Impact of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation on Higher Education

The objective of this paper is to discuss the future of higher education in the AI age

Theoretical Foundation for Relationship Construct in Information Modeling --Relation Element Theory

Information modeling is a critical process in software development. One of the key constructs in information modeling is the relationship construct. Though commonly used, the relationship construct is poorly defined and lacks a strong theoretical foundation. The objectives of this research are to define and classify the various relationships based on a theory in linguistic known as the relation element theory. This paper describes the theory, relates the theory to the relationship construct, and discusses the implication of the theory on the relationship construct

Xcert Software, Inc.

The case on Xcert Software, Inc., illustrates the operational and strategic issues encountered by a startup IT company in the Internet security business. Xcert faces difficulty in a number of areas: (1) finances, (2) future direction and leadership, (3) organizational structure, experience and size, and (4) marketing. This is a discussion case that introduces students to the competitive world of Internet business and provides them an opportunity to discuss and debate the myriad issues facing the founders of Xcert

Website Design: The Concepts of Informational and Computational Equivalence

“To the end users, the user interface is the system.” This slogan has been widely used in human-computer interaction field to stress the importance of user interface design. In the Internet and electronic commerce area, the website is not only the system, but it also projects an image of the organization in cyberspace. The design of websites is central to businesses as they create the first impression of organizations to visitors. For a virtual organization, the website is also the only medium that visitors rely on to form their impression of the organization. In this paper, we look at theories and frameworks from cognitive psychology, particularly the Informational and Computational Equivalence theory, and investigate their implications on website designs. A weaker version of the theory, Weak Informational and Weak Computational Equivalence, is also proposed

Community banking in the e-business era

This paper reviews how existing and potential uses of Internet technology can generate a competitive advantage for rural community banks. To do so, it offers a framework for analyzing Internet technology investment decisions. Organizations in this segment of the banking industry are often more removed from centers of technology and have traditionally been more conservative in their approaches to information technology (among other things). Banking Associations have developed in the U.S., such as the Independent Bankers Association, to try and help community banks coordinate marketing, legislative, and other issues that they have in common. The use of Internet technology can and will have a great strategic impact on the operations, management, and marketing for these banks and their associations. After a review of current technologies and their uses, the paper will identify specific opportunities for inter-, intra-, and extranet applications that could be used to enhance the internal and external competitive factors of these more isolated businesses and their associations. The paper will then present a framework for evaluating investment decisions in this new technology

Impact on Open Source Software Performance: A View from Social Structure

Open source software (OSS) has drawn increasing attention from both practitioners and researchers in recent years. However, few empirical studies have investigated the interaction process of OSS teams during OSS development. This research has two primary objectives. The first is to study the social structure of OSS teams. The second is to investigate the factors impacting the social structure of OSS teams as well as the effects of the social structure on OSS performance. Based on the social structure and social network theory, and group-related theories, this paper first presented a general research framework, then discussed research methodology, and finally describes a two-phase study plan. By exploring the relationships between group characteristics, social network, and OSS performance, the study contributes to the enhancement of knowledge on OSS development from the social structure perspective

Impacts of Social Network Structure on Knowledge Sharing in Open Source Software Development Teams

The study examines the relationship between social network structure and knowledge sharing in Open Source Software (OSS) development teams. One hundred and fifty projects were selected from SourceForge.net using stratified sampling. Social network structure was measured by two indices: degree of centralization and core/periphery fitness. Knowledge sharing was measured from two aspects: the quality of knowledge sharing that is indicated by the helpfulness of messages and the quantity of knowledge sharing that is indicated by the number of messages. The results show that social network structure significantly affects the quantity of knowledge sharing. However, social network structure does not influence the quality of knowledge sharing. In addition to the contribution to OSS literature, the results of this study also inform OSS practice