Next-generation Information Systems Research Articles

“Use” as a Conscious Thought: Towards a Theory of “Use” in Autonomous Things

The way users perceive and use information systems artefacts has been mainly studied from the notion of behavioral beliefs, deliberate cognitive efforts, and physical actions performed by human actors to produce certain outcomes. The next generation of information systems, however, can sense, respond, and adapt to environments without necessitating similar cognitive efforts, physical contact, or explicit instructions to operate. Therefore, by leveraging theories of consciousness and technology use, this research aims to advance an alternative understanding of the "use" associated with the next generation of IS artefacts that do not require deliberate cognitive efforts, physical manipulation, or explicit instructions to yield outcomes. The theory and proposed model were refined and validated through the burst detection technique, IS expert involvement (n=10), a pilot study (n=130), and end-user surveys (n= 119). Structural equating modelling techniques were employed to test the theory. We show that unlike the manually operated IS artefacts, the “use” of a fully autonomous artefact is a conscious thought rather than a physical activity of operating a system to produce certain outcomes. We argue that, unlike the traditional notions of use associated with manually operated technologies, conscious use is not characterized solely by behavioral beliefs stemming from logical and reflective cognitive and physical efforts (e.g., effort expectancy). We propose the notion of conscious use within the context of fully autonomous entities and empirically validate its measure. Additionally, we offer recommendations for future research directions in this area. The conceptualization of this new theory for fully autonomous IS artefacts adds significant academic value to the literature given the convergence of AI-based machine learning systems and cognitive computing systems.

CSIMQ Anniversary Editor-in-Chief Thoughts and Editorial Introduction to Issue 38: Model-based and Decision Support Methods for Next-generation Information Systems

CSIMQ enters its second decade of existence, therefore the preface for the current issue starts with a message from the Editor-in-Chief, highlighting the journal’s mission of dealing with complexity management and systems modeling as meta-fields that have emerged from Information Science but remain relevant across diverse domains. Afterwards, the 38th issue is introduced by summarizing the four articles selected by guest issue editors on topics related to novel decision support methods or model-based frameworks for evolving or evaluating information systems. Design-oriented research is the dominant approach in these works, balancing technical design decisions insights with empirical evaluation cases. Three of the selected articles contribute with decision-support methods or frameworks – for ESG (Environment-Social-Governance) accounting, for democratized decision services and for information security management. Another article revisits UML-based model-driven software development from a new perspective.

Terahertz Hybrid Topological Chip for 10-Gbps Full-Duplex Communications

Terahertz photonic chips play an important role in next-generation information systems, such as high-speed inter/intrachip connections. Here we report a hybrid hollow-core terahertz topological planar waveguide where topological silicon pillars (assembled as expanded and compressed hexagonal clusters) are sandwiched between parallel gold plates. Assisted by numerical optimization of topological waveguide unit cells and supercells, we achieve a wide topological bandgap (relative bandwidth of 16.1%) in which two low-loss (below 0.1 dB/mm) topological pseudospin states exist and cover 81.8% of the bandgap. The dual unidirectional channel in a single waveguide path can be used for short-range (below 100 mm) 10-Gbps full-duplex on-chip transmissions under the forward error correction limit (bit error rate less than 10−3). Simulation results reveal that the communication performance of the proposed topological waveguide is largely group velocity dispersion dependent. This work may pave an avenue for high-speed integrated circuit design and applications in both electric and photonic fields.

Integrated neurosymbolic decision support systems: problems and opportunities

The current problem of developing new kinds of decision support systems for different categories of management personnel is addressed in this study. A critical feature of such systems is their distributed and decentralized nature, which enables the construction of next-generation information systems in the form of Multi-Agent Systems, Internet of Things, or Fog Computing Architectures. Parallel models of the dynamics of artificial neural networks are produced under such realistic circumstances, demonstrating their potential for addressing a variety of issues. The purpose of this study is to conduct a critical analysis of the problem of integrating Artificial Neural Networks with decision support systems using a corpus of relevant scholarly literature. To tackle this question, the Design Science Research methodology was considered. According to this methodology, a literary search strategy was established, scientific literature was collected and analyzed, and key comparisons between different solutions were emphasized. The study resulted in the presentation of the most important findings, outstanding issues, and potential areas of fundamental and applied solutions. A consistent trend toward the development of decision support systems based on integrated neural-network methods has been observed, which is efficient and cost-effective since it enables the creation of distributed and trainable decision support systems.

Selected Topics on Enablers for Next-Generation Information Systems Development: Editorial Introduction to Issue 25 of CSIMQ

The 25th issue of CSIMQ presents four articles that investigate novel enablers for information systems development. Three of the selected articles focus on conceptual modeling methods, whereas the fourth one investigates the readiness of SMEs for Industry 4.0 adoption. Model-driven engineering was both tailored (on method level) and applied in two of the papers, taking a Design Science approach to develop proofs-of-concept for the notion of “technology-specific modeling”, a particular flavor of domain-specific modeling – more precisely, technology-specific modeling languages reflect the specificity of a technological ecosystem or pattern (e. g. REST APIs, MVC Web development frameworks). The third paper's contribution may also be seen as a modeling method, although it is not framed as such – it focuses on a design viewpoint and its theoretical applicability in business scenarios. This method proposes a chemistry-inspired technique for optimizing enterprise collaboration patterns based on their KPI effects. Finally, the last paper takes a systematic literature review approach to investigate Industry 4.0 adoption at SME level through the lens of a modified version of the IMPULS assessment model.

Deep-learning-powered photonic analog-to-digital conversion

Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) must be high speed, broadband, and accurate for the development of modern information systems, such as radar, imaging, and communications systems; photonic technologies are regarded as promising technologies for realizing these advanced requirements. Here, we present a deep-learning-powered photonic ADC architecture that simultaneously exploits the advantages of electronics and photonics and overcomes the bottlenecks of the two technologies, thereby overcoming the ADC tradeoff among speed, bandwidth, and accuracy. Via supervised training, the adopted deep neural networks learn the patterns of photonic system defects and recover the distorted data, thereby maintaining the high quality of the electronic quantized data succinctly and adaptively. The numerical and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed architecture outperforms state-of-the-art ADCs with developable high throughput; hence, deep learning performs well in photonic ADC systems. We anticipate that the proposed architecture will inspire future high-performance photonic ADC design and provide opportunities for substantial performance enhancement for the next-generation information systems.

Validating Tantra Framework using entropy

In this paper, ontology-based Tantra Social Information Management Framework is proposed to manage information about a complex system such as society in a unified manner. The objective of Tantra Framework is to usher in good governance and social change by playing a prominent role in E-Governance. Tantra Framework enables four different viewpoints of social information: (1) collection of entities, (2) hierarchy of macrostates and microstates, (3) multi-modal social network and (4) social system with macrolevel properties and propensities. An entropy construct is crafted as an instrument for validation of Tantra Framework that can work with each of these viewpoints. With its generic nature and power of detailing, Tantra Framework can become a harbinger of next-generation information systems.

Independent Manipulating of Orthogonal-Polarization Terahertz Waves Using A Reconfigurable Graphene-Based Metasurface.

Viewing the trend of miniaturization and integration in modern electronic device design, a reconfigurable multi-functional graphene-based metasurface is proposed in this paper. By virtue of the reconfigurability of reflection patterns, this metasurface is able to independently manipulate orthogonal linearly polarized terahertz wave. The building blocks of the proposed metasurface are series of graphene-strips-based unit-cells. Each unit-cell consists of two orthogonal graphene strips and a grounded substrate, which has anisotropic responses for each of orthogonal polarizations (x-polarized and y-polarized waves). The reflection phases of both x- and y-polarized waves can be controlled independently through separate electrical tuning. Based on the proposed metasurface, functionalities including beam splitting, beam deflecting, and linear-to-circular polarization converting using a shared aperture are numerically demonstrated and analyzed. Simulation results demonstrate excellent performance, which is consistent with the theorized expectations. This work paves the way for enhancing the miniaturization of modern electronic/optical devices and potentially has important applications in the next-generation information systems for communication, sensing, and imaging.

Improvement of Smart Library Information Service System for SaaS-based Cloud Computing Service

For a library to be able provide information services and fulfill its function as a knowledge convergence center capable of responding to various information demands, the development of next-generation information systems based on the latest information and communication technology is needed. The development of mobile information services using portable devices such smart phones and tablet PCs and information systems which incorporate the concepts of cloud computing, SaaS (Software as a Service), annotation and Library2.0 is also required. This paper describes a library information system that utilizes collective intelligence and cloud computing. The information system developed for this study adopts the SaaS-based cloud computing service concept to cope with the shift in the mobile service paradigm in libraries and the explosion of electronic data. The strengths of such a conceptual model include the sharing of resources, support of multi-tenants, and the configuration and support of metadata. The user services are provided in the form of software on-demand. To test the performance of the developed system, the efficiency analysis and TTA certification test were conducted. The results of performance tests, It is encouraging that, at least up to 100MB, the job time is approximately linear and with only a moderate overhead of less than one second. The system also passed the level-3 or higher criteria in the certification test, which includes the SaaS maturity, performance and application program functions.

Current trends on ICT technologies for enterprise information systems

As business conditions change rapidly, the need for integrating business and technical systems calls for novel ICT frameworks and solutions to remain concurrent in highly competitive markets. A number of problems and issues arise in this regard. In this paper, four big challenges of enterprise information systems (EIS) are defined and discussed: (1) data value chain management; (2) context awareness; (3) usability, interaction and visualization; and (4) human learning and continuous education. Major contributions and research orientations of ICT technologies are elaborated based on selected key issues and lessons learned. First, the semantic mediator is proposed as a key enabler for dealing with semantic interoperability. Second, the context-aware infrastructures are proposed as a main solution for making efficient use of EIS to offer a high level of customization of delivered services and data. Third, the product avatar is proposed as a contribution to an evolutionary social, collaborative and product-centric and interaction metaphor with EIS. Fourth, human learning solutions are considered to develop individual competences in order to cope with new technological advances. The paper ends with a discussion on the impact of the proposed solutions on the economic and social landscape and proposes a set of recommendations as a perspective towards next generation of information systems.

Design, implementation and validation of AI-inspired information systems

While there is an emerging and always-growing interest for novel paradigms appeared recently (e.g., social networks,Cloud computing,NoSQL databases, Big Data, and so forth), Artificial Intelligence (AI) always plays a critical role in next-generation Information Systems. Indeed, as technology and paradigms pervade our life, there is a challenging need for smarter and more sophisticated Information Systems, for instance using innovative methodologies like crowdsourcing. As a consequence, it is natural to foresee the advancement of a novel class of Information Systems, which we call as AI-Inspired Information Systems. Basically, these are Information Systems which incorporate in their critical layers (i.e., design, implementation, validation) AI methodologies, yet extending their roots to classical foundations, with, indeed, exciting innovations. From this main evidence, there emerges a great interest in methodologies that can improve the variegate aspects of Information Systems life-cycle, with special emphasis on the modeling, representation, querying, retrieval, reasoning, mining and end-user phases. On the other hand, AI-inspired approaches tend to be computationally expensive, so that complexity analysis of proposed solutions must be rigorously evaluated and reasonable execution bounds should be derived. As a consequence, it naturally follows that designing, implementing and validating AI-Inspired Information Systems not only conveys in the need for elegant and scalable approaches, but also these approaches need to be theoretically-sound and exposing bounded complexities. Along this line, this special issue on “Design, Implementation and Validation of AIInspired Information Systems” of Journal of Intelligent Information Systems focuses on latest research results and open research challenges on the problem of designing, implementing and validating Information Systems, based on AI paradigms, according to principles and guidelines provided above. With the aim of adequately fulfilling both theoretical and practical issues of the investigated research context, this special issue contains five papers, which have gone through two rigorous review rounds before being accepted for the final inclu-

The next-generation electronic health record: perspectives of key leaders from the US Department of Veterans Affairs

The rapid change in healthcare has focused attention on the necessary development of a next-generation electronic health record (EHR) to support system transformation and more effective patient-centered care. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is developing plans for the next-generation EHR to support improved care delivery for veterans. To understand the needs for a next-generation EHR, we interviewed 14 VA operational, clinical and informatics leaders for their vision about system needs. Leaders consistently identified priorities for development in the areas of cognitive support, information synthesis, teamwork and communication, interoperability, data availability, usability, customization, and information management. The need to reconcile different EHR initiatives currently underway in the VA, as well as opportunities for data sharing, will be critical for continued progress. These findings may support the VA's effort for evolutionary change to its information system and draw attention to necessary research and development for a next-generation information system and EHR nationally.

Evolution of Integrated Management Systems for Smart Library

For a library to be able provide information services and fulfill its function as a knowledge convergence center capable of responding to various information demands, the development of next-generation information systems based on the latest information and communication technology is needed. The development of mobile information services using portable devices such smart phones and tablet PCs and information systems which incorporate the concepts of cloud computing, SaaS (Software as a Service), annotation and Library2.0 is also required. This paper describes a library information system that utilizes collective intelligence and cloud computing. The information system developed for this study adopts the SaaS-based cloud computing service concept to cope with the shift in the mobile service paradigm in libraries and the explosion of electronic data. The strengths of such a conceptual model include the sharing of resources, support of multi-tenants, and the configuration and support of metadata. The user services are provided in the form of software on-demand. To test the performance of the developed system, the efficiency analysis and TTA certification test were conducted. The results of performance tests, It is encouraging that, at least up to 100MB, the job time is approximately linear and with only a moderate overhead of less than one second. The system also passed the level-3 or higher criteria in the certification test, which includes the SaaS maturity, performance and application program functions.

Report on SciFlow 2006

Computation has been described as the "third leg" of science, along with theory and experimentation. Certainly, modern information systems are vital to managing and processing the huge amounts of data produced by simulations and experiments. However, existing tools are only now beginning to catch up with the needs of today's scientists, and much more needs to be done to support the computational needs of tomorrow's scientists. In particular, scientists still need effective tools to deal with massive data sets that may be geographically scattered, to apply multiple complex and interacting transformations to the data, and to ensure the quality and repeatability of their computations. The IEEE SciFlow workshop brought together computing researchers who are exploring how to build the next generation of information systems to address these needs. The workshop was held on April 8, 2006, in conjunction with the IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Interaction: Beyond retrieval

What is the role of interaction in the next generation of information systems? In classical information retrieval systems, interaction enables and facilitates the search for relevant documents. Typically, the interface is based on a three-pronged interaction paradigm: formulating keyword queries, scanning results lists, and browsing hypertext structures. This paradigm has been enormously successful. It is the basis for almost every modern, mainstream, large-scale information system, from digital libraries to web search engines and corporate intranets. But is this retrieval-centric approach to interaction a suitable foundation for the next generation of information systems? Is it a satisfactory basis for supporting the full cycle of knowledge discovery, creation, and use?

Querying XML streams

Efficient querying of XML streams will be one of the fundamental features of next-generation information systems. In this paper we propose the TurboXPath path processor, which accepts a language equivalent to a subset of the for-let-where constructs of XQuery over a single document. TurboXPath can be extended to provide full XQuery support or used to augment federated database engines for efficient handling of queries over XML data streams produced by external sources. Internally, TurboXPath uses a tree-shaped path expression with multiple outputs to drive the execution. The result of a query execution is a sequence of tuples of XML fragments matching the output nodes. Based on a streamed execution model, TurboXPath scales up to large documents and has limited memory consumption for increased concurrency. Experimental evaluation of a prototype demonstrates performance gains compared to other state-of-the-art path processors.

Special issue on ubiquitous mobile information and collaboration systems (UMICS)

Over the last few years, most business processes have changed on various dimensions (e.g., flexibility, interconnectivity, coordination style, autonomy) due to market conditions, organizational models, and usage scenarios of information systems. Frequently, information is relocated within a geographically distributed system according to rules that are only seldom defined as a well codified business process. This creates need for a software infrastructure that enables ubiquitous mobile information and collaboration systems (UMICS). The anywhere/any time/any means paradigm is becoming the major challenge in conceiving, designing, and releasing the next-generation information systems. New technologies, such as wireless local area networks (WLAN) and third-generation (3G) mobile phones, are offering the infrastructure to conceive information systems as ubiquitous information systems, that is, systems that are accessible from anywhere, at any time, and with any device. Ubiquity is not yet another buzzword pushed by emerging technologies, but is mainly a means to support new business models and encourage new ways of working. This new wave of UMICS will exploit the knowledge developed and deployed for conventional information systems, but will also need new concepts, models, methodologies, and supporting technologies to fully exploit the potentials of the enabling infrastructure and to be ready for the challenge. Moreover, people need to move across organizational boundaries and collaborate with others within an organization, as well as between organizations. The ability to query the company’s distributed knowledge base and to cooperate with co-workers is still a requirement, but mobility brings new access scenarios and higher complexity. Therefore, some issues also arise about how to enable users to retain their ability to cooperate while displaced in different points of the enterprise, the role of context and location in determining cooperation, and the support for ad hoc cooperation in situations where the fixed network infrastructure is absent or cannot be used. The eight papers presented in this special issue represent an overview of the 2nd International Workshop on Ubiquitous Mobile Information and Collaboration Systems 2004 (UMICS), co-located with the 16th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE), 7–8 June 2004 in Riga, Latvia. The contributions cover four areas: data and context management, coordination and control, application frameworks, and process modeling. Each of the papers offers valuable lessons on various aspects of UMICS. Furthermore, they provide insights into an emerging community of research topics, with scientists from various backgrounds working on them. We believe that the authors have succeeded in this pioneering work and we would like to thank them for submitting their work to UMICS 2004 and the extended versions to this special issue. We also would like to thank all reviewers who helped select and refine the papers and the editorial team at Springer for being an excellent partner. We hope to see you at future UMICS workshops! L. Baresi (&) AE M. Matera Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy E-mail: baresi@elet.polimi.it E-mail: matera@elet.polimi.it

A field‐programmable VLSI processor based on direct allocation of a control/data flow graph

AbstractThe next generation of information systems will require the development of special‐purpose processors that can accommodate computation‐intensive algorithms at superhigh speeds. Design methods based on field‐programmable gate arrays (FPGA), which can guide the fabrication of special‐use processors at lower cost than ad hoc design methods, are attracting increased attention. However, special‐purpose processors based on FPGA have the problem of poor performance compared to processors designed by ad hoc methods. In this article, we propose to eliminate this problem with FPGA processors by using field‐programmable VLSI (or FPVLSI) arrays of processing elements in which data transfer takes place between nearest‐neighbor processors only, direct allocation of control/data flow graphs, and bit‐serial architecture. Furthermore, we show that when this FPVLSI approach is used to implement a 16‐point FFT, the resulting processor module is over 20 times faster than a currently available FPGA module with the same area. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 2, 87(7): 28–37, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecjb.10076

RELATIONAL DEDUCTIVE OBJECT-ORIENTED MODELING (RDOOM) APPROACH FOR FINDING, REPRESENTING AND INTEGRATING APPLICATION-SPECIFIC CONCEPTS

Next generation information systems (NGISs) have to support the manipulation of data-oriented, behavioral and deductive aspects of application domains. Many modeling methods, e.g. UML and other object-oriented modeling methods offer primitives for modeling data-oriented and behavioral aspects but they do not support the modeling of deductive aspects. In addition, NGISs may be implemented by several separate software/database systems that are based on different paradigms. Therefore it is not appropriate to use such a modeling method which is based on one paradigm. In NGISs it is essential to integrate the value-oriented approach with the object-oriented approach. We develop a relational deductive object-oriented modeling (RDOOM) approach for NGISs. Our goal is to combine into one modeling method, the navigation power of the relational model, the modeling power of the object-orientation and the inference power of the deductive (logical) framework. It is obvious that in NGISs complex and large specifications have to be embedded in application-specific concepts and structures that are defined beforehand for users to facilitate their query formulation. The detection and specification of application-specific concepts and structures means a new challenge for analysis methods. We show that on the basis of the primitives of RDOOM it is possible to represent this kind of application-specific information in a natural way. It is also necessary that the appropriateness and adequacy of application-specific concepts and structures can be tested before their expensive design and implementation phases. For the definition of these concepts and structures a diagrammatic representation typical of many modeling methods is not sufficient. Rather, a precise and executable representation is needed. Especially the complex and large derivation rules behind deductive concepts cannot be expressed precisely with diagrammatic representations. We develop set-theoretical representations for our primitives. The precise representation of the result of systems analysis also gives a more substantial starting point for the design and implementation of NGISs.

The learning organization information system (LOIS): looking for the next generation

Abstract.This paper explores the notion that the next generation of information systems will focus on supporting organizational learning. The paper suggests that the increasingly successful automation of procedural work will lead to pressure on organizations to improve performance through enhanced support for knowledge work. A set of outline requirements for the learning organization information system (LOIS) is then proposed using recent research findings from computer supported co‐operative working and organizational learning. The computerized on‐line journal from this research is described. This journal provides transparent capture of episodes of work and it is argued that the general principles established could support LOIS by helping to provide a richly defined organizational memory. The journal supports collaborative working through the use of groupware, which manages the sharing of, and learning from, journal contents. This can facilitate the retention of not only data and information, but also the inquiry process that produced them. The paper concludes that LOIS will be a self‐organizing system, focussing on knowledge work, learning and using advanced technologies drawn from ubiquitous computing. A view of a system that moves towards this aim is presented. Future topics for research are identified, and a natural language approach to knowledge asset management is discussed briefly. In closing, it is argued that LOIS is an important future vision for organizations operating in the information age.