William K. McHenry

The maturation of the Russian offshore software industry

In the decade of the 1990s, India leapt ahead of all other competitors for offshore programming business, giving the impression that Russia had not lived up to its potential. This paper uses case studies of firms and clients and available literature to investigate what Russia has achieved so far, what bottlenecks and hindrances have prevented it from going further, and how those problems are now being addressed. Based on the Heeks/Nicholson and Carmel models, it is concluded that there have been important improvements in domestic input factors, infrastructure, and software industry characteristics; some improvements in linkages with customer firms; and relatively little progress in improving national vision and strategy. The industry has achieved a “platform of maturity” from which further growth is now possible.

E-GOVERNMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN RUSSIA

Against the backdrop of creeping authoritarianism by the Putin administration, this paper examines whether or not Russian efforts to enact e-government are enhancing, inhibiting, or neutral towards the establishment of preconditions for democracy in Russia. Eighty official regional governmental websites in 2003 and 85 in 2004 are examined to benchmark their contents according to a set of measures related to Information, Communications / Participation, Action / Transaction, and Integration. This paper also considers the contributions of the Electronic Russia (E-Russia) program launched in 2002 as a nine-year,

Computing in the USSR: Recent Progress and Policies

2.57B effort to bring egovernment to Russia. It is concluded that the main thrust of the websites was on the Information category, with some increases in the Communications / Participation from 2003 to 2004. Almost no services were enacted. Using a detailed analysis of the E-Russia expenditures, it is concluded that this program was focused more on building infrastructure than on building up e-government websites or increasing Internet access. Most support is found for the proposition that Russian egovernment efforts so far have done little to enhance the preconditions for democracy, but at the same time should not be viewed as a “Potemkin village,” i.e. as a means to conceal moves away from democracy.

MIS in Soviet industrial enterprise: the limits of reform from above

The paper evaluates a broad spectrum of Soviet computing capabilities ranging from the development, production and service sectors to applications in enterprise management, national security, education, and consumer products. Comparisons between Western and Soviet information technologies, summarized in tabular form, reveal gaps in Soviet computing and communications resulting from both technical limitations and administrative/political constraints in the economy. Programs designed to narrow these gaps are described in a final section. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 124, 635.

The Soviet computer industry: a tale of two sectors

The USSR has carried out a large-scale program to bring computer-based information systems, called Automated Enterprise Management Systems (ASUPs), to industrial enterprises. This program illustrates the extent to which computer-based information systems are inextricably embedded in the surrounding social, economic, and political systems.

Using knowledge management to reform the Russian Criminal Procedural Codex

For the Soviet economy in general, and the Soviet computing community in particular, the last few years have been a period of unprecedented troubles and changes. The old, stable, centrally planned economic system has proven to be far more brittle than almost anyone expected; but attempts to build a market economy have fallen far short of many hopes and expectations. The net result to date is an economy in confusion and shambles (e.g., see [3, 6]).

R-technology: A soviet visual programming environment

Abstract The SenseViewer Knowledge Management System (KMS) helps users retrieve and understand information fragments and their attributes by linking them to underlying arguments within their topic realm and exposing their context within source documents. This paper examines SenseViewer, its relationship to rapid knowledge construction, and its use to support the drafting and passage of a new Criminal Procedural Codex by the Russian DUMA. It considers what set of KM functions and tools facilitate the legislative process and dissemination of knowledge to the populace. SenseViewer illustrates a new generation of web-based e-government KMS.

Handling textual information in a GDSS database: experience with the Arizona Analyst Information System

R-technology is an indigenous Soviet visual programming environment which was developed by prominent scientists in Kiev. The essence of R-technology is the use of weighted, oriented graphs to express control logic and to enforce good programming style. Unlike other developments in visual programming, R-technology can accommodate many programming languages and has been used for numerous development projects. Despite the fact that it has been extensively documented in the Soviet literature, it is practically unknown in the United States. This paper reviews the history of R-technology and presents the major elements of its paradigm. A comparison is made with similar systems which are known in the West and in Japan. R-technology is a promising development which deserves widespread attention.

Building large, dynamic hypertexts: how do we link intelligently ?

The Arizona Analyst Information System (AAIS) is a hypertext tool for entry, retrieval, and analysis of textual information in a multiuser, multitask, collaborative environment. The authors examine the experience of using the AAIS for the cooperative creation, use, and maintenance of a large textual database. The main questions considered are the performance of users as direct participants in the database building process, and the way in which the AAIS design facilitates joint use of information.<<ETX>>

Explaining and alleviating information management indeterminism: a knowledge-based framework

Abstract:Hypertext systems will have difficulty growing into large hyperbases because of the problems of link creation. This paper introduces the concept of a Large Dynamic Hyperbase (LDH). Information Retrieval indexing methods, indexing assistants, quality evaluation methods, and organizational methods are examined as means to help ameliorate the linking problems. Numerous examples from AAIS (a large-scale Text Based Management System) are used to inform the discussion.