The Internet as a knowledge repository, distribution channel, and knowledge network.

The Internet is able to connect knowledge, knowledge holders, knowledge bases, and knowledge systems of various kinds of organizations, and distribute that knowledge to other organizations, people, and locations. This new possibility of the Internet goes beyond the traditional information storage and distribution ability. Furthermore the Internet evolving to the knowledge networks (e.g., networks for teaching service, people acquaintance, hi-tech product design, or corporate knowledge), possesses powerful implications of knowledge internationalization of businesses, governments, and customers in the whole world. This special issue of JUCS seeks original articles on “The Internet as a knowledge repository, distribution channel, and knowledge network.” Rather than project plans or purely reflective or vision papers, we prefer case studies of implemented systems or descriptions of innovative technologies, highlighting actual usage results. Reflecting those results to the theoretical findings and possible future research in information systems, computer systems, knowledge management, organizational design, organizational learning, social networks, sociology, management science, and other research areas, will ideally have informed both current and future business practice and theories.

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Fit za {IT} - november 2008

Vljudno vas vabimo na novembrski srečanji, ki ju pripravljamo 10. novembra v Mariboru in 11. novembra v Ljubljani. Tokrat smo k sodelovanju povabili Petra Baloha, predavatelja na Ekonomski fakulteti in avtorja oz. soavtorja številnih priročnikov s področja Microsoft Office-a. Od leta 1996 uspešno pomaga podjetjem uvajati spremembe poslovanja, ki temeljijo na boljši izrabi sodobnih informacijskih tehnologij.

Prehod na MS Office 2007

Pri prehodu na novo tehnologijo obstajajo vedno dileme o smiselnosti početja. Pri Office 2007 so te še toliko večje, saj so ključni programi zbirke »zapakirani« v popolnoma spremenjen grafični vmesnik, ki se ga mora uporabnik najprej privaditi. Ali ni dovolj kar stara različica ali pa kakšna druga programska oprema? Ali gre pri novem grafičnem vmesniku le za šminko ali tudi kaj več? Prednosti in sprememb pri različici 2007 je resnično veliko; tako na nivoju posameznega uporabnika kot na nivoju celotnega podjetja, v katerem ga uporabljajo. Ne gre le za »še eno« (običajno) različico Office-a temveč za spremenjen koncept »pisarniških« orodij, ki zahtevajo miselni preskok tako pri njihovi uporabi kot pri njihovi prodaji.
V predavanju bomo tako na sistem Office 2007 pogledali iz vidika stranke in iz vidika Microsoftovega partnerja. Stranko zanima, katere so novosti, prednosti in izzivi pri uporabi sistema kot zbirke programov in pri uporabi posameznih programov. Kaj je tisto, kar jih bo prepričalo, da se splača preiti na različico 2007? Kaj bodo pridobili posamezniki znotraj podjetja in podjetje kot celota? Na vse elemente bomo pogledali konceptualno in jih demonstrirali preko praktičnega primera uporabe. Iz vidika partnerja pa bomo obravnavali, kako pristopiti k prodaji in deploymentu MS Office 2007: kaj pričakujejo stranke, kako odgovoriti na njihove najpogostejše dileme, in kako zagotoviti, da bo projekt prehoda pri strankah uspešen projekt.

Do submit by Jan 12.

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Call For Contributions

ISOneWorld2009 Conference & Convention
April 15 - 17, 2009
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
www.isoneworld.org

Theme: ‘Global IS Innovation & Practice’

Submission deadline: JANUARY 12, 2009

ISOneWorld brings together international Information Systems researchers and practitioners to participate in sharing ideas and to enjoy the exciting surroundings of the fun capital of the World  – Las Vegas. ISOneWorld conference includes a full program of papers, presentations, keynotes and publishing events.

Quality contributions for papers, panels, cases and posters are invited, which are double blind peer reviewed. ISOneWorld also attracts business executives offering opportunities for interesting discussions, consultancy and funding opportunities internationally.
Executive workshops and panels are evaluated for relevance and are not subject to the formal review process

Host
Reza Torkzadeh
University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA

Conference Chair
K. Kathy Dhanda
DePaul University, USA

Program Chair
Christine Bernadas
Central Washington University, USA

Research Cluster Chair
Ray Hackney
Brunel University, UK

International Chair
Gurpreet Dhillon
Virginia Commonwealth University, USA

Important Dates:
Electronic Submission (BLIND REVIEWED): JANUARY 12, 2009
Notification: January 31, 2009

Submit to:
www.isoneworld.org

About

ISOneWorld Conference is an event of the Information Institute. The Information Institute is an academe-industry consortium founded to further understanding of intricate relationships between information science and technology. The Information Institute’s mission is to encourage association among individuals who have an interest in the study of information. The mission is realized by providing educational opportunities for members and promoting scholarly and practitionerwork in information studies.

Further details can be found at:
www.information-institute.org

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Baloh, P., Uthicke, K., & Moon, G. (2008). A business process oriented method of KM solution design: A case study of Samsung Electronics. International Journal of Information Management, 28(5), 433-437.

Improving how knowledge is leveraged in organizations for improved business performance is today
considered as a major organizational change. Knowledge management (KM) projects are stigmatized as
demanding, fuzzy and complex, with questionable outcomes—more than 70% of them do not deliver
what they promised. A case of Samsung Electronics mobile branch we present shows how KM projects
can be more successful if they are treated as business process-oriented organizational change projects.
Both organizations and academia can stand on the shoulders of giants as previous experience and
research in that area is rich. Adding the KM flavor to such organizational change is the goal of this case
study; the learning outcomes include a six-step KM solution design method, a justification for the
business process level of analysis and managerial action, and the need for modest and just-do-it
approach when introducing KM-related organizational interventions.

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Gratitude to all the people who were involved in publication - coauthors Gyewan Moon and Katharina Uthicke from Daegu, Samsung Electronics Gumi Korea for access, journal’ case editor Prof Dr Ray Hackney, reviewers who provided plentiful and meaningful comments, and the editor Prof Dr Phillip Hills. 

IJIM is an international, SSCI  indexed peer-reviewed journal which aims to bring its readers the very best analysis and discussion in the developing field of information management. According to JCR2006, it has an impact factor of 0.754 (and a growing trend), plus, an excellent reputation among scholars in the Inf Sys / Inf Mmgt / Org Change areas.

Baloh, P., Jha, S., & Awazu, Y. (2008). Building strategic partnerships for managing innovation outsourcing. Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal, 1(2), 100-121.

The venue which the project team under Prof Dr Kevin C Desouza chose for publishing this paper is a fresh international journal: Strategic Outsourcing. Fresh not just by the age, but rather on four features that are novel to the academic journals: The Industry Viewpoint section invites industrial practitioners from around the world to present their point of view on a relevant subject area. The Research Updates - Executive Summaries section invites researchers world-wide to present their research projects an executive summary of their research project. Letters to the Editor are encouraged and contribute to contemporary debates on all aspects of outsourcing. The fourth is extreme responsiveness and the lightning speed of feedback to the authors. Prof Dr Marco Busi, editor-in-chief, is doing a great job.

Extended abstract of the paper:

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to uncover the mechanisms of organizations managing innovation outsourcing to business partners. In a business environment characterized by the development of deep, niche expertise in a particular domain, business partnerships can provide a source of innovative rejuvenation by outsourcing the innovation to business partners who have complementary skills and expertise. This paper addresses a critical challenge which the organizations are currently facing: how do you manage outsourcing of innovation to business partners effectively while maintaining your strategic competitiveness?
Design/methodology/approach – Exploratory multiple case studies of over 30 innovative European and US companies were done. It involved 50 semi-structured interviews with senior executives from research and development, product management, information technology, and marketing.
Findings – The paper identifies three complementary models of managing outsourcing of innovation to business partner: acquisition, strategic alliances, and open source (OS). Based on these, a three-dimensional “Co-Innovation Space” is proposed that can help in analysis and planning of current and future innovation projects.
Research limitations/implications – Although the research is carefully designed, it is an exploratory study and has the limitation of generalizability of the findings. Nevertheless, findings from multiple case studies from diverse organizations shed a light to current innovation and strategic alliance literature.
Practical implications – Partnerships can open the door to multiple knowledge sources. Accessing and integrating information from these sources can greatly enhance knowledge base of organizations and can help fuel sustainable innovation. The models proposed in this study provide a lens to examine existing innovation project portfolios and/or to plan for future innovation programmes.
Originality/value – This study is probably among few to study such a large, diversified, and geographically scattered group of organizations. Although exploratory and preliminary, this makes the findings of the study insightful.

More than welcome to access it and read it - feedback appreciated.

Alex was born July 07 2008, 4:53 am CET. Mom and dad are proud.

So in second half of May I finally found the time to revise my MPhil according to the (very favorable) reviewers’ comments I received in April 08, do all the administration with regards to this and submit the hard-bound and final thesis to the IRIS institute at University of Salford. ‘Been ready to get that degree for the last year since I wrapped it up :D :D :D   I am pleased with what I did and am looking forward to the MPhil degree awarded by this institution which is one of the rare UK’s 6* research rating institutes.

Another big thing needed a final revision. My Int Journal of Information Management submission which I have coauthored with colleagues from Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea. We have had a very nice case study with Samsung Electronics while I was in Korea, we wrote it down, submitted, and has now already been accepted for publication in this highly acclaimed SCI indexed journal. The paper is about organizational change related to knowledge management practices, learning from practice about innovation deployment and adoption, and reflecting practical experience to the most recent existing research out there. The paper is forthcoming in the October issue of IJIM. Gratitude to all the people who were involved in publication - coauthors Gyewan Moon and Katharina Uthicke from Daegu, Samsung Electronics Gumi Korea for access, journal’ case editor Prof Dr Ray Hackney, reviewers, and the editor Prof Dr Phillip Hills. It was a steep learning curve in all aspects.

Moving on I had two extensive reviewing roles, one for ICIS 2008 and the other for JASIST. I really need to learn how to do a decent review faster :/  Hopefully at least they were decent enough for the editors and authors.

It was also about time to get my hands and finish writing my forthcoming book which I coauthored together with Peter Vre?ar: Business process informatization and decision support with MS Access 2007 that is being published by Pasadena, the biggest Slovene publisher and distributor of books for the information age. So I managed to have this done tonight and ticked another big project off. Time to celebrate.

Plus, we’ve been busy re-designing our flat, as the baby is coming any time now. Yippie!!!

Whadda June. And it’s just good half way through :O