PHENOMENOLOGY AS A BASE OF SYSTEMS ANALYSIS

It has been ten years since Truex et al. (1999) advocated the continuous development of information systems by business professionals or workers themselves. A few methods for systems analysis (SA) by business professionals have appeared during this time. However, systems analysis by business professionals has not gained widespread interest among researchers. One of the reasons is considered that there is no foundational theory or philosophical base of the systems analysis, thereby the development of the methods being still a low-key theme in IS related researches. We will take phenomenology as a candidate of a foundational theory of the systems analysis, and examine the roles and functionality expected to the systems analysis against phenomenology in terms of the problem of knowledge, the mode of knowledge, and the method. It is made clear from the examination that the systems analysis can be considered an instance or application of phenomenology because the roles and functionality of the systems analysis falls within the idea and scope of phenomenology. Phenomenology is, then, expected to show what the systems analysis is and how it should be. In our examination, in fact, phenomenology helped make us conscious of an unnoticed role of the systems analysis that is important but not articulated

A qualitative study of penetration testers and what they can tell us about information security in organisations

Purpose: This paper presents a qualitative study of penetration testing, the practice of attacking information systems to find security vulnerabilities and fixing them. The purpose of this paper is to understand whether and to what extent penetration testing can reveal various socio-organisational factors of information security in organisations. In doing so, the paper innovates theory by using Routine Activity Theory together with phenomenology of information systems concepts. Design/methodology/approach: The articulation of Routine Activity Theory and phenomenology emerged inductively from the data analysis. The data consists of 24 qualitative interviews conducted with penetration testers, analysed with thematic analysis. Findings: The starting assumption is that penetration testers are akin to offenders in a crime situation, dealing with targets and the absence of capable guardians. A key finding is that penetration testers described their targets as an installed base, highlighting how vulnerabilities, which make a target suitable, often emerge from properties of the existing built digital environments. This includes systems that are forgotten or lack ongoing maintenance. Moreover, penetration testers highlighted that although the testing is often predicated on planned methodologies, often they resort to serendipitous practices such as improvisation. Originality/value: This paper contributes to theory, showing how Routine Activity Theory and phenomenological concepts can work together in the study of socio-organisational factors of information security. This contribution stems from considering that much research on information security focuses on the internal actions of organisations. The study of penetration testing as a proxy of real attacks allows novel insights into socio-organisational factors of information security in organisations.</p

Phenomenology Tools on Cloud Infrastructures using OpenStack

We present a new environment for computations in particle physics phenomenology employing recent developments in cloud computing. On this environment users can create and manage "virtual" machines on which the phenomenology codes/tools can be deployed easily in an automated way. We analyze the performance of this environment based on "virtual" machines versus the utilization of "real" physical hardware. In this way we provide a qualitative result for the influence of the host operating system on the performance of a representative set of applications for phenomenology calculations.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures; information on memory usage included, as well as minor modifications. Version to appear in EPJ

On what we experience when we hear people speak

According to perceptualism, fluent comprehension of speech is a perceptual achievement, in as much as it is akin to such high-level perceptual states as the perception of objects as cups or trees, or of people as happy or sad. According to liberalism, grasp of meaning is partially constitutive of the phenomenology of fluent comprehension. I here defend an influential line of argument for liberal perceptualism, resting on phenomenal contrasts in our comprehension of speech, due to Susanna Siegel and Tim Bayne, against objections from Casey O'Callaghan and Indrek Reiland. I concentrate on the contrast between the putative immediacy of meaning-assignment in fluent comprehension, as compared with other, less ordinary, perhaps translation-based ways of getting at the meaning of speech. I argue this putative immediacy is difficult to capture on a non-perceptual view (whether liberal or non-liberal), and that the immediacy in question has much in common with that which applies in other, less controversial cases of high-level perception

Strategic marketing planning and phenomenology: challenging the dominant paradigm

This paper contends that the conventional rational model of strategic marketing planning is flawed. It is argued that the latter leads to the subsumption of individual perceptions of marketing reality within universal systemic based theories, which are unable to take account of the subjective and discontinuous worlds of marketing managers. It is proposed that in order to better understand marketing decision making in organisations, a phenomenological perspective be adopted. Further research, utilising the phenomenological interview, should aim to examine the local circumstances and practical reasoning used by marketing managers in their ‘life worlds’, as they go about making marketing decisions

Citation Networks in High Energy Physics

The citation network constituted by the SPIRES data base is investigated empirically. The probability that a given paper in the SPIRES data base has $k$ citations is well described by simple power laws, $P(k) \propto k^{-\alpha}$, with $\alpha \approx 1.2$ for $k$ less than 50 citations and $\alpha \approx 2.3$ for 50 or more citations. Two models are presented that both represent the data well, one which generates power laws and one which generates a stretched exponential. It is not possible to discriminate between these models on the present empirical basis. A consideration of citation distribution by subfield shows that the citation patterns of high energy physics form a remarkably homogeneous network. Further, we utilize the knowledge of the citation distributions to demonstrate the extreme improbability that the citation records of selected individuals and institutions have been obtained by a random draw on the resulting distribution.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, 2 table

An evaluation study of the core courses of the master's degree in training and development with alignment of globalization

Includes bibliographical references

Editorial Special Issue on Enhancement Algorithms, Methodologies and Technology for Spectral Sensing

The paper is an editorial issue on enhancement algorithms, methodologies and technology for spectral sensing and serves as a valuable and useful reference for researchers and technologists interested in the evolving state-of-the-art and/or the emerging science and technology base associated with spectral-based sensing and monitoring problem. This issue is particularly relevant to those seeking new and improved solutions for detecting chemical, biological, radiological and explosive threats on the land, sea, and in the air

HOW EXPERIENCED PHENOMENA RELATE TO THINGS THEMSELVES: KANT, HUSSERL, HOCHE, AND REFLEXIVE MONISM

What we normally think of as the “physical world” is also the world as experienced, that is, a world of appearances. Given this, what is the reality behind the appearances, and what might its relation be to consciousness and to constructive processes in the mind? According to Kant, the thing itself that brings about and supports these appearances is unknowable and we can never gain any understanding of how it brings such appearances about. Reflexive monism argues the opposite: the thing itself is knowable as are the processes that construct conscious appearances. Conscious appearances (empirical evidence) and the theories derived from them can represent what the world is really like, even though such empirical knowledge is partial, approximate and uncertain, and conscious appearances are species-specific constructions of the human mind. Drawing on the writings of Husserl, Hoche suggests that problems of knowledge, mind and consciousness are better understood in terms of a “pure noematic” phenomenology that avoids any reference to a “thing itself”. I argue that avoiding reference to a knowable reality (behind appearances) leads to more complex explanations with less explanatory value and counterintuitive conclusions—for example Hoche’s conclusion that consciousness is not part of nature. The critical realism adopted by reflexive monism appears to be more useful, as well as being consistent with science and common sense

Didactical knowledge development of pre-service secondary mathematics teachers

We present the results of a study on the didactical knowledge development of pre-service secondary mathematics teachers participating in a methods course. In this course, we expected pre-service teachers to learn and use a series of conceptual and methodological tools that could help them in the design of didactical units. We coded and analyzed the information contained in the transparencies used by the teachers while presenting their solution to a series of tasks proposed in the course. Four stages of didactical knowledge development were identified and characterized. The evolution in teachersÕ performance over time is described based on those stages