shared by subject matter experts indicate that unconventional governance will take precedence with decentralised autonomous organisations. This implies that changes in traditional governance frameworks may be required in the future.M.Com. (Information Technology Management

The acquisition of media as cultural practice: Remote Indigenous youth and new digital technologies

Globally, telecommunications, information technologies and traditional broadcast media have converged into a digital realm. In remote Indigenous Australia, with improved broadband and greater access to mobile telephony and digital technologies through media organisations, arts projects and libraries, young people are appropriating new digital technologies for their own socio-cultural processes and purposes. In the remote context, the affordances of digital technology are enabling individual and collective access and participation, the acquisition of expertise, and the enhanced capacity for computer-mediated communication and multimodal production outside institutional or instructional settings. The manner in which young people are taking up digital technology reveals much about the way in which their imaginative capacities are being moulded by them and how this technology is being used as a cultural tool. In this chapter, a 'practice' perspective is taken from anthropology to highlight how the digital media practices of Indigenous youth in some communities are drawn from the established practices of the older generation, who, from the 1970s, participated in remote Indigenous media organisations and used earlier pre-digital media forms as tools for language and culture maintenance

The Role of Middle Range Publications in the Development of Engineering Knowledge

This paper explores the role of publications in the development of engineering knowledge. Previous studies of scientific and technical publications tend to assume that engineers are like scientists in their use of scientific journals as a means of communicating new technical knowledge. But science differs from technology and we should not expect scientists and engineers to use the same sources of knowledge. We contend that previous studies of publications have been flawed because they ignore other forms of publication more suited to the communication of technical and engineering knowledge. This paper argues that technologists use "middle range" publications to exchange knowledge and explore implications of their technological experiences. By providing more visual images, experience-based reports and background information on technologies and products, middle range publications better reflect the ways in which engineers think and work. They allow for visual conversations and support visual communities. The paper provides a detailed exploration of the role of middle range publications and suggests a framework for future research on patterns of publication by technologists and engineers.engineering knowledge, engineering and design organisations, construction, scientific publications, technical publications, innovation studies

Institutionalisation of Enterprise Systems through Organisational Isomorphism

The analysis of IS implementation and lifecycle management theories concludes that, ERP systems or for that matter any information system is a socio-technical system; and the social, cultural, organisational and competitive context of their implementation cannot be ignored. Various institutional pressures are exerted on ERP initiation, adoption, and routinization by organisations to achieve competitive, economic, technical, environmental and organisational legitimacy and authority. There are theoretical supports available for environmental isomorphic mechanisms; however, comparing to tremendous amount of studies on coercive, normative, and mimetic, there are little studies that actually look at other organisational and internal institutional elements which are influencing technology implementation, assimilation and institutionalisation process. This research aims to fill this gap by introducing perceptive, confirmative, and configurative mechanisms as new forms of institutional isomorphism, i.e., organisational isomorphism

Examining resistance, accommodation and the pursuit of aspiration in the Indian IT‐BPO space: reflections on two case studies

This article is based on case studies of two organisations: an India-based information technology (IT) services company and a financial services company located in the UK and India. Although they operate in different sectors and have some notable contrasts, both can be seen as typifying aspects of India\u27s new economy. Our article explores the lived experience of working in this economy—a perspective that has been relatively neglected in the extant literature. Drawing on Homi Bhabha\u27s notions of ambivalence and mimicry, and V. S. Naipaul\u27s powerful illustrations of these concepts in his fiction and non-fiction works, we report on how respondents talked about their aspirations within India\u27s emerging economy, and examine their mobilisation of particular discursive resources as forms of accommodation and resistance to the demands they face at work

Understanding organisational digital transformation: towards a theory of search

As new forms of digital technologies continue to proliferate, Information Systems (IS) scholars argue that we are witnessing a paradigmatic shift in the nature of technologies and their potential in profoundly changing organisations and ways of working. These technologies and changes have implications across the information technology and marketing functions. Scholars have only thus far developed a rather partial understanding of these technologies and changes, adopting either a single disciplinary lens (IS or Marketing). To throw light on the nature of these transformations, this thesis produces an interdisciplinary study that draws insights from not just IS but also Marketing. The thesis studies the emergence of an exemplary digital organisation which appears to be heralding in a new form of data manipulation. Drawing on qualitative data and through developing a practice-oriented approach, this research shows how: i) the technology is remaking the organisation internally, leading to ii) the development of new roles and expertise outside Information Technology (IT) departments, and iii) recreating the organisations’ relationship with its customers. Whilst existing discussions have primarily looked at the implications of such technologies for organisations and their interactions with customers, they have not studied ‘how’ customers have been made more central within organisations. This study develops the idea of the ‘extended user’ and shows how these users (or data about these customers) are leading to the reconfiguration of work practices. The main contribution of the thesis is to articulate how there is a new ‘search’ logic emerging. This logic contains three elements: (i) the work organisations do to foster and facilitate the ways customers are accessing and searching their offerings (remaking the organisation customer relationship); (ii) how they handle this search processes through building new internal knowledge and expertise (adapting and changing, disrupting routines); (iii) how this new expertise within the organisation is responding to platform developments (elastic reactions to platforms). The more theoretical contribution of this thesis is to extend practice-oriented studies of technology and organisation by proposing a new analytical approach to study the digital transformation of work and organisation. In responding to recent calls (e.g. Orlikowski and Scott 2016) for the development of approaches to understand how “algorithmic phenomena” have the potential to transform how work is done, the thesis proposes a multi-level analysis of the ‘search’ logic mentioned above

The Heartbleed bug : insecurity repackaged, rebranded and resold

The emergence of a post-industrial information economy shaped by and around networked communication technology has presented new opportunities for identity theft. In particular, the accidental leakage or deliberate harvesting of information, via either hacking or social engineering, is an omnipresent threat to a large number of commercial organisations and state agencies who manage digital databases and sociotechnical forms of data. Throughout the twenty-first century the global media have reported on a series of data breaches fuelling amongst the public an anxiety concerning the safety and security of their personal and financial data. With concern outpacing reliable information a reassurance gap has emerged between the public's expectations and the state's ability to provide safety and security online. This disparity presents a significant opportunity for a commercial computer crime control industry who has sought to position itself as being able to offer consumer citizens the antidotes for such ills. This paper considers how neoliberal discourses of cybercrime control are packaged, branded and sold, through an examination of the social construction of the Heartbleed bug. It demonstrates how security company Codenomicon masterfully communicated the vulnerability, the product of a simple coding error, through its name, a logo and an accompanying website, in turn, shaping news coverage across the mainstream media and beyond