Responsive systems:an introduction

This paper introduces responsive systems: systems that are real-time, event-based, or time-dependent. There are a number of trends that are accelerating the adoption of responsive systems: timeliness requirements for business information systems are becoming more prevalent, embedded systems are increasingly integrated into soft real-time command-and-control systems, improved message-oriented middleware is facilitating growth in event-processing applications, and advances in service-oriented and component-based techniques are lowering the costs of developing and deploying responsive applications. The use of responsive systems is illustrated here in two application areas: the defense industry and online gaming. The papers in this special issue of the IBM Systems Journal are then introduced. The paper concludes with a discussion of the key remaining challenges in this area and ideas for further work.

Virtuous or vicious cycle? Inscribing diverse professional values in lecture capture systems

This paper examines how the introduction and use of a new information system affects and is affected by the values of a diverse professional workforce. It uses the example of lecture capture systems in a university. Its contribution is to combine two concepts taken from actor-network theory, namely accumulation and inscription, and combine them with an integrated framework of diversity management. A model is developed of accumulation cycles in lecture capture usage, involving multiple interacting actants, including the broader environment, management commitment to diversity, work group characteristics, individual practices and the affordances of technology. Using this model, alternative future inscriptions can be identified - an optimal one, which enhances professional values, as a result of a virtuous accumulation cycle, or a sub-optimal one, as a result of a vicious cycle. It identifies diversity management as an important influence on how professional values are enhanced, modified or destroyed.