Outline of a Design Tool for Analysis and Visual Quality Control of Urban Environments

In this chapter, the main idea about a design tool and its object database system will be described. The design tool should improve design practice with respect to analysis and improving existing and planned urban environments. Preconditions for defining the design tool’s purpose are the determination of the “well-situated” urban elements, their impact on cognitive mapping, and the exploitation of the knowledge on cognitive mapping for the improvement of urban environments. This leads to the conclusion that an urban environment design, which takes of the process of cognitive mapping into consideration, will be experienced by most of the people in the same way. Investigations of this process result in a conceptual model of the tool by using elements of urban environments, their relationships and their dependencies. The theoretical background of the tool is based on design theory, cognitive science and computer science. Design theory and cognitive science will be used to develop the conceptual model. This conceptual model together with computer science will be the basis platform for tool development. The tool uses a schematic representation of urban environment, based on Lynch’s theory of “urban forms.” Lynch’s theory is crucial for the tool development because it explains elements of urban environments. Systematic investigation of urban environments and their characteristics are also important for the object schema of the tool. The tool will use an object database system, which help to represent and to handle the urban elements with their properties and relationships, with their natural semantics. The information represented in the database will be used to analyze urban environment with the aim to improve and control their visual quality.

The Implementation of Electronic Network Systems in Japanese Firms

This study aims at investigating the implementation process of electronic network systems in Japanese large firms, focusing on the innovativeness among industries to which firms belong. The electronic network systems such as Local Area Network (LAN) have spread rapidly during last several years. Accordingly, many firms in Japan have introduced them in their organizations. After the advent of the computer invention, computer and telecommunications technologies have merged into information technology, making a remarkable progress constantly for several decades. The electronic network systems are a kind of information technology, going back to 1950s when data communications systems were first developed. In the beginning were these systems managed by professional people. However, due to the rapid progress of the information technology, even untrained people who have no specific knowledge about IT or do not belong to the IT section have been able to use the electronic network systems in business organizations since the late 1980s. In addition, especially with the appearance of multimedia systems and the expansion of the usage of Internet, many organizations have begun introducing electronic network systems since 1990s. For this study, we sent questionnaires in 1996 to Japanese large firms in which they employed more than 1000 people. Based on the results and the interviews made in connection with this research work, we analyze first the state of the introduction of the electronic network systems, focusing on the innovativeness of firms. Next, we examine why the electronic network systems have come into wide use among Japanese large firms.

Exploring the Common Ground of Virtual Communities

A great deal of the literature on virtual communities evolves around classifying the phenomenon1 while much empirically constructive work on the topic has not been conducted yet. Therefore, the research discussed in this paper proposes to explore the actual field of the virtual community (VC). By means of a comparative ethnographic research, virtual communities are to be defined in terms of their inherent social activity, the interaction between the groups of people and the information and communication technology (ICT), and the meanings attached to it by its members. This chapter will report on the initial propositions, research questions and approach of the explorative research of working towards a “workable definition” of virtual communities. It will also present its “work to be done” which will ultimately form the basis of moving beyond defining virtual communities, i.e., actually designing and deploying one.

EMS Records and Information Management of Environmental Aspects and Their Associated Impacts with Metadata

Metadata in environmental management systems support searching and browsing operations. XML-based metadata systems can store metadata in a flexible manner that is suitable also for small and medium size organizations. Our EcoExplorer software package consists of three closely cooperating programs for the management of XML-based environmental metadata. It is implemented in Java and therefore platform-independent. The EcoExplorer is able to collaborate with online components of an environmental management system, as demonstrated by our eco-balancing and environmental accounting system ACCOUNT.

Intelligent Transport Systems for Electronic Commerce - A Preliminary Discussion in the Australian Context

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) refers to transportation systems which apply emerging hard and soft information systems technologies to enhance the overall performance of transport system, presenting a paradigm shift in transportation. Electronic commerce (e-commerce) with its ability to conduct business transactions through open networks and deliver products and services in a global market in which geographical boundaries and location lose their meaning, is creating a paradigm shift in commerce. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is the unifying element in ITS and e-commerce. This chapter analyses the significance of ITS as an enabler to effective e-commerce by supporting logistics and improving supply chain management.

Requirements Engineering During Virtual Software Development

There has been growing interest in virtual teams, and more specifically in virtual software development. Requirements engineering, which is seen as a crucial phase in software development provides another dimension when software development occurs in a virtual setting. While formal software development methods are the obvious first choice for project managers to ensure a virtual information system project team remains on track, the social aspects of requirements engineering cannot be ignored. These social aspects are especially important across different cultures, and have been shown to affect the success of an information system. This chapter proposes a framework indicating that project managers need to encourage a balance between formal methods and social aspects in requirements engineering to suit the virtual team members.

The Competence-Based View on the Management of Virtual Web Organizations

The organizational concept of virtual Web organizations encompasses three organizational elements, namely the relatively stable virtual Web platform from which dynamic virtual corporations derive. Virtual corporations are interorganizational adhocracies that are configured temporally of independent companies in order to serve a particular purpose, such as joint R&D, product development, and production. The third element of this organizational construct is the management organization that initiates and maintains the virtual Web platform as well as forms and facilitates the operation of dynamic virtual corporations. Since the organizational concept of virtual Web organizations is hardly researched this chapter aims to provide readers with a better understanding of the organizational concept of virtual Web organizations and in particular of how such an organizational construct is managed. Based on empirical research the author developed a competence-based management model of virtual Web management organizations. This competence-based view of virtual Web management organizations presents an overview of a set of common sub-competencies underlying the three virtual Web management’s main competencies of initiating and maintaining virtual Web platforms and forming dynamic virtual corporations. Furthermore, the developed competence-based management model describes the content of the individual sub-competencies and it explains the purpose, the interrelateness and the temporal dimensions of the virtual Web management’s sub-competencies.

Digitization as Adaptation

In 1994, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund Program began to develop a paper imaging system known as the Superfund Document Management System (SDMS). SDMS came into being as an attempt to improve management of and access to Agency records. An Agency workgroup composed primarily of Superfund records managers developed functional criteria for the application, and elected an Agency regional office for implementation pilot. At the time of this writing all EPA Superfund regional offices have implemented SDMS. For reasons described in this chapter, even as SDMS achieved institutional acceptance it faced pressures to adapt to internal and external pressures. The emergence of the World Wide Web, the inevitability of electronic records, the rising costs of maintaining large paper collections all combined to produce a niche different in key aspects from that which the system was originally designed to occupy. This chapter discusses how the interactions of two life cycles — records and systems development — affected the fitness of the system to its environment.

The Practice of Information Resource Management in Australian Government Organisations

The concept of Information Resource Management (IRM) was introduced in the mid-1970’s by the United States federal government as part of its attempt to reduce the paperwork burden on the general public. Since then, the concept of IRM has evolved and taken on many meanings and diverse interpretations ranging from technical perspectives to purely “Information Management” perspectives. These diverse interpretations, at least in the Australian context, have held back the successful implementation of IRM in practice. As part of a larger program of research on IRM, a survey of IS/IT executives in some national and state public sector organisations was conducted. The survey revealed a lack of penetration of IRM in Australian public sector organisations, a pattern of mixed success and even a lack of awareness of IRM.

Citizen Access and Use of Government Data

Government data has a value to citizens. That value may be economic – helping citizens improve their employment or income-generation potential – or it can be personal/social – helping the citizen to improve their home or community. Citizen access to government data can therefore be seen as an important component of both economic and social development. Yet that access can be a problematic process. This chapter, therefore, analyses the barriers that need to be understood and addressed if citizen access to government data is to become a more widespread reality.