Tomayess Issa

Social networking for web-based communities

In the 21st century, a new technology was introduced to facilitate communication, collaboration, and interaction between individuals and businesses. This technology is called social networking; this technology is now part of Internet commodities like email, browsing and blogging. From the 20th century until now, the internet has shaped the way organisations, academics and health sectors to interact, communicate, connect, and exchange knowledge around the world. Social networking can reduce enterprises cost, increase profit, and assist to develop new communication forms between consumers, stakeholders, vendors, suppliers, universities and health departments. However, this technology can create new challenges for education and its governance and management. Social networking is considered to be as a precursor to the new ways of 3D virtual presence that will gradually supplant the telephone and video conferencing and finally even diminish the face-to-face communication. This article examines these opportunities, challenges, and threats of social networking in organisation, education and healthcare sectors.

Usability and Human Computer Interaction (HCI)

Usability and HCI are becoming core aspects of the system development process to improve and enhance system facilities and to satisfy users’ needs and necessities. HCI will assist designers, analysts and users to identify the system needs from text style, fonts, layout, graphics and color, while usability will confirm if the system is efficient, effective, safe, utility, easy to learn, easy to remember, easy to use and to evaluate, practical visible and provide job satisfaction to the users.

Sustainable Design: HCI, Usability and Environmental Concerns

This book is concerned with the importance of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Usability, user participants, and Sustainability in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry throughout the world. ICT has become a crucial instrument for communication, entertainment, commerce and research and this increased usage is presenting new environmental and sustainability issues as we try and meet the ever growing needs of both businesses and individuals. Sustainability must become central to the design of new technologies to make a concerted effort to tackle the environmental concerns we face now and for the future. Development frameworks, tools and models are used and explored and the New Participative Methodology for Sustainable Design (NPMSD) is introduced as a way of identifying key factors needed in developing more sustainable systems including new smart technology and portable devices. It is hoped additional research will be carried out in the future to assess these sustainable design steps using larger, more diverse countries with developed and developing economies to further refine such methods. Sustainable Design will be an invaluable resource for students and researchers, designers and business managers who are interested in the human-centred, environmental concerns of sustainable technologies

The impact of Cloud Computing and organizational sustainability

When economic times get tough, businesses worldwide are compel to review their organizational expenses and priorities and to strategically consider how best to save. Traditionally, Information Technology (IT) department is one area that would be affected negatively in the review. To better serve the organization and clients and for business to continue to increase productivity, it is important to understand which technology investments might allow for cost reduction and efficient use of resources. Continuing to fund these strategic technologies during an economic downturn is vital to organizations. It is predicted that in coming years IT resources will only be available online. More and more organizations are looking at operating smarter businesses by investigating technologies such as cloud computing, virtualization and green IT to find ways to cut costs and increase efficiencies. ‘Cloud computing’ is one recent phenomenon which is predominantly driven by industry recognition of the triple bottom line making sustainability their focus. This is also driven by industry needs that may have the ability to transform the work place, with a focus on capital expenditure, infrastructure, applications, usage, mobility, and cost structure. The attraction of cloud computing is obvious with noticeable freedom from managing and hosting applications, platforms, and infrastructure. Though advantages of cloud computing are countless, cloud computing is still in its infancy and has disadvantages such as security, privacy, reliability, physical location of data and the unavailability of service due to crashes or bugs in providers’ storages; the consequences of which are merely unknown. These disadvantages might be tackled through the proper introduction, training and implementation of codes of ethics as guiding principle to those involved in the usage of cloud computing in business. This paper provides a brief literature review of cloud computing, followed by an analysis of the cloud-computing environment using the PESTEL framework. The future implications and limitations of adopting cloud computing as an effective ecofriendly strategy to reduce carbon footprint are also discussed in the paper. This paper concludes with a recommendation to guide researchers to further examine this phenomenon.

Sustainable business strategies and PESTEL framework

This paper aims to provide a brief review of cloud computing, followed by an analysis of cloud computing environment using the PESTEL framework. The future implications and limitations of adopting cloud computing as an effective eco-friendly strategy to reduce carbon footprint are also discussed in the paper. This paper concludes with a recommendation to guide researchers to further examine this phenomenon.Organizations today face tough economic times, especially following the recent global financial crisis and the evidence of catastrophic climate change. International and local businesses find themselves compelled to review their strategies. They need to consider their organizational expenses and priorities and to strategically consider how best to save. Traditionally, Information Technology (IT) department is one area that would be affected negatively in the review. Continuing to fund these strategic technologies during an economic downturn is vital to organizations. It is predicted that in coming years IT resources will only be available online. More and more organizations are looking at operating smarter businesses by investigating technologies such as cloud computing, virtualization and green IT to find ways to cut costs and increase efficiencies.

High Level Models and Methodologies for Information Systems

In this book the authors introduce and explain many methods and models for the development of Information Systems (IS). It was written in large part to aid designers in designing successful devices/systems to match user needs in the field. Chief among these are website development, usability evaluation, quality evaluation and success assessment. The book provides great detail in order to assist readers comprehension and understanding of both novel and refined methodologies by presenting, describing, explaining and illustrating their basics and working mechanics. Furthermore, this book presents many traditional methods and methodologies in an effort to make up a comprehensive volume on High Level Models and Methodologies for Information Systems. The target audience for this book is anyone interested in conducting research in IS planning and development. The book represents a main source of theory and practice of IS methods and methodologies applied to these realities. The book will appeal to a range of professions that are involved in planning and building the information systems, for example information technologists, information systems developers, as well as Web designers and developersboth researchers and practitioners; as a consequence, this book represents a genuinely multi-disciplinary approach to the field of IS methods and methodologies.

Social Networking and Education: Global Perspectives

The present work is intended to assist academics, researchers and proponents of online learning and teaching. Academics will be able to share the findings presented in this book, and the Social Networking and Education Model (SNEM), with their students (i.e. Masters and PhD). It is envisaged that this book will assist researchers and anyone interested in online learning to understand the opportunities and risks associated with the use of Social Networking in the education sector, and assist them to implement SN by means of the new SNEM model. The reader will benefit from our examinations of the risks and opportunities associated with the use of Social Networking in the education sector in various regions around the world: Asia-Pacific, Europe, Mediterranean, America, Middle East and the Caribbean. In addition, a Social Networking and Education Model (SNEM) will be developed to promote and implement Social Networking in the education sector.

Information Systems’ Models for Success Assessment

Information technology (IT) has become one of the most fundamental pillars of modern organizations, and as such, investment on this particular field has steadily grown. Through information systems (IS), networks have been established that allow individuals and organizations to interact through software and hardware, providing the needed link between IT and its users.

Online Shopping and Human Factors

The purpose of advertising on the Internet is to promote and sell products, services and information around the world. This media is considered a quick access to information and is luring customers away from queues at shopping malls and turning them to the conveniences of the Internet. However, the online market can bring various drawbacks, which make the consumers hesitate about buying products online. This study is restricted to investigating two drawbacks of online shopping: the lack of face-to-face human interaction and lack of physical touch. These factors need to be addressed by online retailer in order to avoid the possible frustration experienced by consumers who are using online media. These problems can be prevented by addressing three factors in the user interface design of a website. Firstly, Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) and usability evaluation need to be considered in user interface design to increase the efficiency of the staff, thereby increasing profits, and to address the issue of safety. Secondly, navigation, interaction and feedback need to be taken into consideration by the website developer as they provide easy access, friendly interface, and human interaction. Thirdly, in order to improve consumer satisfaction, reduce operational costs and increase revenue, several methods and tools can be adopted such as 3DCart, NetSuite, and SensAble Technologies. Results from this study show that when these factors have been taken into consideration, a big difference is made to customer support services as most consumers are motivated and encouraged to revisit the Web business more often. On the other hand, this study points out that more research needs to be done in website design, especially in relation to the end-user who has disabilities.

Information System Development Life Cycle Models

With the increasing evolution and complexity of information technologies, there has emerged a multiplicity of applications for information systems (IS): They assist in corporate transactions, they connect business and office data, and they support users in the architecture of strategy. The complexity of their nature and objectives requires the harnessing of technology and user experience to create systems that meet their expected purpose.