Brian H. Cameron

Enterprise systems education: new directions & challenges for the future

Enterprise systems design, implementation, and integration are focal points for business and information technology (IT). Businesses of all sizes are looking to information technology to better integrate with business partners, reduce costs, and provide strategic advantage. These challenges require a new type of technical professional, one with the training and perspective of an enterprise architect with general technical expertise as well as business strategy and planning skills. This paper investigates the need for this new type of IT professional and the implications for higher education.

Enterprise Integration: An Experiential Learning Model

This chapter describes an Experiential Learning model that I developed and have used for several years in our IST senior-level Advanced Enterprise Integration capstone course. I have written and presented on this model many times over the last several years and in this chapter I will describe the rationale for the model, explain the components of the model, and discuss student reactions to the model.

The effectiveness of simulation in a hybrid and on-line networking course

Simulations are an important part of many traditional classes in Computer Networking. As web-based learning environments grow in popularity the need for simulations has become pronounced. This paper reports on a study to compare the performance of students enrolled in two web-based learning environments, one with a simulation package and the second with graphics and text only. Analysis shows statistically significant improvements in performance in the simulation group compared to the other group.

The IT consulting model: innovative methods for industry partnerships

The School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) at The Pennsylvania State University has recently launched a unique Information Technology Consulting Track within the curriculum of the school. This innovative three-course curricular track was the result of numerous strategic consultations and partnerships with a number of corporations.To-date, activities associated with the IT Consulting Track have generated over

A Successful Failure to Collaborate on Storage Technology Education

3 million in corporate donations of hardware, software, and monies. Accenture has recently signed on as the official corporate sponsor of the IT Consulting Track.This paper explores this model of real-world IT consulting education which relies heavily on fostering and maintaining many close corporate relationships. This model of corporate curricular engagement is unique nationally in that it requires close communication and coordination between professors, corporate services, Office of Development, and career services representatives. The School of Information Sciences and Technology at The Pennsylvania State University is the first school in the nation to formally tackle IT consulting education at the undergraduate level. For Accenture, this program represents the first curricular sponsorship of an academic program that the company has conducted.A discussion of the rationale and composition of the IT Consulting Track is also presented. The faculty involved with the IT Consulting Track have also conducted preliminary action research related to the consulting model. A description of the research and findings round out the paper.

Using Problems to Learn Service-Oriented Computing

In industry, up to 40% of an IS budget can be spent on Storage technology, making it the fastest growing segment of IT/IS. While industry has recognised the need to diffuse this technology, academia has been slow to respond to this diffusion need. Universities are not teaching courses in this area and a variety of reasons are presented ranging from lack of skills to cost (the cost of installing a Storage system for use by students is a massive expenditure well beyond the budgets of most IS academic departments).This paper concentrates on the lack of skills (knowledge barriers in the parlance of diffusion of innovation theory) and examines ways to overcome this. The knowledge skills are present in industry, so collaboration between industry and academia is a suggested solution. Collaboration between industry and academia, though, is fraught with problems. The aim of this research therefore is to examine how this collaboration can be effective. Interestingly, the result of this research suggests true collaboration is not the solution, but a win-win situation is still possible for all stakeholders.

A Platform for Recombining Process Knowledge Chunks

Service-oriented computing and the ensuing science of services represent significant challenges to academia. As we come to grips with its many implications, we are slowly beginning to realize the challenges of introducing service-orientation in research. The change also requires a rethinking of strategies used for educating computing professionals. Service-orientation questions the traditional vision of the IT professional as a toolsmith. Instead, it requires shifting the role of the IT professional to that of a participant in a multidisciplinary team of diverse professionals. We describe one specific strategy that is a core part of an ongoing experiment to support such pedagogical practices, and reflect on its usefulness and limitations.

Scaling the Wall: Factors Influencing the Conditions for Market Entry in the Mobile Data Market

We describe ReKon, a platform that contains fine-granular templates, each describing a process knowledge chunk, which may be combined, as needed, to support ad hoc processes needed in large projects. The platform allows user-lead (re)-construction of a process to deal with the unique and emergent needs of a project by leveraging prior knowledge encoded in process chunks. We have populated ReKon with process chunks created from more than 1200 real-world project templates contributed by four consulting organizations. The fine-granularity of process chunks contained in ReKon represents a direct response to the emergent nature of large projects that defies high-volume production processes. The paper develops the underlying meta-model and operations for ReKon that adapt and extend the combination quadrant in Nonaka and Takeuchi’s knowledge creation framework. A two-phase evaluation illustrates the need for ReKon and points to its potential usefulness.

The Effect of Online Gaming, Cognition and Feedback Type in Facilitating Delayed Achievement of Different Learning Objectives

Advances in mobile technology have created a fertile ground for the development of new and innovative information and entertainment services. However, the road from development to commercialization of these services is one that is currently under construction. In this research, we seek to understand the relationships between developers of information services and the powerful mobile network operators that dominate the industry, which in turn shed light on the forces shaping the diversity of information sources on the mobile Internet. To understand these relationships, we have undertaken a research project in which we follow the attempts of a small firm to commercialize their information service in the United States. The project combines knowledge of industry structures with the first-hand market entry experience of a small firm. Results derived from the application of an institutional economics theoretical lens indicate that informal institutions, technology, and market power have combined to create the context for mobile services provision, which can be characterized as a highly fragmented market. This market fragmentation, together with technology, market power, and informal institutions, defines the choices application developers must make and indirectly determines the developers who will and will not be able to enter the market.