The Use of Conceptual Business Model in Managing Information Technology Projects

The business model of an organization is an important strategic tool for its success, and should therefore be understood by business professionals and information technology professionals. By this context and considering the importance of information technology in contemporary business models, this article aims to verify the use of the business model components in the information technology (IT) projects management process in enterprises. To achieve this goal, this exploratory research has investigated the use of the Business Model concept in the information technology projects management, by a survey applied to 327 professionals from February to April 2012. It was observed that the business model concept, as well as its practices or its blocks, are not so well explored in its whole potential, possibly because it is relatively new. One of the benefits of this conceptual tool is to provide an understanding in terms of the core business for different areas, enabling a higher level of knowledge in terms of the essential activities of the enterprise IT professionals and the business area.

“Digital Diagnostics and Communication (DDC) system” Redesigning the Emergency Ambulance

During the development of a new treatment space for the UK emergency ambulance participatory observations with front-line clinicians revealed the need for an integrated patient monitoring, communication and navigation system. The research identified the different information touch-points and requirements through modes of use analysis, day-in-the-life study and simulation workshops with clinicians. Emergency scenario and role-play with paramedics identified 5 distinct ambulance modes of use. Information flow diagrams were created and checked by paramedics and digital User Interface (UI) wireframes were developed and evaluated by clinicians during clinical evaluations. Feedback from clinicians defined UI design specification further leading to a final design proposal. This research was a further development from the 2007 EPSRC funded “Smart Pods” project. The resulting interactive prototype was co-designed in collaboration with ambulance crews and provides a vision of what could be achieved by integrating well-proven IT technologies and protocols into a package relevant in the emergency medicine field. The system has been reviewed by over 40 ambulance crews and is part of a newly co-designed ambulance treatment space.

National Information Networks and International

We can categorically state that the information is the main ingredient of the culture of a people. Defining information as a set of processed data that are needed, have value and meaning for individuals and for developing countries where data is any fact.The information could also be considered as an international resource indispensable. The scientific and technological development is a consequence of the relevant information is handled. The "heap" is a source of information that libraries must consider and integrate them because they give rise to more information and new technology. The need for improved information systems in recent years, it has become critical because the information data grows in quantity and complexity of organization. Consequently, some libraries have tried to coordinate functions, redistribute resources, identify needs and work together to give easier access to information

Access, attitudes and training in information technologies and evidence-based medicine among medical students at University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences.

Background: The Medical Education Partnership Initiative, has helped to mitigate the digital divide in Africa. The aim of the study was to assess the level of access, attitude, and training concerning meaningful use of electronic resources and EBM among medical students at an African medical school. Methods: The study involved medical students at the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences, Harare. The needs assessment tool consisted of a 21-question, paper-based, voluntary and anonymous survey. Results: A total of 61/67 (91%), responded to the survey. 60% of the medical students were ‘third-year medical students’. Among medical students, 85% of responders had access to digital medical resources, but 54% still preferred printed medical textbooks. Although 25% of responders had received training in EBM, but only 7% found it adequate. 98% of the participants did not receive formal training in journal club presentation or analytical reading of medical literature, but 77 % of them showed interest in learning these skills. Conclusion: Lack of training in EBM, journal club presentation and analytical reading skills have limited the impact of upgraded technology in enhancing the level of knowledge. This impact can be boosted by developing a curriculum with skills necessary in using EBM.

Information Management in Communication

The history of books, libraries, catalogues and the first archives. Typology of information resources and retrieval methods associated to them. A recollection of resources especially meant for students and professionals in the area of Advertising and Public Relations.

Flooded with Information from Social Media: Effects of Disaster Information Source and Visuals on Viewers' Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Responses

While a variety of crisis types loom as real risks for organizations and communities, and the media landscape continues to evolve, research is needed to help explain and predict how people respond to various kinds of crisis and disaster information. For example, despite the rising prevalence of digital and mobile media centered on still and moving visuals, and stark increases in Americans’ use of visual-based platforms for seeking and sharing disaster information, relatively little is known about how the presence or absence of disaster visuals online might prompt or deter resilience-related feelings, thoughts, and/or behaviors. Yet, with such insights, governmental and other organizational entities as well as communities themselves may best help individuals and communities prepare for, cope with, and recover from adverse events. Thus, this work uses the theoretical lens of the social-mediated crisis communication model (SMCC) coupled with the limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing (LC4MP) to explore effects of disaster information source and visuals on viewers’ resilience-related responses to an extreme flooding scenario. Results from two experiments are reported. First a preliminary 2 (disaster information source: organization/US National Weather Service vs. news media/USA Today) x 2 (disaster visuals: no visual podcast vs. moving visual video) factorial between-subjects online experiment with a convenience sample of university students probes effects of crisis source and visuals on a variety of cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes. A second between-subjects online experiment manipulating still and moving visual pace in online videos (no visual vs. still, slow-pace visual vs. still, medium-pace visual vs. still, fast-pace visual vs. moving, slow-pace visual vs. moving, medium-pace visual vs. moving, fast-pace visual) with a convenience sample recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (mTurk) similarly probes a variety of potentially resilience-related cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes. The role of biological sex as a quasi-experimental variable is also investigated in both studies. Various implications for community resilience and recommendations for risk and disaster communicators are explored. Implications for theory building and future research are also examined. Resulting modifications of the SMCC model (i.e., removing “message strategy” and adding the new category of “message content elements” under organizational considerations) are proposed.

Calculation of mutual information for nonlinear communication channel at large signal-to-noise ratio

Using the path-integral technique we examine the mutual information for the communication channel modeled by the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with additive Gaussian noise. The nonlinear Schrödinger equation is one of the fundamental models in nonlinear physics, and it has a broad range of applications, including fiber optical communications - the backbone of the internet. At large signal-to-noise ratio we present the mutual information through the path-integral, which is convenient for the perturbative expansion in nonlinearity. In the limit of small noise and small nonlinearity we derive analytically the first nonzero nonlinear correction to the mutual information for the channel.

Layered Information Modeling and a Knowledge Organization Paradigm: Inherent Classification and the Design of Interoperable Systems

In knowledge technology work, as expressed by the scope of this conference, there are a number of communities, each uncovering new methods, theories, and practices. The Library and Information Science (LIS) community is one such community. This community, through tradition and innovation, theories and practice, organizes knowledge and develops knowledge technologies formed by iterative research hewn to the values of equal access and discovery for all. The Information Modeling community is another contributor to knowledge technologies. It concerns itself with the construction of symbolic models that capture the meaning of information and organize it in ways that are computer-based, but human understandable. A recent paper that examines certain assumptions in information modeling builds a bridge between these two communities, offering a forum for a discussion on common aims from a common perspective. In a June 2000 article, Parsons and Wand separate classes from instances in information modeling in order to free instances from what they call the “tyranny” of classes. They attribute a number of problems in information modeling to inherent classification – or the disregard for the fact that instances can be conceptualized independent of any class assignment. By faceting instances from classes, Parsons and Wand strike a sonorous chord with classification theory as understood in LIS. In the practice community and in the publications of LIS, faceted classification has shifted the paradigm of knowledge organization theory in the twentieth century. Here, with the proposal of inherent classification and the resulting layered information modeling, a clear line joins both the LIS classification theory community and the information modeling community. Both communities have their eyes turned toward networked resource discovery, and with this conceptual conjunction a new paradigmatic conversation can take place. Parsons and Wand propose that the layered information model can facilitate schema integration, schema evolution, and interoperability. These three spheres in information modeling have their own connotation, but are not distant from the aims of classification research in LIS. In this new conceptual conjunction, established by Parsons and Ward, information modeling through the layered information model, can expand the horizons of classification theory beyond LIS, promoting a cross-fertilization of ideas on the interoperability of subject access tools like classification schemes, thesauri, taxonomies, and ontologies. This paper examines the common ground between the layered information model and faceted classification, establishing a vocabulary and outlining some common principles. It then turns to the issue of schema and the horizons of conventional classification and the differences between Information Modeling and Library and Information Science. Finally, a framework is proposed that deploys an interpretation of the layered information modeling approach in a knowledge technologies context. In order to design subject access systems that will integrate, evolve and interoperate in a networked environment, knowledge organization specialists must consider a semantic class independence like Parsons and Wand propose for information modeling.

Impact of Information Technology Investments on Firm Productivity in Peripherals Countries: The Case of Portugal

IS/IT investments are seen has having an enormous potential impact on the competitive position of the firm, on its performance, and demand an active and motivated participation of several stakeholder groups. The shortfall of evidence concerning the productivity of IT became known as the ‘productivity paradox’. As Robert Solow, the Nobel laureate economist stated “we see computers everywhere except in the productivity statistics”. An important stream of research conducted all over the world has tried to understand these phenomena, called in the literature as «IS business value» field. However, there is a gap in the literature, addressing the Portuguese situation. No empirical work has been done to date in order to understand the impact of Information Technology adoption on the productivity of those firms. Using data from two surveys conducted by the Portuguese National Institute of Statistics (INE), Inquiry to the use of IT by Portuguese companies (IUTIC) and the Inquiry Harmonized to (Portuguese) companies (accounting data), this study relates (using regression analysis) the amounts spent on IT with the financial performance indicator Returns on Equity, as a proxy of firm productivity, of Portuguese companies with more than 250 employees. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the Portuguese situation concerning the impact of IS/IT on the productivity of Portuguese top companies. Empirically, we test the impact of IT expenditure on firm productivity of a sample of Portuguese large companies. Our results, based on firm-level data on Information Technology expenditure and firm productivity as measured by return on equity (1186 observations) for the years of 2003 and 2004, exhibit a negative impact of IT expenditure on firm productivity, in line with “productivity paradox” claimants.

Informação, tecnologia e mediações culturais

The information and communication technologies, to suggest new ways of production circulation and reception of symbolic products, contributing together with the aesthetic discussion related to post-modernity to make the current cultural scene becoming increasingly complex. Multiple layers of information are added to the cultural products, signalling the formation of a new type of knowledge necessary for the critical and understanding of the works. The article reflects on this process, focusing on cultural information present on the Internet.

Information Filtering and Array Algorithms for Discrete-Time Markovian Jump Linear Systems

This technical note develops information filter and array algorithms for a linear minimum mean square error estimator of discrete-time Markovian jump linear systems. A numerical example for a two-mode Markovian jump linear system, to show the advantage of using array algorithms to filter this class of systems, is provided.

Implementation of a Control Loop Experiment in a Network-Based Control System With LonWorks Technology and IP Networks

Considering the increasing popularity of network-based control systems and the huge adoption of IP networks (such as the Internet), this paper studies the influence of network quality of service (QoS) parameters over quality of control parameters. An example of a control loop is implemented using two LonWorks networks (CEA-709.1) interconnected by an emulated IP network, in which important QoS parameters such as delay and delay jitter can be completely controlled. Mathematical definitions are provided according to the literature, and the results of the network-based control loop experiment are presented and discussed.

Evaluation of flow regimes in a semi-cylindrical spouted bed through statistical, mutual information, spectral and Hurst`s analysis

Hydrodynamic studies were conducted in a semi-cylindrical spouted bed column of diameter 150 mm, height 1000 mm, conical base included angle of 60 degrees and inlet orifice diameter 25 mm. Pressure transducers at several axial positions were used to obtain pressure fluctuation time series with 1.2 and 2.4 mm glass beads at U/U-ms from 0.3 to 1.6, and static bed depths from 150 to 600 mm. The conditions covered several flow regimes (fixed bed, incipient spouting, stable spouting, pulsating spouting, slugging, bubble spouting and fluidization). Images of the system dynamics were also acquired through the transparent walls with a digital camera. The data were analyzed via statistical, mutual information theory, spectral and Hurst`s Rescaled Range methods to assess the potential of these methods to characterize the spouting quality. The results indicate that these methods have potential for monitoring spouted bed operation.

Religious Information Poverty in Australian State Schools

This paper introduces the concept of religious information poverty in Australian state schools from an information science perspective. Information scientists have been theorising about the global information society for some time, along with its increased provision of vital information for the good of the world. Australian state schools see themselves as preparing children for effective participation in the information society, yet Australian children are currently suffering a religious illiteracy that undermines this goal. Some reasons and theories are offered to explain the existence of religious information poverty in state schools, and suggestions for professional stakeholders are offered for its alleviation.