Academic Web

CoP’s for online communities.

2006-07-20T13:16:00.000+01:00

Over the past 5 months I have been researching Virtual Communities of Practice. At first I found it hard to find relevant academic literature. The subject is very intertwined with other fields so that I did not find research directly about VCoP, rather I would find studies about CoP but not necessarily virtual, or research about using online communities in e-learning, research about how emotions could be translated in an online setting, but never directly observing VCoP.

If it is not found in the LSE library it would not be found else where, at least that was my first expectation.

This is when life throws one of its well placed curve balls. Only 1 month left to finalise my dissertation, my literature review is meant to be long completed, and I am finishing off a long series of interviews. That is when one of the interviewees sends me an invitation to go to an E-Mint event.

Emint | The Association of Online Community Professionals (emint.org) . Here I found a whole wealth of knowledge. It turns out the industry treated VCoP as a sub area of the study of online communities in general. I started following names, especially looking at the host speaker of the particular event I was invited to, Nancy White, and I quickly came across another great community: CPsquare - The Community of Practice on Communities of Practice.

It is here that the world’s knowledge regarding communities of practice is actually stored not in academic libraries, but, having finally found my information gold mine, I have stumbled across another problem; How on earth do I reference it??!

Straight Merit

2006-07-12T08:28:00.000+01:00

I apologise for not posting more regularly. Not that there exists any regular readers for this blog, but still the lack of consistent posting is an insult to the blogging technology itself.

I am extremely busy with my dissertation and I have not read technology magazines or newsletters for over two weeks, so as such I really do not have anything new and interesting to criticise.

Instead I will post a bit of irrelevant and personal news: I passed my exams! In fact more than that, I passed with a straight Merit i.e. I got a merit in every single exam!! Woohoo!!

Being a nasty competitive jerk, I am itching to know exactly how my grades rank with the course average. I must find a way and an excuse to conduct some sort of online survey...hmmmm...

RSS Feed

2006-06-11T16:49:00.000+01:00

I am finally learning how to use RSS and ATOM feeds. The whole thing is not complicated but it has been nonetheless a drawn out process, hampered mainly by great world cup games.

I now have 3 different feeds, the ATOM feed - http://academic-web.blogspot.com/ATOM.xml
the RSS feed - http://academic-web.blogspot.com/rss.xml
the burnt RSS - http://feeds.feedburner.com/AcademicWeb

I have also set up an e-mail group if you prefer: http://groups.google.com/group/Academic-web

Also this blog is now also posted on my website www.mzarb.com . However the setting are still a little bit crude ending up in the postings not being in chronological order.

Dear Internet

2006-06-01T23:33:00.000+01:00

Dear Internet

This blog is to be re-focused, re-vamped and if you still like and understand the term – re-engineered. It will now take a more philosophical flavour. It will become part of my search marketing exploration program, where it will help me develop a more creative and entertaining writing style about the most exciting technological developments.

Hopefully the combination of entertaining writing, “hot” keywords, good search optimisation techniques and a pinch of promotion will end up pleasing the Google gods.

The eventual goal of this blog is to provide a sort of profile to demonstrate my search marketing capabilities. My current and rather successful profile, www.embarrassingstories.mzarb.com has hit strong opposition by narrow minded and conservative recruitment personnel due to its “XXX” nature.

No don’t worry, this does not mean that I will close my embarrassing stories site! I love it far too much, nonetheless, it will now take second priority to my blogs and be wiped away from my C.V.

About my other blogs, www.ADMIS.blogspot.com is set to go public in a couple of hours, just as soon as I digest and summarise the initial survey I carried out in order to create my first relevant posting.

I am also planning to set up yet another blog. Not sure what its eventual name will be, but it will take the form of a research journal about my summer dissertation project.

So check out my ADMIS blog if you are interested in LSE’s MSc ADMIS (Analysis, Design and Management of Information Systems) course, and be sure to check this blog out soon.

Ps: I think I should change the template to more natural colours, any feedback would be appreciated.

About the upcoming "THE ADMIS REVIEW" and important dissertation changes

2006-05-22T13:51:00.000+01:00

I have received many request for information about LSE MSc ADMIS (Analysis, Design and Management of Information Systems), I will supply answers to some (have to respect copyright) of these questions in a new blog - THE ADMIS REVIEW. I will start work on it straight after my last exam on the 25th.

Though I received a lot of interest in my earlier dissertation proposal (about search marketing techniques), I have decided to change my topic to one slightly more academic-oriented - Social Cognition, Social Computing, Virtual Identities and Knowledge Management.

More specifically the dissertation will use the theoretical framework (a high breed of structuration theory and ANT) proposed by J.Rose and M.Jones in their paper "The double dance of agency: A socio-technical account of how machines and humans interact" to identify, describe and validate, the situational, human and technical factors (and their interrelations) which effect participation in virtual communities of practice.

The foundation of many of the ideas for this project originated from a recent research paper where I attempted to isolate the human factors which motivate participation. This paper may be found at:

http://www.mzarb.com/Mzarb_s_VCoP_Research_Paper.pdf

About the Stupid Cartoons

2006-02-09T17:47:00.000Z

I think the cartoons where illegal, they in my opinion where in breach of Section 140 of the Criminal Code which "prohibits any person from publicly ridiculing or insulting the dogmas of worship of any lawfully existing religious community in Denmark".... and Section 266b which "criminalises the dissemination of statements or other information by which a group of people are threatened, insulted or degraded on account of their religion."

In my opinion the offending paper should receive a big big fine.

On the other hand, the Muslims had no right for such violent protests. The placards where particularly uncalled for and extremely illegal. Just because religion holds such a prominent position in Islamic law does not give anyone the right to try imposing such oppressions violently on other cultures. Unfortunately I must say that I find the reaction and protests much more disgraceful than the cartoon.

Still I would not publish the cartoons on my blog or website. The cartoons are not only offensive to my Muslim friends but I think they are highly illegal too. Unfortunately they have become rather popular on the blogging community – what a waste of bandwidth.

However in this jungle of useless information I found one decent site – please visit, read, applaud then comment - http://www.sorrynorwaydenmark.com/

Does Google Sell Trust?

2006-02-03T01:48:00.000Z

A site's reputation is probably one of the most powerful trust signals, I find myself constantly relying on its interpretation.

But in a society at the peek of consumerism can reputation itself be purchased and can organisations sell their own reputation?

Take for example Google – Is it not safe to say that people trust sites that appear first on the keyword results page more?

In my opinion Google is in fact selling trust and it is doing this in an untrustworthy fashion. Numerous articles have stated that searchers mistake sponsored links for organic search results, insinuating that Google may be tricking people into clicking on ads.

Also I believe that people expect that an organisation such as Google must take big precautions against ever advertising insecure sites and thus they automatically trust Google’s sponsored links. Unfortunately trust is unwarranted, spammers and individual “entrepreneurs” with little scruples and even less security measures, use Google’s Adwords service regularly. Seems to me that Google cashed in some of its trust chips with that one.

I think this is a perfect example where maintaining a reputation for trustworthiness proofs to be subject to management evaluation, and thus should not be taken at face value.

That leaves me wondering, how fast does a reputation dissolve? How much would it cost for Google to regain consumer confidence even after a big security incident? Do consumers become accustomed to trusting organisation and thus develop an aptitude for tolerating security breaches in large organisations?

After all is it costlier to re-trust an established company that just had a security scandal, or to establish a new relationship with a newer, untested organisation?

Cellular Organisational Form – an organisation form or a call for trust institutions?

2006-01-31T22:48:00.000Z

Like most I dismiss the usage of the pure cellular form within an organisational context; as being chaotic and uncontrollable, I am none the less rather drawn to its ambitions for entrepreneurship, member ownership and self organisation.

I also think there is a great need to find new ways of organising work as to improve the utilisation and creation of innovations. I stumbled upon an article in the Computing journal ("UK lags behind in innovation stakes, James Watson, 19th January) that also identified this need.

The article described a report, researched by TrendChart, that tried to measure where countries stand in respect to innovation. UK was said to rank as an average performer, but more importantly the report suggested three areas of particular concern to the U.K; Low level of business and academic collaboration, Lack of exploitation of research and development and a wider issue of low demand for innovation products.

These findings suggest to me that the average U.K firm would benefit from improvements in their ability to promote entrepreneurship in young capable innovators. Ideas of member ownership and self organisation are great tools that could be used, in a balanced and controlled way, and in conjunction with other cultural and sociological tools, in order to promote the development of more innovate and risky projects.

But, it is my opinion that such self organising and entrepreneurial R&D units should be used within the context of more rigid organisational platforms, not as an organisational form in itself.

I argue this in relation to discussing the use of the cellular form within an existing organisation, and my argument's strongest examples would be imagining a more operational or production based organisation such as a Toshiba or a Kenwood, where innovation is, as always, important but often so important that its scope needs to be focused to the firm’s production capabilities and scope. Is it really viable for organisations that are already fighting to keep up with updating their designs to become leaders in innovation?

Examining the Cellular form in a broader sense, such as in a federation of organisations/firms, in the terms of an institutional body or as a collaborative operational platform, rather than as an organisational structure is in my opinion a totally new argument - one needing its own detailed analysis. The case studies provided in "organising in the knowledge age" are more appropriate in this sort of context rather than in the context of an organisational form.

References
Raymond, R. E.and C. C. Snow (1997) Organizing in the Knowledge Age: Anticipating the Cellular Form., Academy of Management Executive, 11(4) pp7-19

Me, Myself anf My Team

2005-12-02T11:29:00.000Z

This post is a bit irrelevant, it is a reflective report I was made to write at the end of a group project, read it for pleasure or don't read it at all !
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In its early phase, this project felt like walking into a room blindfolded – we were new to the course material and hardly understood the deliverables expected of us. We were new to each other. We commenced with a series of unfocused and uncoordinated, albeit entertaining, set of planning meetings.

We established a plan of action and work method. As the academic term progressed, we were exposed to new techniques and improved upon our processes. The final result reflected a number of recommendations found in system development literature. In this reflection I will identify what literature was most influential and explain the logic behind our eventual changes.

I will also detail the specific contributions I have made which helped shape our product and work environment. This will lead on to further analysis about my strengths and weaknesses and the role they define for me.

The development of our work environment and practices
When we first sat around a table to discuss the project, our main focus was hardly on group rules and work practices. Our initial group rules document was very basic and was only drawn up as a formality. However, one thing was clear from the outset; we needed a system for telecommuting. All team members had other commitments, and we needed to communicate efficiently. I was able to suggest a solution to this as I had prior experience with virtual meetings using Google Group technology.

We soon realised that more formal rules were necessary. The first team workshop highlighted the need, and I redrafted the group rules document immediately after the workshop. I posted my version on the Google Group and, to my relief, my unilateral initiative, which I feared may meet some resistance, was appreciated and implemented. My group members all agreed on the new, improved work practice/group rules document. We subsequently followed the rules and often even quoted the document in order to enforce one point or the other. It became our charter.

One paragraph in the document discussed the level of commitment expected by the group. I feel this was of particular benefit. Once everyone formally agreed to the higher level of commitment, the team seemed to bond much faster. It was almost as if the risk of free riding was diminished by simply discussing it, even though the basic economic principle of free riding should theoretically not have been diminished; as no alterations were made to the reward/punishment system (Coase,R.H, 1938). Nevertheless, reflecting on this point, I think that the clarity of the communication between us fostered trust, and this was all-important.

By the project completion deadline, the team managed to create an effective work environment that accommodated many suggestions prescribed in well-known field studies (Bill Curtis, Herb Krasner, and Neil Iscoe, 1988).

We attained a highly iterative process through a formalised collaborative procedure, where each member was expected to contribute his or her opinions to other member’s work. We found that Google Groups technology assisted knowledge sharing and implementation and speeded up communications. I think we utilised the tool effectively, and this benefited the project.

Our ground rules document covered detailed practice issues such as conflict resolution procedures. We distributed research work and tackled the learning process with professionalism - the vast array of literature summaries on our Google groups is evidence of this.

These actions are all recommended by Curtis, Krasner and Iscoe in their case study report, which influenced the final version of our work environment and procedure. I find myself very much in concurrence with their recommendations and arguments.

Their literature also inspired us to re-examine our work practices through the lens of the “Layered Behavioural Model”, through which we noticed situations where more formalised collaborative work procedures would have resolved bottlenecks and quality control issues that we had previously ignored.

We realised that group work was not getting quality controlled, and the lack of any formal leadership contributed to this. Our work was fast becoming a mine of minor errors and incoherent terminology. Our iterative process helped deal with the bigger issues and concepts, but no one was looking at the detail. I took it upon myself to proof-read the documents and again the team appreciated my initiative. We also scheduled a scrupulous team quality control meeting before submitting the work; yet small errors may still be encountered in our work.

Our “flat” team structure is also accountable for many for the co-ordination problems we encountered. We often encountered situations where one or more members had deviated from the pre-agreed argument or structure. As team members proceeded in the completion of their tasks, they identified better ways of structuring their section of the work, but this often led to departures from the pre-agreed structure, impacting the work of others. A substantial quantity of work had to be reshaped into a new structure and at times scrapped altogether. If this were a larger and more complex project, an unacceptable amount of resources would have been wasted due to our inexperience and, more importantly, lack of leadership; and the attainment of the project’s objectives would have been jeopardised.

This is not to say that if I were to redo the project I would advocate a formal organisational hierarchy. We were all inexperienced, did not know each other, and I am not sure how we should have proceeded to appoint a leader. Our experience, however, highlighted to me the great importance and the need of formalised work procedures and guided work practices, as well as the benefit a strong leader may have on a project.

"No organization can rise above the constraints of its leadership. It is therefore imperative that leadership at all levels be constantly growing beyond their constraints." - Flip Flippen

Evaluating myself within a team context

My previous experiences with teamwork were not encouraging; very often, I ended up taking control of the situation in a rather aggressive and unproductive fashion. This was not because I wanted things my way, but because I felt that other team members were not as motivated as I was, and I ended up carrying more than my fair share. Working with the talent at LSE spelled out a completely different story, and I have tremendously enjoyed the experience.

The role I played in the project is hard to characterise and it varied depending on the stage of the project. My most prominent role was of constant constructive criticism. I always let others explain their opinions, and often agreed with them. When disagreement occurred, I tried to affirm my logic, compromising on points that I felt had less import. I believe I had a strong impact on the decision making process and upon the quality of the final product. However, I was not stubborn and consider myself to be a good listener.

There really is only one area where I had tried to be assertive, and that was about the detail of modelling to be done. Some team members concluded that since only one class diagram needed to be presented, then only few use cases needed to be analysed; and that accordingly we should not get bogged down in the detail and complexity. I had a completely different view about the purpose behind the modelling stage; I look upon modelling as a mechanism to “iron out” the complexity, a method to tackle it and lay it out. I eventually managed to bring about a change in the team’s attitude by highlighting the need for tackling the complexity in our models, and by showing the interconnectivity of models; an exercise in “Socratic questioning”.

However, I also noticed that I was holding up the process, and that although I knew what needed to be done, I was relying heavily on the knowledge of other team members to actually draw the models. I eventually realised that some modelling I was working on myself was beyond the scope of the project. This is when the true benefit of team work became apparent, the right balance being found through a dialectic process of compromise and re-evaluation, producing a final result which the whole team understood to be the better than the individual efforts.

The experience indicated to me that I am effective in a managing role; but I can also identify certain risks related to the freedom offered to me by such a role.

I believe I am suited for a managing position as I have proven myself an able communicator; I am effective at coordinating teams, bringing them together and directing their attentions. I felt able to easily understand and value other people’s contributions and quickly put them to use, and I realise that not every member is so in tune to the collaborative effort.

However, as a manager I would need to counter my own weaknesses. I am an extremely creative character; I also love detailed examinations and often find myself going beyond the scope of a project. I find it very beneficial having to justify my ideas before they are applied, as they often need refinement or may even not be applicable. The proposition of letting my creative nature lead straight into the work pipeline without any filtering may not be the best way to capitalise on my creative potential.

Managers need good judgement skills, and one may easily doubt my judgment abilities after reading the above statement. I feel very confident in my ability to evaluate and make good use of other people’s ideas. It is my own that I am unable to scrutinize objectively, which is perhaps not surprising. Understanding one’s own limitations is important. This is a personal characteristic that I will have to be conscious about in the future, and that was brought to my attention thanks to this group project.

Conclusion

This project has been a continuous learning process for me. I benefited from the hands-on experience. I also acknowledge the many insights gained from subject literature.

Our academic background played a most influential role in shaping our project. Some issues and problems would have never even been identified, let alone addressed, had they not been mentioned in lectures.

Finally, I also learnt a lot from other members; more importantly, I learnt how to better appreciate the input of others and just how vital knowledge transfer and knowledge management techniques are for successful project development.

Bibliography and references

Coase,R.H. (1938). The nature of the firm, Ecomica

Curits, B, Kraser,H & Iscoe,N (1988) A field study of the software design process for large systems, Communications of the ACM, 37/1, pp.93-105

Flip Flippen : quote found at http://www.schipul.com

Peter Levin’s book, (2004) The Successful team work, Open University Press, ISBN 0335215785

The importance of A-levels: Employment after university

2005-11-22T18:03:00.000Z

In my home country (Malta) A-levels are hardly looked at once the potential employee has graduated. However things in the U.K are different, I am finding my poor A-level grades an impairment, even though I am currently undertaking a MSc at a very respectable university (LSE).

I have been rejected for two “High Potential Fast Track Schemes”, one based in the US and the other based in the UK. What was really unbelievable is that they bothered phoning me, expressing their interest in my C.V only to ask about my A-level grades and reject me thereafter! I was rather flabbergasted.

Upon inquiry into this strange recruiting habit I was informed that the only way recruitment consultancies could distinguish between prospects for such high demand roles, prospects holding degrees from top universities; Harvard, Oxford etc.., is to look beyond, the university degree, at the A-level results.

I am particularly affected by this for two reasons. One reason is formed of a variety of personal factors which impaired on my performance during my A-levels, the other is a more public concern and is the reason why I am writing this article.

A-levels vary in standard, and often these variations are ignored by the rather arrogant approach the U.K educational system takes when translating other countries standards into their own UCAS point system.

In Malta for example, we employ the Matriculation System which consists of 2 A-level and 3 Intermediate level examinations. This would translate into 3 English A-levels. The 3 intermediates are taken as a single A-Level and two Maltese A-levels are made equal to two English A-levels.

Well to any Maltese person this conversion rate would smell a lot like a protectionist policy focused on ensuring foreigners are at a natural disadvantage in the U.K.

There is only one public university in Malta which simply can not cope with demand. For this reason entry requirements are made tremendously high.

The examinations are structured to impose the maximum amount of stress and difficulty on the student. The syllabus is twice as large as the U.K equivalent - as new theories are introduced to the subject, old ones are not replaced and the content just keeps getting bigger, more abstract and less relevant.

Choice in Malta is also stifled; each student is forced to study a science subject and an extra compulsory intermediate –“Systems of Knowledge”- is also introduced, making the total amount of intermediates 4 (3.1/3 English A-levels?). A-levels in Malta are a bit of a nightmare, and if a student averages at a C they would be considered to have done well. An A average is unheard of.

How could such a system be equivalent to the system in the U.K where a-levels are split into 2 separate parts, AS1 and AS2 level, in order to reduce examination stress, and where the average seems to be B!!

The real problem is not only that the U.K is badly translating grades but more that the Maltese standards are too high and uncompetitive, they despiratly need to be modernised in the advent of European union membership.

Marrying Technology and Organisations: Designing for “Soft” problems

2005-11-21T14:09:00.000Z

Technology has grown to become an intimate partner of organisations; each side adapting to, and morphing each other. Solidifying the relationship and posing to reap the rewards is essential. However, similarly to a couple coming from different backgrounds, the relationship may become more than slightly complicated, with ambiguities and uncertainty about the deliverables and ambitions each partner brings to the boardroom (or bedroom).

Consultants often act as matrimonial therapists, and in this essay we try to identify the different categories of relationships that may occur between organisations and technology. We then go on to talk about methods we may use to reconcile problematic relationships (SSM).

We use the BBS case study to provide examples and thus better illustrate the theory.

How do information systems (IS) projects emerge within organizational settings?

Use of information technology (IT) in organisations has been the main source of achieving competitive advantage for quite a long time now. However performance of organisations depends heavily on the “generation-dissipation cycle”( Ramprasad and Rai, 1996).The performance is greatly increased if decision makers, in organisations, respond efficiently i.e. generate new information based on the information received from the environment.

Decision making depends on the internal and external environment in which decisions are made (Mintzberg, 1983).In a stable environment, the need for IS to allow efficient execution of tasks is evident and easily implemented. As the equivocality of task increases it becomes difficult to arrive to a solid conclusion (Daft and Lengel, 1986). For instance if there is more than one decision maker each having their own perspective, a combined solution would perhaps be difficult – The situation may suffer from asymmetric information and may involve emotional and political characteristics.

This can be referred to the BBS case where the board of directors had conflicting views regarding the need for a new information system, as well as about the reasons why the firm should enter into e-commerce in the first place. Communicating these different opinions and establishing a compromise between the parties involved, like in any matrimony, is essential. SSM went a long way to help in this process.

Similarly in a dynamic environment, decision making can be referred to as an emergent process. In the case of BBS, the need for new IS emerged in order to attract new customers in the highly competitive environment. In such situations, exhibiting a high degree of uncertainty and a high degree of complexity (adhocracy), mutual adjustments are made to come up with a solid decision. In this case everybody is involved in making the decision.

The need for implementing new information systems also depends upon the services that organisations provide (Gutek, 1995). Encounter services can be provided through simple processes as it is based on facts and no record needs to be kept for future reference. In the case of BBS, the existing shops tend to provide encounter services to its customers. Relationship services are provided through complex systems. The need for new IS has emerged in order to build an ongoing relationship with the customers (as has happened in BBS).

The need for an IS can also be linked with task characteristics within the organisation. For instance if the tasks are less equivocal and less uncertain, then the organisation requires to dissipate information, and the proposed information system needs to serve as an encounter. In BBS, the system’s capability to allow its users to browse books available in the bookshop, serves as a computational service as it simply relays existing information. Similarly if the task has a low degree of uncertainty and a high degree of equivocality, continuous user interaction is required in order to accomplish the task as it cannot be easily standardised. In BBS, the system’s ability to allow sales staff to answer customer queries serves as adaptive service.

Moreover if there is a high degree of uncertainty and a low degree of ambiguity of tasks, a networking service is required in order to provide coordination and exchange of information. In case of the BBS, Google Group technology was used by the consultants in order to coordinate their decision points. In case of high degree of uncertainty and a high degree of equivovality collaborative services are preferred. For instance, in BBS, the online book selling system serves as a collaborative service as it tends to provide an ongoing relationship with its customers.

How can SSM help?

Much like how “Cosmo” and other magazines help to shine light on managing relationships, SSM provides the analytical and descriptive tools needed for managing the less rewarding, but just as complex, relationship between organisations and technology.

Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) evolved to help deal with the increased complexity where designers could no longer presuppose single root causes for problems; rather, they had to apply analytical techniques to understand situations from a multilayered perspective and structure the problem themselves (Malcom Eve, 2004).

SSM provides an approach or an intellectual framework tool that enables deeper investigations which help designers identify and understand problems. It is an analysis tool that brings various soft skills together with object oriented modelling techniques, in order to better understand and describe problem domains and their alternative solutions.

Soft Systems Methodology is based on systems thinking. The concept of a system being observer-relative is applied throughout SSM - people are suddenly not only incorporated within the system (made systematic) but are treated as a major element to be analysed, managed and controlled.

“All of these human problem situations do have one thing in common: That they contain human beings trying to work together and trying to operate purposefully. Trying to formulate intentions and then trying to realise them. And we thought well, why don’t we take the notion of a “purposeful activity” as a new systems concept? (…) We then realised the significance of the fact that one observer’s terrorist is another observer’s freedom fighter though they’re both talking about the same purposeful action.” (PeterCheckland)

Through the use of rich picture, CATWOE, culture analysis, political system analysis, social system analysis, system designers are able to model all the different needs of each observer, as well as the different goals that are expected from the system. It helps control resistance to change and helps to better structure requirements by enabling better understanding of the organisation’s complexity. (Petrer Checkland, 1990). Rich picture and CATWOE has been extensively used for understanding BBS.

References

References are presented in order of appearance rather then in alphabetical order.

1) Mathiassen, L. & C. Sorensen: A theory of Organisational Information Services, 2002

2) Malcom Eva, 2004 - “Soft System methodology”, ACA.

3) Peter Checkland, date unknown, in an Interview by BBC published by the Open University - http://www.open2.net/systems/practice/pet.html

4) Soft Systems Methodology in Action by Peter Checkland, 1990

Web Promotion – When? and Who?

2005-11-03T17:00:00.000Z

E-commerce has finally proven its commercial significance. Another Internet boom is on the verge, will it crash again? Internet popularity has reached a new dimension, partly because of the improvements in search technology (Google Rocks!) but also because of the availability of cheaper broadband. Consumer confidence has improved dramatically, people are more confident about buying online, even my dad has a new credit card with a very limited credit limit for use on the web. The business world is again awakening to web opportunities and this is leading to a boom in E-commerce driven business re-engineering.

It is apparent to all web marketing experts that web promotion techniques such as search engine optimisation need to be considered in the initial stages of the design of all systems that feed to a website as well as in the design of the website itself. Example: imagine a book shop that wishes to go digital and challenge Amazon. It planes to do this by providing a niche service offering exotic and rare books. To facilitate this it will need to provide objectively written book reviews, as well as photographic quality assurance for the rare books. Any Internet marketer will immediately notice the marketing relevance of the book reviews. If they are properly optimised they may act as portals for all sorts of interested browsers who would never even have heard about the availability of such books. They would also note that the pictures need to be of low resolution not to slow the system down too much, and that they would need to be labelled strategically - to maximise SEO (search engine optimisation) relevance. They would know how to design the site to rank better on search engines, and how to build a web promotion campaign for the keywords that they select with careful strategic considerations.

However management consultants are traditionally brought in to advise on the construction of such systems - and so they should be. Redesigning business models for e-commerce is not mearly a technical project - it needs to incorporate business sense within it. The whole organization would need to change, business processes would need to be redesigned, resistance to change would need to be managed. Web promotion experts have many virtues but managing complexity is not one of them.

Inductively management consultancies need to incorporate web promotion techniques into their advisory practice – but have they done this? My gut feeling is no! How else may one explain the huge amount of unsuccessful e-ventures (most of which use flash!), and that only few big companies manage their web presence through effective search engine optimisation? Recently BMW got black listed by Google because they re-engineered various pages of their site to rank high for keyphases like “used cars” – this is testimony of their ignorance in search technology.

Management consultancies, I think leave these matters to their more technical web development staff, but unfortunately web design schools themselves do not give search engine marketing the importance it deserves. More over, without dedicated search marketing personnel any SEO knowledge within the organisational will erode extremely fast.

The world is craving for academic literature about search engine marketing, so that these techniques may be incorporated into MIS and Web Design Courses not only for better consultancy services but also to feed better social scientists to Google in order to aid it win its war against irrelevant results!

Dissertation : Topic Outline

2005-10-30T20:23:00.000Z

This is one of my proposals for the final dissertation project which I would need to complete to satisfy my course requirments. I am posting it here because I would benifit from any insights, expressions of interest and esspecially from literature references - I am finding it hard to find Journals about such topics as most literature is expressed in internet articles.

Proposed title : Do consultancies do SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and should they ? - Examining the extent to which business consultancy services have incorporated web promotion techniques into their practice, as a result of the increased emergence of E-commerce driven business redesign.

Keywords : E-commerce

Business redesign

Web Promotion Techniques

Search Engine Optimisation Techniques : SEO

Management Consultancy

Why is this a relevant IS Issue : Developments, both in the popularity and in the technology, of the World Wide Web have opened new doors for commercial opportunities. Harnessing the power of the web is increasingly becoming essential for business competitiveness in all industries – from pornography publishers to the shipping industry to drug manufactures. E-commerce driven business redesign is a booming sector, this has even been reflected in the ADMIS course with the selection of the group project for IS471 Systems development. Consultancies have long been the source of the expertise needed to enable such projects. Quoting from Brian P.Bloomfeild[1] “one of the major sources of expertise on organisations and IT is provided by management consultancy firms.”

This has meant that management consultants have had to incorporate web promotion techniques into their literature. This paper aims to examine the extent to which this has been done and hence spread some light on areas where more work and research is needed.

Abstract : The paper is divided into three sections.

1 ) “E-commerce as a driver for business redesign” – An Examination into the sector’s emergence and importance.

2) “Web Promotion Techniques and Strategies” – Investigating relevant techniques and strategies, whilst also proposing a module to characterise the techniques in terms of strategic relevance to systems development.

3) “The extent to which the consultancy industry has incorporate web promotion techniques” – An Examination of related developments in the industry’s literature and structure.

[1] The role of management consultants in the development of information technology : The indissoluble nature of socio-political and technical skills,Journal of Management Studies 32:1. 002-2380

Academic Web - What's it all About?

2005-10-30T12:36:00.000Z

Academic Web - What's it all About?

"Academics Web" is nothing more then a vain attempt to reach out to industry specialists and encourage them to comment on academic work. It is vain because it is my work in particular that I want comments on.

My name is Michael Zarb, I graduated from the University of Leicester, with a 2.1, in Ba Business Economics. I am now undertaking an MSc ADMIS (Analysis, Design and Management of Information System) at LSE (London School of Economics and Politics), and I plan to continue my research with a PHD at Harvard.

I have always been keenly interested in the evolution and economics of the Internet. The Internet may be said to have evolved into a society in itself, at the very least it has become a large new dynamic of human society - It has it's own culture, it's own hierarchy and form of governance or means of self organizing.

It's increasing emergence is changing the way the rest of society is organised, and has the possibility of creating or reviving power struggles within society.

Take for example the electronic library idea proposed by Google. It’s reality will cause some severe and global societal effects. I do not refer simply to the tradition publisher's struggle for survival rather more complex issue such as the decreased cost of education, increased accessibility for researches in third world countries or the new ability for terrorist to acquire dangerous literature with out leaving any traces ? Will the importance and demand for school teachers decrease? Will it effect the prominence of universities as providers for research? Does it present a real security threat?

My research and works will hopefully help understand the economics and evolutionary process of the internet. It will focus on analysing the latest internet trends from both a functionalistic and interpretive epistemology - spreading light to areas which will be effected by new technology whilst also understanding and modelling the economic and political determinants of the Internet in hope of predicting future areas of dominance and realistic business opportunity.

This Blog will contain drafts of such research in hope to facilitate comments from Industry Specialists.

Michael Zarb