Enterprise information technology organizational flexibility : managing uncertainty and change

Chief Information Officers (CIOs) lead enterprise information technology organizations (EITOs) in today\u27s dynamic competitive business environment. CIOs deal with external and internal environmental changes, changing internal customer needs, and rapidly changing technology. New models for the organization include flexibility and suggest that CIOs should create and manage an enterprise IT organization that is more flexible in order to manage change and prepare for uncertainty, but they do not define what is meant by flexibility. The first objective of this exploratory and ethnographic research study was to understand how uncertainty and unexpected change are currently managed by CIOs. The second was to develop a systematic definition of enterprise IT organizational flexibility, The third was to explore the potential value of a proposed \u27enterprise IT organizational flexibility framework\u27 to be used by CIOs to better manage uncertainty and unexpected change. Rich research data was collected in an exploratory ethnographic study from in-depth interviews with twenty CIOs. These participants included a diverse representation from large to small enterprises, different industries, and with a variety of IT education and functional enterprise experiences. The conclusions from this study included a clearer understanding of the CIO\u27s leadership role when managing uncertainty and unexpected change, a definition of enterprise IT organizational flexibility with three aspects: anticipation, agility, and adaptability, and a framework for enterprise IT organizational flexibility assessment and development

Integrating Wikipedia Projects into IT Courses: Does Wikipedia Improve Learning Outcomes?

Many college students are advised to not use Wikipedia in any class research projects. However, studies into the pedagogical value of using Wikipedia to achieve course learning outcomes have shown promising results. The Wikipedia Foundation established the Wikipedia Public Policy Initiative (WPPI) in Spring 2010 to explore its potential value to improve information literacy, collaborative learning, and student engagement. By May 2011, more than 800 students at 24 U.S. universities participated in the pilot project. The WPPI was renamed the Global Education Program (GEP) and expanded in August 2011 to include 60 American courses in many academic disciplines. This exploratory paper describes the experiences of students and professors in two GEP information Technology courses at the University of South Carolina. Using student and faculty reflections, this paper addresses the potential learning outcome benefits and the potential issues using Wikipedia projects in the classroom. As the first step of a larger longitudinal study, the paper also recommends improvements for continuing the integration of Wikipedia projects in future courses

The Need to Address Mobile Device Security in the Higher Education IT Curriculum

Mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, enable users to access corporate data from anywhere. In 2013, people will purchase 1.2 billion mobile devices, surpassing personal computers as the most common method for accessing the Internet. However, security of these mobile devices is a major concern for organizations. The two leading mobile operating systems (OS), Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iOS, both have security concerns as do the mobile applications and the major application markets. ‘Bring your own devices,’ where employees supply their own equipment for work-related purposes, can cut costs for organizations, but failing to address security can significantly increase those costs. This paper focuses on the increasing need for mobile business and its related mobile device security concerns. We propose that future IT professionals should be aware of these issues and learn how to secure mobile devices through the integration of the topic into the IT Model Curriculum. Using the case of one undergraduate IT program, we developed a set of mobile device security education recommendations, which we then mapped to the IT Model Curriculum using the guidelines from Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). This mapping approach demonstrates one way how higher education institutions could integrate mobile device security into any IT curriculum

Girls in IT: How to develop talent and leverage support

The objectives of this panel are to inform the audience about national and regional initiatives developed by the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) to reach out to middle and high school girls; learn from promising experiences in which the panelists have been directly involved; and discuss venues to scale and sustain efforts to increase women\u27s participation in technology careers. Panelists will describe their particular experiences, and discuss ways to utilize the Aspirations in Computing program to increase enrollment and retention of females in computing. A minimum of 30 minutes will be set aside for question and answer

Evaluation of perampanel as monotherapy for focal seizures: Experience from open-label extension studies

Perampanel, a selective, non-competitive α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptor antagonist, is approved for adjunctive treatment of focal seizures, with or without secondarily generalized seizures, and for primary generalized tonic–clonic seizures in patients with epilepsy aged ≥ 12 years. Perampanel was recently approved for monotherapy use for focal seizures in the U.S.A. Anti-seizure drug monotherapy may be preferable to polytherapy, which is generally associated with increased toxicity, non-compliance, and cost. Here, we report cases where patients had converted to perampanel monotherapy during open-label extension (OLEx) portions of 9 Phase II and III studies. Of 2245 patients who enrolled in the OLEx studies, we identified 7 patients with drug-resistant focal seizures who discontinued all non-perampanel anti-seizure drugs and were maintained on perampanel monotherapy for ≥ 91 days until the end of data cut-off. Patients received perampanel monotherapy for up to 1099 days (157 weeks), most at a modal dose of 12 mg. Seizure data were available for 6 patients, of whom 5 had a ≥ 90% reduction in overall seizure frequency between baseline and their last 13-week period of monotherapy (3 were seizure-free). Perampanel monotherapy was generally well tolerated and the safety profile during perampanel monotherapy was consistent with clinical and post-marketing experience in the adjunctive setting. This analysis included a small proportion of patients with highly drug-resistant focal seizures who converted to monotherapy during OLEx studies. While these limited data are encouraging in suggesting that perampanel might be useful as a monotherapy, further studies are required to explore outcomes in a less drug-resistant population, where a larger proportion of patients might benefit from monotherapy. © 2017 The Author

Mobile and Connected Device Security Considerations: A Dilemma for Small and Medium Enterprise Business Mobility?

Business mobility is rapidly becoming an everyday way of doing business. Mobile technologies, such as smartphones and connected devices, are enabling this business evolution. However, they are also creating new security concerns for the enterprise and its employees. Security experts are studying these increased security concerns to develop more secure practices and policies for the next generation mobile technologies. This paper describes these new mobile security concerns and discusses preliminary expert recommendations to reduce an increasing business risk. Although large enterprises have the resources to implement emerging security recommendations, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) may not be able to adopt the new recommendations because they lack IT resources and capabilities. This paper describes the SME dilemma: Embrace the mobility business strategy and adopt and invest in the necessary security technology, or give up their mobility business strategy to protect enterprise and customer data and information. Finally, the paper identifies future research questions concerning SME security awareness and capability to minimize security threats to develop more viable security practices

Moving Towards Mobile Third Generation Telecommunications Standards: The Good and Bad of the \u27Anytime/Anywhere\u27 Solutions

Mobile communication technologies are changing every aspect of the daily life, bringing new opportunities in many areas. Several converging mobile systems can potentially change organizations significantly by shifting the traditional boundaries of work-life and the workplace. Mobile telephony, combining satellite and terrestrial cellular systems, already transformed the way people work by allowing \u27anytime/anywhere\u27 telephone calling and text messaging. Broadband mobile telephony opens additional avenues to provide information conveniently as quickly and easily as possible, when needed and where needed. The evolution of wireless technologies (from Wireless Personal Area Networks to ubiquitous Third Generation/Universal Mobile Telecommunication System - UMTS) increased the number of services available to business organizations and mobile workers. Machine-to-machine, vertical applications, and mobile office applications are increasingly being deployed. Service providers and mobile operators are also changing the way they operate as a result of the increasing availability of mobile broadband communication services. IT departments need to change their systems, upgrade, and adapt their infrastructure and policies to support these mobile services. These changes are both positive and negative. With this progression, some fundamental questions related to privacy, security, and a new concept of work place and work space are raised. The implications for developing economies, such as China, and their potential for leapfrogging are future attention areas