Competences of IT Architects

The field of architecture in the digital world uses a plethora of terms to refer to different kinds of architects, and recognises a confusing variety of competences that these architects are required to have. Different service providers use different terms for similar architects and even if they use the same term, they may mean something different. This makes it hard for customers to know what competences an architect can be expected to have.\ud \ud This book combines competence profiles of the NGI Platform for IT Professionals, The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), as well as a number of Dutch IT service providers in a comprehensive framework. Using this framework, the book shows that notwithstanding a large variety in terminology, there is convergence towards a common set of competence profiles. In other words, when looking beyond terminological differences by using the framework, one sees that organizations recognize similar types of architects, and that similar architects in different organisations have similar competence profiles. The framework presented in this book thus provides an instrument to position architecture services as offered by IT service providers and as used by their customers.\ud \ud The framework and the competence profiles presented in this book are the main results of the special interest group “Professionalisation” of the Netherlands Architecture Forum for the Digital World (NAF). Members of this group, as well as students of the universities of Twente and Nijmegen have contributed to the research on which this book is based

The reception pattern of the balanced scorecard: accounting for interpretative viability

‘The role of fads and fashions in shaping management accounting practices in contemporary organizations requires further inquiry’ (Malmi, T. (1999). Activity based costing diffusion across organizations: an exploratory empirical analysis of Finnish firms. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 24, 669). Against the background of the evolving management fashion literature we discuss the ‘reception pattern’ of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) in the Netherlands. To get insight into the organizational changes induced by and associated with the BSC-discourse, we systematically discovered how the concept, since its launch by Kaplan & Norton (1992), has grown into an umbrella that encompasses a variety of interpretations and uses. The paper offers a framework to show how BSC-discourse and its actual use have developed in interrelated yet loosely coupled ways.

The Boom and Gloom of Real Estate Markets

Real estate markets around the world have earned a complicated reputation. On the one hand, real estate markets offer investors a wide spectrum of profitable investments opportunities, investments that nowadays can be executed by simply buying shares of stock listed by real estate investment companies. In the first half of this inaugural address, the boom of these real estate stocks is discussed. In less than three decades, the listed real estate market developed into a sector with almost 400 listed firms worldwide, representing a sum aggregate market capitalization of around one trillion dollars by the end of 2007. Three relevant lessons regarding these international real estate stocks are discussed in the first fifteen pages of this booklet, lessons offered by real estate research from the Rotterdam School of Management. On the other hand, real estate markets are notorious for attracting entrepreneurs with bad intentions, seeking for opportunities to circumvent the strong arm of the law. These activities have yielded many headlines in the daily press and have given real estate a gloomy reputation. The dynamics of foreclosure auction of homes is an example of a source of negative headlines, stressing that the suboptimal organization of these auctions prohibits distressed sellers from earning a fair price for their home. In the second part of this address, I focus on an empirical test of the matter. By analyzing over 700 auctioned homes the dynamics of the auction system is discussed objectively. This offers a fair view on the problems at hand and searches for way to improve the system in the near future.real estate;foreclosure auctions;real estate stocks

The early years of innovative approaches to youth information and counselling

This chapter focuses on the innovative services set up for the specific purpose of giving social support to young people by means of information and counselling in youth information and counselling services. These innovative services originated roughly from the mid sixties and developed particularly after 1980

ICT-related skills and needs of blind and visually impaired people

This study focuses on the relationship between the ICT-related training offered to blind and\ud visually impaired people and their actual, self-reported and demonstrated, competencies\ud for online activities and information processing. The findings of the study can shed light on\ud how people with severe visual disabilities are prepared to access the web for educational,\ud institutional and social participation. The study also gives insight in the validity of instruments\ud to measure ICT-linked skills for the target group and creates an empirical foundation for\ud improvements of ICT-related training. The first phase of the study investigated how blind\ud and visually impaired people perceive their participation in society through ICT. An\ud extensive interview showed how this audience perceives the frequency and quality of their\ud Internet use (or absence thereof) and how they acquired these skills

Over koppelverkoop, consortia en andere licentieproblemen

Verschillende actoren op de informatiemarkt zijn behoedzaam bezig de mogelijkheden te exploreren van nieuwe publicatie- en distributievormen. Daarbij wordt geëxperimenteerd met andere businessmodellen, zonder te veel af te wijken van welbekende patronen uit het gedrukte informatiecircuit. Digitale informatie wordt nu ter beschikking gesteld op basis van licentieovereenkomsten, die wat betreft hun voorwaarden zeer uiteenlopend zijn. Deze licentieproblematiek heeft grote gevolgen voor bibliotheken, eindgebruikers en de informatiemarkt. Gert Goris geeft een overzicht van de meest ingrijpende aspecten van de licenties voor wetenschappelijke tijdschriften