Saad Haj Bakry

A strategic view for the development of EhBusiness

Ehbusiness is becoming increasingly important for countries, organizations and individuals, as it gives them efficiency, and as it integrates them together, and with the world at large. This paper aims at providing a strategic view for the development of ehbusiness. Copyright

Toward the development of a standard e-readiness assessment policy

Information networking for digital integration is becoming of increasing importance for national and international organizations concerned with development. E-Readiness assessments, for various countries, are associated with the investigation of their state of readiness for such integration. They help in understanding the problems that need to be resolved in order to avoid digital divide, or even digital isolation, from world development. Such assessments lack standard policies, which provide unified measures that ease evaluations, support analysis and comparisons, and help in diagnosing problems and deriving solutions. This paper is concerned with the development of a standard e-readiness assessment policy. It provides a base for the development of such a policy, and hopes that this base will contribute to a future standard international policy.

Toward Building the Knowledge Culture: Reviews and a KC-STOPE with Six Sigma View

Building the knowledge culture is of increasing importance, not only because of its role in providing sound knowledge management and effective knowledge-based economic development, but also because of its support to environment protection, intercultural harmony and human well-being. This paper provides a review of the knowledge culture and its related issues, and introduces a development framework for building this culture. The proposed framework integrates the main knowledge activities of knowledge generation, diffusion and utilization into an activated “Knowledge Circle: KC†. It uses the five-domain structure of “Strategy, Technology, Organization, People and Environment: STOPE†to map and interrelate the various issues associated with the knowledge culture. In addition, it adopts the “Six-Sigma†principles, and its continuous process of “Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control: DMAIC†as an approach to the work toward building the target culture. The paper calls for building the knowledge culture, not only at an organization, or a country level, but also at the global level. It provides its KC-STOPE with Six-Sigma framework for this purpose and strongly recommends its use for future development toward building the target culture.

A STOPE model for the investigation of compliance with ISO 17799-2005

Purpose – With the widespread of e‐services, provided by different organizations at the internal intranet level, the business extranet level, and the public internet level, compliance with international information security management standards is becoming of increasing importance for establishing a common and safe environment for such services. The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of a mathematical model that enables the investigation of compliance of organizations with the widely acknowledged international information security management standard ISO 17799‐2005.Design/methodology/approach – The model is based on the strategy, technology, organization, people and environment – STOPE – framework that provides an integrated well‐structured view of the various factors involved. The paper addresses the use of the model for practical investigations; it describes a practical example illustrating possible practical results.Findings – The results show the strengths and the weaknesses of compli...

A tutorial on using genetic algorithms for the design of network topology

The design of network topology is an important part of network design, since network topology is directly associated with network operational behavior, capacity, reliability, and cost. This paper is a tutorial paper concerned with illustrating how the optimization capabilities of genetic algorithms can be used to design suitable network topologies considering basic topology problems. Simple genetic algorithms have been developed for the topology problem of mesh networks, considering single node and single link failure tolerance. The algorithms are based on criteria of two important measures: minimizing the length of communication links; and minimizing traffic flow through these links for given traffic loads. The first measure contributes to minimizing the cost of cabling, while the second measure contributes to minimizing the cost of link capacity. The work provides a useful approach and tools to network students and professionals concerned with the topology design of backbone networks. The developed software is made available on the Internet.

Performance-based evaluations of the tangible benefits of information networks with applications

This paper provides a new methodology for the evaluation of the tangible benefits of information networks, based on their utilization and performance. The methodology enables the evaluation of different tangible benefits including those resulting from time, movement, paper, and space savings. Copyright

STOPE-based approach for e-readiness assessment case studies

The STOPE-based approach is used here for practical e-readiness assessment case studies. The approach integrates and evaluates the various e-readiness assessment issues, over its well-structured domains: strategy, technology, organization, people, and environment. The case studies considered concern three Saudi organizations: a government organization, a bank, and a private sector company. The results obtained provide e-readiness indicators that illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of each organization with regard to e-readiness strategic development issues, information and communication technology (ICT)issues, management and organization issues, people issues, and environment issues within which the organization operates. The work shows how the approach can be practically used, and it also provides practical results that direct the organizations concerned toward enhancing their e-readiness in response to the current trend of globalizing e-business.

Grid computing: a STOPE view

Grid computing is emerging as the foundation upon which virtual organizations can be built. Such organizations are becoming of increasing importance for tackling various projects, both in academic and in business fields. This paper is concerned with presenting an integrated view of the grid to readers interested in understanding it, or perhaps in developing it further or making use of it in the future. The target view is based on the STOPE (strategy/technology/organization/people/environment) framework that has previously been used to integrate the issues of various information technology problems over its well-defined domains. For strategy, the view considers the reasons associated with the need for the grid, including grid services and grid benefits. For technology, the technical components of the grid and their functions are taken into account. For organization, the organizations concerned with the development, technology production, service provisioning and use of the grid are considered. For people, those associated with the grid in the related organizations are taken into account. For the environment, rules, practices and support associated with the grid are discussed. Finally, the paper emphasizes questions that need to be answered in order to contribute to the future development of the grid.

Creativity and Innovation in Higher Education Research: Problems and Solutions

Creativity and innovation are main sources of development leading to both: wealth generation and job creation. While creativity produces knowledge, innovation makes practical utilization of it to provide value. This paper questions the contribution of higher education HE research to creativity and to innovation. It provides a background that identifies the various issues concerned; and it emphasizes the different types of research versus HE research considerations. It recognises the low share of HE in funding and in performing research; and it also stresses the opportunities enjoyed by HE to do better in both: creativity and innovation. It addresses various potential considerations including: HE-government and HE-business cooperation platforms; in addition to new research degrees and other potential arrangements. In this respect, it highlights experience from Saudi Arabia. The paper hopes to activate worldwide sharing of ideas on the future role of HE research in world development.

Cultural Pluralism in the Context of the Knowledge Society Ecosystem: Reviews and Views

With Huntington’s warning of a “clash of civilizations†following the end of the cold war, “cultural pluralism†has become important for enhancing world peace and supporting development. In this paper, cultural pluralism is viewed as a “knowledge society†problem, where intercultural knowledge is produced, disseminated and used within an ecosystem of mutual understanding and respect. The authors present key cultural pluralisms efforts, providing an overall picture of the issues involved. These efforts include: the 2001 United Nations (UN) resolution on dialogue among civilizations; the 2001 UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declaration on cultural diversity; the 2005 Rabat conference on dialogue among cultures and civilizations; and the 2008 Madrid world conference on dialogue. In the second part of this paper, cultural pluralism issues are restructured according to the knowledge society ecosystem framework, where they are organized according to the five STOPE domains: strategy, technology, organization, people and the environment, and where they interact with the intercultural knowledge activities. The resulting cultural pluralism ecosystem framework is useful as a tool for organizing and interrelating future studies on the subject and promoting peace and development.