Decision-Making with Big Data Using Open Source Business Intelligence Systems

The importance of supporting decision making for improving business performance is a crucial, yet challenging task in enterprise management. The amount of data in our world has been exploding and Big Data represents a fundamental shift in business decision-making. Analyzing such so-called Big Data is becoming a keystone of competition and the success of organizations depends on fast and well-founded decisions taken by relevant people in their specific area of responsibility. Business Intelligence (BI) is a collection of decision support technologies for enterprises aimed at enabling knowledge workers such as executives, managers, and analysts to make better and faster decisions. We review the concept of BI as an open innovation strategy and address the importance of BI in revolutionizing knowledge towards economics and business sustainability. Using Big Data with Open Source Business Intelligence Systems will generate the biggest opportunities to increase competitiveness and differentiation in organizations. In this chapter, we describe and analyze four popular open source BI systems - Jaspersoft, Jedox, Pentaho and Actuate/BIRT.

ICT in the Indian Classroom

The present research paper discusses the pivotal role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education which is gaining currency in the new era of globalism as the telecom revolution has hastened the pace of globalization and vice-versa; along with the catalyst role ICT-enabled education plays in promoting inclusive growth and human development for all. These smart tools of the emerging smart economy would help to promote mass literacy and also narrow inter, as well as intra-generational gaps. Most importantly, it will provide ‘second opportunities' to the generation that missed them in the first place, thus helping adult learners, particularly the employed and women; thus attempting to reduce gender inequities; particularly in South Asia and the Indian sub-continent. The case study of the famous open University, namely Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in India is being studies as a case of sustainable development and inclusive growth as it ‘reaches the unreached' and untouched and marginalized segments of society.

ICT Integration in Education

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are extremely influencing every discipline under the sun including Education. It is affecting every aspect of education from teaching-learning to assessment and evaluation. It improves the effectiveness of education. It aids literacy movements. It enhances scope of education by facilitating mobile learning and inclusive education. It facilitates research and scholarly communication. Impact of ICT and its potential for the education field is manifold. It positively affects all the stakeholders of the education field. The current chapter discusses the same along with the various challenges posed by ICT. The challenges include economical issues, educational and technical factors. Appropriate content, Design and workability of ICT also play a crucial role in adoption of ICT in the education field. The chapter delineates in brief the challenges and probable solutions.

Open Innovation

While talking about successful entrepreneurship and value addition within an enterprise through innovation, one could realize that the innovation paradigm has been shifted from simple introduction of new ideas and products to accumulation of diversified actions, actors and agents along the process. Furthermore, when the innovation process is not being restricted within the closed nature of it, the process takes many forms during its evolution. Innovations have been seen as closed innovation or open innovation, depending on its nature of action, but contemporary world may have seen many forms of innovation, such as technological innovation, products/service innovation, process/production innovation, operational/management/organizational innovation, business model innovation or disruptive innovation, though often they are strongly interrelated. Definition of innovation has also adopted many transformations along the path, incorporating innovations within the products, process or service of an enterprise to organizational, marketing, or external entities and relations. Nature and scope of agents and actors even varies widely within the innovation dynamics, when the open innovation techniques are being applied to enterprises, designated as the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Researching in this paradigm, one has to look for some underlying issues that should be attended through responding to research questions as the research continues. Among many of the fundamental questions on innovation advancement for SMEs development there are a few, how to acquire precise information on the flow-chart of their business operations, gain knowledge on specific parameters of their business processes, utilize existing potential capacities to extend their knowledge towards successful innovation acquisition and dissemination, and extend their knowledge platform through various capacity development initiatives. They aggregate further, when issues of opportunities and challenges are being researched along the path of SME development through open innovation. Rationale of this research is to ascertain diverse aspects of opportunities and challenges surrounding the open innovation processes, and design action plans to empower SMEs in reaching out to the grass roots communities utilizing open innovation strategies. Primary focus of this research is to enable SMEs in finding out their innovation potentiality and empower them through various capacity development initiatives. However, the specific focus will adhere to adaptable technology transfer through open innovation. Along the route to justify the research potential and validate the research hypotheses (whether this research will add any economic value or knowledge gain), this study will conduct extensive literature review on various patterns of open innovation (crowdsourcing or collaborative), investigate case studies to learn about intricate issues surrounding their operational strategies (conducted by European Commission, OECD and similar institutions) and conduct surveys among selected SMEs (email, web based, egroups) in several phases. Research design includes formulation of strategies to resolve acquired research questions; collection and recording of the evidences obtained from the literature review or case studies or surveys; processing and analyzing gathered data and their appropriate interpretations; and publication of results. Analysis will include both qualitative (descriptive and exploratory) and quantitative (inferential statistics) methods.

Research Dimensions of Open Innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises

Innovation is treated as a recognized driver of economic prosperity of a country through the sustained growth of its entrepreneurships. Moreover, recently coined term open innovation is increasingly taking the lead in enterprise management in terms of value addition. Foci of academics, researchers and practitioners nowadays are revolving around various innovation models, comprising innovation methods, processes and strategies. This chapter seeks to find out open innovation researches and practices that are being carried out circumscribing development of entrepreneurships, particularly the sector belonging to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through a longitudinal study. Along this context the chapter put forwards part of a continuous study investigating into researches in the area of open innovation for entrepreneurship development that are being carried out by leading researchers and research houses across the globe, and at the same time it also investigating open innovation practices that are being carried out for the development of entrepreneurships, emphasizing SMEs. Before conclusion the chapter has tried to develop a framework to instigate future research.

The Absence of One-Size-Fits-All in the Day Labour Organisations ICT4D Designs

This chapter covers design experiences gained by working with two Non-Governmental organizations and one day-labour organization for the informal job seekers and employers—day-labour market (DLM). The three design architectures implemented for the DLM organizations are presented. On critically discussing the designs, it is found that even when users are portrayed as similar in the way they work and the things they do, their Information Management Systems (IMS) functional software requirements remain contextual up to the details. The synthesis of the designs shows that there is need to focus on the different functional information needs, including the ones that may seem insignificant even where non-functional requirements may be the same for seemingly similar users. From this argument, it is important that information systems designers, especially for Day labour market organizations, should go deeper into their users and beyond the “about us” information to understand the unique features and requirements of each user group. In conclusion, designers should not assume that seemingly similar organizations/users can be approached from the “one size fits all” IMS perspective.

Open Innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises

In spite of the increased acceptance by most of the corporate business houses around the world, the adaptation of strategies and concepts belonging to the newly evolved dimension of entrepreneurships, the open innovation (OI), countries in the East, West or South are yet to adapt appropriate strategies in their business practices, especially in order to reach out to the grass roots communities, or to the masses. So far, firms belonging to the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) sector, irrespective of their numbers and contributions towards their national economies are lagging behind far in accepting open innovation strategies for their business advancements. While talking about this newly emerged business dimension, it comprises of complex and dynamically developed concepts like, management of various aspects of intellectual property, administration of patents, copyright and trademark issues or supervision of market trend for minute details related to knowledge acquisition. All these issues are largely responsible to add value to the business plan in terms of economy or knowledge gain, and organizations acting in this aspect deserve comprehensive researches and investigations. As most of the developed countries are already in their advanced stage in adopting open innovation strategies, finding this as a weak link in terms of entrepreneurships in less developed countries, this chapter intends to seek answers related to the mentioned issues focusing adaption of open innovation strategies in developing and transitional economies. It is a study on business houses or national efforts from countries belonging to these categories, deducting from a longitudinal literature review. The chapter goes on looking into other aspects of business development incorporating various OI concepts, synthesizes to build a reasonable framework to be applicable in the target economies, points out to some future research aspects and concludes the finding of this research. This study expects to enhance knowledge of entrepreneurs, academics and researchers by gaining specific knowledge on trend of open innovation strategies in developing and transitional countries.

Collaborative Online Learning Tools and Types

Collaborative learning experiences not only promotes critical thinking and reflection in students but also encourages them to develop a sense of community, thus enabling the creation of an environment in which further collaborative work can take place. While technologies to facilitate collaborative learning include a range of features and functionalities, this paper focuses on ten types of tools that deal with idea generation and brainstorming, mapping, design, online group work and document collaboration, and online communication. The present paper explains the online collaboration with its features, preparation required by institution and role of teacher presence in online learning. It highlights on ten different tools based on its function with suitable examples. It also explores paradigm shift from academic librarian to blended librarian, it's possible hurdles and benefits. The blended librarian is versed in both print and online tools and can help faculty meet course goals, regardless of the medium or technology. The paper concludes with how idea of online collaborative learning methodology is likely to evolve and make significant benefits to education, and probably to post educational business collaboration as well.

Managing Seven Dimensions of ICT4D Projects to Address Project Challenges

A large number of ICT for development (ICT4D) projects experience a variety of challenges, especially when conducting field research with disadvantaged communities in developing nations. Using cluster analysis, this chapter identifies the six most common factors associated with a majority of ICT4D project challenges, and depicts the inter-relationship between these factors and over 100 distinct challenges reported by existing literature. In addition, based on the secondary analysis of 380 research artifacts in the ICT4D literature, this chapter proposes ways to manage the scope, time, costs, quality, human resources, communication, and risks for addressing ICT4D project challenges. Findings inform researchers of best practices for conducting ICT4D research with disadvantaged communities in developing nations.

ICT as an Engine for Community Participation

This chapter discusses two issues prevalent in community media: Information communication technology (ICT) and Community participation. While several studies have explored community media and ICT in Uganda (Nassanga, 2003, 2009a, 2009b), the view that ICT has changed the way media operate to an extent of reversing the agenda-setting role to the listeners (McQuail, 2006, pp. 38-39; Straubhaar & Larose 2002, p. 386) needed investigation. Using Kagadi-Kibale Community radio (KKCR), the chapter shows how ICT is spreading in one Ugandan region and the relationship that technology has with participation in community media activities. Findings show that there is need to redefine the relationship between ICT and geographically defined community media as usage of ICT is dependent on forces that still require decades to harmonize. The chapter therefore suggests that an alternative to community media, herein called Basic Media, is best suited to match the communication patterns of a developing world.