The IS History Initiative: Looking Forward by Looking Back

After officially appointing an AIS historian and forming the AIS history task force at the beginning of 2013, the AIS supported a set of systematic efforts, named IS history initiative, to preserve and represent the IS field’s history. From the perspective of the first AIS historian, I provide some background for the IS history initiative. Then I outline a detailed strategic plan and current status of its implementation. Ultimately, the IS history initiative has three goals: (1) to collect, represent, and preserve the IS field’s history; (2) to interpret, write, disseminate, and review the IS field’s history; and (3) to discover/identify IS genealogy, roots, sources, and facets that deserve to be examined from a historical point of view. Correspondingly, the strategic plan contains three parts. Each part has several specific tasks, many of which were already completed at the time of this writing, and several are either in progress or are planned for future efforts. This paper overviews both current efforts and guiding future efforts related to preserving and representing IS history

Traditional versus Modern? Perceptions and Preferences of Urban Park Users in Iran

This study involved four parks in Iran—two modern ones located in Tehran and two historical, traditional examples, one in Kashan and one in Esfahan—in order to ask what are the key factors contributing to the satisfaction of visitors to the two types of park and also to compare user’s perceptions and values of the different types. An extensive questionnaire survey was conducted in each park, with a target of 300 responses, using a random sampling technique. Respondents were asked to rate the importance of a number of factors, while thinking about the park they were visiting, using a 5-point Likert scale. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was undertaken. The results of the scores revealed differences between the two types of park. A factor analysis of the pooled results revealed that the key aspects contributing to a visit were named as ‘having fun and enjoying oneself’, in a place with ‘no barriers to using the park’ and ‘leaving one’s cares behind’ followed by ‘relaxing in the presence of natural beauty’. A further Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling analysis was undertaken to determine the main factors affecting the differences in preference for each type of park in relation to the key demographic variables. This revealed that the modern parks were preferred over the traditional ones for three significant sets of factors—recreation, accessibility and culture—and that there was a tendency for the historical parks to been favoured by more educated people. The conclusions are that the modern parks support the main preferred activities to support the quality of life of the population—not through their design per se but because they offer many more recreational opportunities. There is potential to include traditional elements such as water features more into parks. Park planners can take the findings and use them to help improve the quality of the parks over time

Designing an e-learning tool to support health practitioners caring for patients taking multiple medications

Background: Population ageing and improvements in healthcare mean the number of people living with two or more chronic conditions, or ‘multimorbidity’, is rapidly increasing. This presents a challenge to current disease-specific care delivery models. Adherence to prescribed medications appears particularly challenging for individuals living with multimorbidity, given the often-complex drug regimens required to treat multiple conditions. Poor adherence is associated with increased mortality, as well as wasted healthcare resources. Supporting medication adherence is a key priority for general practitioners (GPs) and practice nurses as they are responsible for much of the disease counselling and medication prescribing associated with chronic illnesses. Despite this, practical resources and training for health practitioners on how to promote adherence in practice is currently lacking. Informed by the principles of patient and public involvement (PPI), the aim of this research was to develop a patient informed e-learning resource to help GPs and nurses support medication adherence. Method: Utilising collective intelligence (CI) and scenario-based design (SBD) methodology, input was gathered from key stakeholders in medication adherence to gain insights into barriers to supporting people with multimorbidity who are receiving polypharmacy, strategies for overcoming these barriers, and user needs and requirements to inform the design of the e-learning tool. Results: In total, 67 barriers to supporting people who are taking multiple medications were identified across 8 barrier categories. 162 options for overcoming the identified barriers were then generated. This data was used in the design of a flexible e-learning tool for continuous professional development, that has been integrated into general practice and clinical education programmes as a supportive tool. Conclusions: Using CI and SBD methodology was an effective way of facilitating collaboration, idea-generation, and the co-creation of design solutions amongst a diverse group of stakeholders. This approach could be usefully applied to address other complex healthcare-related challenges

A Statistical Evaluation of Risk Priority Numbers in Failure Modes and Effects Analysis Applied to the Prediction of Complex Systems

Complex systems such as military aircraft and naval ships are difficult to cost effectively maintain. Frequently, large-scale maintenance of complex systems (i.e., a naval vessel) is based on the reduction of the system to its base subcomponents and the use of manufacturer-suggested, time-directed, preventative maintenance, which is augmented during the systems lifecycle with predictive maintenance which assesses the system\u27s ability to perform its mission objectives. While preventative maintenance under certain conditions can increase reliability, preventative maintenance systems are often costly, increase down time, and allow for maintenance-induced failures, which may decrease the reliability of the system (Ebeling, 1997). This maintenance scheme ignores the complexity of the system it tries to maintain. By combining the base components or subsystems into a larger system, and introducing human interaction with the system, the complexity of the system creates a unique entity that cannot be completely understood by basing predictability of the system to perform tasks on the reduction of the system to its subcomponents. This study adds to the scholarly literature by developing a model, based on the traditional failure modes and effects analysis commonly used for research and development projects, to capture the effects of the human interaction with the system. Based on the ability of personnel assigned to operate and maintain the system, the severity of the system failure on the impact on the metasystems ability to perform its mission and the likelihood of the event of the failure to occur. Findings of the research indicate that the human interaction with the system, in as far as the ability of the personnel to repair and maintain the system, is a vital component in the ability to predict likelihood of the system failure and the prioritization of the risk of system failure, may be adequately captured for analysis through use of expert opinion elicitation. The use of the expert\u27s opinions may provide additional robustness to the modeling and analysis of system behavior in the event that failure occurs

The Information Systems Academic Discipline in Australia

This book represents the second phase of a multi-method, multi-study of the ‘Information Systems Academic Discipline in Australia’. Drawing on Whitley’s Theory of Scientific Change, the study analysed the degree of ‘professionalisation’ of the Information Systems Discipline, the overarching research question being ‘To what extent is Information Systems a distinct and mature discipline in Australia?’ The book chapters are structured around three main sections: a) the context of the study; b) the state case studies; and c) Australia-wide evidence and analysis. The book is crafted to be accessible to IS and non-IS types both within and outside of Australia. It represents a ‘check point’; a snapshot at a point in time. As the first in a hoped for series of such snap-shots, it includes a brief history of IS in Australia, bringing us up to the time of this report. The editorial team comprises Guy Gable, architect and leader; Bob Smyth, project manager; Shirley Gregor, sponsor, host and co-theoretician; Roger Clarke, discipline memory; and Gail Ridley, theoretician. In phase two, the editors undertook to examine each component study, with a view to arriving at an Australia-wide perspective

The Information Systems Academic Discipline in Australia

This book represents the second phase of a multi-method, multi-study of the ‘Information Systems Academic Discipline in Australia’. Drawing on Whitley’s Theory of Scientific Change, the study analysed the degree of ‘professionalisation’ of the Information Systems Discipline, the overarching research question being ‘To what extent is Information Systems a distinct and mature discipline in Australia?’ The book chapters are structured around three main sections: a) the context of the study; b) the state case studies; and c) Australia-wide evidence and analysis. The book is crafted to be accessible to IS and non-IS types both within and outside of Australia. It represents a ‘check point’; a snapshot at a point in time. As the first in a hoped for series of such snap-shots, it includes a brief history of IS in Australia, bringing us up to the time of this report. The editorial team comprises Guy Gable, architect and leader; Bob Smyth, project manager; Shirley Gregor, sponsor, host and co-theoretician; Roger Clarke, discipline memory; and Gail Ridley, theoretician. In phase two, the editors undertook to examine each component study, with a view to arriving at an Australia-wide perspective

Economic data bank management in a developing nation

This dissertation describes the results of a research project which was undertaken at Loughborough University of Technology. The basic objectives of the research project were: (1) to investigate the management elements required for organising the development of an Economic Data Bank (EDB), with particular emphasis on the requirements of a developing nation; (2) to investigate the sociological, political and technical implications associated with organising the development of an EDB in a developing nation. A theoretical framework was established for this study. This was dene after an extensive search and review of literature was performed in the areas of data and data base management systems, management information systems, and computer technology in general. [Continues.

An empirical investigation of the nature of management development with particular emphasis on the influence of learning styles on the levels of accumulated managerial tacit knowledge in the Malaysian Public Service

This study explored the broad learning patterns associated with the acquisition of managerial tacit knowledge. The study then proceeded to examine whether levels of accumulated managerial tacit knowledge (LAMTK) may be associated with managers' learning styles and/or the extent to which a person's style is consonant with the context of their work environment. The possibility that deliberate learning strategies normally associated with formal rather than informal learning would be unrelated to LAMTK was also examined.The research employed a cross-sectional, mixed-method approach incorporating both qualitative interview and survey data collection. For the qualitative element, interviews were conducted with 14 public sector managers based on a method developed by Nestor-Baker (1999). For the quantitative element, survey data were collected from 356 public sector managers attending management development training courses at the Malaysian National Institute of Public Administration. Respondents completed a questionnaire designed to measure tacit knowledge based on Stemberg et al's (2000) Tacit Knowledge Inventory for Managers, learning styles based on Geiger et al's (1993) normative version of Kolb's Learning Style Inventory, learning strategy based on Warr & Downing's (2000) Learning Strategies Questionnaire, and a range of other selfdeveloped items.The interviews revealed that most managers were unaware of the learning associated with the acquisition of tacit knowledge, as it occurs in an unplanned and unintentional manner. Several adult learning principles such as reflection and learning from experience emerged from the analyses. While learning styles were found to be significant in predicting LAMTK, a rather surprising finding was that learning strategies, believed to be associated with declarative as opposed to tacit knowledge, were also related to LAMTK. Based on these findings it was concluded that the process of tacit knowledge acquisition involves the interaction of learning that takes place in both formal and informal settings. Outcomes of the research suggest that in management development initiatives, formal approaches should be blended with informal approaches in order to achieve effective learning