Last Update
22 October 2003
11 September 2001
What's New 6 November 2001
NEW BOOKS
Yogesh Malhotra (Editor)
We are living in interesting times characterized by increasing digitalization of business enterprises in a global interconnected knowledge economy. With waning euphoria about the first wave of digital e-business enterprises and a sobering dot-com stock market, business model innovation is being recognized as the key enabler that can unleash value creation for new digital enterprises. In contrast to traditional factors of production, knowledge assets and intellectual capital are expected to play a dominant role in determining both valuation and value-creation capabilities of most new age enterprises. Not surprisingly, Knowledge Management for Business Model Innovation is anticipated to be the mantra for survival, competence and success of Net enterprises as well as traditional brick-and-mortar enterprises faced with the challenge of transforming their business models into and beyond click-and-mortar companies.
"Knowledge Management and Business Model Innovation is an important addition to the IS researcher's bookshelf. It brings together the latest thinking on issues at the forefront of teaching innovation and professional imagination." M. Lynne Markus, Professor and Department Chair of Electronic Business, City University of Hong Kong
INTERFACE AND ATTRIBUTES (This link takes you to previous articles on this topic linked from EPSScentral.)
Ed note: We've all heard the term "thin client" but usually file it away under "techie stuff." The trend toward thin clients has enormous implications to performance support - from web-based interfaces to further limitations around things like streaming video and related media. Consider the following excerpts and see if they don't entice you to read the article.
How will desktop and mobile client platforms evolve during the next five years? ... thin client is a software architecture, not a hardware device, where the applications reside on servers and the graphical user interface is "remoted" to end users...desktop [devices that support thin clients] include a CPU, memory, keyboard, mouse and monitor, and perhaps some flash card (nonvolatile) memory. Typically, they do not include a fan, fixed disk drive or floppy disk drive. From a purely device perspective, thin-client desktops have certain advantages (no moving parts, lower hardware maintenance costs, very low power consumption, and they are quiet) and some disadvantages over PCs (typically, no offline work, no streaming video support).
ONLINE LEARNING (This link takes you to previous articles on this topic linked from EPSScentral.)
The addition of the Web to the range of technologies which humans have used to mediate between themselves and the world has contributed to problems as well as advantages in the area of school education. Historical antecedents in areas such as writing, printing and industrialisation provide a context in which mediated experiences can be examined. In the 21st century, the availability of online education increases the possibility that virtual experience will be substituted for reality. There are also concerns that there will be a blurring of appearance and reality, and that cultural imperialism will continue to spread by use of the Web. Together with the observation that computer-mediation via the Web tends to reframe the central role of the teacher in the educational process, these factors are considered in terms of the need to establish future guidelines to reduce the adverse impact of the Web on school education.
With Massachusetts Institute of Technology's bold OpenCourseWare Initiative, one of the world's leading universities is making its teaching material accessible on the Internet, free of charge, to any user anywhere in the world. While this seems counterintuitive in the trend toward commercialization in today's educational markets, we argue that this strategy could not only prove successful economically, but also exploit human capital resources that would foster innovation and strengthen the democratic foundation of a knowledge-based society.
INTRANETS, PORTALS, AND THE WEB (This link takes you to previous articles on this topic linked from EPSScentral.)
The Internet and specifically its graphic interface the World Wide Web is reaching a level of saturation and widespread adoption throughout the world. Specifically for journalism practiced online - in the discipline of computer-assisted reporting (CAR) and a specific kind of journalism: online journalism - we can now identify and theorize about the impacts the global system of networked computers has had on journalism. This paper signals four particular journalisms online as these have emerged in the 'first generation' of newsmedia on the World Wide Web (1993-2001), discusses the key characteristics - cf. hypertextuality, interactivity, multimediality - which determine the 'added value' of these journalisms, and provides three specific strategies journalists may use to further enhance the potential of journalism online: annotative reporting, open source journalism and hyperadaptive news sites.
This paper argues that the evolution of e-book technology is related to the penetrating impact of networks and information technology on society. It defines the concept of e-book and describes some aspects of e-book technology. By focusing on book production processes, the paper examines what probable consequences the development of e-books and a global network economy will have for publishers and book industries. E-books, along with other electronic formats, will trigger major changes as the digital products and distribution channels will force the logic of the network economy on the book publishing industry.
Large companies are rapidly adopting the use of intranets to ensure that information is accessible to analysts and decision makers whenever they need it. Can small companies obtain the same competitive advantage by implementing an intranet? This article will assist in evaluating the need for an intranet in a small business environment.
With the release of the latest versions of both IE and Netscape you'll find much better standards based support for style sheets, and feel better knowing your style definitions are more likely to work right in both browsers. If you've been waiting for the perfect time to start using CSS, now is the perfect time to make the change. This series of articles will guide you through the different properties available and show you how to make use of them on your web pages.
Welcome back to the second installment of a three-part tutorial and reference to CSS. In the first article, we introduced you to the world of Style Sheets. We'11 now continue on our journey to CSS mastery by covering the following topics: Introductions; Background properties; Classification properties; Printing; Pseudo Classes and Elements
Ed note: The Linux "revolution" is characterized by its open source nature (when compared with other Unix-like operating systems) and its superior reliability (as compared with the Microsoft alternatives). While Linux boxes are more often seen on the server side rather than the client side of enterprise computing, stories such as the following suggest that the trend could shift. What are the implications to performance support practices?
Amazon.com saved millions of dollars last quarter by switching to Linux. In a filing with the SEC, the online retailer said it was able to cut technology expenses by about 25 percent, from $71 million to $54 million. (HP and Red Hat supplied the solution that replaced Unix servers from Sun.) Will Amazon's disclosure inspire other enterprises seeking to cut expenses? Certainly, it lends credence to the argument that open-source software can save corporations money over alternatives such as Unix and Windows. Naturally, Microsoft warns that short-term savings seen by Amazon could turn into a long-term increase in costs. But it looks to me like Linux proponents finally have found a new poster child.
This paper examines the latest of paradigms - the Virtual Network(ed) Organisation - and whether geographically dispersed knowledge workers can virtually collaborate for a project under no central planning. Co-ordination, management and the role of knowledge arise as the central areas of focus. The Linux Project and its development model are selected as a case of analysis and the critical success factors of this organisational design are identified. The study proceeds to the formulation of a framework that can be applied to all kinds of virtual decentralised work and concludes that value creation is maximized when there is intense interaction and uninhibited sharing of information between the organisation and the surrounding community. Therefore, the potential success or failure of this organisational paradigm depends on the degree of dedication and involvement by the surrounding community.
USABILITY (This link takes you to previous articles on this topic linked from EPSScentral.)
Most GUI's incorporate a "modal" interface -- one that prevents you from doing anything else until you've completed the current task. This is almost always a mistake because it restricts user choices, often for no good reason. In this article, Peter explores the specifics of how modal dialog boxes can be inappropriate and annoying.
Over the past few years, the Internet has rapidly become part of the daily lives of most people in the first world. This trend in easy access to unlimited information resources for first world users mirrors the growing 'central-peripheral divide' in the developing world: the concentration of wealth in the major urban centres and the increasing marginalisation of people in the peri-urban and rural areas. The result of both trends is that the majority of the world's population, particularly on the African continent, has limited access to most information resources.
The Internet provides the opportunity to reach a broader cross-section of the virtual community of all those concerned with the issues of violence, crime, reconciliation, human rights and transformation, whilst at the same time, the challenge of resisting the (re)marginalisation and exclusion of grassroots constituencies who have limited skills and access to these resources.
The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) is a multi-disciplinary South African non-governmental organisation. Drawing on the experience of making the CSVR's 13 years of research available online, this paper traces the balancing act that has been required in reaching across the divide, and details some of the design challenges that have presented themselves. It explores the phenomenon of "graceful degradation", and examines some of the challenges facing NGOs using this exciting new medium.
Of all the disciplines that go together to create a ‘usability strategy’, user requirement gathering is undoubtedly the most frequently misunderstood. Many product managers or webmasters will believe that they already know their users, perhaps because they have conducted some form of market research, or have a formal complaints and customer feedback programme in place.
However, these techniques, although similar in aspiration, should not be relied upon as a replacement for a full user-requirement gathering programme. That isn’t to say that they do not have their uses of course, but rather that in terms of assisting in application or site design they can be unhelpful or even misleading.
One size does not fit all; one Web page cannot serve all of your visitors, even as an entry point. Don't demand commitment--or anything else--from your visitors. Provide lots and lots of detailed, useful information in multivariate form. Don't make users navigate through a complex, hierarchical Web site only to find that they have to use the phone to get answers to questions. The only time that animation is called for on a computer screen (aside from in the movies) is when your house is on fire. Do not design for eyeballs. Users are citizens, not consumers. Do not ship early. Do not ship often. Do not experiment on users. Your search mechanism sucks like a Hoover. Fix it. 
David Siegel (author of Creating Killer Web Sites) was totally wrong about that first-page thing. Like a bad dream, the dominance of the browser on our internetworking will eventually come to an end. There is no such thing as a portal. CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS, ETC.
Implementing the full e-learning development process from prototyping, creating and building courses to web hosting. This three-day blended online and hands-on workshop enables participants to experience how to set-up an e-learning program. At the end of the workshop, participants will have completed their mini-e-learning projects.
KMWorld is the largest and most comprehensive knowledge management event in the world. KMWorld is dedicated to enterprise and business intelligence, and is designed to meet the needs of strategic business technology decision-makers, as well as tactical point solutions managers and professional implementers. Santa Clara, CA - October 29 - November 1, 2001.
Pre-Conference Workshop #6 is Performance Centered Business Models and Processes: Keys to Effective KM , presented by Gloria Gery, Principal, Gery Associates, and Burton A. Huber, President and CEO, Ariel Performance Centered Systems, Inc.
Nielsen Norman Group's User Experience 2001-2002 conference offers four exciting days, including: Web Usability Today, a full conference day of enlightening short talks from industry experts; one day of exclusive NN/g seminars; and two days of informative tutorials. Each of these days gives you the chance to Match wits with the sharpest minds in usability theory and practice. Soak up seminars, tutorials, and presentations that will help you build smarter interfaces, save your development dollars, ensure successful user experiences. Protect your budget. Pay for only the days you need. The more days you attend, the deeper the discount. Meet, share tactics, trade cards, munch bagels with UI pros. Our conferences draw experienced UI professionals from all markets.
June 11th - 15th, 2002 at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Performance Support Engineering Workshops from Ariel PSE™
REPORTS and STUDIES
This report is a case study of the Control Channel Toolkit (CCT), a software asset base for a software product line of ground-based spacecraft command and control systems built under the direction of the United States National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Beginning with a characterization of the CCT context and a narration of the history of the effort, the report describes the management and software engineering practices, the software artifacts that were developed, the results that were achieved, and the lessons that were learned. It concludes with an accounting of the measurable benefits the government has already reaped in the initial use of CCT on a specific spacecraft command and control system. With the permission of Addison-Wesley, this report is extracted from Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns [Clements 01], where it was published with the approval of the National Reconnaissance Office.
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