Greg Adamson

Portals and the Challenge of Simplifying Internet Business Use

The Internet promised a lot for enterprises from 1995. The Internet’s ubiquity offered intercompany connectivity (previously provided to corporations by Electronic Data Interchange) for businesses of every size. The business-to-business (B2B) trading exchange concept emerged, 10,000 B2B exchanges were anticipated. Early Internet investment then struck an unexpected hurdle: the Internet didn’t inherently support many of the key requirements for business transactions (such as reliability, confidentiality, integrity, authentication of parties). These requirements added to the cost and complexity of Internet investment. The dot.com stock market crash affected all Internet-related initiatives. But while the B2B exchanges disappeared, other initiatives more aligned to user needs and the Internet’s architecture continued to grow. These included the enterprise portal, which supports the traditional single-business-centred customer relationship model, in contrast to the business disruptive B2B exchange model.

One hundred reasons socially beneficial technology might not work

Technologies service many human needs. Socially beneficial technologies can also assist in resolving some of the worlds most pressing problems: climate change; access to safe drinking water; quality housing; universal health care. Often a technology already exists, awaiting to be applied. In other cases it is within grasp given appropriate prioritisation. This paper considers approximately 100 theories of and approaches to technology innovation and adoption regarding the question, How is the failure of socially beneficial technology explained? Approaches include legal, regulatory, political, philosophical, sociological, usage, psychological, technical, economic, commercial, and marketing. This paper creates a framework of six categories in order to classify and compare the theories. It then proposed further research steps to examine the question.

Wiener's Cybernetics Legacy and the Growing Need for the Interdisciplinary Approach [Scanning Our Past]

Presents the work of Norbert Wiener and explores his cybernetics legacy as well as his strong support for interdisciplinary research.

Socially Beneficial Technology: Can It Be Achieved In Practice?

Is the effort of engineers to advance technology for social benefit worthwhile? One widely accepted definition of social benefit, the UN Declaration of Human Rights, includes several rights that depend to a greater or lesser extent on technology. On the face of it this validates the effort of engineers. Yet prominent economist Friedrich Hayek queried the very concept of social benefit. This gap between the engineering and economic perspectives is not widely recognized. While initially neutral on the purpose of economic activity, economist Michael Porter has taken a position supporting social benefit.

The persistent challenge of health informatics

ABSTRACT Healthcare is the recipient of significant expenditure throughout the world today. With ageing populations, rising expectations, and the development of advanced health treatments, expenditure is not only significant, but also increasing. Control of rising costs has been a common theme of health technology projects, particularly those in health informatics. Yet application of advanced technique to the management of health and health information lags behind many other industries. This paper considers the relationship between three potential drivers of technology projects in health: technologists, management, and medical practitioners. It places each of these in the context of general information technology projects. It concludes with current developments that may advance or hinder the future success of health-related technology initiatives.

Norbert Wiener on technology and society

Norbert Wiener was interested in the social implications of technology and in particular in the historical, environmental, humanitarian, developmental, ethical implications and issues of discrimination. This research examines his writings for his views on these topics. It also examines the notion that Wieners work, including his work on cybernetics, was anti-humanistic and militaristic. It identifies themes in the development of his ideas on the topics, including his life experiences, and relates to these to his exhortation to follow interesting problems.

Enhancing Enterprise and Service-Oriented Architectures with Advanced Web Portal Technologies

Service-oriented architectures are of vital importance to enterprises maintaining order and service reputation with stakeholders, and by utilizing the latest technologies, advantage can be gained and time and effort saved. Enhancing Enterprise and Service-Oriented Architectures with Advanced Web Portal Technologies offers the latest research and development within the field, filled with case studies, research, methodologies, and frameworks from contributors around the world. In order to stay abreast of the cutting-edge research in the field, it is vital for academics and practitioners to stay involved and studied with the latest publications. This volume contains a wide range of subject matters, levels of technical expertise and development, and new technological advances within the field, and will serve as an excellent resource both as a handbook and a research manual.

New Generation of Portal Software and Engineering: Emerging Technologies

Portals and Service Oriented Architecture in general are important areas of study given the growing complexity of modern technology systems. A Portal provides a means of presenting information in an on-line environment. Portals today are widely associated with the World Wide Web. New Generation of Portal Software and Engineering: Emergining Technologies presents a strong understanding of Portals, SOA, the published research in these fields, as well providing an enterprise-based experience of factors that challenge implementation of Portal and SOA projects in practice. This book includes a balance of background information, summarizing the state of a particular area, and new research that is previously unpublished. These include trends in Portal technology, Service Oriented Architecture, Business issues in Portal and SOA uptake, among others.

Do We Just \"Build Stuff\"? [President's Message]

very day as engineers and technologists we go to work teaching, developing, building, implementing, maintaining technology. Do we care about its impact on the people around us? Or is that their problem? My first career was in publishing in the 1970s, as a typographer. The company’s phototypesetting system was 1960s technology, still functioning effectively for the book, magazine, and newspaper production the company did. Then in the early 1980s desktop publishing struck. In a surprisingly brief time its quality went from internal newsletters to high-end advertising. While some typographers were still required for the high-end work, the vast majority of roles disappeared, as the need to rekey copy disappeared. I was fortunate, being young enough to retrain first as a phototypesetting equipment technician, and then as a data communications engineer, a change I have never regretted. This sort of rapid technology disruption occurs repeatedly. In coming years the pace of disruption can be expected to increase, and this raises the question: Do technologists have a responsibility to the communities that our technologies disrupt? As an individual, we are all part of a bigger picture. We can comfort ourselves that technology disruption has always occurred, and that society has always managed to survive. This approach works best if we ignore the historical and sociological evidence of the damage experienced individually and by communities as the disruption occurs. Or we can take refuge in Joseph Schumpeter’s 1930s term “creative destruction,” interpreting the disruption as some sort of natural force. (Schumpeter himself was never blasé about its impact, and expressed deep concern about society’s ability to survive the destruction.) Some years later I discovered to my surprise that one technologist had warned of the impending disappearance of typographers. Norbert Wiener, founder of cybernetics, had approached a leader of the U.S. typographers’ union with the warning that the profession would be automated in a generation. He received the response that this threat to jobs was too far in the future to worry about. This example is indicative of the difficulty of explaining future changes. Nevertheless, technologists have a unique perspective on what a new technology can achieve. If we don’t let the community know, who will? This subject will be discussed at a keynote panel, “Technologists and the Future of Work: Do we have a responsibility to the community?”, at the IEEE Conference on Norbert Wiener in the 21st Century, Melbourne, Australia, July 13–15, 2016.

Improving Our \"Engineering-Crazed\" Image [President's Message]

recently watched The Martian, a great advertisement for engineering. Back in the real world, I read an October 7, 2015, Bloomberg report laying responsibility for the VW environmental impact deception on “engineering-crazed executives.” Not a good image. In addition to the anticipated financial impact on the company, it is a setback to the credibility of technologists, one that brings ethics to the fore. Ethics can be thought of in many ways, and here I want to mention two: the ethics we want, and the ethics we need. Both of these lead to the same conclusion, so they are complementary rather than alternative ways of viewing ethics. The ethical values we want promote a world we want to live in. They reflect our values, including the values that made us want to solve problems, to become technologists. They provide whistle blowers with the spirit to stand up for what is right and reject what is wrong. They are also hard for an individual to maintain in the face of commercial or other powerful self-interest. In the end, a hostile environment will drive the most principled technologist to seek shelter – a different role, a better organization. The ethical values we need are those without which we can’t work. If we destroy public trust, the company or organization we work for fails. Failure to protect the environment may make the public a little suspicious of the ability of a car to protect their safety. In the future, cars will hold enormous amounts of data about their passengers. Are we more or less willing to trust that manufacturer with that data after the recent revelations? This takes us back to the earliest engineering codes of ethics. IEEE can trace its Code back to 1912. Edwin Layton has written on this in his excellent book, The Revolt of the Engineers: Social Responsibility and the American Engineering Profession (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986). He describes the early interest of professional organizations in engineering ethics as the quest for professional respect, like doctors and lawyers. In the following decades the question arose: is our primary loyalty to our employer, or to the public interest? Over time the public interest won, as professional organizations that promoted public interest grew and others stagnated. Public interest has since been embedded in consumer protection and other legislation. When we think of our actions as solely ensuring that we hold true to our personal beliefs, we can feel very isolated. When we think of them as protecting our professional standing, the future of the organization we work for, and the livelihood of our colleagues, it is far less isolating.