Gilford Hapanyengwi

An IT Project Management Framework for Assessing the Dynamism of Culture under Globalization: Evidence from Zimbabwe

Culture has been analysed in information systems IS projects as one of the soft issues that cause project failure. Increased outsourcing and collaboration call for an understanding of the dynamism of cultures in the wake of global influences as a first step towards managing cross cultural Information Technology IT projects. In this study, the authors propose a way of assessing cultural dynamics in the context of trans-national collaboration in IT projects. Using a mixed methods approach consisting of survey and semi-structured interviews for collecting evidence in Zimbabwe, a framework for assessing the current state of communalist culture is proposed. The study showed that in spite of the inroads of Westernization and Commercialization, a culture of sharing prevails although it is affected by sensitivity to cost burden and inroads of individualism.

State of ICT-Business Alignment: A Case of Zimbabwe

Considering the dynamic nature of ICT and its contribution to business growth and prospects which later translate to national development and prosperity, the aim of this research was threefold; study and examine ICT-business alignment cases in Zimbabwe, establish the current state of ICT-business alignment in the Zimbabwean business sector, and determine factors that have a propelling or frictional effect on alignment transition. The research results indicated that ICT and business executives in Zimbabwe appreciate that ICT contributes positively to business growth and sustainability of their organizations. However, the majority of these executives do not understand and apply the concept of IT-business alignment in their organizations. Another notable result was that to achieve alignment in a turbulent environment there are many factors that have a propelling or dragging effect on alignment. The factors have differing magnitude of effect on alignment as such a critical analysis of each factor is required.

A Novel, Serendipitous and Dynamic User-Centric Recommender Algorithm

Information filtering for web service using machine learning has recently grown widely , since information overload has also becoming a serious problem on the World Wide Web. Recommender systems were designed to cater for this problem, but published recommender systems still fail to cope with changes of user’s preferences. This paper summarizes a research that is still going on, to solve the lack of novelty, serendipity and dynamism in recommender systems. Recent research has demonstrated different methodologies to create recommender systems , unfortunately many of these which were evaluated using user-centric evaluation frameworks fall short to fulfill users’ satisfaction. Therefore we propose a unique computational method to create a novel, serendipitous and dynamic recommender system. We used web content mining to gather user profiles from social media, model these profiles, and create an algorithm to suggest user preferences. The results testify that many users’ social profiles for Zimbabweans dominate quite well to determine user preferences. Therefore recommender developers for developing countries, has to gather user’s social profiles to predict their preferences . The main contribution is a holistic approach to model and predict dynamic user-specific preferences from categorized social media profiles namely: social, psychological, cultural, and economic profiles

Using Livelihood Profiles for Assessing Context in ICT4D Resarch: A Case Study of Zimbabwe's Highveld Prime Communal

The importance of context specific ICT4D innovation has been highlighted in Information Systems research by the short‐comings of a‐contextual innovation. This has often been accepted without due understanding of how to develop context specific interventions. There is therefore a need for a framework that elucidates ICT4D contextualisation and guides the development of context specific interventions. This should be useful to practitioners that are constantly advised to develop context specific artefacts without any clarity of how to do so. Using evidence from Zimbabwe this paper proposes the use of livelihood profiles for identifying the livelihood issues that matter in a particular locality and Sens Capability Approach for assessing the opportunity freedoms to exploit the local livelihoods. This is presented as a systematic way of establishing the context under which ICT4D interventions will be deployed. The study uses focus groups under an interpretivist paradigm to investigate contextual issues in Zimbabwe Highveld Prime Communal livelihood zone. The study found a politically polarised contextual setting characterised by poor agricultural finance, ineffective crop and livestock markets, unrewarding labour markets against a good agricultural climate that is affected by cyclical droughts. As a result the study posits that ICT4D innovations for the zone must be designed to operate under these realities and limitations.

A Characterisation and Framework for User-Centric Factors in Evaluation Methods for Recommender Systems

Researchers have worked on-finding e-commerce recommender systems evaluation methods that contribute to an optimal solution. However, existing evaluations methods lack the assessment of user-centric factors such as buying decisions, user experience and user interactions resulting in less than optimum recommender systems. This paper investigates the problem of adequacy of recommender systems evaluation methods in relation to user-centric factors. Published work has revealed limitations of existing evaluation methods in terms of evaluating user satisfaction. This paper characterizes user-centric evaluation factors and then propose a user-centric evaluation conceptual framework to identify and expose a gap within literature. The researchers used an integrative review approach to formulate both the characterization and the conceptual framework for investigation. The results reveal a need to come up with a holistic evaluation framework that combines system-centric and user-centric evaluation methods as well as formulating computational user-centric evaluation methods. The conclusion reached is that, evaluation methods for e-commerce recommender systems lack full assessment of vital factors such as: user interaction, user experience and purchase decisions. A full consideration of these factors during evaluation will give birth to new types of recommender systems that predict user preferences using user decision-making process profiles, and that will enhance user experience and increase revenue in the long run. KEywoRdS Accuracy, Buying Decision, E-Commerce, Recommender Systems (RS), System-Centric, User Retention, User Satisfaction, User Trust, User-Centric A Characterisation and Framework for User-Centric Factors in Evaluation Methods for Recommender Systems Tatenda D. Kavu, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe Kuda Dube, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand Peter G. Raeth, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe Gilford T. Hapanyengwi, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe

Characterisation of Knowledge Incorporation into Solution Models for the Meal Planning Problem

This paper is part of work aimed at investigating an approach to knowledge incorporation into solution models of the Meal Planning Problem MPP for use in mobile web-based HIV/AIDS nutrition therapy management within the context of developing countries, particularly, in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper presents a characterisation of the incorporation of knowledge into the models for the MPP. The characterisation is important for assessing the extent to which MPP models can be adapted for use in different clinical problems with different nutrition guideline knowledge and in different regions of the world with differently customised versions of the guidelines. The characterisation was applied to thirty one works in the literature on MPP models. The main outcome of the application of the characterisation was the finding that the existing MPP models do not provide for the incorporation of nutrition guideline knowledge as first class concepts with identifiable and manageable structures, which makes almost impossible the transfer of knowledge from health experts to patients and from one region of the world to another.