Contributions published at Information Management (Gerhard Schwabe)

Meetings and collaborative work are part of the everyday business life. Audio communication in the form of VoIP and instant messaging-based chat communication offer new and inexpensive ways to communicate in groups. Our previous research has shown that the selection of either audio or chat has a significant impact on the collaborative productivity. This experiment observes the impact of selecting both audio and chat communication at the same time. We analyze whether the polychronicity helps to achieve a higher productivity. This work provides quantitative, experimental-based data. We show with this data that typical users are overwhelmed by the combination of both media. The complexity of listening to the audio conversation, reading the chat dialog and observing the shared whitespace together with communicating seems to induce too high a cognitive load on the user, thus preventing productive work. This paper shows the importance of quantitative experiments about polychronicity and proposes further work about the correlation of media synchronicity and polychronicity research.

This article starts with a discussion of user paradigms in (business) informatics and the human-computer interaction field in general. Based on this analysis a new user paradigm for mobile social Web scenarios is proposed: the mobile campfire paradigm. We contrast this approach to other paradigms, like the ldquouser as information processorrdquo perspective. Finally, implications of this metaphor for the design of future mobile devices and services are discussed and exemplified by a field study from own work.

The goal of this thesis is the creation of a framework for the holistic collection, visualization and analysis of heterogeneous data of IT services. The framework is to enable a systematic, periodic automatic and manual data gathering on the one hand and a „big picture“ visualization of the past and present situation on the other hand. This visualization provides a basis to create group awareness of the current situation and helps to support decisionmaking and coordination in the group. The thesis describes the conceptual design of the framework and a prototypical implementation for a support team of a major swiss bank. The evaluation of the realisation provides insights about the practical adoption of the framework. The concluding evaluation of the findings leads to recommendations for the successful realisation of a comprehensive tool for the holistic collection and visualization of heterogeneous data.

This thesis addresses the research objective to build an observable collaboration environment within the virtual world Second Life. By understanding the behavior of humans, the aim is to ultimately provide real-time support for virtual teams. Therefore, the central requirement for the environment is support for distributed team meetings, while providing mechanisms for data collection of those meetings at the same time. The work is based on certain theoretical foundations, as well as empirical findings, from collaborative work and virtual environments. In particular, the notions of media naturalness theory are assessed in Second Life. In order to test the suitability of the created virtual meeting environment for collaboration, a usability evaluation cycle frames the investigation. Several group trial experiments are conducted to elicit requirements for future applications of the environment. The observations inform the design of the environment for the next cycle. The collectable data from the trials comprises chat communication, avatar coordinates, screen-capture video and post-hoc interviews. The chat communication is coded and analyzed. The findings help us support or put into perspective observations made during the trial experiments. An outlook regarding the implications for practice, as well as potential research opportunities in virtual worlds conclude the work.

In this paper we propose a definition for a mobile community based on the value of knowledge exchange among locally dispersed community members. Against this conceptual background, we propose a low-tech mobile community setting using SMS messaging and customary mobile phones. The feasibility of this approach is tested in a field study. Results show that successful information exchange is established with high user traffic and that participants judge the communication to be helpful. User requirements hint to the need for a better structuring of SMS messages, alternative input/output devices and location-based services. Implications for the future support of mobile communities are discussed.

This paper discusses the design and first deployment experiences of an interactive large-display workspace for face-to-face travel consultancy. The stickiness of client preferences, the asymmetry of information about the solution space and the emotional colouring of client choices, make this complex cooperative process difficult to perform. To support such collocated consultancies we propose a large-display system providing a shared visualization of information resources that can be manipulated jointly by both parties. The use of natural touch interaction and multimedia resources furthers emotional involvement of the user. Results of a preliminary evaluation suggest that such a large-display workspace can greatly improve the cooperation process and both customer and agent satisfaction.

This paper analyzes the information quality of user generated and professional travel pictures. The basis for this analysis is a travel guide as well as an online community. The information quality is analyzed on the basis of up-to-dateness and completeness. The goal is to come to a conclusion as to whether user generated pictures have the same information quality as professional travel pictures. Are user generated travel pictures a real alternative to professional travel guides? The survey showed that the user generated pictures are significantly more up-to-date than the professional pictures in the travel guides. There are no significant differences between the professional the completeness of user generated travel pictures and professional pictures.

IT Governance is a very topical issue in many companies. Even at universities a change is in progress and the need for appropriate IT Governance structures and decision-making processes grows. This work considers first the bases in the literature on organization theory, IT Governance and universities. In the main part of the study through interviews organizational structures, decision-making processes from five decision-domains and SWOT analysis at 14 universities in Germany have been collected, recorded and the processes were mapped as event-process chains. This shows typical pattern of IT Governance structures. Combined with various environment variables hints and approaches to solutions are made, how IT Governance at universities in the future can be built.

Der mExplorer ist ein an der Universität Zürich im Rahmen des Forschungsgebietes „Collaborative Technologies“ entwickeltes mobiles Lernspiel, welches Erstsemestrigen den Campus einer Universität auf spielerische Art undWeise näher bringen soll. In der vorliegenden Arbeit sollen die bestehenden technischen Implementationen und Szenarien des mExplorers dahingehend erweitert werden, dass dieser für das Eventmarketing eingesetzt werden kann. Der mExplorer soll das Promoting eines Objektes oder einer ganzen Institution im Rahmen eines Events möglich machen. Dazu werden im ersten Teil die Grundlagen des Eventmarketings erläutert. Dabei wird vor allem auf die Ziele und die Planung eines Marketing Events eingegangen, unter anderem werden aber auch schon vorhandene mobile Marketingsysteme vorgestellt. Im zweiten Teil werden mehrere Eventmarketing Szenarien für den mExplorer ausgearbeitet und schlussendlich eines davon implementiert und mit Benutzern getestet.

In the logistic industry sector, information to be exchanged with customers is generally well structured. Established systems provide near time information on the status of deliveries. Due to the close relationship between customers and service providers, the need to exchange also less structured information on a central platform is getting more important. The form of such an exchange strongly depends on the parties involved. This paper presents a model to accommodate the exchange of unstructured information in addition to the standard systems. Furthermore, it can be easily adjusted to meet the individual requirements of every commercial relationship.

In this diploma thesis, IT-Governance is analyzed at 16 universities in Austria, and in Switzerland. In every university the IT/business alignment is shown based on five different decision-making processes. The formal processes are distinguished from the informal processes. Through a situation analysis, the strengths and the weaknesses of IT-governance are examined. The opportunities that can be used are looked into and the relevant threats are considered. Furthermore, the thesis explores how the universities will fulfill the requirements of the different stakeholder and the future development of the IT-Systems at the universities. Finally the universities are categorized by means of their IT-Governance and the decision-making processes applied to matrices.

Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit der Anwendung so genannter subjektivbewertender tags – einer möglichen Form von tags zur Bildung von Folksonomien, welche den emotionalen Inhalt einer Ressource beschreiben. Die dominierende Mehrheit von tags in heutigen Folksonomien besitzt einen eher objektiven Charakter. Unklare subjektiv-gefärbte Begriffe gefährden die eindeutige Zuordnung von Inhalten zu Klassen, senken somit die innere Konsistenz der Taxonomie und werden aus diesem Grund eher vermieden. In der Anwendungsdomäne der Unterhaltungsmedien scheinen objektiv-beschreibende tags jedoch nicht immer geeignet zu sein, um deren Inhalt zu beschreiben. Gerade Konsumenten, die den Kontext nicht kennen, innerhalb dessen sie Inhalte suchen, wie beispielsweise eine bestimmte Art von Musikstück der klassischen Musik, haben es oft schwer sich zu Recht zu finden. Subjektiv-bewertende tags könnten dabei Abhilfe schaffen. Man sucht nicht taxonomisch, also in Kategorien einer bestimmten Domäne denkend, sondern mittels tags, die den emotionalen Inhalt beschreiben. In einem Experiment wurde untersucht, ob und wie weit diese Form des tagging effektiv ist. Tagging ist dann effektiv, wenn es eine intersubjektive Übereinstimmung über die passende Zuordnung von tags zu Objekten gibt. Im Experiment mussten die Teilnehmer aus einer begrenzten Menge solcher tags auswählen und diese Bildern zuordnen. Es kristallisierte sich heraus, dass bei Bildern auf denen Menschen und vor allem Gesichter zu sehen waren, eine hohe Übereinstimmung unter den Teilnehmern herrschte. Emotionales tagging ist dort also effektiv. Bei eher materialistischen Sujets war die Übereinstimmung deutlich geringer. Diese Arbeit präsentiert erste empirische Erkenntnisse, welche subjektivbewertenden tags heute bereits häufig verwendet werden, sowie welche Art von Inhalten sich für subjektive tags als besonders vielversprechend erweisen. Abschliessend diskutieren wir aufgrund dieser Ergebnisse Implikationen für Plattformbetreiber und die zukünftige Verwendung von subjektiv-bewertenden tags in Web 2.0-Szenarien.

Die Wiederverwendbarkeit von digitalen Lehrinhalten war eine zentrale Frage in dem E-Learning-Projekt „Foundations of Information Systems (FOIS)“, einem Verbundprojekt von fünf Schweizer Universitäten. Während der Projektlaufzeit wurden zwölf multimediale und online verfügbare Selbstlernmodule produziert, die ein breites Spektrum an Wirtschaftsinformatikthemen abdecken und die primär in einführenden Lehrveranstaltungen der Wirtschaftsinformatik gemäß dem Blended-Learning-Ansatz genutzt werden. In dem Artikel beschreiben wir, wie die für die Wiederverwendung von E-Learning-Inhalten und -materialien wesentlichen Aspekte Flexibilität, Kontextfreiheit, inhaltliche und didaktische Vereinheitlichung sowie Blended-Learning-Einsatz in dem Projekt umgesetzt worden sind. Im zweiten Teil gehen wir auf die Erfahrungen ein, die wir und unsere Studierenden mit den FOIS-Module in der Lehre an der Universität Zürich gesammelt haben, und stellen Evaluationsergebnisse aus drei Lehrveranstaltungen und unsere Lessons Learned vor.

To ensure their ability to remain competitive, many companies go offshore, meaning that parts of their business processes are relocated to a distant country. The basic principle of a successful IT offshore project is the knowledge transfer: Thereby the available knowledge in the company must be transferred to the employees of the distant company, so that they can realize their mandate being a part of a global value chain. An effective and efficient knowledge transfer depends on a row of critical success factors. Therefore, the present case study will indentify the factors which have a considerable influ-ence on the efficiency and effectiveness of the knowledge transfer. As a result of this, an inte-grated process-model is proposed, giving the management a well established base for the execution of IT offshore projects and the related knowledge transfer.

A systematic knowledge management can remarkably contribute to make IT projects successful. When dealing with IT outsourcing projects the knowledge transfer represents one of the critical success factors. Thus the success basically depends on the transferred knowledge, the transfer methods and how effectively and efficiently the knowledge transfer process has been formed. Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi two renowned business experts from Japan have developed a new management model, the so-called “Middle-up-down-Management”. Contrary to the widely spread negative attitude towards the middle management they claim that especially middle management plays a critical part in making knowledge projects a success. This thesis focuses on the role of the middle management dealing with strategic IT projects and analyzes how far the middle management influences the success of the knowledge transfer respectively the success of the entire IT project by analyzing four case studies from well known IT service provider.

In this article the principles and benefits of open access are described which can be achieved with the help of institutional repositories. The advantages of a repository are depicted as well as the spread throughout the European Union. The process of installing an institutional repository organizationally is shown as short report on the ongoing efforts at the Swiss Institute for Information Research in Chur. The approach to install a widely accepted repository for the University of Applied Sciences Chur and its difficulties are portrayed as well as the process and methods chosen for the evaluation of the candidate software packages.

Companies engage in IT-projects in order to gain some benefits; however they complain that those benefits are difficult to achieve. On the basis of a survey in the Swiss financial industry this paper comes to the conclusion that due to a fundamental misconception companies reproduce the lack of success in reaping IT benefits: Many companies regard benefit management as an instrument to support project proposals rather than as an instrument to gain optimal benefits. Consequently, benefits management activities focus on the early project phases. The paper presents data based on interviews with senior maangers/executives representing 31 large companies of the Swiss financial industry. It covers benefits in project proposals, the identification and structuring of benefits, the planning of benefits realization, the execution of the benefits plan, review and evaluation results, an overall process evaluation and some contextual questions.

Die Vernetzung der Individualreisenden über ihre begrenzten persönlichen Netze hinaus in virtuellen Gemeinschaften ermöglicht einen globalen Informationsaustausch und führt zur Virtualisierung touristischer Artefakte (z.B. Reiseberichte und Bilder) sowie durch die vereinfachte Kooperation zur Virtualisierung touristischer Informationsprodukte. Unsere Untersuchungen zeigen, dass die Qualität der Information mit kommerziellen Produkten gleichziehen kann. Gleichzeitig steht damit ein bislang fehlendes Instrumentarium zur Messung der Informationsqualität zur Verfügung.Damit ändern sich die Geschäftsmodelle im wissensintensiven Tourismusmarkt grundlegend, da die kommerzielle Herstellung von Information der kostenlosen, qualitativ und quantitativ leistungsfähigen Informationserstellung und -verteilung virtuellen Gemeinschaften gegenübersteht.

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