Developing information architecture through records management classification techniques

Purpose – This work aims to draw attention to information retrieval philosophies and techniques allied to the records management profession, advocating a wider professional consideration of a functional approach to information management, in this instance in the development of information architecture. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws from a hypothesis originally presented by the author that advocated a viewpoint whereby the application of records management techniques, traditionally applied to develop business classification schemes, was offered as an additional solution to organising information resources and services (within a university intranet), where earlier approaches, notably subject- and administrative-based arrangements, were found to be lacking. The hypothesis was tested via work-based action learning and is presented here as an extended case study. The paper also draws on evidence submitted to the Joint Information Systems Committee in support of the Abertay University's application for consideration for the JISC award for innovation in records and information management. Findings – The original hypothesis has been tested in the workplace. Information retrieval techniques, allied to records management (functional classification), were the main influence in the development of pre- and post-coordinate information retrieval systems to support a wider information architecture, where the subject approach was found to be lacking. Their use within the workplace has since been extended. Originality/value – The paper advocates that the development of information retrieval as a discipline should include a wider consideration of functional classification, as this alternative to the subject approach is largely ignored in mainstream IR works

Analysis reuse exploiting taxonomical information and belief assignment in industrial problem solving

To take into account the experience feedback on solving complex problems in business is deemed as a way to improve the quality of products and processes. Only a few academic works, however, are concerned with the representation and the instrumentation of experience feedback systems. We propose, in this paper, a model of experiences and mechanisms to use these experiences. More specifically, we wish to encourage the reuse of already performed expert analysis to propose a priori analysis in the solving of a new problem. The proposal is based on a representation in the context of the experience of using a conceptual marker and an explicit representation of the analysis incorporating expert opinions and the fusion of these opinions. The experience feedback models and inference mechanisms are integrated in a commercial support tool for problem solving methodologies. The results obtained to this point have already led to the definition of the role of ‘‘Rex Manager’’ with principles of sustainable management for continuous improvement of industrial processes in companies

Evaluating cost taxonomies for information systems management

The consideration of costs, benefits and risks underpin many Information System (IS) evaluation decisions. Yet, vendors and project-champions alike tend to identify and focus much of their effort on the benefits achievable from the adoption of new technology, as it is often not in the interest of key stakeholders to spend too much time considering the wider cost and risk implications of enterprise-wide technology adoptions. In identifying a void in the literature, the authors of the paper present a critical analysis of IS-cost taxonomies. In doing so, the authors establish that such cost taxonomies tend to be esoteric and difficult to operationalize, as they lack specifics in detail. Therefore, in developing a deeper understanding of IS-related costs, the authors position the need to identify, control and reduce IS-related costs within the information systems evaluation domain, through culminating and then synthesizing the literature into a frame of reference that supports the evaluation of information systems through a deeper understanding of IS-cost taxonomies. The paper then concludes by emphasizing that the total costs associated with IS-adoption can only be determined after having considered the multi-faceted dimensions of information system investments

The impact of enterprise application integration on information system lifecycles

Information systems (IS) have become the organisational fabric for intra-and inter-organisational collaboration in business. As a result, there is mounting pressure from customers and suppliers for a direct move away from disparate systems operating in parallel towards a more common shared architecture. In part, this has been achieved through the emergence of new technology that is being packaged into a portfolio of technologies known as enterprise application integration (EAI). Its emergence however, is presenting investment decision-makers charged with the evaluation of IS with an interesting challenge. The integration of IS in-line with the needs of the business is extending their identity and lifecycle, making it difficult to evaluate the full impact of the system as it has no definitive start and/or end. Indeed, the argument presented in this paper is that traditional life cycle models are changing as a result of technologies that support their integration with other systems. In this paper, the need for a better understanding of EAI and its impact on IS lifecycles are discussed and a classification framework proposed.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Grant Ref: (GR/R08025) and Australian Research Council (DP0344682)

A taxonomy of multi-industry labour force skills

This paper proposes an empirical study of the skill repertoires of 290 sectors in the United States over the period 2002–2011. We use information on employment structures and job content of occupations to flesh out structural characteristics of industry-specific know-how. The exercise of mapping the skills structures embedded in the workforce yields a taxonomy that discloses novel nuances on the organization of industry. In so doing we also take an initial step towards the integration of labour and employment in the area of innovation studies

Voices for Change: A Taxonomy of Public Communications Campaigns and Their Evaluation Challenges

Makes the case that communications campaigns cover a broad range of different types and characteristics, and can be differentiated along the axes of purpose, scope, and maturity. Examines what communications campaigns that fall on different areas of these three axes look like, and how where they fall may affect the evaluation approach used and lead to distinct evaluation challenges and needs

A conceptual architecture for interactive educational multimedia

Learning is more than knowledge acquisition; it often involves the active participation of the learner in a variety of knowledge- and skills-based learning and training activities. Interactive multimedia technology can support the variety of interaction channels and languages required to facilitate interactive learning and teaching. A conceptual architecture for interactive educational multimedia can support the development of such multimedia systems. Such an architecture needs to embed multimedia technology into a coherent educational context. A framework based on an integrated interaction model is needed to capture learning and training activities in an online setting from an educational perspective, to describe them in the human-computer context, and to integrate them with mechanisms and principles of multimedia interaction

Study on behavioral impedance for route planning techniques from the pedestrian's perspective: Part I - Theoretical contextualization and taxonomy

The interest of researchers for analyzing of best routes and shortest paths allows a continuous technological advance in topological analysis techniques used in the geographic information systems for transportation. One of the topological analysis techniques is the route planning, in which the constraint management must be considered. There have been few studies where the constraint domain for pedestrian in an urban transportation system was clearly stated. Consequently, more studies need to be carried out. The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical contextualization on identification and management of constraints to ascertain the behavioral impedance domain from the pedestrian perspective. In this part of the research the grounded theory was the research method used to develop the proposed theory. A meta-model was used to (1) define the behavioral domain structure, (2) hold the behavioral data collection and (3) verify the design of the proposed taxonomic tree. The main contribution of this article is the behavioral domain taxonomy from the pedestrian perspective, which will be used to implement a module responsible for the constraint management of an experimental application, named Router. Within this context, the proposed taxonomy could be used to model cost functions more precisely.Postprint (published version