October 2008 Archives

I would like to talk a little bit about John Henry Holland. I first know him from my previous advisor, Prof. Chen, when I was a master at Renmin Univ. of China. Prof. Chen is the first Chinese scholar who visited the Santa Fe Institute and thereby introduced the complex system theory into China. In Santa Fe Institute Prof. Chen met Holland and then they became friends. Later then, Holland visited our Economics Science Lab in the School of Information.

John H. Holland is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is generally known as the father of genetic algorithms. Nevertheless, he is also the pioneer of complex system and nonlinear science.

Dr. Holland was born in 1929. He earned a B.A. in Physics in MIT and M.A. in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Michigan.

In his seminal book "Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems", Dr. Holland introduced the Genetic Algorithm. I have read two of his influential books: "Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity" and "Emergence: From Chaos to Order". These two books have fundamentally changed the perspectives as we see the world. Holland and his colleagues in Santa Fe Institute share a deep impatience with the kind of linear, reductionist thinking that has long dominated science since the Newton age. Instead, they are creating novel ideas about coevaltion, chaos, order and nonlinearity. This kind of ideas is demonstrating its vitality in understanding and illustrating universe, life and human social behavior.

There is a good change that my dissertation topics will has something to do with multi-stakeholder IT investment and IT standardization. Currently, my advisor and I are working in a research project associated with standardization using agent-based modeling. We are looking for some publication venues that possibly we can get our paper published in. The International Journal of

IT Standards & Standardization Research (JITSR) and The Journal of Strategic Information Systems are two among them.

The International Journal of IT Standards & Standardization Research [1] aims to be a platform for presenting, and discussing, the broad variety of aspects that make up IT standards research. This includes, but is certainly not limited to, contributions from the disciplines of computer science, information systems, management, business, social sciences (especially science and technology studies), economics, engineering, political science, public policy, sociology, communication, and human factors/usability. In particular, the journal wants to both support and promote multi-disciplinary research on IT standards; 'IT' should be understood in a very broad sense."

The Journal of Strategic Information Systems [2] focuses on the management, business and organizational issues associated with the introduction and utilization of information systems as a strategic tool, and considers these issues in a global context. The emphasis is on the incorporation of IT into organizations' strategic thinking, strategy alignment and management of change issues. The journal publishes research and case study papers from around the world which:

• investigate the very nature of business in the context of emerging IT

• discuss the justification and evaluation of information systems

• discuss the organizational implications of IT

• consider how organizations have been transformed as a result of the astute management and application of IT

The International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) [3] is the most prestigious gathering of I/S academics and research-oriented practitioners in the world. Every year its 45 or so papers and panel presentations are selected from over 200 submissions, and the ICIS Proceedings, available on CD-ROM through 2000, are in the permanent collections of libraries throughout the world. The Conference activities are primarily delivered by and for academics, though many of the papers and panels have a strong professional orientation.

Of special interest to me is that ICIS invites nominations for the ACM SIGMIS Doctoral Dissertation Award Competition every year. They look for outstanding doctoral dissertations around the globe in the field of information systems. Ph.D. students who are working on Information Systems dissertations are eligible for nomination for ICIS Doctoral Consortium.

[1] http://www.nets.rwth-aachen.de/~jakobs/standards_journal/journal_home.html

[2] http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/525447/description#description

[3] http://home.aisnet.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=79

Academic community is not the only choice for my career. If I were to be a part of academic community some day, however, it might be the IS community. Perhaps the most well-known professional organization in the field of IS is AIS, which is The Association for Information Systems. It was founded in 1994, with the purpose of serving as the premier global organization for academics specializing in Information Systems.

AIS treat a basket of 6 journals as top journals in "IS field". They are (in alphabetical order):

European Journal of Information Systems

²       Information Systems Journal

²       Information Systems Research

²       Journal of AIS

²       Journal of MIS

²       MIS Quarterly

The Link of the journal ranking is

 http://ais.affiniscape.com/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=432

In this posting, I would like to present a senior PhD student: PHILLIP J. AYOUB, the person who at the same research center (EII) with me. The first impression to me is that he is big and tall guy, but very easy-going, always with smiles on his face. Phill, is his nick name.

In terms of his research area, Phill examines the sociotechnical dynamics and integration of work, technology and people. He has got his papers published in a number of conferences. To name a few, they are Proceedings of the Organization Design and Management XI Annual Meeting, Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Proceedings of the 15th Triennial Congress of the International Ergonomics Association. In addition, Phillip has made several presentations in a variety of workshops. Remarkably, Phillip holds three pieces of patents.

Phillip is very active not only in his academic area but also in some extra-curriculum activities. He has a lot of title surrounding with him: president of Pennsylvania State University Student Chapter, head coach of men's club soccer team, Rock Climbing Supervisor and members of Aircraft Owners and pilots association.

It is really amazing to me that Phillip is a well-developed person. How can a man be successful in so many aspects of his career? I guess it is attributed to his great enthusiasm to life and excellent skills of time management.