Food Hubs in Australia : Benefits, challenges and potential ICT contributions
- Authors: Kurnia, Sherah , Hill, Serenity , Rahim, Mahbubur , Larsen, Kirsten , Braun, Patrice
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 19th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, PACIS 2015
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Food Hubs have been developed to promote sustainability practices in managing regional distribution of fresh produce in a number of countries including the United States and Australia. They have the potential to support the resilience and sustainability of regional food supply chains by improving the local economy, environmental condition, and community well-being. However, despite the potential benefits, Food Hubs face many challenges that threaten their long-term survival. Currently, limited research has been conducted to investigate benefits and challenges of Food Hubs and how Information and Communication Technology (ICT), which is known as one of the key enablers to facilitate sustainable practices, can help address the challenges. In this research-in-progress paper, we present preliminary findings from an on-going research project that seeks to explore benefits and challenges experienced by Australian Food Hubs and the role of ICT in supporting their operations and growth. Our study enhances the understanding of the contributions of Food Hubs to sustainability and the roles of ICT in supporting sustainability practices.
Analytics service oriented architecture for enterprise information systems
- Authors: Sun, Zhaohao , Strang, Kenneth , Yearwood, John
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 16th International Conference on Information Integration and Web-based Applications & Services
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Big data analytics and business analytics are disruptive technology and innovative solution for enterprise development. However, what is the relationship between big data analytics and business analytics? What is the relationship between business analytics and enterprise information systems (EIS)? How can business analytics enhance the development of EIS? These are still big issues for EIS development. This paper addresses these three issues by proposing an ontology of business analytics, presenting an analytics service-oriented architecture (ASOA) and applying ASOA to EIS, where our surveyed data analysis showed that the proposed ASOA can enhance to develop EIS. This paper also discusses the interrelationship between data analysis and business analytics, and between data analytics and big data analytics. The proposed approaches in this paper will facilitate research and development of EIS, business analytics, big data analytics, and business intelligence.
A participatory information management framework for patient centred care of autism spectrum disorder
- Authors: De Silva, Daswin , Burstein, Frada , Stranieri, Andrew , Williams, Katrina , Rinehart, Nicole
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Information systems: Transforming the future 24th Australasian Conference on Information p. 2-11
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
Haptics can "lend a hand" to a bionic eye
- Authors: Richardson, Barry , Van Doorn, George
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Haptics: Generating and Perceiving Tangible Sensations p. 320-325
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Here we argue that haptics (touch and kinaesthesis) can play a key role in the development of a bionic eye. Tactile displays can supplement and complement the incomplete information that a visual prosthetic will offer the brain in early stages of the prosthetic’s development. Kinaesthetic inputs give the brain feedback about motor activities that correlate with both visual and tactile inputs, and are critical for perceptual competency. Haptic inputs can also help “teach” the new visual sense to respond to stimuli that are initially indiscriminable and enable cross-calibration of inputs to strengthen multimodal cortical connections. By using haptics to supplement and complement inputs from a visual prosthetic, a bionic eye can develop more quickly than did the Bionic Ear.
Understanding victims of identity theft: A grounded theory approach
- Authors: Turville, Kylie , Firmin, Sally , Yearwood, John , Miller, Charlynn
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 5th International Conference on Qualitative Research in IT and IT in Qualitative Research, QualIT 2010
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Being a victim of identity theft can be a devastating and life-changing event. Once the victim discovers the misuse they need to begin the process of recovery. For the "lucky" victims this may take only a couple of phone calls and a small amount of time; however, some victims may experience difficulties for many year. In order to recover, victims of crime require support and assistance; however, within Australia this support is sadly lacking. In order to identify the issues currently faced by victims of identity theft as they work through the recovery process, a Grounded Theory methodology was identified as most appropriate. This paper provides a brief overview of the history of the research project; a brief introduction of grounded theory with a focus on preconceived ideas and their implications; and a description of the research project currently being undertaken. A discussion of some issues experienced when using grounded theory within an IT department with very little experience of qualitative research will be provided, along with some preliminary results.
- Description: E1
Being smart and being green : Entrepreneurial innovation in challenging times
- Authors: Braun, Patrice , Lowe, Julian
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 32nd Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship Conference, ISBE 2009, Liverpool, UK : 3rd-6th November 2009
- Full Text:
- Description: In difficult times business operators are looking for clever and affordable ways to grow their enterprises. This paper seeks to make a contribution to a better understanding of proactive environmental and innovation strategies for SMEs and the interaction between demand and supply towards sustainable and innovative business practices. The paper discusses the combined outcomes of the exit survey of a greening small business 2008 pilot program and the entry survey for the 2009 online training and networking version of the program, which fuses environmental, business and ICT- enabled skilling to enhance both SME entrepreneurship and innovation. The study suggests that SME business sustainability cannot be reduced to an oversimplified business case and that pro-environmental strategy adoption and behaviour, and particularly behavioural change, is highly complex. The outcomes of this research are expected to contribute to good practice in environmental and innovation skilling for SMEs, especially skilling that differentiates between supply and demand side skilling and brings together the two sides in a proactive resource acquisition, knowledge transfer and networking environment.
- Description: 2003007572
C6 : A holistic model for decision making in web services
- Authors: Sun, Zhaohao , Meredith, Grant , Jia, Long
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 20th Australasian Conference on Information Systems, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria : 2nd-4th Dec 2009 p. 904-914
- Full Text:
- Description: Web services are playing a pivotal role in e-business, service intelligence, service science and information systems. This article will examine how the main players make decisions for activities in web service lifecycle (WSLC) and propose a holistic model for decision making in web services. More specifically, this article first examines main players in web services. It also reviews the existing web service lifecycles and proposes a demand-driven web service lifecycle for web service requesters. It will then examine six driving factors for web services, look at their interrelationships and propose a holistic model for decision making in web services, C6, which consists of six Cs: communication, competition, coordination, collaboration, cooperation and control, taking into account the main players in web services and web service lifecycle (WSLC). The proposed approach will facilitate research and development of web services, e-services, service intelligence, service science and service computing.
- Description: 2003007874
Firm Performance, corporate governance, and CEO turnover : An empirical study from China
- Authors: Pi, Lili , Lowe, Julian , Zhao, Chao
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 23rd ANZAM Conference 2009: Sustainable Management and Marketing, Melbourne, Victoria : 1st-4th December 2009
- Full Text: false
- Description: This study examines the impacts of firm performance and mechanisms of corporate governance on CEO turnover by using a sample of 325 companies listed on the Chinese stock markets over the ten-year period 1997-2006. A negative relationship between CEO turnover and firm performance has been found in this study. For mechanisms of corporate governance, the proportion of independent directors is negatively associated with CEO turnover. Similarly, serving as the representative of the largest shareholder in the company significantly reduces the likelihood of CEO turnover, While CEO turnover is unrelated to whether CEOs are representatives of any other top ten largest shareholders. Moreover, neither CEOs’ shareholdings nor state shareholdings influence CEO turnover.
- Description: 2003007599
Going green : Women entrepreneurs and the environment
- Authors: Braun, Patrice
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 32nd Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship Conference, ISBE 2009, Liverpool, UK : 3rd-6th November 2009
- Full Text:
- Description: In economically challenging times business operators are looking for clever and affordable ways to grow their enterprises. This paper discusses the role of women entrepreneurs’ in proactively greening their small business. The paper highlights the combined outcomes of the exit survey of a greening small business 2008 pilot program and the entry survey for the 2009 online version of the training and networking program, which fuses environmental, business and ICT-enabled skilling to enhance both SME entrepreneurship and innovation. The study suggests that while reported environmental attitudes between male and female entrepreneurs do not differ significantly, women’s motivations differ from male entrepreneurs in terms of greening their business; and women are more proactive in pursuing green networking opportunities, where they can interact with like-minded businesses, access more clients, source alternative resources and expand their green business networks.
- Description: 2003007573
Human resource management in TAFE institutes in Australia
- Authors: Smith, Andy
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 23rd ANZAM Conference 2009: Sustainable Management and Marketing, Melbourne, Victoria : 1st-4th December 2009
- Full Text: false
- Description: This paper reports the results of a national research project into the impact of human resource management practices on teaching and learning performance in TAFE Institutes in Australia. The research and literature on human resource management and, more recently, on high performance work systems has suggested strongly that the implementation of more sophisticated policies of human resource management will result in higher levels of organisational performance. This research project tests this theory in the context of vocational education and training (VET). The research examines the formulation and implementation of human resource management practices in TAFE institutes. The project involved a survey of TAFE institutes which established the form and extent of human resource management and a series of case studies investigating the impact of human resource management on teaching and learning and other aspects of organisational performance.
- Description: 2003007598
Spring framework in smart proxy transaction model
- Authors: Pradhan, Sunam , Zaslavsky, Arkady , Tari, Zahir
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 5th International Conference on Next Generation Web Services Practices, NWeSP 2009, Prague : 9th-11th September 2009 p. 23-28
- Full Text:
- Description: This paper explores adoption of open source application framework in Smart Proxy (sProxy) Transaction model for transaction support. An open source application framework - Spring Framework is plugged into the Smart Proxy (sProxy) Transactional model to support transactional properties. Spring Framework in the sProxy Transaction model increases the transactional interoperability in Web Services context. © 2009 IEEE.
- Description: 2003007845
The importance of temperature information in virtual training environments
- Authors: Van Doorn, George , Symmons, Mark , Richardson, Barry
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: SimTect 2009 Conference Proceedings p. 393-397
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Thermal input is an important, but often unacknowledged, source of information in our interactions with the environment. Besides the extremes that alert us to discomfort and danger, even a small change in temperature adds to the richness of the haptic experience. Temperature assists us in establishing that we have made contact with a surface and it helps to determine what that surface might be. It is not yet clear how important or redundant that temperature information is, a question of particular importance to builders of virtual reality interfaces and environments. Indeed, it is possible that as an under-exploited channel, temperature could be used to code for other information not easily conveyed with current technologies. For example, temperature conveyed by Peltier tiles may intuitively code for hardness - and therefore material type - in simulations or teleremote applications. Temperature may also enhance the learning experience by increasing presence or immersion. The findings from several experiments are brought together to discuss the efficacy of adding temperature feedback to simulation applications. In the first, Peltier tiles are added to an exoskeleton device designed to provide kinaesthetic feedback when interacting in a virtual environment. The effects are explored in terms of useability and the potential to increase presence or realism of virtual objects. We also describe an experiment in which movement was either active or passive-guided. In the active condition the degree of "coldness" felt at the fingertip was reported as less intense than when movement was passive. It appears that intentionality of movement played some role in the attenuation of the stimulus. Other work suggests that the perception of temperature is not influenced by a simultaneously present colour. For example, perceiving cold is not enhanced when it is processed in conjunction with a blue colour. This article will review the relevant literature and, in conjunction with the data we have collected, establish whether introducing temperature to virtual training environments is advisable.
A fuzzy logic model for scalable trust in e-commerce
- Authors: Sun, Zhaohao , Guo, Xifeng , Zaoh, Sh
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: The 8th IFIP Conference on e-Business, e-Services, and e-Society p. 87-97
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: With the rapid development of e-commerce and the expansion of e-commerce system scale, scalable trust in e-commerce becomes critical. This article examines scalable trust of multiagent e-commerce system (MECS) and proposes a fuzzy model for scalable trust in e-commerce. It also discusses the realization of scalable trust from the viewpoint of engineering. The proposed approach will facilitate research and development of trust, multiagent systems, e-commerce and e-services
An intelligent learning environment for traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and students
- Authors: Jia, Long , Stranieri, Andrew , Shen, J
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at HIC 2008 Australia's Health Informatics Conference; The Person in the Centre, Brunswick East, Victoria : 31st August - 2nd September 2008
- Full Text:
- Description: Objectives: This study aims to support the training of Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners by embedding an expert diagnostic model for arthritis into an Intelligent Interactive Learning Environment (IILE). Background: The increasing prevalence of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) outside China is characterised by the emergence of university level practitioner training and stringent regulatory requirements. TCM differential diagnosis is a difficult task that was traditionally taught by exposure to large numbers of patients in a master-apprentice context. In university degree programs, students and novice diagnosticians cannot have the exposure to cases possible in the traditional context. An online system that engages students in the interactive construction of a virtual case and provides immediate feedback on the appropriateness of student actions and the accuracy of diagnostic conclusions can enhance student learning. The system, an Intelligent Interactive Learning Environment (IILE) is based on an approach that has been shown to improve learning outcomes in intensive care nurse training. Methods: An expert model of diagnostic reasoning elicited from TCM expert practitioners lies at the core of the IILE. The knowledge acquisition is performed using an argumentation tree representation that has been shown to be effective in structuring complex knowledge and facilitating engineer - expert interactions. Problems associated with keeping knowledge bases up to date are mitigated with the use of a knowledge model known as ripple down rules permits dynamic updating of knowledge so that knowledge bases evolve over time. A simple narrative model builds up the virtual case study as user interaction proceeds. Results and discussion: This article reports preliminary results in the study that includes an overview of TCM differential diagnosis, the argument tree, the ripple down rule representation and the narrative based IILE. Segments of the knowledge model based solely on TCM literature are illustrated.
- Description: 2003006755
External influences on the development and professionalisation of accounting in Malaysia, 1957-1969
- Authors: Ali, Azham Md. , Lee, Teck Heang , West, Brian
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 2008 AFAANZ / IAAER Conference, Sydney, New South Wales : 6th-8th July 2008
- Full Text: false
- Description: The accounting history literature identifies a tendency for accounting in developing countries to be dominated by the style of accounting institutions and practices of western developed nations – particularly the USA and UK. This “importation” hypothesis is investigated and refined through a case study examination of the history of accounting in Malaysia during the formative years of 1957 to 1969. This era commences with the Malay States gaining independence from Britain and closes with the race riots which marked a turning point in the nation’s history. The establishment of the Malaysian Association of Certified Public Accountants (MACPA) in 1958 and the passing of the Companies Act of 1965 and the Accountants Act of 1967 are identified as key events which perpetuated British colonial influence within the new nation. These circumstances add credence to the “importation” hypothesis and support a depiction of accounting and its institutional apparatus as regularising forces with a capacity to transcend political and social change within a nation state.
- Description: 2003006230
Financial reporting and accountability in charitable organisations
- Authors: Dellaportas, Steven , Langton, Jonathan , West, Brian
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 2008 AFAANZ / IAAER Conference, Sydney, New South Wales : 6th-8th July 2008
- Full Text: false
- Description: The not-for-profit sector is made up of approximately 700,000 entities employing around 600,000 people and controlling assets up to $70 billion, with the largest charities comparing favourably in size and value to big business. While it is expected that many charitable organisations are well-managed and make a significant contribution to society, a lack of good governance and/or accountability could have devastating affects on the community. Official inquiries into the not-for-profit sector have questioned the lack of transparency and accountability created by a complex legal and regulatory regime. Critics of the existing regime have called for reforms including mandatory financial reporting requirements and an independent regulator to enhance public accountability and organizational efficiency and performance. This study provides an insight into the financial reporting activities of Australia’s largest charities so as to provide a measure of the extent to which charities meet public expectations of accountability. This involved the examination of over 100 publicly available reports for charitable organizations and the administration of a questionnaire. The majority of charities examined in this study provide community, welfare or health services, employ over 100 employees, and rely on a similar number of volunteers to assist with their activities. We have attempted to shed light on a significant failure of the not-for-profit sector to date, in that although our research highlights inconsistencies in reporting formats, ambiguus financial information and a high proportion of qualified audit reports there is a strong belief from charity organisations that the public is entitled to receive quality information on financial performance, suggesting that increased financial disclosures would be beneficial to the charitable sector. Respondents supported ‘programme accountability’ (89.1%), ‘fiscal accountability’ (78.2%) and ‘profit’ (76.6%) as suitable measures of performance with the circumstances of not-for-profit organisations sufficiently different to require a specific and dedicated accounting standard for the sector.
- Description: 2003006345
Re-consider : The integration of online dispute resolution and decision support systems
- Authors: Muecke, Nial , Stranieri, Andrew , Miller, Charlynn
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 5th International Workshop on Online Dispute Resolution, in conjunction with the 21st International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems (JURIX 2008), Firenze, Italy : 13th December 2008
- Full Text:
- Description: Current approaches for the design of Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) systems involve the replication of Alternative Dispute Resolution practices such as mediation and negotiation. Though such systems have been found to be popular, there are concerns that these systems fail to take into account judicial practices. In this paper a system that supports disputants' decisions making when engaged in an online dispute is advanced. The system, Re-Consider, is an Australia Family Law ODR system, that is based on judicial reasoning modelled with Bayesian belief networks and provides disputants with decision support in the dispute. It is believed that this approach provides disputants with an online resolution process that will help them to reach outcomes that take judicial practices into account and presents a step toward more deliberative form of online dispute resolution.
- Description: 2003006782
The impact of semantic class identification and semantic role labeling on natural language answer extraction
- Authors: Ofoghi, Bahadorreza , Yearwood, John , Ma, Liping
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 30th European Conference on IR Research, ECIR 2008, Glasgow, UK : 30th March - 3rd April 2008 p. 430-437
- Full Text: false
- Description: In satisfying an information need by a Question Answering (QA) system, there are text understanding approaches which can enhance the performance of final answer extraction. Exploiting the FrameNet lexical resource in this process inspires analysis of the levels of semantic representation in the automated practice where the task of semantic class and role labeling takes place. In this paper, we analyze the impact of different levels of semantic parsing on answer extraction with respect to the individual sub-tasks of frame evocation and frame element assignment.
- Description: 2003006587
Accounting’s chaotic margins : Financial reporting of the library collections of Australia’s public universities
- Authors: West, Brian , Carnegie, Garry
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 2007 AFAANZ Conference, The Gold Coast, Queensland : 1st-3rd July 2007
- Full Text: false
- Description: This paper explores the circumstances and implications of an episode of accounting change arising from the extended use of accrual accounting within the Australian public sector. The matter under scrutiny is the financial reporting of the library collections of Australia’s public universities. Accounting standards applying within the Australian public sector may be interpreted as requiring such collections to be accounted for as assets in the statements of financial position of the entities that manage them. A survey reveals considerable diversity and subjectivity in the accounting practices adopted in seeking to satisfy this requirement. Consideration is given to possible explanations for the disorderly state of practice observed, and questions raised regarding the reliability and usefulness of the information reported. The financial reporting of library collections is depicted as a “chaotic margin” of accounting, and the technical propriety of attempting to express and account for these non-financial resources in financial terms is rendered problematic.
- Description: 2003005170
Lifting student engagement in marketing classes
- Authors: Errey, Robert
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC) Conference 2007 : 3Rs - Reputation, Responsibility & Relevance, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand : 3rd-5th December 2007 p. 3235-3240
- Full Text:
- Description: High levels of student engagement have been linked with better student learning outcomes, such as the quality of their output. With marketing students accounting for a high percentage of business school undergraduates, it is important that the level of engagement is determined and drivers of engagement identified. Marketing has traditionally been delivered in a teachercentric model, as opposed to a student-centric model which better encourages independent learning. Important aspects of the latter model are interactivity, active and collaborative learning, and enriching educational experiences. The author conducted focus groups with business students, and preliminary findings reveal that the instructor’s approach and the nature of the assignments do affect student engagement. A preliminary model of student engagement is proposed which will be tested in the quantitative research phase.
- Description: 2003005151