Michael Bliemel

E-health: applying business process reengineering principles to healthcare in Canada

Healthcare in Canada is facing many problems. The most publicised symptoms are excessive waiting times for patients, lack of access, high cost of delivery and medical errors. e-Health has been introduced as a potential solution for such problems. This research will explore the area of e-health and the technologies as well as the concepts that are included under its large umbrella. Bearing in mind that e-health is more than a set of technological applications, a business process reengineering (BPR) framework will be used to examine the application of particular BPR principles to address specific problems that are plaguing the Canadian healthcare system. The framework identifies the e-health technologies and processes that could best support the effective application of these BPR principles within a healthcare environment, as well as the key barriers impeding their implementation.

Examining the adoption of big data and analytics curriculum

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the demand for big data and analytics curriculum, provide an overview of the curriculum available from the SAP University Alliances program, examine the evolving usage of such curriculum, and suggest an academic research agenda for this topic. Design/methodology/approach In this work, the authors reviewed recent academic utilization of big data and analytics curriculum in a large faculty-driven university program by examining school hosting request logs over a four-year period. The authors analyze curricula usage to determine how changes in big data and analytics are being introduced to academia. Findings Results indicate that there is a substantial shift toward curriculum focusing on big data and analytics. Research limitations/implications Because this research only considered data from one proprietary software vendor, the scope of this project is limited and may not generalize to other university software support programs. Practical implications Faculty interested in creating or furthering their business process programs to include big data and analytics will find practical information, materials, suggestions, as well as a research and curriculum development agenda. Originality/value Faculty interested in creating or furthering their programs to include big data and analytics will find practical information, materials, suggestions, and a research and curricula agenda.

Knowledge Contribution in Social Media: Exploring Factors Influencing Social Taggers’ Acceptance towards Contributing and Sharing Tags

Based on a thorough literature review of social tagging and on technology acceptance models, we developed and empirically validated a motivational model to predict users’ acceptance to add and share tagging content. Four factors successfully predicted users’ intention to add and share metadata tagging content. Unlike previous studies on virtual communities, Reciprocity was found to be positively related to attitude whereas, in line with previous research, Ease of Use and Personal Productivity were confirmed to have substantial influence on users’ attitude, which in turn affects the intention towards creating and sharing tagging content. Our findings are expected to shed light on developing strategies to understand and promote tagging content contribution and sharing which have the potential to increase the collective power and intelligence of the community.

Information gathering within websites: Visualized links for navigation (VLN)

The fundamental model for Web navigation has not changed much since the beginning of the development of Hypertext and Web search engines. Current browsing allows users to search by formulating queries, entering known URLs, and by navigation by following links embedded in webpages. Considerable research has focused on navigation mechanisms to improve the effectiveness of the process of finding relevant information. This paper examines a method for navigating using a technique based on presenting a view of a website as a tree of augmented links that the user can utilize in information gathering tasks. A user study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of this technique. The results of the study indicate that the visualized tree-based presentation technique is effective and has potential to complement traditional query formulation to provide a more effective browsing experience for users.

Enhancing Exploratory Search with Hedonic Browsing Using Social Tagging Tools

Exploratory search offers users the privilege to take command of the search process by browsing, selecting, and navigating through the Web to locate targeted information resources. We introduce hedonic browsing as an enhancement for exploratory search. In this article, we propose and empirically validate a hedonic browsing model using social tagging tools. We introduce two hedonic components, namely Curiosity and Enjoyment, and measure their effect on the social tagging exploratory behavior. Our findings suggest that hedonic tag browsing exists and Curiosity with Enjoyment have a strong impact on exploratory browsing and search of social tags.

Electronic Commerce On-Site Search Services: A State of the Art Review

Many Electronic Commerce websites have vast product catalogues, which require visitors to use an on-site search function to find and consequently purchase the product they desire. This paper illustrates the importance of successful on-site searches, the main Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for on-site searches, and introduces several popular on-site search algorithms and techniques.