Citizens and social media in times of natural disaster: Exploring information experience

Introduction. Social media is becoming a vital source of information in disaster or emergency situations. While a growing number of studies have explored the use of social media in natural disasters by emergency staff, military personnel, medial and other professionals, very few studies have investigated the use of social media by members of the public. The purpose of this paper is to explore citizens’ information experiences in social media during times of natural disaster. Method. A qualitative research approach was applied. Data was collected via in-depth interviews. Twenty-five people who used social media during a natural disaster in Australia participated in the study. Analysis. Audio recordings of interviews and interview transcripts provided the empirical material for data analysis. Data was analysed using structural and focussed coding methods. Results. Eight key themes depicting various aspects of participants’ information experience during a natural disaster were uncovered by the study: connected; wellbeing; coping; help; brokerage; journalism; supplementary and characteristics. Conclusion. This study contributes insights into social media’s potential for developing community disaster resilience and promotes discussion about the value of civic participation in social media when such circumstances occur. These findings also contribute to our understanding of information experiences as a new informational research object.

Diagnose this if you can: On the effectiveness of search engines in finding medical self-diagnosis information

An increasing amount of people seek health advice on the web using search engines; this poses challenging problems for current search technologies. In this paper we report an initial study of the effectiveness of current search engines in retrieving relevant information for diagnostic medical circumlocutory queries, i.e., queries that are issued by people seeking information about their health condition using a description of the symptoms they observes (e.g. hives all over body) rather than the medical term (e.g. urticaria). This type of queries frequently happens when people are unfamiliar with a domain or language and they are common among health information seekers attempting to self-diagnose or self-treat themselves. Our analysis reveals that current search engines are not equipped to effectively satisfy such information needs; this can have potential harmful outcomes on people’s health. Our results advocate for more research in developing information retrieval methods to support such complex information needs.

Understanding the behavior of workshop facilitators in systems analysis and design projects: Developing theory from process modeling projects

Organizational and technological systems analysis and design practices such as process modeling have received much attention in recent years. However, while knowledge about related artifacts such as models, tools, or grammars has substantially matured, little is known about the actual tasks and interaction activities that are conducted as part of analysis and design acts. In particular, key role of the facilitator has not been researched extensively to date. In this paper, we propose a new conceptual framework that can be used to examine facilitation behaviors in process modeling projects. The framework distinguishes four behavioral styles in facilitation (the driving engineer, the driving artist, the catalyzing engineer, and the catalyzing artist) that a facilitator can adopt. To distinguish between the four styles, we provide a set of ten behavioral anchors that underpin facilitation behaviors. We also report on a preliminary empirical exploration of our framework through interviews with experienced analysts in six modeling cases. Our research provides a conceptual foundation for an emerging theory for describing and explaining different behaviors associated with process modeling facilitation, provides first preliminary empirical results about facilitation in modeling projects, and provides a fertile basis for examining facilitation in other conceptual modeling activities.

Experiencing information use for early career academics’ learning: A knowledge ecosystem model

Purpose This study explores the informed learning experiences of early career academics while building their networks for professional and personal development. The notion that information and learning are inextricably linked via the concept of ‘informed learning’ is used as a conceptual framework to gain a clearer picture of what informs early career academics while they learn and how they experience using that which informs their learning within this complex practice: to build, maintain and utilise their developmental networks. Methodology This research employs a qualitative framework using a constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006). Through semi-structured interviews with a sample of fourteen early career academics from across two Australian universities, data were generated to investigate the research questions. The study used the methods of constant comparison to create codes and categories towards theme development. Further examination considered the relationship between thematic categories to construct an original theoretical model. Findings The model presented is a ‘knowledge ecosystem’, which represents the core informed learning experience. The model consists of informal learning interactions such as relating to information to create knowledge and engaging in mutually supportive relationships with a variety of knowledge resources found in people who assist in early career development. Originality/Value Findings from this study present an alternative interpretation of informed learning that is focused on processes manifesting as human interactions with informing entities revolving around the contexts of reciprocal human relationships.

A theoretical approach to conceptualize information quality in social media

While organizations strive to leverage the vast information generated daily from social media platforms, and decision makers are keen to identify and exploit its value, the quality of this information remains uncertain. Past research on information quality criteria and evaluation issues in social media is largely disparate, incomparable and lacking any common theoretical basis. In attention to this gap, this study adapts existing guidelines and exemplars of construct conceptualization in information systems research, to deductively define information quality and related criteria in the social media context. Building on a notion of information derived from semiotic theory, this paper suggests a general conceptualization of information quality in the social media context that can be used in future research to develop more context specific conceptual models.

Electronic medical record systems in Saudi Arabia: Knowledge and preferences of healthcare professionals

Background The use of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems is increasing internationally, though developing countries, such as Saudi Arabia, have tended to lag behind in the adoption and implementation of EMR systems due to several barriers. The literature shows that the main barriers to EMR in Saudi Arabia are lack of knowledge or experience using EMR systems and staff resistance to using the implemented EMR system. Methods A quantitative methodology was used to examine health personnel knowledge and acceptance of and preference for EMR systems in seven Saudi public hospitals in Jeddah, Makkah and Taif cities. Results Both English literacy and education levels were significantly correlated with computer literacy and EMR literacy. Participants whose first language was not Arabic were more likely to prefer using an EMR system compared to those whose first language was Arabic. Conclusion This study suggests that as computer literacy levels increase, so too do staff preferences for using EMR systems. Thus, it would be beneficial for hospitals to assess English language proficiency and computer literacy levels of staff prior to implementing an EMR system. It is recommended that hospitals need to offer training and targeted educational programs to the potential users of the EMR system. This would help to increase English language proficiency and computer literacy levels of staff as well as staff acceptance of the system.

Exploiting inference from semantic annotations for information retrieval

The increasing amount of information that is annotated against standardised semantic resources offers opportunities to incorporate sophisticated levels of reasoning, or inference, into the retrieval process. In this position paper, we reflect on the need to incorporate semantic inference into retrieval (in particular for medical information retrieval) as well as previous attempts that have been made so far with mixed success. Medical information retrieval is a fertile ground for testing inference mechanisms to augment retrieval. The medical domain offers a plethora of carefully curated, structured, semantic resources, along with well established entity extraction and linking tools, and search topics that intuitively require a number of different inferential processes (e.g., conceptual similarity, conceptual implication, etc.). We argue that integrating semantic inference in information retrieval has the potential to uncover a large amount of information that otherwise would be inaccessible; but inference is also risky and, if not used cautiously, can harm retrieval.

Estimates of lost material stock of buildings and roads due to the great east Japan earthquake and tsunami

This article describes research conducted for the Japanese government in the wake of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that struck eastern Japan on March 11, 2011. In this study, material stock analysis (MSA) is used to examine the losses of building and infrastructure materials after this disaster. Estimates of the magnitude of material stock that has lost its social function as a result of a disaster can indicate the quantities required for reconstruction, help garner a better understanding of the volumes of waste flows generated by that disaster, and also help in the course of policy deliberations in the recovery of disaster-stricken areas. Calculations of the lost building and road materials in the five prefectures most affected were undertaken. Analysis in this study is based on the use of geographical information systems (GIS) databases and statistics; it aims to (1) describe in spatial terms what construction materials were lost, (2) estimate the amount of infrastructure material needed to rehabilitate disaster areas, and (3) indicate the amount of lost material stock that should be taken into consideration during government policy deliberations. Our analysis concludes that the material stock losses of buildings and road infrastructure are 31.8 and 2.1 million tonnes, respectively. This research approach and the use of spatial MSA can be useful for urban planners and may also convey more appropriate information about disposal based on the work of municipalities in disaster-afflicted areas.

Information Security and Privacy : Proceedings of the 9th Australasian Conference, ACISP 2004, Sydney, Australia, July 13-15, 2004.

Preface The 9th Australasian Conference on Information Security and Privacy (ACISP 2004) was held in Sydney, 13–15 July, 2004. The conference was sponsored by the Centre for Advanced Computing – Algorithms and Cryptography (ACAC), Information and Networked Security Systems Research (INSS), Macquarie University and the Australian Computer Society. The aims of the conference are to bring together researchers and practitioners working in areas of information security and privacy from universities, industry and government sectors. The conference program covered a range of aspects including cryptography, cryptanalysis, systems and network security. The program committee accepted 41 papers from 195 submissions. The reviewing process took six weeks and each paper was carefully evaluated by at least three members of the program committee. We appreciate the hard work of the members of the program committee and external referees who gave many hours of their valuable time. Of the accepted papers, there were nine from Korea, six from Australia, five each from Japan and the USA, three each from China and Singapore, two each from Canada and Switzerland, and one each from Belgium, France, Germany, Taiwan, The Netherlands and the UK. All the authors, whether or not their papers were accepted, made valued contributions to the conference. In addition to the contributed papers, Dr Arjen Lenstra gave an invited talk, entitled Likely and Unlikely Progress in Factoring. This year the program committee introduced the Best Student Paper Award. The winner of the prize for the Best Student Paper was Yan-Cheng Chang from Harvard University for his paper Single Database Private Information Retrieval with Logarithmic Communication. We would like to thank all the people involved in organizing this conference. In particular we would like to thank members of the organizing committee for their time and efforts, Andrina Brennan, Vijayakrishnan Pasupathinathan, Hartono Kurnio, Cecily Lenton, and members from ACAC and INSS.

Information technology investment governance: What is it and does it matter?

While the growth in the number of IT investments remains strong, research in the IT investment field is limited, resulting in suboptimal practical guidance on effectively governing IT investments. Based on resource-based theory, this paper reports the initial work involved in developing a construct names IT investment governance (ITIG), because it can be used to measure organizations' capability to govern their IT investments. This paper then empirically examines the association of ITIG and corporate performance. The preliminary result is a four-factor, 16-item instrument for assessing the ITIG construct. This method's factors are IT investment value governance, IT investment value monitoring, IT investment appraisals and IT investment project management. The impact of ITIG on corporate performance was demonstrated with a significant and positive relationship found to exist between the ITIG construct and corporate performance, thus supporting the effectiveness of the ITIG construct. Corporations with higher levels of ITIG capability are more likely to maximize the contribution of their IT investments to firm value.

Customer agility, smart shopping apps and their implications: Customer relationship management systems in the digital age

This thesis examines the complementarities and vulnerabilities of customer connectivity that contemporary firms achieved through ubiquitous digital technologies. Taking the example of deployment of smart shopping apps to connect with consumers in the context of Australian retail, the study examines how such customer connectivity positively influences firm performances through firm's customer agility whilst creating implications for firms' digital business strategy through altered customer cognitions. Employing Oliver's (1977) Expectation Confirmation Theory, this study empirically tests a conceptual model involving digital connectivity, digital expectations, experiences and satisfaction of the customers who uses smart shopping apps in Australian consumer retail.

An archival analysis of green information technology: The current state and future directions

This thesis provides a review of 199 papers published on Green IT/IS between 2007−2014, in order to present taxonomy of segments in Green IT/IS publications, where the segments are later used for multiple analyses to facilitate future research and to provide a retrospective analysis of existing knowledge and gaps thereof. This research also attempts to make a unique contribution to our understanding of Green IT/IS, by consolidating papers it observes current patterns of literature through approach analysis and segmentation, as well as allocating studies to the technology, process, or outcome (TPO) stage. Highlighting the necessity of a consolidated approach, these classification systems have been combined into a TPO matrix so that the studies could be arranged according to which stage of the Green IT/IS cycle they were focused on. We believe that these analyses will provide a solid platform from which future Green IT/IS research can be launched.

Educating cultural heritage information professionals for Australia's galleries, libraries, archives and museums: A grounded Delphi study

This research explored the knowledge, skills, qualities, and professional education needs, of information professionals in galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) in Australia. The findings revealed that although full convergence of these sectors is unlikely, many of the skills, knowledge and qualities would be required across all four sectors. The research used the Grounded Delphi Method, a relatively new methodological extension of the Delphi method that incorporates aspects of Grounded Theory. The findings provide the first empirically based guidelines around what needs to be included in an educational framework for information professionals who will work in the emerging GLAM environment. As the first study of GLAM education requirements in Australia and the wider Asia-Pacific region to take a holistic approach by engaging information professionals across all four sectors, this thesis makes a contribution to the GLAM research field and to information education generally.

Information encountering on social media and tacit knowledge sharing

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how social media may support information encountering (i.e., where individuals encounter useful and interesting information while seeking or browsing for some other information) and how this may lead to facilitation of tacit knowledge creation and sharing. The study employed a qualitative survey design that interviewed twenty-four physicians who were active users of social media to better understand the phenomenon of information encountering on social media. The data was analysed using the thematic analysis approach. The study found six main ways through which social media supports information encountering. Furthermore, drawing upon knowledge creation theories, the study concluded that information encountering on social media facilitates tacit knowledge creation and sharing among individuals. The study provides new directions for further empirical investigations to examine whether information encountering on social media actually leads to tacit knowledge creation and sharing. The findings of the study may also provide opportunities for users to adopt social media effectively or gain greater value from social media use.