Infosys v2n029 (September 14, 1995) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/infosys/infs-v2n029 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * INFOSYS: The Electronic Newsletter for Information Systems * * Volume 2, Number 29 ISSN: 1173-3764 September 14, 1995 * * * * Editor: Dennis W. Viehland, Massey University, New Zealand * * Listowners: Greg Welsh, American University, Washington DC * * Peter M. Weiss, Penn State * * Sponsor: boyd & fraser publishing, Danvers, Massachusetts * * * * Current Subscribers = 3,951 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TABLE OF CONTENTS * * * * * * * * * * * * * EDITOR'S NOTE - Miscellaneous INFOSYS News * * NEWS - From Edupage * * CONTENTS - Journal of Information Technology Management * * CONFERENCE - International Conference on Information Systems * * CONFERENCE - Knowledge Acquisition, Representation and Processing * * CONFERENCE - Workgroup Computing - The Enterprise Players * * CALL FOR PAPERS - European Conf on Object-Oriented Programming * * POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT - Assoc and Assist Professor, IT Management * * POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT - Research Fellow, Service Technology * * POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT - Lecturer, Computer and Info Science * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 0755* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * EDITOR'S NOTE - Miscellaneous INFOSYS News * * Dennis Viehland, Massey University * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Inaugural AIS-Americas Conference was a great conference. The plenary speeches by Thomas Davenport, James Wetherbe, and Herbert Simon were some of the best at any conference anywhere. Well done Dennis Galletta, Hugh Watson and all other AIS conference organisers. A highlight of attending international conferences for me is the personal expressions of appreciation I get from INFOSYS subscribers for my efforts. Thank you and keep them coming -- they keep me going during the late hours of the night editing INFOSYS. The ultimate INFOSYS story occurred on the Monday after AIS. I was riding on the Metro subway in Washington DC when a total stranger approached me and asked "You are Dennis Viehland aren't you?". Turns out he is an INFOSYS subscriber and remembered that I would be in Pittsburgh for AIS the previous weekend. I was wearing a Massey University shirt and he made all the connections. He expressed his thanks for INFOSYS, especially the News articles, and disappeared at the next stop. Wow, isn't the Internet wonderful! After two weeks in the States and a week here catching up on tests, course assignments, e-mail, and lectures INFOSYS is back with this issue. The articles piled up while I was gone and v2 n30 will follow early next week. Coming soon....an update of the Welcome Message that describes INFOSYS and use of the listserver. Then some promotion of INFOSYS in IS mailing lists, newsgroups and electronic publications. \EOA 0756* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * NEWS - From Edupage * * Dennis Viehland, Massey University * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * A COMPUTER FOR EVERY OCCASION: "PCs are one of the least innovative products that I am aware of," says physicist Greg Blonder, who is head of the Human Centered Engineering Research Laboratory at Bell Labs. "Year after year they run the same three programs -- word processing, spreadsheets and games -- despite what is essentially a factor of 1,000 improvement in processing for the same dollar." Blonder says the consumers of the future will be spending less of their money on general purpose computers and more on cheap machines specialized to perform specific tasks, such as a checkbook-sized computer used only for bill-paying. "It's possible that instead of selling $10,000 computers, you'll send ten $100 computers and use them effectively for specific tasks." (Forbes 8/14/95 p.158) TAPSCOTT SAYS TECHNOLOGY IS NEUTRAL: Technology expert Don Tapscott says that "there is nothing inherent in the technology that means we will have promised fulfilled or we will have peril, and we will have the dark side. Because the technology is interactive it's much more neutral than the traditional technology of broadcast which was one- way, or data processing which was hierarchical, and host-based commander-controlled type computing. The new technology is distributed. And whether or not as a society we will see promise or the dark side really depends on us." (Educom Review, Sep/Oct 95 p32) COMPUTER VENDORS ON THE WEB: The Guide to Computer Vendors is an interactive service with more than 600 links to computer vendors on the Web: http://www.ronin.com/SBA/. (Information Week 28 Aug 95 p10) CHEAPER FLAT PANEL TECHNOLOGY: A new French company called PixTech is working on an alternative technology for flat panel displays called field-emission displays. The prototype screens use less power than conventional liquid crystal displays, are about half as thick, can be viewed from an angle, and cost about a third less to produce. The market for flat panel displays is expected to double to $21.6 billion by 2000. (Business Week 28 Aug 95 p73) SMALL BUSINESSES LAG ON E-MAIL USE: A recent survey of 273 small businesses conducted by the Executive Committee found that while 56% use e-mail within the company for employee-to-employee communication, fewer than one in four use the Net to contact clients, prospects or business advisers. "Our industry just hasn't accepted e-mail yet as a regular form of communication. We do a lot of faxing via modem but no e-mail," says one electrical contractor. (Inc., Sept 95 p.116) PROGRAMMERS WHO LEAP OVER TALL BUILDINGS: Noting that Bill Joy of Sun said that the key to innovation is smart programmers, George Gilder claims that "smart programmers are hundreds of times more productive than ordinary programmers," and quotes "Joy's Law," in which Bill Joy said: "Let's be truthful, most of the bright people don't work for you -- no matter who you are. You need a strategy that allows for innovation occurring elsewhere." (Forbes ASAP, 28 Aug 95 p146) ASPEN LAUNCHES WEB SITE: The Aspen Institute has launched a new Web site which will feature, among other information, the Institute's newly released "Information Bill of Rights and Responsibilities." Check it out at http://www.aspeninst.org/dir/current/Infobill.html INTEL WINS SUPERCOMPUTER CONTRACT: Intel Corporation has won a $45 million Department of Energy contract to build the world's fastest supercomputer. The massively parallel machine will use 9,000 forthcoming Intel P6 microprocessors and is expected to be the first system to reach the goal of calculating at teraflop speed (1 trillion floating point operations a second). The computer will be located at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and will be devoted largely to such problems as nuclear weapons safety. (New York Times 8 Sep 95 C2) Editor's Note: Edupage, a summary of news items on information technology, is a service of Educom. This is an abbreviated list of news items of interest to the IS community from the August 6, 20, 24, 27, 29, 31, and Sept 10, 1995 issues. \EOA 0757* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * CONTENTS - Journal of Information Technology Management * * Al Lederer, University of Kentucky * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Journal of Information Technology Management's volume 6, issue 2 has been published with the following contents: "The National Information Infrastructure: An Industry Analysis" by Eliezer Geisler "Database Requirements for Research Impact Assessment" by Ronald N. Kostoff "Computers, Power and Organizations: A Game Theory Perspective" by Mark C. Hensel, Jr. and Lawrence L. Schkade "An Expanded Global Information Technology Issues Model: An Addition of Newly Industrialized Countries" by Prashant Palvia and Pien Wang The Journal publishes applied research of interest to practitioners and academics on the management of IT. "Information For Contributors" is available at http://www.uky.edu/~lederer/jitm.html or from lederer@ukcc.uky.edu. \EOA 0758* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * CONFERENCE - International Conference on Information Systems * * Gadi Ariav, Tel-Aviv University * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * International Conference on Information Systems December 11-13, 1995 Amsterdam, The Netherlands The ICIS'95 Program Committee is pleased to announce the advance program for the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) to be held in Amsterdam on December 11-13, 1995. As specialized Information Systems conferences have become more common, we have made a special effort to re-establish ICIS as *the* IS research conference, as well as *the* international IS conference. It is with great pleasure that we bring you an overview of the program as follows. This year's ICIS addresses the following themes: --Management and development of IS --Economics of IS and IT --Information technology and systems --IS research methods Plenary speakers: --Mr. Jacob Kohnstamm, Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Dutch Ministry of Home Affairs --others to be announced Presentations of research papers: --IT and Strategy --Business Value of IT --Theorizing about Information Technology --Group Support Systems --Economics of Information Technology --IT-based Modeling --Diffusion of Information Systems Innovations --Information Technology and Firm Performance --Computer Support for Cognitive Processing --Adoption and Diffusion of IS Development Methods --Designing ISs for Optimal Performance --Distributed information technology resources --Organizing to Improve IT Performance --Computer Supported Cooperative Work --Electronic Distribution and Retailing Presentations of research in progress papers: --Managing Distributed Resources --Investing in Information Technology --Maintaining Information Systems --Measuring Information Systems Success --Managing Distributed Information Technology Panels: --Exploring the terms of research on IS/IT innovation --Conceptual modeling in systems development --Judging qualitative research in information systems --Innovating standards or standardizing innovation? --Measuring IT success and the reference disciplines --Management competencies in IT-based organization transformation --How does the ethics of IT differ across cultures? --Evolutionary Economics: Revolutionary implications for IS? --Can distributed IS really serve new organizational trends? --The IS function in the virtual organization --Strategic IS and org. strategy in low-competitive contexts? Tutorials: --The electronic commerce course --Two Computer-based techniques for qualitative data analysis --Creating and using the collaborative telelearning environment --Information technology, competition and market transformation The full text of program will be available through the ICIS95 home page at http://www.eur.nl/acab/ICIS/icis-95.html. This is also the place where further conference information (including fees and other expected costs for planning purposes) will be posted. An ASCII version of the program is available from ariav@vm.tau.ac.il. \EOA 0759* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * CONFERENCE - Knowledge Acquisition, Representation and Processing * * Paul DeMaine, Auburn University * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Second International Symposium on Knowledge Acquisition, Representation and Processing (KARP-95) September 27-30, 1995 Auburn University Hotel and Conference Center Auburn, Alabama, USA KARP is an international forum for presentation and discussion of inter- disciplinary research on knowledge acquisition, representation, and processing, as well as recent advances on discipline independent tools for realizing large-scale applications of knowledge based systems. The purpose of the symposium is to identify challenging problems common to many disciplines that must be solved to realize future knowledge and information systems, and to shape future directions of research by soliciting and reviewing high quality, applied and theo- retical research findings. An important part of the symposium is the provision for one-on-one interactions provided by an intimate setting, poster sessions, and demonstrations of operational systems. The registration fee of $450 includes attendance at all technical sessions, a book of abstracts, four lunches, a banquet, refreshment breaks, and a certificate of participation. IEEE Computer Society members and ACM SIGART members are extended a registration fee of $395. The registration fee for students is $60 (no banquet) with a valid student identification. Please make sure your registration form is complete with all requested information including mailing address, telephone and FAX numbers, and email address. Additional infomation about the conference (transport, housing, etc), a tentative program schedule, a registration form, and a hotel reservation form is available from: Elaine H. Ridgway Engineering Extension Service 217 Ramsay Hall Auburn University, AL 36849-5331 Voice: (334) 844-4370 Fax: (334) 844-5715 E-mail: eesv.er@eng.auburn.edu \EOA 0760* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * CONFERENCE - Workgroup Computing - The Enterprise Players * * Roger Whitehead, Office Futures * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Seminar - Workgroup Computing - The Enterprise Players 18-19 October 1995 Cafe Royal, Regent Street, London W1 As the workgroup computing market matures it is becoming dominated by a few large companies. These suppliers are offering architected products and mass marketing - two things not offered by specialist groupware vendors. Their concerns are no longer focused on desktop- and LAN-based systems, but are enterprise wide and beyond. Although specialist suppliers offer effective 'point solutions', they are not able to dictate the computing agenda the way the giants are. IBM, Microsoft, Novell and Oracle are defining enterprise architectures into which those smaller companies' software will work - they are the environment makers. Products and technologies such as e-mail, workflow, videoconferencing and document management all must now fit into these schemes. Architected products also hold out the promise of easy integration with existing line of business and MIS applications. As their programming interfaces develop, these products will also allow new features or packages to be built in. Their suppliers intend these products and architectures to become major brands. They plan to have them marketed, sold, and supported by resellers and integrators all over the world, following the pattern laid down by Lotus Notes. Between them, IBM, Microsoft, Novell and Oracle hope to grow the workgroup market to at least ten times its present size over the next three years. This workshop provides a unique opportunity to hear how they propose to do it and to compare their plans, architectures and products. Each supplier's offerings will be discussed by: --a technical representative of the supplier, to describe architectures and plans --a reseller or integrator, to describe the products and how they integrate with other systems --a user, to discuss product and supplier performance. Registration Fees: Early Late One Day Attendance UKP395 UKP450 Two Days UKP695 UKP750 (all fees are exclusive of VAT) To qualify for early registration fee, payment must be received three weeks before the event. VAT is charged at 17.5%. A limited number of bursaries are available to academics and research students. Please contact UNICOM for details. Additional information and a registration form is available from UNICOM Seminars Brunel Science Park Cleveland Road Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH UK Voice: + 44 (0) 1895 256484 Fax: +44 (0) 1895 813095 E-mail: unicom@unicom.demon.co.uk http://www.demon.co.uk/unicom \EOA 0761* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * CALL FOR PAPERS - European Conf on Object-Oriented Programming * * Sigi Reich, University of Linz * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 10th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP '96) July 8-12, 1996 Linz, Austria ECOOP '96 is the Tenth European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming. The conference aims at bringing together researchers and practitioners from academia and industry to discuss and exchange new developments in object-oriented languages, systems and methods. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to Languages and their implementations: --Combination of OOP with other language paradigms --OO databases and object persistence --Concurrency and distribution --Multiagent systems --Theoretical foundations --Formal methods --OO analysis, design, and metrics --Class management and class evolution --Reuse, components and frameworks --Applications and experiences --Teaching OO concepts and methods The ECOOP '96 program includes research contributions, experience reports, tutorials, workshops, For submission guidelines contact the appropriate programme chair or the WWW address listed below: Research contributions and experience reports: Pierre Cointe E-mail: ecoop96@emn.fr Deadline for submissions of papers: December 1, 1995 http://www.ifs.uni-linz.ac.at/ecoop96 Tutorials: Hanspeter Moessenboeck E-mail: moessenboeck@ssw.uni-linz.ac.at Deadline for proposal submissions: Jan. 26, 1996 http://oberon.ssw.uni-linz.ac.at/Tutorials.html Workshops: Max Muehlhaeuser E-mail: max@tk.uni-linz.ac.at Deadline for proposal submissions: Dec. 1, 1995 http://www.tk.uni-linz.ac.at/events/ecoop96/Workshops.html Panels: Markku Sakkinen E-mail: markku@ifs.uni-linz.ac.at Deadline for proposal submissions: Jan. 26, 1996 http://www.ifs.uni-linz.ac.at/ecoop96/Panels.html Exhibits: Wolfgang Pree E-mail: pree@swe.uni-linz.ac.at Demonstrations and posters: Wolfgang Pree E-mail: pree@swe.uni-linz.ac.at General information on ECOOP '96 and questions about the conference and its organization may be obtained via WWW at http://www.ifs.uni-linz.ac.at/ecoop96 or should be sent to: Gerti Kappel ECOOP '96 Organizing Chair Department of Information Systems University of Linz Altenbergerstr. 69 A-4040 Linz, Austria Voice: +43-732-2468-880 Fax: +43-732-2468-9308 E-mail: ecoop96@ifs.uni-linz.ac.at \EOA 0762* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT - Assoc and Assist Professor, IT Management * * Sridhar Narasimhan, Georgia Tech * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The School of Management at the Georgia Institute of Technology is seeking candidates for two anticipated tenure-track faculty positions in the Information Technology Management area starting September 1996. A completed PhD in Information Systems or related area is required. One position is at the Associate Professor level and the other at the Assistant Professor level. Candidates having demonstrated skills in both the research and teaching of Information Systems are invited to apply. Of particular interest are persons whose research agenda includes one or more of the following areas: --Information System Economics --Electronic Commerce --Behavioral Issues in IS --Information Systems and Strategy --International Issues --Management of Technology --Entrepreneurship --Distance Learning --Systems Analysis and Design. The School of Management is committed to excellence in faculty research and teaching. The School offers academic programs leading to the BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Management. In addition, the School offers an Executive Master's degree in the Management of Technology. There is also excellent opportunity to develop inter- disciplinary research programs with other departments on campus, such as the College of Engineering and the College of Computing. Interested applicants should send their applications including a vita, a list of at least three references, and copies of research papers to: Professor Sridhar Narasimhan School of Management Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 30332-0520 USA E-mail: sri.narasimhan@mgt.gatech.edu We will start reviewing applications starting October 1, 1995. Applications will be considered until the positions are filled. Potential candidates may be interviewed at the ICIS meeting in Amsterdam. The positions are subject to budgetary approval. \EOA 0763* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT - Research Fellow, Service Technology * * Gary Megennis, Heidrick and Struggles * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Johnson Controls, Inc. is a public corporation located in Milwaukee, WI, USA with revenues of $8 billion. The company consists of four divisions, of which the Controls Division is the second largest with revenues of over $2 billion. This division manufactures controls for heating, lighting, air conditioning and security systems for commercial buildings. The company is seeking a Research Fellow (a prestigious position and one of only two in the R&D organization) to develop the controls products of the future. Currently, control products are electro- mechanical - in the future they will be technology-based. This person will lead an R&D group but will also work closely with marketing, product development and many universities and technology companies which are working on joint research projects. The person sought has a PhD and a background in technology and innovation, hopefully with some product development experience. A broad understanding of software and network architectures, DSS, process automation, client/server technology and object-oriented development is necessary. Currently, he/she is probably in academia or working in a research environment for a major corporation. Compensation will exceed $100,000 per annum. Please respond to Heidrick & Struggles, Inc.; one of the world's largest retained executive search firms. Contact: Mr. Gary R. Megennis Heidrick & Struggles, Inc. 51 Weaver Street Greenwich Office Park 3 Greenwich, CT 06831 Voice: 203-629-3206 Voicemail: 800-934-6398 Fax: 203-629-1306 E-mail: garymeg@aol.com \EOA 0764* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT - Lecturer, Computer and Info Science * * John Roddick, Univ of South Australia * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * School of Computer and Information Science Faculty of Applied Science and Technology University of South Australia The Levels Campus The School is the principal centre for teaching and research in computer science, information science and computer systems engineering at the University offering a wide range of awards from Diploma to Doctorate. The School currently has 24 academic staff and approximately 500 effective full-time students. The School's WWW page can be found at http://gaia.levels.unisa.edu.au/www/cis/ The Advanced Computing Research Centre, based in the School, is the primary funded research centre in computer science, software engineering and computer engineering in the University. The principal research areas are database systems, software engineering, concurrent systems hardware, software and theory, image processing and artificial intelligence / expert systems. We wish to appoint academics at both Level A and Level B to augment the growing teaching and research capability of the School and the Research Centre. Lecturer level A - Tenurable - $29,554 - $40,087 Lecturer level B - 5 year contract - $42,198 - $50,111 Enquiries should be directed to Dr John Roddick, Head School of Computer and Information Science Voice: +61 8 302 3463 Fax: +61 8 302 3988 E-mail: roddick@cis.unisa.edu.au. Applications, which must address the selection criteria obtainable from Dr Roddick, must be submitted by the closing date 5.00pm, 27 September, 1995 to: The Personnel Officer University of South Australia The Levels, SA 5095, Australia \EOA * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ABOUT INFOSYS * * INFOSYS is an electronic newsletter for faculty, students, and * * practitioners in the field of Information Systems. INFOSYS * * publishes news items, requests for assistance, calls for papers * * announcements of professional meetings and conferences, position * * announcements, journal table of contents, and other items of * * interest to the Information Systems community. * * * * INFOSYS is published biweekly, more frequently if volume requires * * it. INFOSYS operates as an electronic mailing list on listserv * * software at American University in Washington, DC. The editor is * * Dennis W. Viehland . * * * * INFOSYS is sponsored by boyd & fraser, publishers of educational * * materials for computer and information education. Contact Bill * * Lisowski or visit http://www.bf.com/bf.html * * or gopher.bf.com for more information about boyd & fraser. * * * * To subscribe to INFOSYS send the following one-line e-mail * * message to listserv@american.edu: subscribe infosys yourfirstname * * yourlastname (e.g., subscribe infosys John Smith). You will * * receive a welcome letter that will tell you more about INFOSYS * * and listserv. To cancel your subscription send the following * * message to listserv@american.edu: unsubscribe infosys * * * * Guidelines for submitting articles to INFOSYS are published in * * the Welcome message each new subscriber receives (or e-mail "get * * infosys welcome" to listserv@american.edu). Send articles to * * infosys@american.edu or d.viehland@massey.ac.nz. * * * * The INFOSYS Calendar of Upcoming Events is updated fortnightly * * and can be obtained in the following ways: * * --E-mail: send the following one-line message to * * listserv@american.edu: get infosys calendar * * --FTP: anonymous FTP to ftp.american.edu; file is pub/infosys/ * * infosys.calendar * * --Gopher: gopher to auvm.american.edu; choose INFOSYS * * --WWW: forthcoming * * * * INFOSYS Back Issues are archived by Robert McArthur at: * * AUSTRALIA: http://www.fit.qut.edu.au/~mcarthur/infosys/ * * by Eric Morgan (N Carolina State Univ) at: * * USA: ftp://ftp.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/infosys/ * * USA: wais://wais.lib.ncsu.edu/infosys * * USA: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/infosys-index.html * * by Brian Fitzgerald (University College Cork) at: * * EUROPE: http://www.ucc.ie/htbin/infosys * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *