Shahper Vodanovich

Research Commentary---Digital Natives and Ubiquitous Information Systems

Most information systems research until now has focused on information systems in organizations and their use by digital immigrants. Digital immigrants are those who were not born into the digital world---they learnt to use information systems at some stage in their adult lives. An underlying assumption of much of this research is that users “resist” technology or at least have some difficulty in accepting it. Digital natives, conversely, are those who have grown up in a world where the use of information and communications technology is pervasive and ubiquitous. These ubiquitous technologies, networks, and associated systems have proliferated and have woven themselves into the very fabric of everyday life. This article suggests that the rise of the digital native, along with the growth of ubiquitous information systems (UIS), potentially represents a fundamental shift in our “paradigm” for IS research. We propose a research agenda that focuses on digital natives and UIS.

SAME BUT DIFFERENT: UNDERSTANDING WOMEN'S EXPERIENCE OF ICT IN THE UAE

Information Communications Technologies (ICTs) have become a potent global force in transforming social, economic, and political life. Given the centrality and importance of ICTs, men and women need to have equal opportunities to access, use, and master them. In particular, it could be asked whether women in Islamic societies within the GCC region have equal access to these new technologies. What are some of the promising new social, economic and political opportunities for Islamic women in the ICT sector, or does ICT access and use by those women replicate patterns of segregation seen elsewhere in their societies? What are the barriers that women, especially those in the Islamic world, have to overcome to actively participate in the promise of these technologies? We use grounded theory as our preliminary research methodology to analyse interviews with women who work in the ICT sector in the UAE. We discuss five major themes from the research: Westernization, IT as Modernity, Education, Government Initiatives, and Gender Perspective, and introduce a preliminary framework of the area. We conclude by discussing some inherent contradictions of womens ICT use in a society that wishes to modernize, rather than Westernize, and how this is played out in our study.

Wikis to support collaborative web spaces to promote youth well-being

Youth is a period of rapid emotional, physical and intellectual change, where young people progress from being dependent children to independent adults. Young people who are unable to make this transition smoothly can face significant difficulties in both the short and long term. Although the vast majority of young people are able to find all the resources they need for their health, well-being and development within their families and living environments, some young people have difficulty in locating resources that can help them and, moreover, difficulty in integrating into society. One way to support this transition is to create an environment that enables youth to be well supported through the provision of information and the creation of a community where youth feel empowered to collaborate with their peers as well as decision makers and legislators.

Preservation of Indigenous Culture among Indigenous Migrants through Social Media: The Igorot Peoples

The value and relevance of indigenous knowledge towards sustainability of human societies drives for its preservation. This work explored the use of Facebook groups to promote indigenous knowledge among Igorot peoples in the diaspora. The virtual communities help intensify the connection of Igorot migrants to their traditional culture despite the challenges of assimilation to a different society. A survey of posts on 20 Facebook groups identified and classified the indigenous cultural elements conveyed through social media. A subsequent survey of 56 Igorot migrants revealed that popular social media has a significant role in the exchange, revitalization, practice, and learning of indigenous culture; inciting an effective medium to leverage preservation strategies.

Introduction to Social Media: Culture, Identity, and Inclusion Minitrack

It is fitting that the 50 anniversary meeting of HICSS marks the initiation of this new minitrack related to social media. The focus on the intersections of digital and social media with culture, identity and, indeed, inclusion begins to fill an increasingly significant gap in our research, teaching, and practice. Digital and social media are now ubiquitous, and there has been much recent research related to social media and systems sciences. Yet oftentimes this work does not explore relations with culture, identity, or inclusion.

ICTs and the Computerised Hijab: Women's Experiences of ICT in the UAE

This paper discusses a grounded theory study of womens experience of ICTs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). We were particularly interested in whether their gender, and the society in which they live, affected that experience. We identify three themes, ICT Use, Gender Perspective and UAE Society which together constitute an emergent theory of Womens ICT experience in the UAE. We conclude by engaging the emergent theory with individual differences theory. Our findings show that ICT use in the UAE is a profoundly gendered experience, shaped by the Islam based society in which the women live.

Introduction to the Social Shopping Minitrack

With the recent emergence in OSNs like Facebook and Twitter, more studies appear with regard to information search using OSN (Watts, Dodds, & Newman, 2002). Online social media such as blogs, wikis, and social networks are improving speed and reinventing communication. The usage of online social networks (OSN) is changing the e-commerce society from transaction-based to relationship-based (Kim & Srivastava, 2007). OSN are increasingly being used to obtain information, opinions, and to view discussions to make shopping decisions. Often consumers are faced with purchase dilemmas and there are many questions in mind that could potentially affect the outcome of the purchase decision.

Introduction to the Social Computing for Sustainability Minitrack

Sustainable management aspires towards balancing and integrating social, economic and environmental dimensions. Existing roadmaps, frameworks and systems do not comprehensively support sustainable transformation nor do they allow decision makers to explore interrelationships and influences between the sustainability dimensions. Equally, the usage of social computing (SC) and in particular online social networks (OSN) is growing rapidly, yet there is a poor understanding of how they can provide support, influence and change sustainable practices at the individual and corporate levels. Increasingly we find individuals and organizations are using SC/OSN to share and benchmark their sustainability practices and key performance indicators. At one end of the spectrum we have organizations engaging and participating on issues of environmental and societal concern and at the other end we have individuals who are sharing their daily achievements in terms of their exercise, health, and diet. This mini track looks across this entire spectrum where SC/OSN is being used to support, share, measure, benchmark, model, quantify, qualify sustainability goals, practices, performances, indicators with the aim of achieving or enhancing the sustainability of individuals, families, organizations, supply chains, and society as a whole.