An Experimental Study of the Attention-based View of Idea Integration: The Need for a Multi-level Dependent Variable

Decision making involves creating a rationale for supporting a choice. Groups make many decisions that require individual members to interact and collaborate with one another. High-quality decisions require that group members pay attention to different perspectives on the decision topic, process diverse or even opposing ideas, and combine (i.e., integrate) those ideas into coherent arguments. Despite the availability of information systems (IS), such as electronic brainstorming systems (EBS), to support group decision making, researchers have relatively understudied their role in idea integration. In this paper, we focus on the role of IS user interface design in idea integration. Applying an attention-based view of idea integration, we present a model and subsequent experimental study to explore the interaction between idea visibility, prioritization, and idea integration and the moderating effects of information diversity and group size. While our results generally support the attention-based view, they also identify the need to refine the dependent variable and distinguish between different types of idea integration. The findings have implications for electronically enabled brainstorming and group decision making

Using Information Systems in Business Decisions

ABSTRACT: The paper presents the benefits of usage of information systems in decisions for businesses, which can reveale the optimal choice of the solution in order to increase competitivity in a strategic economy. Within a company’s computer system, systems for decision support are classified as systems for the management / management decision. They take data from specific transaction processing systems and helps management process at the various levels of decision making. These systems help to implement the decisions, orders and the decisions decomposition that is occurring in the system of management of the company. Operational decisions are found in specialized compartments and are available in the directive needed to conduct operational departments that have the peculiarities of origin. For simulation models are created the required applications and helps decision-makers to make the choice based on the measures imposed by reality and the actual conditions in which the business operates in the specific part. Assisting decision means a permanent dialogue with the user, so that the interface has a much greater importance than other systems. The user, person or group of persons through the role they play in making the decision, is considered part of the system

Model-Based Decision Support for Industry-Environment Interactions

Applied systems analysis is -- or should be -- a tool in the hands of planners and decision makers who have to deal with the complex and growing problems of modern society. There is, however, an obvious gap between the ever-increasing complexity and volume of scientific and technological information and tools of analysis relevant to large socio-technical and environmental systems, and the information requirements at a strategic planning and policy level. The Advanced Computer Applications (ACA) project builds on IIASA's traditional strength in the methodological foundations of operations research and applied systems analysis, and its rich experience in numerous application areas including the environment, technology, and risk. The ACA group draws on this infrastructure and combines it with elements of AI and advanced information and computer technology. Several completely externally-funded research and development projects in the field of model-based decision support and applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) are currently under way. As an example of this approach to information and decision support systems, one of the components of an R&D project sponsored by the CEC's EURATOM Joint Research Centre (JRC) at Ispra, Italy, in the area of hazardous substances and industrial risk management, is described in this paper. The PDA (Production Distribution Area) is an interactive optimization code (based on DIDASS, one of a family of multicriteria decision support tools developed at IIASA) and a linear problem solver, for chemical industry structures, configured for the pesticide industry of a hypothetical region. The user can select optimization criteria, define allowable ranges or constraints on these criteria, define reference points for the multi-criteria trade-off, and display various levels of model output, including the waste streams generated by the different industrial structure alternatives. These waste streams can then be used to provide input conditions for the environmental impact models. With the emphasis on a directly understandable problem representation and dynamic color graphics, and the user interface as a key element of interactive decision support systems, this is a step toward increased direct practical usability of IIASA's research results

Knowledge-Based Systems. Overview and Selected Examples

The Advanced Computer Applications (ACA) project builds on IIASA's traditional strength in the methodological foundations of operations research and applied systems analysis, and its rich experience in numerous application areas including the environment, technology and risk. The ACA group draws on this infrastructure and combines it with elements of AI and advanced information and computer technology to create expert systems that have practical applications. By emphasizing a directly understandable problem representation, based on symbolic simulation and dynamic color graphics, and the user interface as a key element of interactive decision support systems, models of complex processes are made understandable and available to non-technical users. Several completely externally-funded research and development projects in the field of model-based decision support and applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) are currently under way, e.g., "Expert Systems for Integrated Development: A Case Study of Shanxi Province, The People's Republic of China." This paper gives an overview of some of the expert systems that have been considered, compared or assessed during the course of our research, and a brief introduction to some of our related in-house research topics

Reference evapotranspiration maps for Colorado

January 1994.Includes bibliographical references (pages 84-88).The Integrated Decision Support Group (IDS) at Colorado State University has developed a set ofmonthly reference evapotranspiration (Err) maps for the western slope of Colorado. The reference evapotranspiration maps were developed using geographic information systems (GIS) to manipulate spatial data. After the monthly alfalfa-based ETr maps were complete, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) was developed to allow the user to interactively view and query the maps. In accordance with current developments in the irrigation science community the Penman-Monteith was used to calculate ETr and alfalfa was selected as the reference crop for this study; Data parameters required as input for the Penman-Monteith equation are maximum and minimum temperature, relative humidity (or dew point temperature), solar radiation, and wind-speed. During the course of this project, several data sources have been identified. Where possible, data have been subjected to a quality check.Grant no. 14-08-0001-G2008-2; financed in part by the U.S. Geological Survey

Simulation of urban system evolution in a synergetic modelling framework. The case of Attica, Greece

Spatial analysis and evolution simulation of such complex and dynamic systems as modern urban areas could greatly benefit from the synergy of methods and techniques that constitute the core of the fields of Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, if during the decision making process, a consistent methodology is applied and assisted by a user-friendly interface, premium and pragmatic solution strategies can be tested and evaluated. In such a framework, this paper presents both a prototype Decision Support System and a consorting spatio-temporal methodology, for modelling urban growth. Its main focus is on the analysis of current trends, the detection of the factors that mostly affect the evolution process and the examination of user-defined hypotheses regarding future states of the problem environment. According to the approach, a neural network model is formulated for a specific time intervals and each different group of spatial units, mainly based to the degree of their contiguity and spatial interaction. At this stage, fuzzy logic provides a precise image of spatial entities, further exploited in a twofold way. First, for the analysis and interpretation of up-to-date urban evolution and second, for the formulation of a robust spatial simulation model. It should be stressed, however, that the neural network model is not solely used to define future urban images, but also to evaluate the degree of influence that each variable as a significant of problem parameter, contributes to the final result. Thus, the formulation and the analysis of alternative planning scenarios are assisted. Both the proposed methodological framework and the prototype Decision Support System are utilized during the study of Attica, Greece?s principal prefecture and the definition of a twenty-year forecast. The variables considered and projected refer to population data derived from the 1961-1991 censuses and building uses aggregated in ten different categories. The final results are visualised through thematic maps in a GIS environment. Finally, the performance of the methodology is evaluated as well as directions for further improvements and enhancements are outlined. Keywords: Computational geography, Spatial modelling, Neural network models, Fuzzy logic.

Contrasting GDSS\u27s and GSS\u27s in the context of strategic change-implications for facilitation

The focus of this paper is on a comparison made between two series of computer supported strategy workshops. Each of the series of five one-day workshops was designed within the context of a project aimed at planning and implementing major strategic change within the organization and the project reported involved over fifty senior managers during a two year period. The subjects of the research had to deal with the reality of an organisational history, and, even more importantly, the knowledge that their contributions to the meetings would influence their future as a managerial group. The project enabled a number of exceptional opportunities to be tapped including i) a researcher as observer throughout the process, and ii) videotaping of each one day meeting. The first series of workshops was designed to generate and structure the strategic issues and context that were to be worked upon during the second series of workshops. Thus the first workshops used a group support system designed toprovide high levels of participation in raising strategic issues, and the second series, a group decision support system designed to enable decisions to be made and implementation plans to be created. These design objectives closely correspond to the tasks set out by McGrath (1984) where a GSS was defined as a support system to primarily aid creativity/idea generating tasks and a GDSS was to support planning/evaluation tasks. The workshops were each embedded within the Strategic Options Development and Analysis methodology (SODA) (Eden and Ackermann, 1992) and, involved a number of different support technologies. In these workshops the usual facilitated procedure was used in tandem with a multiple workstation system which allowed participants to interact with the modelling process, and with a number of manual techniques which were designed to interface with the approach. Thus manual group support (MAGS) was used alongside, and interacting with, both facilitator driven single user group support (SUGS) and multi-user group support (MUGS). To achieve this interweaving of modes the software COPE was used directly in both the SUGS and MUGS modes of support and the underlying concepts used during the MAGS mode mirrors the COPE software. The difference between the two series of workshops comprised i) the purposes behind the usage of each mode of working, and ii) the combinations adopted, i.e. the choice of using particular modes in a particular order which both have implications for facilitation. As a result of the comparison a set of implications which differentiate the role of a facilitator using group support systems (GSS) to the use of group decision support systems (GDSS) has been produced. The implications may be taken firstly as a contribution to the future design and facilitation of each type of meeting, and secondly to the effective design of the each of the systems (GSS and GDSS). The paper begins by considering some of the issues around the research method adopted, provides details of both of the workshop series, lists the characteristics which emerged as a result of the workshops and have implications for facilitation, and then briefly touches on the conclusions

Non-cooperative group decision support systems: problems and some solutions

The purpose of this thesis is twofold; (i) Explore some design issues for building group decision support systems for non-cooperation environments? and (ii) Expand CO-OP, a cooperative multiple criteria group decision support system, to support particular classes of group decisions. From the conceptual standpoint, this work argues for that cooperation is a special case of non-cooperation. The following design requirements are proposed: (i) Negotiation as a capability within model management, (ii) Greater capabilities in database management, and (iii) Increased flexibility for the user interface. The present version of Co-oP has, with this work, implemented the following features: (i) Scrolling windows to handle group problems with large size, (ii) Code optimization to provide fast feedback to members, (iii) Improved heuristics for the Negotiable Alternatives Identifier (NAI), (iv) Implementation of the Mediator module, and (v) Allow more advanced data manipulation to promote data exchange in competitive environments (e.g., data security and .sharing). The above implementation has encompassed approximately 6,000 lines of original pascal code, and 3,000 lines of modified code.http://archive.org/details/noncooperativegr00kardLieutenant Commander, United States NavyLieutenant, Federal Republic of Germany NavyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Supporting Special-Purpose Health Care Models via Web Interfaces

The potential of the Web, via both the Internet and intranets, to facilitate development of clinical information systems has been evident for some time. Most Web-based clinical workstations interfaces, however, provide merely a loose collection of access channels. There are numerous examples of systems for access to either patient data or clinical guidelines, but only isolated cases where clinical decision support is presented integrally with the process of patient care, in particular, in the form of active alerts and reminders based on patient data. Moreover, pressures in the health industry are increasing the need for doctors to practice in accordance with ¿best practice¿ guidelines and often to operate under novel health-care arrangements. We present the Care Plan On-Line (CPOL) system, which provides intranet-based support for the SA HealthPlus Coordinated Care model for chronic disease management. We describe the interface design rationale of CPOL and its implementation framework, which is flexible and broadly applicable to support new health care models over intranets or the Internet