Innovation: have we got it right yet? (journal article)
by Ron Johnston
from ATSE Focus, June/July 2009
"The evidence presented in the Cutler review indicates that, more than ever, getting innovation right is a pressing matter for the future of the Australian economy. It assembles a range of indicators which show that Australia’s innovation-related performance has declined over the past decade relative to many comparable OECD countries:“Australia has slipped from fifth to eighteenth in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index. Our multi-factor productivity grew 1.4 per cent a year on average between 1982-83 and 1995-96. Growth has averaged only 0.9 per cent a year since then.”"
Monday, 17 August 2009
Friday, 14 August 2009
Authors: Davide Edery & Ethan Mollick
"Reveals how leading-edge organizations are using video games to reach new customers more cost-effectively; to build brands; to recruit, develop, and retain great employees; to drive more effective experimentation and innovation; to supercharge productivity ... in short, to make it fun to do business." - cover.
Authors: International Energy Agency (IEA) & Organisation for Econcomic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
This volume contains data on the supply and consumption of coal, oil, gas, electricity, heat, renewables and waste presented as comprehensive energy balances expressed in million tonnes of oil equivalent. Complete data are available for 2006 and 2007 and supply estimates are available for the most recent year (i.e.2008). Historical tables summarise production, trade and final consumption data as well as key energy and economic indicators. The book also includes definitions of products and flows, explanatory notes on the individual country data and conversion factors from original units to energy units.
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Author: Sherry Seethaler
"Reveals how science and health research really work...how to put scientific claims in context and understand the real tradeoffs involved...tell quality research from junk science...discover when someone's deliberately trying to fool you...and find more information you can trust! " - cover.
Monday, 10 August 2009
The price of saving water (journal article)
from OECD Observer Issue 272 April 2009, pp. 19-22
"The article reports on the hesitation of investors regarding water investment amidst financial crisis. It is said that investors hesitate in investing in water because the risks stay high and the revenue from water projects comes from user fees and government subsidies. It is suggested that government must establish regulatory framework to assure investors that water offers the alternative of stable investment return."
WHY BREAK THE HABIT OF A LIFETIME? RETHINKING THE ROLES OF INTENTION, HABIT, AND EMOTION IN CONTINUING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY USE (journal article)
By Ana Ortiz de Guinea and Lynne M. Markus
from MIS Quarterly Vol. 33 Issue 3 Sept 2009, pp. 433-444
"One of the most welcome recent developments in Information Systems scholarship has been the growing interest in individuals' continuing use of information technology well after initial adoption, known in the literature as IT usage, IT continuance, and post-adoptive IT usage. In this essay, we explore the theoretical underpinnings of IS research on continuing IT use. Although the IS literature on continuing IT use emphasizes the role of habitual behavior that does not require conscious behavioral intention, it does so in a way that largely remains faithful to the theoretical tradition of planned behavior and reasoned action. However, a close reading of reference literatures on automatic behavior (behavior that is not consciously controlled) and the influences of emotion on behavior suggests that planned behavior and reasoned action may not provide the best theoretical foundation for the study of continuing IT use. As a result, we call for empirical research that directly compares and contrasts the consensus theory of continuing IT use with rival theories that place much greater emphasis on unplanned and unreasoned action."
INVESTIGATING USER RESISTANCE TO INFORMATION SYSTEMS IMPLEMENTATION: A STATUS QUO BIAS PERSPECTIVE (journal article)
By Hee-Woong Kim and Atrey Kankanhalli
from MIS Quarterly Vol. 33 Issue 3 Sep 2009. pp. 567-582
"User resistance to information systems implementation has been identified as a salient reason for the failure of new systems and hence needs to be understood and managed. While previous research has explored the reasons for user resistance, there are gaps in our understanding of how users evaluate change related to a new information system and decide to resist it. In particular, missing in the explanation of user decision making is the concept of status quo bias, that is, that user resistance can be due to the bias or preference to stay with the current situation. Motivated thus, this study develops a model to explain user resistance prior to a new IS implementation by integrating the technology acceptance and resistance literatures with the status quo bias perspective. The results of testing the model in the context of a new enterprise system implementation indicate the central role of switching costs in increasing user resistance. Further, switching costs also mediate the relationship between other antecedents (colleague opinion and self-efficacy for change) and user resistance. Additionally, perceived value and organizational support for change are found to reduce user resistance. This research advances the theoretical understanding of user acceptance and resistance prior to a new IS implementation and offers organizations suggestions for managing such resistance."
Peak Oil and Strategic Resource Wars (journal article)
By Roger Howard
from Futurist Vol. 43, Issue 5, Sept/Oct 2009, pp. 18-21
"When the oil fields run dry — and they will — what will happen to the economies of petroleum producers? And what will that mean for the rest of us? The time to consider the potential scenarios and strategies is now."
Ammonia, the Fuel of the Future (journal article)
By J Storrs Hall
from Futurist Vol. 43 Issue 5 Sept/Oct 2009, pp. 10-10
"Hydrogen fuel cells could get a boost from an unexpected source."
Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Authors: Mandy Elliot & Ian Thomas
"Provides a thorough grounding in environmental impact assessment in Australia. Its emphasis is on practical application, how good assessments can lead to better decisions and how politics plays an integral role in EIA. Case studies are included to demonstrate key points." - cover.
Friday, 31 July 2009
Does E-Government Measure Up to E-Business? Comparing End User Perceptions of U.S. Federal Government and E-Business Web Sites (journal article)
By Forrest V. Morgeson III and Sunil Mithas
from Public Administration Review Vol 69 Issue 4, pp. 740 - 752.
"This paper examines the federal government's success in implementing and providing high-quality service through e-government, something that has received very little attention. We define quality from the perspective of the end users of federal agency Web sites, as measured through customer survey data. Using data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index, we compare the performance of federal agency Web sites across a range of relevant variables with a private sector equivalent, e-business Web sites. Our findings suggest that federal e-government Web sites are not yet, in the aggregate, providing the same level of quality as their e-business counterparts. We also find significant variability among federal agencies. We discuss the implications of these findings for e-government performance measurement, performance benchmarking, and the market-centered theories of administrative reform that are driving e-government and similar transformations of government practice."
The Life and Death of Statically Detected Vulnerabilities: An Empirical Study (journal article)
By Massimiliano De Penta, Luigi Cerulo and Lerina Aversano
from Information & Software Technology Vol. 51 Iss 10 Oct 2009, pp. 1469-1484.
"Vulnerable statements constitute a major problem for developers and maintainers of networking systems. Their presence can ease the success of security attacks, aimed at gaining unauthorized access to data and functionality, or at causing system crashes and data loss. Examples of attacks caused by source code vulnerabilities are buffer overflows, command injections, and cross-site scripting. This paper reports on an empirical study, conducted across three networking systems, aimed at observing the evolution and decay of vulnerabilities detected by three freely available static analysis tools. In particular, the study compares the decay of different kinds of vulnerabilities, characterizes the decay likelihood through probability density functions, and reports a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the reasons for vulnerability removals. The study is performed by using a framework that traces the evolution of source code fragments across subsequent commits."
Contact the Library if you require a copy of this article.
Empirical evaluation of selected best practices in implementation of software process improvement (journal article)
By Tihana Galinac
from Information & Software Technology Vol. 51 Iss 9 Sep 2009, pp. 1351-1364.
"To be successfully applied in practice, software process improvement (SPI) needs not only identifying what needs to be improved, and which factors will influence its success, but also guidelines on how to implement those improvements and meet the factors. This paper proposes an SPI implementation strategy that has been developed in lines with standard SPI models and frameworks, intended to be suitable for global software development (GSD), and exploiting ideas of incremental deliveries, short iterations with frequent reviews and close collaboration with customers. Quantitative analyses of data from case studies within large GSD show that improvement teams implementing the strategy are more likely to have better progress and achieve better effectiveness in terms of improvement deployment within development teams. The results could be useful to SPI practitioners in making their SPI initiatives more successful."
Contact the Library if you require a copy of this article.
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
The Cloud, the Crowd, and Public Policy (journal article)
By Michael R Nelson
from Issues in Science and Technology Vol. 25 Issue 4 Summer 2009, pp. 71-76
"A new age of more flexible, less expensive, and more secure computing will emerge soon if governments act wisely."
The Sustainability Transition (journal article)
By Pamela Matson
from Issues in Science and Technology Vol. 25 Issue 4 Summer 2009, pp. 39-42
"Meeting basic human needs without degrading the planets vital systems will require an ambitious, interdisciplinary, and solution-oriented research program."
Alternative Energy for Transportation (journal article)
By Koji Omi
from Issues in Science and Technology Vol. 25 Issue 4 Summer 2009, pp. 31-34
"The worlds citizens and governments must accept that Earths resources are finite and commit themselves to the development of new power sources for automobiles."
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Built environment procurement practice : impediments to innovation and opportunities for change [online]
Authors: Curtin University of Technology. Commissioned by the Built Environment Industry Innovation Council
"Recent research suggests that there is a need to develop a more holistic approach to project delivery processes that drive sustainable innovation and there is a pent up need to move from traditional procurement delivery models (in their various guises) to new methods that are able to incorporate innovative change processes that are required to address sustainable outcomes." - executive summary.
Authors: McGraw-Hill Construction & World Green Building Council
Chapters include: Global green building market summary; Global construction and the market opportunity for green; Regional green market activity in Europe, North and South America, Australia/New Zealand, Asia and Africa; Market intelligence on global green building; Green building practices and renewable energy; Green building product use and identification; and Green building rating systems.
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Author: Janice Redish
"This book helps you write successfully for web users. It offers strategy, process, and tactics for creating or revising content for the web. It helps you plan, organize, write, design and test web content that will make web users come back again and again to your site." - cover.
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