Offshoring in the ICT Sector in Europe

In the context of globalization and internationalization, offshoring processes in the ICT Industry have increased considerably in the software and service sector in recent years due to the cost saving strategies and market entry policies of ICT organizations. Through the heterogeneity of the European ICT sector a regionalization trend regarding host country selection for ICT offshore is, nevertheless, observable. Historical and cultural ties between host and home countries as well as related national stereotypes play an important role in the regionalization process. Moreover, due to favorable EU policies and regulations, off- and nearshoring within the European Union acquire an additional attractive character for some major European producers, such as, for example, Germany. Thus the Eastern European Member States, which already build out certain sectoral specialization in regard to ICT service provision, have benefited from direct foreign investments. Off- and nearshoring also imply risks and hidden costs linked to structural aspects in host countries as well as to the overestimation of cultural and historical nearness. In our chapter we discuss the trends of the internationalization process in the European ICT sector taking into account related risks in off- and nearshore processes. We argue, furthermore, that long-term cooperation and intercultural training, with the support of local and European institutions, should be considered to confrontin a better way the challenges of the internationalization of ICT in Europe.

Understanding Brand Web Site Positioning in the New EU Member States

This chapter examines Web sites created by American Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in the Czech Republic. Utilizing a content analysis technique, we scrutinized (1) the type of brand Web site functions, and (2) the similarity ratings between the home (U.S.) sites and Czech sites. Implications are discussed from the Web site standardization versus localization perspective.

Group Decision Making in Computer-Mediated Communication as Networked Communication

Networked communication is proliferating our world. The fact that global information communication technologies (ICTs) are becoming increasingly available is facilitating human computer interaction, which permeates the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in various organizations, groups, and interpersonal contexts. As a result, the issue facing today’s organizations is not whether to use global information technologies (GITs) in networked communication, but rather how to use them for effective functioning and as efficient coordination tool; especially how to incorporate GITs into the decision-making process. Consequently, this chapter examines the issues in designing CMC into group interactions and decision-making processes.

Understanding Social Capital Formation for Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Communities

This chapter attempts to explore the possibility of building social capital in virtual community(VC) by first introducing the phenomenon, its problems and context, types of VCs and the significance of knowledge sharing. This chapter then presents the process of social capital from a sociological standpoint where two main theories will be used—the elementary theory of social structure and the social exchange theory as the backbone of the arguments. By integrating both theories, a conceptual framework that includes six antecedents to develop social capital is provided. Subsequently, the propositions are expressed in terms of implications to the sociological approach of VC and some conclusions are made by including some future research agenda.

Objects as the Primary Design Principle for International Information Systems

This exploratory research project set out to investigate the architecture and design principles of inter-national information systems. Analysing six case vignettes in a modified grounded theory approach, a two-dimensional topology for international information systems—postulated from previous research as a seed concept—was confirmed as a useful architecture paradigm. In its terms, international informa-tion systems are configured from two elements: core systems (common for the whole enterprise) on the one hand, and local systems (specific only for each site) on the other. The interface between the two is a third component. The cases showed that achieving the correct balance between core and local can be a difficult political process and requires careful organisational engineering to be successful. One case vignette, in particular, highlights the logical and organisational difficulties in defining these systems ele-ments. Object orientation as the fundamental design principle is investigated as an approach to provide a solution for this problem. Because it enables implementation differentiation and flexibility for future functional changes, it is conjectured that object technology is an optimal—technical—development strategy for international information systems. Directions for further research are outlined.

Natural Language Processing Agents and Document Clustering in Knowledge Management

While HTML provides the Web with a standard format for information presentation, XML has been made a standard for information structuring on the Web. The mission of the Semantic Web now is to provide meaning to the Web. Apart from building on the existing Web technologies, we need other tools from other areas of science to do that. This chapter shows how natural language processing methods and technologies, together with ontologies and a neural algorithm, can be used to help in the task of adding meaning to the Web, thus making the Web a better platform for knowledge management in general.

Sampling Approaches on Collecting Internet Statistics in the Digital Economy

The Internet’s complexity restricts analysis or simulation to assess its parameters. Instead, actual measurements provide a reality check. Many statistical measurements of the Internet estimate rare event probabilities. Collection of such statistics renders sampling methods as a primary substitute. Within the context of this inquiry, we have presented the conventional Monte Carlo approach to estimate the Internet event probability. As a variance reduction technique, Importance Sampling is introduced which is a modified Monte Carlo approach resulting in a significant reduction of effort to obtain an accurate estimate. This method works particularly well when estimating the probability of rare events. It has great appeal to use as an efficient sampling scheme for estimating the information server density on the Internet. In this chapter, we have proposed the Importance Sampling approaches to track the prevalence and growth of Web service, where an improved Importance Sampling scheme is introduced. We present a thorough analysis of the sampling approaches. Based on the periodic measurement of the number of active Web servers conducted over the past five years, an exponential growth of the Web is observed and modeled. Also discussed in this chapter is the increasing security concerns on Web servers.

Teaching Information Systems to International Students in Australia

GIT and GIS have a significant impact on the undergraduate and postgraduate programs offered in universities in Australia. Further, how to teach IT and IS to international students has been becoming a significant issue for IT and IS programs offered in Australia, in particular in the context of a fiercely competitive market of international students and in the context of GIT and GIS. However, these topics have not drawn the attention of academic researchers so far. This chapter will fill this gap by examining the impact of global information technology on universities in Australia in such areas as curriculum development, textbooks and teaching, and looking at some issues in teaching information technology and information systems to international students from different countries with different IT and IS backgrounds based on the author’s working and teaching experience in three different universities in Australia. This chapter also makes a daring prediction for the impact of GIT on international education in Australia and proposes a few viable strategies for resolving some issues facing international education for IT and IS in Australia. The proposed approach is very useful for research and development of GIT and GIS as well as for IT/IS programs in Australian universities.

Digital Preservation by Design

Current knowledge is produced, disseminated, and stored in digital format. This data will not be preserved by benign neglect; digital information will be preserved only through active management. This chapter will provide a theoretical foundation for digital preservation, an overview of current best practice for digital preservation, and a research agenda as well as a proscriptive framework by which to design digital preservation into a system.

Quality Standardization Patterns in ICT Offshore

In recent years, the ICT branch has experienced new internationalization impulses through the improvement of offshore practices. Particularly the development of modularization and standardization of some production processes have crucially contributed to enabling offshoring in globalized areas of ICT. Competencies as well as innovation sources have increasingly fragmented; resting upon cooperation and trust principles. Quality standards play a crucial role to satisfy and optimize these coordination and regulation needs so to warrant quality outcomes. In this chapter, I will give an overview of the development of quality standards related to offshore projects, focusing particularly on recent practices in Europe. To illustrate the importance of quality standards and quality management for ICT off- and nearshore projects, and moreover for the internationalization of the ICT branch, I present some preliminary results of my work in progress. From the perspective of project managers in large ICT firms, quality standards play a very important role as the internal controlling instrument of working and communication processes; as well as an external mechanism beyond the ICT network in order to get market advantages.