Projects and programmes: Diversity of management, diversity of aims and interests (journal article)
by Hedley Smyth
from International Journal of Project Management, February 2009, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 97-100
Contact the library for a copy of this article

Critically classifying: UK e-government website benchmarking and the recasting of the citizen as customer. (journal article)
by: Benjamin Mosse and Edgar A. Whitley
from Information Systems Journal, March 2009, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 149-173 "In recent years, discussion of the provision of government services has paid particular attention to notions of customer choice and improved service delivery. However, there appears to be marked shift in the relationship between the citizen and the state moving from government being responsive to the needs of citizens to viewing citizens explicitly as customers. This paper argues that this change is being accelerated by government use of techniques like benchmarking, which have been widely used in the private sector. To illustrate this point, the paper focuses on the adoption of website benchmarking techniques by the public sector".
Contact the library for a copy of this article.

The role of service level agreements in relational management of information technology outsourcing: an empirical study (journal article)
by Jahyun Goo et al.
from MIS Quarterly, March 2009, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp.119-145,:
"This study extends the view that formal contracts and relational governance function as complements rather than as substitutes. We investigate how specific characteristics of service level agreements (SLAs) impact relational governance in information technology outsourcing relationships. .... Overall, the findings support the proposition that well-developed SLAs not only provide a way to measure the service provider's performance, but also enable effective management of outsourcing engagements through the development of partnership-style relationships with high levels of trust and commitment." [Abstract from the author]

The great climate change challenge: [Address to The Sydney Institute on 27 August 2008.]
by Greig Gailey
from The Sydney Papers, Winter 2008
"The Rudd Government plans an Emissions Trading System (ETS) by 2010 that will impose a cap on emissions of greenhouse gas. Large emitters such as manufacturers and electricity generators will need to buy permits from the government for their emissions. This will put a price on carbon, creating economic incentives for emissions to be reduced. Permits can also be traded. The Business Council of Australia has expressed concerns about the effect of such an ETS on companies. with international competitors that
do not face similar cost imposts. To give the BCA's view on the government ETS proposal, BCA President Greig Gailey addressed The Sydney Institute on Wednesday 27 August."
2008."

Project management : some reflections on the management of projects in the Australian public sector. (journal article)
by Ian McPhee
from Public Administration Today No 15 2008
"Commentary on project management within the Australian public sector - interdependencies and variables in project management - influences shaping project management - role of project management in delivering outcomes for government - appropriate methodologies in risk management - Australian Government Gateway Review process - success factors in project management - case studies"

Water for the future (journal article)
by Penny Wong
from Public Administration Today No 15 2008
"Outline of the Rudd Government's national water plan, 'Water for the future' - establishment of a single, coherent, national framework that integrates rural and urban water issues."

How Facebook is taking over our lives (journal article)
by Jessi Hempel
from Fortune, March 2 2009
"President Obama used it to get elected. Dell will recruit new hires with it. Microsoft's new operating system borrows from it. No question, Facebook has friends in high places. Can CEO Mark Zuckerberg make those connections pay off?"

Essential business process modeling [book]

Author: Michael Harvey

"Explains everything you need to know about BPM, including: Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), the leading BPM standard; a look at all of the standards that play a role in BPM ... ; BPM architecture and theory; Comprehensive examples; [and] Design patterns and best pratices." - cover.

Cyburbia : the dangerous idea that's changing how we live and who we are [book]

Author: James Harkin

"Once there was no text messaging, no email and no social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace. [This book] describes how the architecture of our digital lives was built over seventy years." - cover.

Shocking the suburbs : oil vulnerability in the Australian city [book]

Authors: Jago Dodson & Neil Sipe

"Considers current urban transport problems, and identifies how new planning strategies and broader public policy can address oil vulnerability. It examines the risks our cities and suburbs face in an era of high fuel prices, the effects they are already feeling, and the problems with which we must grapple if we are to secure our suburban future." - publisher website.

CO₂ capture and storage : a key carbon abatement option [Online]

Author: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

"The study documents progress toward the development of CCS: Capture, transportation and storage technologies and their costs, Storage capacity estimates, Regional assessment of CCS potential, Legal and regulatory frameworks, Public awareness and outreach strategies, Financial mechanisms and international mechanisms." - abstract.

Harmacy : the political economy of community pharmacy in Australia [book]

Author: David Gadiel / Centre for Independent Studies (Australia)

Argues for the deregulation of the pharmacy industry in Australia.

Paying farmers for environmental services [book]

Author: United Nations. Food and Agriculture Organization

"Explores the potential for agriculture to provide enhanced levels of environmental services alongside the production of food and fibre. The report concludes that demand for environmental services from agriculture - including climate change mitigation, improved watershed management and biodiversity preservation - will increase in the future, but better incentives to farmers are needed if agriculture is to meet this demand." - cover.

A Realistic Energy Strategy. (journal article)
by Tsvi Bisk
from Futurist, Mar/Apr 2009, Vol. 43 No. 2
" The article presents several rational energy strategies that helps to attain clean and sustainable energy. It is said that one should not assume that the middle class will not alter its lifestyle and adjust to the laws of economics. A rational energy strategy must also mobilize multi-partisan political support since policies that irritate large segments are not politically realizable in postmodern democracies."

Using Social Network Analysis to Measure IT-Enabled Business Process Performance (journal article)
by Nik R. Hassan, Nik
from Information Systems Management, Winter 2009, Vol. 26 No. 1
"This study demonstrates how social network analysis (SNA) theory supports the task of designing IT-enabled business processes by providing social network measures for evaluating alternative process designs. These measures offer better information for process designers who are faced with making IT investment tradeoffs, especially as the process design task is being undertaken. A seven step methodology is proposed, demonstrated with the help of two case studies showcasing the robustness and flexibility of SNA measures."

Information Security Threats: A Comparative Analysis of Impact, Probability, and Preparedness. (journal article)
by Mary Sumner
from Information Systems Management, Winter 2009, Vol. 26 No 1
" The objectives are: (1) to determine the risk assessment of information security threats, based upon the perceived impact and the perceived probability of occurrence of these threats; (2) to determine the extent of risk mitigation, based upon the perceived level of preparedness for each of these information security threats; and (3) to determine the extent to which the of occurrence and the impact of information security threats relate to the level of preparedness."

Alliancing : a participant's guide : real life experiences for constructors, designers, facilitators and clients [book]

Authors: Deborah Scott & others / Maunsell AECOM

"Starts with an introduction to alliancing, and then explores the development, establishment and operation of an alliance through the eyes of both the Owner Participant and Non-Owner Participant. Practical case studies written from an industry perspective provide real examples of the many challenges, achievements and lessons learned in Australian alliances." - cover.

Re-Engineering Business Processes (journal article)
by James Zingale
from StateTech, February 10 2009
Dozens of states must grapple with budget deficits, and government faces increased pressure to improve services to citizens at lower costs. As a result, state CIOs look to replace costly, antiquated legacy systems with modern IT systems that promise dramatic business results.
But too often, CIOs searching for solutions simply apply today’s technology to old business processes and management structures. The failure to redesign business work flow before choosing an IT solution introduces major risks to any transformation effort, even before a contract is signed. Common problems include scope creep, unnecessary customization, cost overruns and delayed deployment.

Power Conservation: take these six smart steps to reduce computer energy consumption in your organization (journal article)
by Julie Sartain
from StateTech, Feb 10 2009
As the cost of energy fluctuates, power management has become a central focus for government facilities. President Bush in December signed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which mandates that the federal government reduce its total energy usage in federal buildings by 30 percent by the year 2015.
Many state and local government leaders had been watching this legislation and began implementing their own green initiatives before the mandate passed. Here’s how to employ power management to reap savings in your organization.

Green to gold : how smart companies use environmental strategy to innovate, create value, and build competitive advantage [book]

Authors: Daniel C. Esty & Andrew S. Winston

"By systematically analyzing the experiences of dozens of companies, we've been able to extract the key strategies, tactics, and tools that are needed to establish an environmentally based competitive advantage ... we show you the real costs, hard choices, and trade-offs companies face when they make environmental thinking part of their core business strategy." - page 4.

Persistence of innovation: stylised facts and panel data evidence (journal article)
By Bettina Peters
from The Journal of Technology Transfer Vol. 34 No. 2 April 2009, pp. 226 - 243
"This paper investigates whether firms innovate persistently or discontinuously over time using an innovation panel data set on German manufacturing and service firms for the period 1994–2002. It turns out that innovation behaviour is permanent at the firm level to a very large extent. Using a dynamic random effects discrete choice model and a new estimator recently proposed by Wooldridge (2005), I further shed some light on the driving forces for this phenomenon. The econometric results show that past innovation experience is an important determinant for manufacturing as well as for service sector firms, and hence confirm the hypothesis of true state dependence. In addition, the results highlight the important role of knowledge provided by skilled employees and unobserved individual heterogeneity in explaining the persistence of innovation. "

Comparison of estimation methods of cost and duration in IT projects (journal article)
By Stanislav Berlin, Tzvi Raz, Chanan Glezer and Moshe Zviran
from Information and Software Technology Vol. 51 Iss. 4, April 2009, pp. 738-748
" Producing accurate and reliable project cost estimations at an early stage of a project’s life cycle remains a substantial challenge in the information technology field. This research benchmarks the performance of various approaches to estimating IT project effort and duration. Empirical data were gathered from various “real-world” organizations including several prominent Israeli high-tech companies as well as from the International Software Benchmarking Standards Group (ISBSG) IT project database. The study contrasts two types of models that have been employed to estimate project duration and effort separately: linear regression estimation models and models deriving from a more novel approach based on artificial neural networks (ANNs). "

State of the energy market 2008 [book]

Authors: Australian Energy Regulator / Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

"Provides a comprehensive overview of Australia's electricity and natural gas markets. ... Includes more detailed coverage of wholesale market activity in the electricity and natural gas sectors, the expansion of the wind generation sector and reliability issues in natural gas." - from publisher.

State of the World 2009 : a Worldwatch Institute report on progress towards a sustainable society [journal]

Author: Worldwatch Institute

"It's New Year's Day, 2101. Somehow, humanity survived the worst of global warming—the higher temperatures and sea levels and the more intense droughts and storms—and succeeded in stabilizing the Earth's climate. Greenhouse gas concentrations are peaking and are expected to drift downward in the 22nd century. The rise in global temperatures is slowing and the natural world is gradually healing. The social contract largely held. And humanity as a whole is better fed, healthier, and more prosperous today than it was a century ago.

This scenario of an imagined future raises a key question: What must we do in the 21st century—especially in 2009 and the years just following—to make such a future possible, and to head off the kind of climate catastrophe that many scientists now see as likely? This question inspires the theme of the Worldwatch Institute's State of the World 2009 report: how climate change will play out over the coming century, and what steps we most urgently need to take now. "

Comment: Science is boring (journal article)
by Michael Brooks
from New Scientist 20/12/2008, Vol. 199 No. 2687, p16-16
"In this article, the author states that science is boring. It is reported that there is a lack of interest of the public in this subject. It is stated that may be this is due to school curriculum or the way in which science programming has been largely displaced on TV. Further it is stated that scientists must connect their work to the needs and interests of society. Also it is inferred that finding a way to keep science convenient is important."