Md. Abul Kalam Siddike

What Makes a System Smart? Wise?

The human-side of service engineering community has an opportunity to participate in an emerging trend to connect sociotechnical system research and engineering with the DIKIW (data-information-knowledge-intelligence-wisdom) hierarchy. The digital economy is grounded in big data and information systems. The knowledge economy is being redefined in the cognitive era by artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing capabilities, and as a result our systems are getting more intelligent or smarter. However, beyond smarter, what are wiser systems? Can these terms be made more rigorous and operational? The goal of this paper is to provide a jumping off point for the AHFE HSSE community on this topic, and to explore the concept of smart versus wise from three related socio-technical systems perspectives: polycentric systems, viable systems, and service systems.

Usage and Applications of Knowledge Management for Improving Library and Information Services in Bangladesh

The aim of this paper is to explore the use and applications of Knowledge Management (KM) for improving Library and Information Services (LIS) in Bangladesh. This paper seeks to address the following research questions: How KM can be used efficiently in the libraries of Bangladesh for the improvement of LIS performance? What KM tools and techniques are being used in the libraries of Bangladesh? What difficulties are faced by the information professionals for applying KM tools and techniques in the libraries of Bangladesh? What are likely to be the means or ways to overcome those difficulties? The methodology includes a combination of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. An in-depth interview method has been used to collect data using a semi-structured questionnaire consisting of open-ended and close-ended questions. The results of this study show that document management is the highly used KM tool used in the libraries of Bangladesh followed by intranet, telephones, instant messenger, groupware, digital warehouse, and web conferencing. Results also reveal that the use and application of KM in LIS supports improved access to information resources and services, enriched professional knowledge of information professionals, enhanced environment and culture of knowledge sharing, and changed work behaviour of information professionals. The study identifies that lack of awareness about KM, lack of skilled manpower, communication gap and lack of knowledge sharing, and lack of technological infrastructure are the main problems for the use and application of KM. Finally, this study suggests that creating awareness about KM, trained and skilled manpower, reducing communication gap and improved knowledge sharing, technological and knowledge infrastructure, and the use of KM system/tools are the possible ways to overcome the problems for the use and application of KM in the libraries of Bangladesh.

Wisdom Service Systems: Harmonious Interactions Between People and Machine

Wisdom is the highest-level decision-making performance, acquired by gaining experience that can be applied in complex, conflict situations as well as interacting with other wise people. We conceptualize wisdom service systems as socio-technical systems in which people use cognitive mediators (smart machines that know people in some ways better than they know themselves and provide a type of weak immortality for people) to augment interaction and decision-making capabilities in a kind of Reality 2.0. Someday cognitive mediators may provide scaffolding and offer options (appropriate recommendations) associated with a situation to help people make wiser decisions to manage complex situations more wisely, overcoming some of the problems of bounded-rationality and becoming more T-shaped in their skillsets and mindsets to communicate better with people from other disciplines, systems, or cultural depth areas. To introduce this concept, we develop a framework for wisdom service systems showing how appropriately designed cognitive mediators may eventually harmoniously interact with people and machines, adapt to evolving situations and contexts, as well as provide prioritized recommendations. The digital cognitive systems framework provides a way to understand the progression: tool, assistant, collaborator, coach, mediator, and sheds light on one interpretation DIKUW: data, information, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Finally, this paper concludes with future research directions to help realize this vision.

Transformation of Public Libraries: Co-creation of Values at Multipurpose Community Learning Centers

Public libraries all over the world are transforming themselves into more community centered for building community. In this paper, first of all, we describe the transformation of public libraries into multipurpose community learning centers (MCLCs). Secondly, we design a value co-creation process model at MCLCs. Thirdly, we examine the co-created values at MCLCs. Finally, we conclude the paper indicating the future of public libraries. Our analysis shows that economic values as well as social values are co-created at MCLCs. In addition, it is a great opportunity to broaden the view of value co-creation in service science.

An Evolving Service System in Microfinance: A Case Study in BRAC, Bangladesh

The prime objective of this paper is to propose an evolving service system for cocreation of value in microfinance. Close monitoring and the role of the customer service assistant (CSA) are the key components of this evolving service system. A semi-structured interview strategy was used to elucidate the evolving service system. We conducted 25 interviews with employees of BRAC’s microfinance program, Bangladesh, and its borrowers. The results show that CSA particularly plays a key role in the evolving service system to provide higher financial literacy than before through their professional activities including pre-disbursement orientations and giving 4 days of training to borrowers.

Acceptance of E-Resources by the Medical Researchers of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B)

The purpose of this paper is to describe the acceptance of e-resources by the medical researchers of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) and its objective is to explore the tendency and frequency of using e-resources by them. Also, this article investigates the purposes, impact, influential factors and barriers of using e-resources by the medical researchers of ICDDR,B. A survey has been conducted by using a short and well-structured questionnaire that was distributed among 120 medical researchers in ICDDR,B. We received 96 questionnaires duly filled up by the respondents with a response rate of 79.99%. The gathered data have been analysed and presented using the descriptive analysis techniques of SPSS 20.0. Findings show that the medical researchers of ICDDR,B show positive attitude towards using e-resources, and researchers use e-resources frequently. Results also indicate that e-resources are very useful to the medical researchers, and MEDLINE is the most used database among the medical researchers of ICDDR,B. The study is based on only ICDDR,B and does not cover all medical (public and private) institutions of Bangladesh. Therefore, further studies would be carried out covering public and private medical institutions in Bangladesh.

Service Innovation Research in the World: A Bibliometric Analysis

The purpose of the study is to find out the growth and development of research productivity in service innovation (SI) in the world during the period of 2001-2011. Firstly, we explore the overall growth of SI research, and then investigate cross-country comparisons in its research performances, with the focus on the world share, relative research effort, impact and quality of top ten productive countries. Furthermore, we develop productive institution index, productive author index and productive journal index in the field of SI. The data was retrieved using Web of Science (WOS) database. The cross-country comparisons show that USA is the leading country and has the biggest world share of SI research.