Centering the Arts in STEM

A reflection on a STEAM initiative: NC State University Alumni and their children attended free STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) family workshops at D.H. Hill Library. This program was a collaboration between Dr. Fay Cobb Payton, professor of Information Systems/Technology and University Faculty Scholar at NC State, the NCSU Libraries, and Arts NC Stat

Gary Dickson Exemplar: Applying IRSS Psychology Discourse

In a recent Decision Sciences Journal on Innovative Education article, my colleagues and I used Involvement-Regimen-Self Management-Social (IRSS) network theory as defined by Boice [1992] to assess mentor and mentee experiences among under-represented Information Systems (IS) doctoral students and faculty [Payton, White and Mbarika 2005]. IRSS is defined as Involvement-Regimen-Self Management-Social activities intended to delineate and advise newly-minted doctorates into the professoriate. Boice\u27s framework fosters the establishment of professional support initiatives warranted for career progression and is critical as neophytes to the field attempt to balance the three pillars often characterizing academic life: teaching, research, and service. Though Boice [1992] centers his research in the context of actions and behaviors of newly minted doctorates and others [Payton et al. 2005] examined those forthcoming to the professoriate, this article focuses on how Gary W. Dickson influenced my thinking about and applying IRSS in my academic career

Data Warehousing Implementation and Outsourcing Challenges: An Action Research Project with Solectron

Since the 1980s, Solectron evolved as a contract provider of manufacturing, distribution, product design, and full-service supply chain integration to many Fortune 500 companies in the telecommunications, electronics, and computer industries. In order to achieve this set of capabilities, Solectron established a tightly coupled set of collaborative relationships with supply chain participants- including both suppliers and customers. This action research study explores Solectron\u27s data warehousing implementation and outsourcing experiences to support the organization\u27s strategic direction. We uncover the absence of new set of critical pre-implementation performance metrics for managers and researchers to consider under conditions of outsourcing; multiple, simultaneous projects; and lack of IT internal expertise. Thus, our research offers hypotheses that can be further tested by future research

Multi-stakeholder assessment of a Mobile and Temporarily Interconnected Systems prototype: People-First Tourism

While tourism has often been proposed as a mechanism for equitable and sustainable development in developing countries, most destination communities remain relegated to the role of passive “tourees” who are unable to participate in economic opportunities often controlled by tourism retail monopolies. Guided by information systems (IS) research on mobile and temporarily interconnected systems (MTIS), this work examines the ubiquitous nature of information services for users on the move. That is, users that are largely dependent on mobile telephones and temporary tourism services. Stakeholder interviews included local South African micro-entrepreneurs from under-resourced rural and peri-urban communities and other national and regional stakeholders. The findings informed the development and early implementation of a web marketplace for tourism micro-entrepreneurs (i.e., www.peoplefirsttourism.com) that bridges hyper-connected consumers with under-resourced micro-entrepreneurs who use simple mobile phones. Further, this study builds on interdisciplinary research to enrich discussions about ICT for Development (ICT4D)

The START - Net work: ICT & Mobile Applications

The potential of ICT to enable micro-entrepreneurship in peripheral and resource-scarce countries has been well documented in contexts, such as agribusiness, fisheries and manufacturing. There has been, however, a paucity of research in ICT’s potential to support tourism micro-entrepreneurship. While tourism has often been proposed as a mechanism for sustainability in developing countries, most host communities remain relegated to the role of passive “tourees” who fail to benefit from the economic capital often dominated by Western economies. Guided by design science theory, this work was informed by fieldwork conducted in South Africa in January and February 2011 which aimed at designing and testing an information technology artifact. Using action design research principles, we included the perspectives of individuals from rural communities and with high-level stakeholders in tourism planning and telecommunications corporations. Early findings suggest that mobile telephones and applications play a significant role in SME and potential entrepreneurship development and sustainability. The findings, herein, also guided the development of an information technology artifact, START-Net, to support community-based tourism entrepreneurship in rural South Africa

A Re-Examination of Racioethnic Imbalance of IS Doctorates: Changing the Face of the IS Classroom

There is an extremely low percentage of minority faculty in the IS field. This global trend is highly conspicuous-- a minority of blacks compared to a majority of white academics in England, a minority of Aborigines compared to a majority of white academics in Australia, a minority of blacks compared to a majority of white academics in Canada, and for the purpose of our study, a minority of Native American, Hispanic American, and African American academics compared to a majority of white academics in the United States. Between 1995-2000, not only do AACSB reports indicate a continuous decline in minority business doctorates, but the accreditation body reports that the IS discipline shows a significant under-representation of minority faculty. In this study, we argue that mentoring under-represented groups in the discipline offers the field a myriad of avenues to change the ¡°face¡± of the classroom and reduce this gap. We examine the absence of racioethnicity and mentoring in the IS field and offer lessons learned from the Ph.D. Project Model for engendering change and mentoring within the IS community. Using data from a six-year period, we discuss diversity issues, lessons learned, and recommendations from mentoring a group of under-represented IS doctoral students