Future scoping: developing excellence in urban planners (journal article)
by Dory Reeves
from Australian Planner, Vol. 46 No. 1, March 2009
"Here I identify some of the challenges facing urban planning; consider excellence and planning and the implications for education and lifelong learning. I highlight the need to develop the skill of recognising and acknowledging how perceptions of differences can affect the planning decisions that are made."
Contact us for a copy of the article

Tackling Big Problems Through Civic Information Technologies (journal article)
by Brian Behlendorf
from eGov Monitor, 23 March 2009
"Governments should maintain a roadmap of existing or potential CITs (Civic Information Technologies), and manage an awareness of that roadmap at senior policy levels says the author as he discusses the potential benefits."

IT skills shortage spells opportunity for unemployed workers (journal article)
by Meridith Levinson
from CIO, March 12 2009
In this Q&A, CompTIA President and CEO Todd Thibodeaux confront the IT skills shortage, misconceptions about IT careers and ways to connect unemployed workers with the thousands of tech jobs that are still available.

Prospects for a global deal on climate change: three European views
Source: The McKinsey Quarterly
Will governments negotiate an agreement on reducing carbon emissions at the December 2009 UN Climate Change Conference? In this video interactive, economists Nicholas Stern and Michael Grubb, along with European Commissioner Janez Potocnik, discuss their views on prospects for a global climate deal.

A Field guide to the information commons [book]

Authors: Charles Forrest & Martin Halbert

"Libraries have responded to their rapidly changing environment by selecting, acquiring, and making accessible a host of new information resources, developing innovative services, and building different types of spaces to support changing user behaviours and patterns of learning. [This book] describes an emerging library service model that embodies all three spheres of response: new information resources, collaborative service programs, and redesigned staff and user spaces" - cover.

Twitter, blogs and other Web 2.0 tools revolutionize government business (article)
by Doug Beizer
from Federal Computer Week 6 March 2009
"If you cut through all the hype about Web 2.0 tools, you’ll find government managers and elected officials who use the technology to communicate, share information and network. Web 2.0 technologies for social networking and online collaboration let people connect quickly and with a larger audience than was ever available before. "

The alignment of public research supply and industry demand for effective technology transfer: the case of Italy (journal article)
by Giovanni Abramo and Andrea D'Angelo
from Science and Public Policy, Vol 36 No 9 February 2009
"Italy lags behind other industrialized countries in public to private technology transfer. One of the causes of this may be the mismatch between new knowledge supplied by public research and industry demand. We test this hypothesis through a survey of leading public research scientists in four high-tech sectors. The findings show that the results of most research projects seem to be of immediate industrial interest, which contrasts with the low level of patents and licensing of Italian public research institutions. For one-third of the research results, there are no Italian companies that are able to exploit them. The same, however, is not true for the remaining results, which shows that the misalignment between public supply and industry demand alone cannot account for poor technology transfer. A closer coordination of research policy and industrial policy is required, as well as closer attention to initiatives which may support the transfer of public research results to Italian industry. "

Broadband economies : creating the community of the 21st century [book]

Authors: John Bell & others, Intelligence Community Forum

Chapters include: What is an intelligent community? -- The broadband economy -- The five habits of highly-effective communities -- Intelligent community indicators -- How to become an intelligent community -- Broadband connectivity -- Knowledge workforce -- Digital inclusion -- Innovation -- Marketing and advocacy -- The future of the Intelligent community.

The Future of Renewable Energy in Australia: A Test for Cooperative Federalism? (journal article)
By Stephen Jones
from Australian Journal of Public Administration Vol 68 Iss 1 Mar 2009, pp. 1 - 20
"In the context of the Australian federal system industry development will be influenced by the policies of each sphere of government. When announcing a set of policies in 1997 to develop the renewable energy industry the Australian federal government acknowledged the need for a cooperative approach between all governments and industry. The objective of this article is to analyse the government policies over the 1997–2007 period to promote the development of the renewable energy industry in Australia. The article highlights a number of factors that have served as barriers to the development of the industry. The research provides important insight into the difficulties associated with establishing cooperative national arrangements in areas of state government responsibility in the Australian federation. The lessons also inform the current debate on the policy initiatives needed to more effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions from stationary energy from the increased availability of renewable energy."

Biofuels : prospects, risks and opportunities [book]

United Nations. Food and Agriculture Organization

"The growing demand for agricultural commodities for the production of biofuels is having significant repercussions on agricultural markets, and concerns are mounting over their negative impact on the food security of millions of people across the world. At the same time, the environmental impacts of biofuels are also coming under closer scrutiny. ... Reviews the current state of the debate and the available evidence on these critical questions." - cover.

The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time (journal article)
By Clive Thompson
from Wired Magazine 17.03
"Netbooks violate all the laws of the computer hardware business. Traditionally, development trickles down from the high end to the mass market. PC makers target early adopters with new, ultrapowerful features. Years later, those innovations spread to lower-end models.
But Jepsen's design trickled up. In the process of creating a laptop to satisfy the needs of poor people, she revealed something about traditional PC users. They didn't want more out of a laptop—they wanted less."

Building an innovation nation (blog article)
by André Andonian, Christoph Loos, and Luiz Pires
from What Matters - McKinsey Digital
"McKinsey has partnered with the World Economic Forum to create an “Innovation Heat Map,” by identifying factors that are common to successful innovation hubs. As part of this effort, we have examined the evolution of hundreds of such clusters around the world and analyzed over 700 variables, including those driving innovation (business environment, government and regulation, human capital, infrastructure, and local demand) along with proxies for innovation output (for example, economic value added, journal publications, patent applications) to identify trends among the success stories. In the process, we have found patterns that suggest the critical ingredients required to grow, nurture, and sustain innovation hubs."
The library has a subscription to McKinsey if you should require any premium content.

OECD reviews of innovation policy : China [online]

Author: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
"Assesses the current status of China's national innovation system and policies, and recommends improvements required in both the policy and institutional environments for China to succeed in promoting innovation through a market-based approach." - abstract.

Rethinking IT project management: Evidence of a new mindset and its implications (journal abstract)

By: Chris Sauer and Blaize Horner Reich, .

from International Journal of Project Management, Feb 2009, Vol. 27 No 2, pp. 182-193

"This paper contributes to the rethinking project management agenda in relation to the information technology (IT) sector. Our analysis of the evolution of thinking and practice among leading IT project managers across four countries elicits nine principles and four personal qualities that constitute the core of a mindset that facilitates rethinking the practice of IT project management. We compare this with the Rethinking Project Management research agenda [Winter M, Smith C, Morris P, Cicmil S. Directions for future research in Project management: the main findings of a UK government-funded research network. Int J Project Manage 2006;24(8):638-649.]. Our contribution is to (1) validate the directions defined in that agenda; (2) identify elements not incorporated in it and (3) provide examples that crystallise the agenda for the domain of IT project management."

Contact us for a copy of this article

A multi-level, multi-theory perspective of information technology implementation. (journal article)
by Benoit A. Aubert et al.
from Information Systems Journal, Vol 18 No 1 pp.45-72
"Much of information technology (IT) implementation research has focused on individuals' acceptance of IT by examining their behaviour when faced with new IT and the antecedents of these behaviours. As they are frequently undertaken within a project framework, IT implementations also entail the application of project management practices in order to be successful. Based on the premise that antecedents of lower level theories are frequently determined by the outcomes of a higher level theory, the present paper illustrates how organizational-level decisions, examined from the perspective of economics theories, can help explain the antecedents of project risk management at the project and individual levels. To do so, the paper describes an IT implementation effort which went through three phases; the first two of which were abandoned versions of the same project. An organizational-level analysis of the case from an economics perspective and its project-level analysis from a risk management perspective show how organizational-level decisions influenced the antecedents at the project and individual levels, providing a more complete understanding of the IT implementation in question, an understanding which neither a theory approach nor a level perspective could provide on its own. "

The E-policy handbook : rules and best practices to safely manage your company's e-mail, blogs, social networking, and other electronic communication tools [book]

Author: Nancy Flynn

"Gives you everything you need to develop clear, complete e-policies. Packed with electronic rules, step-by-step guidelines, sample policies, and e-disaster stories, this new edition shows how to: implement strategic electronic rules; understand 'cyber-laws'; prevent security breaches and data theft; safeguard confidential company and customer information; manage new and emerging technologies; write and implement effective policies; [and] train employees about your company's online rules." - cover.

Tapping the World's Innovation Hot Spots (journal article)
By John Kao
from Harvard Business Review Vol 87 Iss 3 Mar 2009, pp. 109-114
"Countries around the world are putting innovation at the top of their agendas. As a result, companies now have access to a global market for talent, capital, tax credits, and regulatory relief. Before setting up a research laboratory or a marketing office in one of the world's innovation hot spots, organizations must consider which of the emerging innovation models best suit their requirements. An astute company can also blend elements of each model in a systems integration approach. In the focused factory model, countries concentrate their resources. Singapore, for instance, plans to increase funding for R&D in life sciences, clean technology, and digital media, and to provide benefits such as tax relief to attract companies interested in conducting research in those areas. GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis have already begun doing so at the biomedical research center Biopolis. Countries adopting the brute force model hope to generate innovations by marshaling massive amounts of labor and capital. China, for example, is increasing funding for 10 universities in order to produce many specialists in every area of science and technology. The goal of the Hollyworld model is to create the right environment for innovation by assembling a critical mass of skilled individuals. India, for example, is partnering the best graduates of its universities with Indians who have trained at educational institutions in the West. Several countries have developed large-scale ecosystems combining funding bodies, research institutions, and business and academic collaboration. Finland's innovation system, for instance, is bolstered by strong governmental stewardship and the involvement of public and private players. Aalto University, scheduled to open in the autumn of 2009, will exemplify the country's holistic approach."

The Truths About IT Costs (journal article)
By Susan Cramm
from Harvard Business Review Vol. 87 Iss 3 Mar 2009, pp. 28-28
"The article focuses on cost control in information-technology budgets when overspending results from seven situations. Solutions and preventive measures are mentioned for situations where application enhancements are not cost effective, projects are complicated with unnecessary functionality, technology investments are underutilized, teams lack incentive and quality is not measured, and project failure rates are high."

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.