Richard G. Platt

WIKINOMICS: How Mass Collaboration Changes

Ten years ago in 1997, at the height of the dot.com bubble and in the midst of the Y2K furor, one of the most profound books on IT and culture encountered by this reviewer was Growing up Digital. In that book, the author described some of the cultural and experiential differences between the Net-generation (N-Gen) that was growing up having always had the personal computer and the Internet (and cell phones and CDs and . . . ) and the previous generations for whom these technologies represented a still somewhat unique and surprising world. Remember, 1997 was before there was a Google and the Netscape browser still ruled the day. For these NGeners, using the computer and the Internet was like breathing: it was just something they did, and they took it for granted. The author of that book was Don Tapscott.

E-Commerce Courses: Overview of Nature and Content

Abstract This article examines the content of e-commerce course syllabi available electronically on the World Wide Web. Two data sources, Google Web Directory for E-Commerce Courses and ISWorld Nets Electronic Course Syllabi Page, provided 65 usable course syllabi representing 47 colleges and universities. Our analysis revealed that most of the courses were graduate level and used between one and four textbooks as the primary reading source. The books, nontextbook reading sources, and topics covered varied. No one book or nontextbook reading source predominated among the courses; and electronic payment systems, security issues, and business models were the only topics covered the majority of the time.

A teaching module to introduce encryption for web users

This paper presents the components of a module of approximately two hours duration that is designed to expose students to the basic functioning of a private/public key encryption system and how it is employed in the web environment. The intended audience is students with basic computer literacy skills. The focus of the paper is the uses of encryption without focusing on the underlying mathematics of encryption. Since the Internet is an unsecured and relatively unregulated medium, the user must be able to identify the level of confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility that the different uses of encryption will provide. The module provides an efficient way of presenting the techniques, issues, and nomenclature of current encryption systems to a relatively unsophisticated audience in a limited period of time.

MAG-EX: a magnetics fabrication expert system focusing expert systems technology on improving quality control

Abstract This paper describes the development and experiences involved with creating a prototype application for the use of expert systems technology in manufacturing, specifically in quality control. The company described in the paper is an electronics manufacturer specializing in power supplies and amplifiers for military and commercial applications. It currently relies heavily on traditional manufacturing information systems technology. Quality control must meet DoD and other regulations and directly affects the bottom-line. As a potential expert system project, management felt as though product quality and the company as a whole could benefit from strategic development in Quality Assurance. The paper discusses the process, the difficulties, and the derived benefits to quality control from the development of an expert system application. Further, the paper reports on additional training benefits derived from the explanation capability of the expert system.

Offshoring Secrets Building & Running a Successful India Operation

Outsourcing is defined as an arrangement in which one company provides services for another company that could also be, or usually have been, provided in-house. (htt~://searchcio.techtare;et.comlsDefinO,.sidl2 nci21273 1 .OO.html). Outsourcing in the IT industry is not a new phenomenon. Early providers of outsourcing in the IT industry included IBM and Electronic Data Systems (EDS). According to the EDS web site @ttp://www.eds.com) EDS began its service provision contracts to companies in the early 1960s and grew its business to become a 20+ billion USD technology service provider. Even in the midst of the 2008 economic recession, IBM announced a healthy profit in the third quarter and kept its profit projects for well into 2009, fueled in no small part by its earnings as a major service provider to many international corporations.

Business unIntelligence: Insight and Innovation Beyond Analytics and Big Data, by Barry Devlin

I think that C-level executives need to understand that technology is a tool that can provide a tremendous amount of value. But it’s really the business processes and business discipline that make a difference. If you can gather all of the data together, and it’s all accurate, and you have a good system of record, then the power of that information for those in the executive suite is incredible. But without the processes within the business to make sure that all that information is accurate, that it’s coming in the right way, they’re not going to get the value of information technology that they’re paying for. —Denise Coyne, Chevron Chief Information Officer (Tanaka, 2010)