A framework for accessible m-government implementation

The great popularity and rapid diffusion of mobile technologies at worldwide level has also been recognised by the public sector, leading to the creation of m-government. A major challenge for m-government is accessibility – the provision of an equal service to all citizens irrespective of their psychical, mental or technical capabilities. This paper sketches the profiles of six citizen groups: Visually Impaired, Hearing Impaired, Motor Impaired, Speech Impaired, Cognitive Impaired and Elderly. M-government examples that target the aforementioned groups are discussed and a framework for accessible m-government implementation with reference to the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices is proposed

The First 25 Years of the Bled eConference: Themes and Impacts

The Bled eConference is the longest-running themed conference associated with the Information Systems discipline. The focus throughout its first quarter-century has been the application of electronic tools, migrating progressively from Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) via Inter-Organisational Systems (IOS) and eCommerce to encompass all aspects of the use of networking facilities in industry and government, and more recently by individuals, groups and society as a whole. This paper reports on an examination of the conference titles and of the titles and abstracts of the 773 refereed papers published in the Proceedings since 1995. This identified a long and strong focus on categories of electronic business and corporate perspectives, which has broadened in recent years to encompass the democratic, the social and the personal. The conference\u27s extend well beyond the papers and their thousands of citations and tens of thousands of downloads. Other impacts have included innovative forms of support for the development of large numbers of graduate students, and the many international research collaborations that have been conceived and developed in a beautiful lake-side setting in Slovenia

Meios de Pagamento Digital: a realidade Brasileira. Um estudo de segmentação ambiental

In the last decades, there has been a shift from the use of cash to use of electronic and digital money. There are several phases to build and overcome until the digital money reaches similar levels of cash usage. This work, through the environmental segmentation model of Almeida (2001), aims to present the main factors necessary for the viability of the use and expansion of digital payment means in Brazil. An exploratory research of the qualitative type was carried out. The method used is the case study, more specifically, a study of the sector of electronic and digital payment means. Secondary data were initially collected by collecting information from market reports and articles available in databases. Then, with a semi-structured interview script, primary data were collected. Two interviews were conducted with specialists in the segment. The benefits of using digital money will be many. The interviews highlighted that digital money would generate new revenues with intangible "products"; will allow the emergence of new markets; it may reduce maintenance costs of cash; promote digital and financial inclusion, citizenship and self-esteem. However, obstacles must be overcome: ensuring the authenticity of the transaction; laws and regulations; achieve critical mass; reduction of telecommunication costs; etc. This study benefits the management academy by exploring the technique of environmental segmentation. It addressed a theme little investigated and described in the literature, digital money. It is of utmost importance to business organizations and society to analyze the environment for the entry of digital money, as these can benefit from the new product. It is also hoped that this work will encourage study in other fields such as consumer behavior and organizational theories.Nas últimas décadas, ocorreu uma migração da utilização do dinheiro em espécie para o dinheiro eletrônico e digital. Várias são as fases a construir e superar até que o dinheiro digital, atinja níveis de utilização semelhante ao dinheiro em espécie. Esse trabalho, através do modelo de segmentação ambiental de Almeida (2001), visa apresentar os principais fatores necessários à viabilização do uso e da expansão dos meios de pagamento digital no Brasil. Foi realizada pesquisa exploratória do tipo qualitativa. O método utilizado é o estudo de caso, mais especificamente, estudo do setor de meios de pagamento eletrônico e digital. Inicialmente foram coletados dados secundários mediante o levantamento de informações de relatórios de mercado e de artigos disponíveis em bases de dados. Em seguida, com um roteiro de entrevista semiestruturada, dados primários foram coletados. Duas entrevistas foram realizadas junto a especialistas do segmento. Os benefícios do uso do dinheiro digital serão muitos. As entrevistas ressaltaram que o dinheiro digital irá gerar novas receitas com “produtos” intangíveis; possibilitará o surgimento de novos mercados; poderá reduzir custos de manutenção do dinheiro em espécie; promoverá a inclusão digital e financeira, cidadania e auto-estima. No entanto, obstáculos precisam ser vencidos: garantir a autenticidade da transação; leis e regulamentação próprias; atingir massa crítica; redução de custos de telecomunicações; etc. Esse estudo beneficia a academia de administração explorando a técnica de segmentação ambiental. Aborda um tema pouco explorado e descrito na literatura, o dinheiro digital. É de extrema importância, às organizações empresariais e sociedade, a análise do ambiente para a entrada do dinheiro digital, uma vez que essas podem se beneficiar do novo produto. Espera-se também que esse trabalho incentive o estudo em outros campos como, o do comportamento do consumidor e das teorias organizacionai

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Making the Case for Leveraging the Patient-Centered E-Health (PCEH) Context to Expand Information Systems Theory

Patient-centered e-health (PCEH) represents a fascinating area of digitized stakeholder interactions characterized by complex information flows, shared decision making, co-created value, and mutual interest in improving health outcomes. Such a context lies in contrast to often contentious firm-consumer relationships characterized by self-interest, surplus maximization (from both producer and consumer sides), and consumer segmentation. This article suggests that PCEH is an ideal context in which to study the emerging class of information systems that include consumers as empowered influencers, stakeholders, and decision makers, rather than only “purchasers” on the other side of the exchange relationship or “mandated” users in the enterprise context. The PCEH context is proposed as an enormous research opportunity that may significantly contribute to expanding information systems research and theory

Breaching Location Silos: An Exploration of social media optimisation by SMMEs in Southern Africa

Published ArticleThis study explores the significance of social media as e-marketplaces for advancing e-commerce for small scale, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) in the southern African sub-region – notably in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Evidence from the examination of extant literature and our personal observations reveal that when properly harnessed as e-marketplaces, social media platforms, especially those that are compatible with mobile devices (i.e. smart mobile phones, tablets and notebooks), have tremendous e-commerce potential to enhance brand awareness, market growth, and market share for firms, thereby augmenting and expediting the management of customer relationships and brand loyalty. These benefits have the potential to trigger innovative marketing, brand positioning and creativity for SMMEs in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The main theoretical contribution of this study is the development of a conceptual model of social media that promotes SMME growth especially considering the large percentage of youth with a large appetite for new technology. Therefore, active engagement on social media could breach (the current) location silos," by tapping into the diaspora market

Complexity and Context: Emerging Forms of Collaborative Inter-Organizational Systems

The paper analyses the collaborative development of emergent IOS in three data intensive industry sectors (telecommunications, news media, and financial services). The findings reveal that environmental complexities (the complexity of data consumption patterns and increased interdependence within value webs) require context-sensitive value exchanges operationalised within co-operatively developed commodity-like IT infrastructures. The paper concludes by examining the implications of the study findings for developing IOS to support pooled, sequential, and reciprocal inter-organisational interdependencies