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Workshop
Aims and Scope
Information
environments are becoming pervasive and nomadic because of the increasingly
rich, diverse and ever-at-hand nature of computing in organizations.
A manager’s and a knowledge worker’s use of computing and communication
services will not be limited to solitary moments at an office desk,
but will extend to all aspects of organizational life. The ongoing
experience of managing and organizing in the future will involve
multifaceted engagements with an “intelligent” computing environment
through a rich array of access methods including desk-top devices,
mobile communicators, digital assistants, wrist-watches, play-consoles,
and even clothing. These engagements will amplify digitilization
of all types of information leading to new forms of service based
on anytime, any-place computing. Ubiquitous information environments
will make possible new forms of organizing, communicating, working
and living.
The
attached working paper explores some of the research topics and
challenges of ubiquitous information environments from the viewpoint
of Information Systems Research.
Some
of the research challenges of organizing in and for ubiquitous information
environments are:
- How
the bodily and the virtual will mesh in novel and unanticipated
ways.
- How
to design applications that can offer easy-to-use, efficient,
robust and adaptable services over a number of different access
technologies.
- How
to design and manage such applications in a globally distributed
environment.
- How
different and varying access technologies and infrastructures
can be integrated and managed from both an organizational
and technological point of view.
- How diverse
technologies will be adopted, integrated and utilized by individuals,
teams and organizations.
- How
to design virtual teams, organizations, business processes
and management structures that can profitably deploy and draw
upon a ubiquitous information environment.
The
emerging field of ubiquitous computing
services is distributed across diverse research and R&D communities.
The area forms an intersection between several industries and specialties
including strategy and system integration, telecommunications, software,
media and hardware. These
communities span numerous discourses including organizational design,
management, knowledge management, CSCW, HCI, computer science, telecommunications,
information systems, information science, sociology, communication
studies, psychology and policy studies.
Because
the workshop seeks to formulate good questions and invent new ideas
instead of reporting past research we have designed the workshop
with an interactive format. The workshop will address these issues
by short invited talks, work group discussions, panels and roundtables
(see attached tentative program). The workshop will take place in
the Dively Executive Management Center of the Weatherhead School
of Management, which offers excellent premises for running seminars.
All group discussions and panels will be attended by PhD students,
who will record the sessions and write summaries of the workshops.
Workshop
attandance is by invitation only. We have organized the
workshop so that you can fly in on Friday afternoon and leave on
Sunday afternoon. All invited participants will be provided with
accommodation and meals during the workshop, but we expect them
to cover their own travel costs. We expect each participant to write
a short 2000-word description of his or her research topic, or a
research proposal that would cover some aspect of the workshop area.
These proposals will be used to organize participants into work
groups and also to invite some people to provide short talks on
specific topics. We expect that many of these can be elevated later
on into papers and we are currently discussing with journals their
potential interest in the results of the workshop.
We
know that October in Cleveland is not the same as January in Hawaii,
but the Fall foliage will be in full color and we believe that the
seminar will offer a unique opportunity to meet old friends, make
new friends and participate in an intellectual endeavor which is
both fresh and exciting.
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