Senior Managers’ Information Behavior in Current Emerging Ubiquitous and Intelligent Computing Environment

Emerging ubiquitous and intelligent information systems, such as the Internet, social computing technologies and artificial intelligence (AI), have facilitated the increasing complexity and dynamism of operational and strategic information in a highly distributed environment. As a result, organizations have been busy seeking approaches and tools to support senior managers in coping with this challenge, from organizational learning to knowledge management, from competitive intelligence to business intelligence, and from management information systems to strategic (executive) information systems. Before embarking on formulating and developing these approaches and tools, senior managers’ informational roles and information behavior should be understood. This paper explores factors influencing and shaping existing senior managers’ information behavior in order to shed light on value-added approaches or technological solutions for supporting and improving informational roles of senior managers. The findings show that information behavior of senior managers is influenced and shaped by a number of factors, mainly the organizational actors and organizational situations, followed by their affective responses and the use of technological tools

Supporting decision making process with "Ideal" software agents: what do business executives want?

According to Simon’s (1977) decision making theory, intelligence is the first and most important phase in the decision making process. With the escalation of information resources available to business executives, it is becoming imperative to explore the potential and challenges of using agent-based systems to support the intelligence phase of decision-making. This research examines UK executives’ perceptions of using agent-based support systems and the criteria for design and development of their “ideal” intelligent software agents. The study adopted an inductive approach using focus groups to generate a preliminary set of design criteria of “ideal” agents. It then followed a deductive approach using semi-structured interviews to validate and enhance the criteria. This qualitative research has generated unique insights into executives’ perceptions of the design and use of agent-based support systems. The systematic content analysis of qualitative data led to the proposal and validation of design criteria at three levels. The findings revealed the most desirable criteria for agent based support systems from the end users’ point view. The design criteria can be used not only to guide intelligent agent system design but also system evaluation

Transport poverty meets the digital divide : accessibility and connectivity in rural communities

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Funding Media, Strengthening Democracy: Grantmaking for the 21st Century

Despite the pervasiveness of media, the amount of philanthropic dollars in support of public interest media remains minuscule and, therefore largely ineffective. The report, based on a survey of the the funding sector, calls on philanthropists to embrace a practice of transparency and information sharing via technology, to determine how existing funds are being used and how they can best be leveraged to increase philanthropic impact within the media field

How conscious experience and working memory interact

Active components of classical working memory are conscious, but traditional theory does not account for this fact. Global Workspace theory suggests that consciousness is needed to recruit unconscious specialized networks that carry out detailed working memory functions. The IDA model provides a fine-grained analysis of this process, specifically of two classical workingmemory tasks, verbal rehearsal and the utilization of a visual image. In the process, new light is shed on the interactions between conscious and unconscious\ud aspects of working memory

Unsupervised navigation using an economy principle

We describe robot navigation learning based on self-selection of privileged vectors through the environment in accordance with an in built economy metric. This provides the opportunity both for progressive behavioural adaptation, and adaptive derivations, leading, through situated activity, to “representations" of the environment which are both economically attained and inherently meaningful to the agent

Progress on Intelligent Guidance and Control for Wind Shear Encounter

Low altitude wind shear poses a serious threat to air safety. Avoiding severe wind shear challenges the ability of flight crews, as it involves assessing risk from uncertain evidence. A computerized intelligent cockpit aid can increase flight crew awareness of wind shear, improving avoidance decisions. The primary functions of a cockpit advisory expert system for wind shear avoidance are discussed. Also introduced are computational techniques being implemented to enable these primary functions