Information Systems
A substantial set of mechanisms exists whereby information systems academics can tap the resources of the net and one another. This page provides advice on what there is and how to get it. Let me have your contributions, corrections and improvements.
If you're a newbie, feel free to take a tour around a few pages on the net and how to use it.
This page contains the following sections:
Closely associated with this 'Plugging In' Section is my personal IS Researcher's Workbench.
The stand-out resource is ISWorld Net. This is a multi-dimensional and highly collaborative activity, much more than just some pretty designer web-pages. There are scores of departments and volunteers. If you're not into this, you're not being serious.
Be warned that the ISWorld Net image-maps are big, so if you're on a slow line or using the Lynx web-browser, use the text alternative:
One Department of particular importance is INFOSYS Junction, a repository for a variety of dynamic information, and in particular:
Some other links that may be valuable, depending what you're actually looking for at the time, are:
An electronic newsletter is a periodical email message, containing whatever the (voluntary) editor has seen in the last few days or weeks that looks relevant to the community of interest. Again, there's a standout here, the INFOSYS Newsletter, and again you're mad if you're not plugged into it:
An electronic journal is a publication containing refereed papers, which corresponds with a conventional academic hard-copy journal. It may be emailed; but alternatively the abstracts may be emailed, and the papers themselves made available (e.g. by FTP, as web-pages, or as Adobe Acrobat pages).
I haven't yet found the perfect reference point for IS-related electronic journals, so watch this space (or tell me, if you've found it!). The most useful things I've located so far are:
Publishers are only slowly adjusting their economics and working methods to take account of the potentials and threats of the electronic world. So, for now, you may want access to information about hard-copy journals too! Try:
These can be extremely valuable, and highly disruptive; so it's important to establish a pattern of use that suits your own personal needs and style. Emailing lists pass on to you each message that anyone addresses to the list. Moderated lists tend to be more staid and professional than the (much more common) unmoderated lists (but they take up a huge amount of time for the volunteer moderator). Many lists offer digests, which means that you see all messages, but in one or more long messages periodically, generally weekly. Some have archives, which you can wander through chronologically, or in some cases using string-based searching.
Whereas emailing lists are driven by senders, the reading of newsgroups is driven by you, i.e. people post to an electronic bulletin board, and you choose when and if you read their messages. On the other hand, there tends to be a more robust culture in newsgroups, with a higher proportion of aggressive speech, and a lower proportion of content. But they can be wonderful for 'fast-breaking news' about important issues.
One approach to these sources is to:
Once again, INFOSYS provides the best source for IS-related emailing lists and newsgroups.
The most valuable general IS list is the ISWorld Net emailing list. To subscribe, email to listserv@irlearn.ucd.ie with the message: 'subscribe ISWorld <your name>'.
There are thoroughly comprehensive lists available, of:
The primary electronic resource is a set of three directories of Information Systems academics which cover (almost) the whole world.
In addition, there's an electronic directory of people in Australian Computer Science Departments.
In late 1995, only the North American Directory has been implemented electronically, but information is also provided there on how to acquire hard-copy directories for Asia-Pacific and Europe; and both of those are intended to go electronic shortly. (The new printed edition of the Asia-Pacific Directory will be available very shortly).
For IS Departments, there are a few sources:
For more general resources, try:
The best location for tracking down and monitoring conferences relevant to the Information Systems discipline is the ISWorld Net / Infosys Junction page.
Some generalist conferences of especial importance are:
The AIS is the professional body for information systems academics, worldwide.
The ACM is the professional body for U.S. IT people.
IFIP is the international association of I.T. professional associations. It includes Technical Committees and Working Groups. The most directly relevant one to I.S. is IFIP WG8.2, the Information Systems Working Group.
* The Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
This is the U.S.-based but internationally focussed body for socially aware IT people. It's a doing organisation, not a bunch of inactive would-be do-gooders.
The ACS is the professional body for Australian IT people.
Much more substantial world-wide lists are maintained by:
Here are some useful job-search aids:
Go back to the AIS's home-page.
Go to Roger's Home Page.
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Last Amended: 31 March 1996
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