Web Services Management

The widespread use and expansion of the World Wide Web has revolutionized the discovery, access, and retrieval of information. The Internet has become the doorway to a vast information base and has leveraged the access to information through standard protocols and technologies like HyperText Markup Language (HTML), active server pages (ASP), Java server pages (JSP), Web databases, and Web services. Web services are software applications that are accessible over the World Wide Web through standard communication protocols. A Web service typically has a Webaccessible interface for its clients at the front end, and is connected to a database system and other related application suites at the back end. Thus, Web services can render efficient Web access to an information base in a secured and selective manner. The true success of this technology, however, largely depends on the efficient management of the various components forming the backbone of a Web service system. This chapter presents an overview and the state of the art of various management approaches, models, and architectures for Web services systems toward achieving quality of service (QoS) in Web data access. Finally, it discusses the importance of autonomic or self-managing systems and provides an outline of our current research on autonomic Web services.

Electronic Risk Management

Doing business on the Internet has many opportunities along with many risks. This chapter focuses on a series of risks of legal liability arising from e-mail and Internet activities that are a common part of many e-businesses. Some of the laws governing these electronic activities are new and especially designed for the electronic age, while others are more traditional laws whose application to electronic activities is the novelty. E-business not only exposes companies to new types of liability risk, but also increases the potential number of claims and the complexity of dealing with those claims. The international nature of the Internet, together with a lack of uniformity of laws governing the same activities in different countries, means that companies need to proceed with caution.

Organizational Culture for Knowledge Management Systems

Knowledge is increasingly being viewed as a critical component for organizations. It is largely people-based and the characteristics of groups of individuals, in the form of organizational cultures, may play a key role in the factors that lead to either the acceptance or rejection of knowledge management systems (KMS). The primary objective of this research is to explore how dimensions of organizational culture influence factors that lead to the acceptance of KMS. While researchers have agreed that culture plays an important role in KMS, the literature has only recently begun to examine organizational culture within this context. We examined the effects of three dimensions of organizational culture through a research model that was tested and analyzed utilizing a field survey of corporate knowledge management users. Our results indicated that both process-oriented and open communication system organizational cultures significantly influenced the factors that led to the acceptance of KMS.

Pattern Management

Knowledge intensive applications rely on the usage of knowledge artifacts, called patterns, to represent in a compact and semantically rich way huge quantities of heterogeneous raw data. Due to pattern characteristics of patterns, specific systems are required for pattern management in order to model, store, retrieve and manipulate patterns in an efficient and effective way. Several theoretical and industrial approaches (relying on standard proposals, metadata management and business intelligence solutions) have already been proposed for pattern management. However, no critical comparison of the existing approaches has been proposed so far. The aim of this chapter is to provide such a comparison. In particular, specific issues concerning pattern management systems, pattern models and pattern languages are discussed. Several parameters are also identified that will be used in evaluating the effectiveness of theoretical and industrial proposals. The chapter is concluded with a discussion concerning additional issues in the context of pattern management.

IT Infrastructure Capabilities and Business Process Improvements

It has been widely discussed in the management information systems (MIS) literature that the outcomes of information technologies (IT) and systems may be subject to the influence of the characteristics of the organization, including those of the IT and business leadership. This study was conducted to examine the relationships that may exist between IT infrastructure capabilities (ITC), business process improvements (BPI), and such IT governance-related constructs as the reporting relationship between the chief executive officer (CEO) and chief information officer (CIO), and senior management support of IT and BPI projects. Using a sample of 243 multinational and Hong Kong-listed firms operating in Greater China, this study yielded empirical support for the perceived achievement of capabilities in some dimensions of the IT infrastructure in the companies under study. It was found that the BPI construct was related to the reporting relationship between the CEO and CIO (CEO-CIO distance), and to the levels of senior management support. The dimensions of the ITC construct were also investigated and identified by an exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Associations were found between the selected organizational constructs and the ITC dimensions, except in two hypothesized relationships. Those between CEO-CIO distance and the ITC dimensions of data integration and training were not supported at the significance level of 0.05.

Knowledge Fusion

The article proposes a simple framework termed ‘knowledge fusion’ to extend the rigor and relevance of knowledge management (KM). It points to some gaps in the current body of knowledge about KM, and provides a parsimonious set of ‘partitions’ that link to and from traditional knowledge management research and practice. It proposes that attention be paid to knowledge mobilization that reflects the demand side that is dominated by knowledge being part of individual identity and hence personal choice of whether, where, why and with whom to share knowledge and expertise as oppose to just understanding the traditional knowledge management that addresses only the supply side of information and the creation of environments for communication and collaboration, especially those “knowledge” largely being independent of the individual.

Politics, Accountability, and Information Management

This chapter provides examples of the politics of managing information in public organizations by studying both its internal and external aspects. Within the organization, politics is involved in structuring decision making, struggles over purchases of hardware and software, interdepartmental sharing of information, and the flow of communications such as e-mail among employees. The chapter analyzes examples of each of these internal aspects of politics. The chapter also discusses evidence concerning whether political appointees or career administrators are more effective as information managers. Externally, the chapter discusses how information management has been used to attempt to achieve greater political accountability through e-reporting and examples of cases where purchasing problems spill over into the realm of external politics such as through attempts to privatize governmental information management function. Certain topics such as municipal broadband systems and information management disasters are highly likely to involve information managers in politics. The attempts to use governmental Web sites as mechanisms to achieve e-governance and greater citizen participation in the political process also make it impossible for information managers to insulate themselves against politics.

Developing a Basis for Global Reciprocity

Professional standards are a significant issue for professions such as IT and project management, where certification and licensure are either necessary to practice or to demonstrate individual competence and capability. In many professions there is no basis for international reciprocity of professional standards. This paper documents the development of a standard for global reciprocity between already existing professional standards in the field of project management. Data are based on personal involvement by the authors and interviews with participants. This discussion addresses different approaches to standardisation, how common issues in the standardisation process have been addressed, and how the hindering influence of the professional associations’ proprietorial interest was avoided. Significantly different standards of development processes have been used compared to those typical in Project Management standards development, including: an emphasis on negotiation and joint modification rather than market dominance, and an open access approach, rather than one based on exclusion and gate-keeping.

Education for IT Service Management Standards

Service management standards such as the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), and now ISO/IEC 20000, provide guidance and tools for the effective management and control of IT service delivery. These standards are of increasing importance to organizations around the globe. Education about these standards and possibilities for training IT staff are, therefore, important. Universities have a place in this education process; however, academics have not embraced these standards in either research or education about them. Regardless, demand grows for IT staff qualified at various levels, particularly on basic or foundational levels, in these standards. This article considers the training offered and the requirement for education related to IT service management. Benefits to universities, graduates, and industry are numerous including increases in student numbers, enhanced employment options for graduates, and improved IT service quality, but there are challenges too, in particular, how to effectively transfer the knowledge to students who have not experienced the IT service environment firsthand.

Knowledge Management Systems for Emergency Preparedness

This article is about the design and implementation of an information system, using Wiki technology to improve the emergency preparedness efforts of the Claremont University Consortium. For some organizations, as in this case, responding to a crisis situation is done within a consortium environment. Managing knowledge across the various entities involved in such efforts is critical. This includes having the right set of information that is timely and relevant and that is governed by an effective communication process. This study suggests that Wiki technology might be useful to support knowledge management in the context of emergency preparedness within organizations. However, issues such as training in the use of a system(s), a knowledge-sharing culture among entities involved in emergency preparedness, and a fit between task and technology/system must be there in order to support emergency preparedness activities that are given such structures.