Green IT : a matter of business and information systems engineering?

This panel discusses the impact of Green IT on information systems and how information systems can meet environmental challenges and ensure sustainability. We wish to highlight the role of green business processes, and specifically the contributions that the management of these processes can play in leveraging the transformative power of IS in order to create an environmentally sustainable society. The management of business processes has typically been thought of in terms of business improvement alongside the dimensions time, cost, quality, or flexibility – the so-called ‘devil’s quadrangle’. Contemporary organizations, however, increasingly become aware of the need to create more sustainable, IT-enabled business processes that are also successful in terms of their economic, ecological, as well as social impact. Exemplary ecological key performance indicators that increasingly find their way into the agenda of managers include carbon emissions, data center energy, or renewable energy consumption (SAP 2010). The key challenge, therefore, is to extend the devil’s quadrangle to a devil’s pentagon, including sustainability as an important fifth dimension in process change.

Chaos or complex systems? Identifying factors influencing the success of international and NESB graduate research students in Engineering and Information Technology Fields

The paper explores the results an on-going research project to identify factors influencing the success of international and non-English speaking background (NESB) gradúate students in the fields of Engineering and IT at three Australian universities: the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), the University of Western Australia (UWA), and Curtin University (CU). While the larger study explores the influence of factors from both sides of the supervision equation (e.g., students and supervisors), this paper focusses primarily on the results of an online survey involving 227 international and/or NESB graduate students in the areas of Engineering and IT at the three universities. The study reveals cross-cultural differences in perceptions of student and supervisor roles, as well as differences in the understanding of the requirements of graduate study within the Australian Higher Education context. We argue that in order to assist international and NESB research students to overcome such culturally embedded challenges, it is important to develop a model which recognizes the complex interactions of factors from both sides of the supervision relationship, in order to understand this cohort‟s unique pedagogical needs and develop intercultural sensitivity within postgraduate research supervision.

Interpersonal coordination tendencies, decision-making and information governing dynamics in rugby union

In this chapter, ideas from ecological psychology and nonlinear dynamics are integrated to characterise decision-making as an emergent property of self-organisation processes in the interpersonal interactions that occur in sports teams. A conceptual model is proposed to capture constraints on dynamics of decisions and actions in dyadic systems, which has been empirically evaluated in simulations of interpersonal interactions in team sports. For this purpose, co-adaptive interpersonal dynamics in team sports such as rubgy union have been studied to reveal control parameter and collective variable relations in attacker-defender dyads. Although interpersonal dynamics of attackers and defenders in 1 vs 1 situations showed characteristics of chaotic attractors, the informational constraints of rugby union typically bounded dyadic systems into low dimensional attractors. Our work suggests that the dynamics of attacker-defender dyads can be characterised as an evolving sequence since players' positioning and movements are connected in diverse ways over time.

Life in the 'real world': a profile of Queensland University of Technology Library and Information Science graduates.

A graduate destination survey can provide a snap shot in time of a graduate’s career progression and outcome. This paper will present the results of a Queensland University of Technology study exploring the employment outcomes of students who had completed a library and information science course from the Faculty of Information Technology between 2000 and 2008. Seventy-four graduates completed an online questionnaire administered in July 2009. The study found that 90% of the graduates surveyed were working and living in Queensland, with over three quarters living and working in Brisbane. Nearly 70% were working full-time, while only 1.4% indicating that they were unemployed and looking for work. Over 80% of the graduates identified themselves as working in “librarianship”. This study is the first step in understanding the progression and destination of QUT’s library and information science graduates. It is recommended that this survey becomes an ongoing initiative so that the results can be analysed and compared over time.

Assessment of the influence of cultural barriers to HDR supervision of non-English speaking background (NESD) students in engineering and information technology (IT) disciplines

The paper details the results of the first phase of an on-going research into the sociocultural factors that influence the supervision of higher degrees research (HDR) engineering students in the Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering (BEE) and Faculty of Science and Technology (FaST) at Queensland University of Technology. A quantitative analysis was performed on the results from an online survey that was administered to 179 engineering students. The study reveals that cultural barriers impact their progression and developing confidence in their research programs. We argue that in order to assist international and non-English speaking background (NESB) research students to triumph over such culturally embedded challenges in engineering research, it is important for supervisors to understand this cohort's unique pedagogical needs and develop intercultural sensitivity in their pedagogical practice in postgraduate research supervision. To facilitate this, the governing body (Office of Research) can play a vital role in not only creating the required support structures but also their uniform implementation across the board.

Queer/error : gay media systems and processes of abjection

Gay community media functions as a system with three nodes, in which the flows of information and capital theoretically benefit all parties: the gay community gains a sense of cohesion and citizenship through media; the gay media outlets profit from advertisers’ capital; and advertisers recoup their investments in lucrative ‘pink dollar’ revenue. But if a necessary corollary of all communication systems is error or noise, where—and what—are the errors in this system? In this paper we argue that the ‘error’ in the gay media system is Queerness, and that the gay media system ejects (in a process of Kristevan abjection) these Queer identities in order to function successfully. We examine the ways in which Queer identities are excluded from representation in such media through a discourse and content analysis of The Sydney Star Observer (Australia’s largest gay and lesbian paper). First, we analyse the way Queer bodies are excluded from the discourses that construct and reinforce both the ideal gay male body and the notions of homosexual essence required for that body to be meaningful. We then argue that abject Queerness returns in the SSO’s discourses of public health through the conspicuous absence of the AIDS-inflicted body (which we read as the epitome of the abject Queer), since this absence paradoxically conjures up a trace of that which the system tries to expel. We conclude by arguing that because the ‘Queer error’ is integral to the SSO, gay community media should practise a politics of Queer inclusion rather than exclusion.

Australian Library and Information Studies (LIS) researchers' ranking of LIS journals

The paper describes the processes and the outcomes of the ranking of LIS journal titles by Australia’s LIS researchers during 2007-8, firstly through the Australian federal government’s Research Quality Framework (RQF) process and then its replacement, the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative. The requirement to rank the journals titles used came from discussions held at the RQF panel meeting held in February 2007 in Canberra, Australia. While it was recognised that the Web of Science (formerly ISI) journal impact approach of journal acceptance for measures of research quality and impact might not work for LIS, it was apparent that this model would be the default if no other ranking of journal titles became apparent. Although an increasing number of LIS and related discipline journals were appearing in the Web of Science listed rankings, the number was few and it was thus decided by the Australian LIS research community to undertake the ranking exercise.

Building the profession together : towards holistic library and information science education

How can a holistic approach to library and information science education encompassing vocational and university sectors that meets the future information workforce requirements be achieved? This paper will outline a twelve month national project that considered this very question. Funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC).

Beyond broadcasting: customer service, community and information experience in the Twittersphere

What opportunities does a channel like Twitter offer to libraries, beyond the realm of marketing? We would like to highlight three roles for Twitter in the academic library environment: Twitter as a service delivery and service recovery channel; Twitter as a community builder; Twitter as a site for information experience.

Phenomenography : opening a new territory for library and information science research

Phenomenography is a research approach devised to allow the investigation of varying ways in which people experience aspects of their world. Whilst growing attention is being paid to interpretative research in LIS, it is not always clear how the outcomes of such research can be used in practice. This article explores the potential contribution of phenomenography in advancing the application of phenomenological and hermeneutic frameworks to LIS theory, research and practice. In phenomenography we find a research toll which in revealing variation, uncovers everyday understandings of phenomena and provides outcomes which are readily applicable to professional practice. THe outcomes may be used in human computer interface design, enhancement, implementation and training, in the design and evaluation of services, and in education and training for both end users and information professionals. A proposed research territory for phenomenography in LIS includes investigating qualitative variation in the experienced meaning of: 1) information and its role in society 2) LIS concepts and principles 3) LIS processes and; 4) LIS elements.

Media and information literacy at Queensland University of Technology and in Australia

Media and Information Literacy is the focus of several teaching and research projects at Queensland University of Technology and there is particular emphasis placed on digital technologies and how they are used for communication, information use and learning in formal contexts such as schools. Research projects are currently taking place in several locations where investigators are collecting data on approaches to the use of digital media tools like cameras and editing systems, tablet computers and video games. This complements QUT’s teacher preparation courses, including preparation to implement UNESCO’s Online Course in Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue in 2013. This work takes place in the context of projects occurring at the National level in Australia that continue to promote Media and Information Literacy.