Ontological Foundations of Representational Information Systems

A research program around the idea that information systems represent real-world systems was started almost twenty years ago. The program started by Wand and Weber is still going strong with a significant amount of research inspired by them and is one of the few instances incremental foundational research in Information Systems. Much of this research is being undertaken in Australia, and its influence has spread far and wide. Wand and Weber have used ontology, a discipline with roots in two thousand years of philosophy, to drive empirical work into how well information systems represent reality. In this paper the inspiration and progress of the program of research followed over the past two decades is described. The research program has recently progressed from its roots examining information systems development to examine enterprise systems and other package solutions. Further, it is beginning now to more fully use the depth of ontological theory available. However, there are challenges in how Bunge’s ontology has been used and opportunities for using complementary ontologies and for different conceptualisations of information systems

Grounded theory as foundations for methods in applied ontology

Research into domain specific ontologies is difficult to treat empirically. This is because it is difficult to ground domain ontology while simultaneously being true to its guiding philosophy or theory. Further, ontology generation is often introspective and reflective or relies on experts for ontology generation. Even those relying on expert generation lack rigour and tend to be more ad-hoc. We ask how Grounded Theory can be used to generate domain specific ontologies where appropriate high level theory and suitable textual data sources are available. We are undertaking generation of a domain ontology for the discipline of information systems by applying the Grounded Theory method. Specifically we are using Roman Ingarden&rsquo;s theory of scientific works to seed a coding family and adapting the method to ask relevant questions when analysing rich textual data. We have found that a guiding ontological theory, such as Ingarden&rsquo;s, can be used to seed a coding family giving rise to a viable method for generating ontologies for research. This is significant because Grounded Theory may be one of the key methods for generating ontologies where substantial uniform quality text is available to the ontologist. We also present our partial analysis of information systems research.<br /

Ontological Clarity, Cognitive Engagement, and Conceptual Model Quality Evaluation: An Experimental Investigation

When analysts build information systems, they document their understanding of users’ work domains via conceptual models. Once a model has been developed, analysts should then check it has no defects. The literature provides little guidance about approaches to improve the effectiveness of conceptual model quality evaluation work. In this light, we propose a theory in which two factors have a material impact on the effectiveness of conceptual model quality evaluation work: (a) the ontological clarity of the conceptual models prepared, and (b) the extent to which analysts use a quality evaluation method designed to cognitively engage stakeholders with the semantics of the domain represented by a conceptual model. We tested our theory using an experiment involving forty-eight expert data modeling practitioners. Their task was to find as many defects as possible in a conceptual model. Our results showed that participants who received the conceptual model with greater ontological clarity on average detected more defects. However, participants who were given a quality evaluation method designed to cognitively engage them more with the semantics of the domain did not detect more defects. Nonetheless, during our analysis of participants’ protocols, we found that those who manifested higher levels of cognitive engagement with the model detected more defects. Thus, we believe that our treatment for the level of cognitive engagement evoked by the quality evaluation method did not take effect. Based on our protocol analyses, we argue that cognitive engagement appears to be an important factor that affects the quality of conceptual model evaluation work

Illustrating The Process Of Ontology Concept Formulation In A Multi-Perspective Social Setting

Developing an ontology for use in a social process requires conceptualisation of the domain, and the influence of skills and perspectives of actors in the processes to be considered. It is essential that methodologies have a rigorous concept formulation process that ensures abstraction from the domain narration and also disambiguates the terms in the narration. However, the abstraction needs to be a parsimonious representation of a community’s collaborative terminology and concept pluralism. This paper presents a method of ontological concept formulation, using an approach based on a rigorous grounded theory method, and illustrates the process using a fragment from a case study. We have found that the method has assisted in clarifying terms emerging from the text and in grounding the conceptual understanding of natural language fragments, by interpreting concepts at the phrase level with the support of a reference lexicon, and using a basis of perspectivism. The identification of semantic relationships between concepts is conducted within the multiple adopted perspectives and permits a pluralistic approach to ontological formulatio

Exploring the use of enterprise content management systems in different types of Organisations

Researchers and practitioners are starting to realize that it is unlikely that the full advantage of Electronic Content Management Systems (ECMS) can be realized unless both the technology capabilities and organisational context are taken into consideration. This study explores ECMS use in Replication, Diversification, Unification and Coordination type of organisations. A framework of ECMS-use is proposed suggesting different ways of using ECMS to support diverse organisational needs. Following a qualitative case study research approach, interviews were conducted with IT and business managers and ECMS users from each of the four types of organisations. Results suggest that, depending on the organisation&rsquo;s business needs, ECMS use in organisations can be categorized as 1) Minimal-use, 2) Standard Adoption-use, 3) Customized-use or 4) Leveraged-use. Findings suggest that managers can gain more realistic benefits from ECMS use by understanding why and how different types of ECMS-use can support the way in which their businesses operate.<br /

Facilitating Information Sharing in Organizations using Electronic Content Management Systems (ECMS): Towards a Model

This research-in-progress paper explores how the use of ECMS facilitates the sharing of business process- related information that supports end-to-end processes between business units in an organization. Based on an in-depth literature review, we propose a theoretical model to explain ECMS-use in two different types of business processes namely (1) processes with high or low Standardisation and (2) processes with high or low Integration. The model which will be tested in later stages of this research will provide a deeper explanation on how and why organizations may use ECMS in different ways as shaped by the Standardisation and Integration aspects of the organization’ s particular business process. Therefore, this study provides a deeper understanding on the use of ECMS and the value they can bring to organizations in terms of improving the sharing of information that supports the way the business operates

The Significance of Routines for the Analysis and Design of Information Systems: A Preliminary Study

In this paper we argue that traditional information systems design and development is implicitly informed by a certain deliberative theory about the nature of purposeful activity. However, we examine other theories of activity that lead us to challenge this dominant model. This work-in-progress report reinterprets a number of existing case studies from the literature and provides a preliminary account of a new case study in order to demonstrate that successful operational systems in time-constrained environments often do not exhibit those characteristics that are the hallmarks of the deliberative approach. These systems are better discussed in terms of routines and situated action. Finally, we make some preliminary observations about the significance of this for Information Systems

Understanding the Benefits of Ontology Use for Australian Industry: A Conceptual Study

In IT, rather than philosophy, an ontology makes explicit the meanings of terms used in domains, or concerning a specific reality, so that people and machines can precisely discuss the meaning of data. Specifically, ontology makes data sharing and analysis easier by making the meaning of data, and of the reality to which the database refers, explicit. Ontology has significant uptake in biomedicine but not yet in industry despite much technical development and reporting of specific successes. This research seeks to determine how and why organisations gain benefits from using ontology leading to a rigorously tested model of how business gains benefit from ontology use. This research in progress paper develops a model explaining the benefit of ontology use to firms and outlines our plans to test the model empirically. The outcome is significant for Australian industry because it will guide the efforts of organisations to use ontology effectively

RQF publication quality measures: methodoligical issues

The Research Quality Framework uses Thomson-ISI citation benchmarks as its main set of objective measures of research quality. The Thomson-ISI measures rely on identifying a core set of journals in which the major publications for a discipline are to be found. The core for a discipline is determined by applying a nontransparent process that is partly based on Bradford&rsquo;s Law (1934). Yet Bradford was not seeking measures about quality of publications or journals. How valid then is it to base measures of publication quality on Bradford&rsquo;s Law? We explore this by returning to Bradford&rsquo;s Law and subsequent related research asking &lsquo;what is Bradford&rsquo;s Law really about?&rsquo; We go further, and ask &lsquo;does Bradford&rsquo;s Law apply in Information Systems?&rsquo; We use data from John Lamp&rsquo;s internationally respected Index of Information Systems Journals to explore the latter question. We have found that Information Systems may have a core of journals only a subset of which is also in the list of Thomson-ISI journals. There remain many unanswered questions about the RQF metrics based on Thomson-ISI and their applicability to information systems.<br /

Exploring Modes of ECMS-use Supporting Organizational Business Processes

IT and business managers are not being given a clear guidance on what ECMS can offer and how they could benefits from these technologies. This study posits that ECMS-use is related to business process aspects, the organizational context and human factors that shapes the way organizations use the technology. With these focus in mind, this research has conducted multiple case studies in seven large organizations to understand the different ways they use ECMS. Based on the collected evidences, cross case analysis has yield interesting findings to how these organizations have been utilizing their ECMS in different ways to suit their business processes need, institutional conditions, users’ requirements and ECMS facilities available at hand. These outcomes make a significant contribution in guiding organizations to: plan intended ECMS-use, understand why their ECMS technology may be underutilized and design ways to exploit the use of these technologie