Consortium Computing and Time Slicing in the Banking Sector: Databank Systems Ltd New Zealand

Databank Systems was set up in 1967 by a consortium of New Zealand banks to share computing services. This was the first instance of computers being used to integrate the ledger accounts of all trading banks within a country, an innovation facilitated by the relatively small size of the country, the rising use of cheque facilities, and the realization that a joint effort would provide a more efficient service by enabling the pooling of resources to achieve scale from expensive computing technology. In 1972, Databank introduced time slicing, allowing nonbank customers to use spare capacity on the Databank system. This use of Databank outside the banking systems was controversial and the management of Databank was increasingly at odds with the Bankers Association. This article uses the example of Databank to address the tensions between consortium computing and the sale of spare time resources in banking. “© 20XX IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.

E-Mail Usage in South Pacific Distance Education

The impact of cultural diversity on group interactions through technology is an active research area. Current research has found that a student’s culture appears to influence online interactions with teachers and other students (Freedman & Liu, 1996). Students from Asian and Western cultures have different Web-based learning styles (Liang & McQueen, 1999), and Scandinavian students demonstrate a more restrained online presence compared to their more expressive American counterparts (Bannon, 1995). Differences were also found across cultures in online compared to face-to-face discussions (Warschauer, 1996). Student engagement, discourse, and interaction are valued highly in “western” universities. With growing internationalization of western campuses, increasing use of educational technology both on and off campus, and rising distance learning enrollments, intercultural frictions are bound to increase