Monthly Archives: January 2016

Delft University of Technology launches MOOC about Open Government

[GUEST POST]

While governments all over the world aim to become more open and transparent, opening governments is a complex and challenging problem. How can governments become more open and transparent, while simultaneously dealing with various challenges, such as data sensitivity? How can open government data be made available to improve public policy making? Which technologies are available to make governments more open and to use open government data?

 

We at Delft University of Technology will be teaching a free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) about Open Government soon. The MOOC starts on March 14, 2016, and will run for 5 weeks. Enrolment for our MOOC is possible now via https://www.edx.org/course/open-government-delftx-og101x. This Open Government MOOC is aimed at university students, professionals, government officials, policy advisors and researchers,  but is open to anyone interested in Open Government. It will help participants grasp the key principles of open government, and answers questions like: ‘What are the best practices for opening governments? And how to give citizens access to governmental data to answer their questions?’ Most importantly, participants will apply the topics of the course to concrete cases.

 

What participants will learn:
*             Basic concepts related to Open Government and Open Government Data
*             How to analyze and discuss benefits, barriers and potential negative effects of a particular open government case and an open government data case
*             How to analyze public values and best practices related to open government
*             How to apply the open government principles in various situations
*             To understand potential negative and positive effects Open Government might bring to the workplace

 

This MOOC includes lectures by:
*             Prof. Marijn Janssen – Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, Head of ICT section and professor in ICT and governance
*             Dr. Anneke Zuiderwijk – Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, Researcher in Open Data and data infrastructures
*             Dr. Bastiaan van Loenen – Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, Associate Professor in geo-information and land development
*             Dr. Tomasz Janowski, United Nations University, Portugal, head of United Nations University, Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance
*             Prof. Keith Jeffery, Cardiff University, United Kingdom, professor in Computer Science & Informatics
*             Dr. Amr Ali Eldin, Mansoura University, Egypt, senior lecturer in Computer Science and Information Technology

 

Please forward this call to anyone in your network who might be interested in Open Government. Thank you very much!

 

Kind regards, on behalf of our Open Government MOOC team,
Marijn Janssen and Anneke Zuiderwijk

CFP: 2016 AMCIS Mini-Track – IT, Making, and Sharing: The Contemporary Peer Production Landscape

Part of the IS and Open Research and Practice (SIGOPEN) track of the 2016 Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) in San Diego, CA – August 11-13, 2016.

Mini-Track Chairs:

Mini-Track Description:

The interplay between technological, legal, socio-cultural, and economic systems has enabled the emergence and growth of a variety of peer production phenomena, including open source software, open source hardware, open content and open design. These phenomena have crossed the boundaries of the specialist communities from which they emerged and have expanded into a wide number of communities and sub-cultures (e.g. makers, gamers, virtual world builders, and social media prosumers). This mini-track invites conceptual and empirical research that will contribute to our understanding of how the IT enables the individual, collaborative, and collective production and sharing of complex knowledge goods and creative works.

This mini-track invites research papers, research-in-progress, and panel proposals on all topics related to the contemporary Peer Production Landscape. We are interested in work extending our understanding of the impact of open systems on the production and distribution of a wide variety of economic, cultural, and knowledge goods.

The potential list of topics for the mini-track includes, but is not limited to:

  • Open Source Software
  • Open Hardware
  • Open Design
  • Open Content
  • 3-D Printing
  • “Maker” and “Hacker” Cultures
  • Gamers and Virtual World builders
  • Augmented and Blended Realities
  • Collaborative Creativity

Important Dates:

  • January 4, 2016: Manuscript submissions for AMCIS 2016 open.
  • March 2, 2016: Deadline for paper submissions.

Instructions for Authors:

  • Completed research papers (< 5000 words, excluding references, tables, and figures)
  • Research-in-progress papers (< 3500 words, excluding references, tables, and figures)
  • All conference submissions will be double-blind, peer reviewed, and must be submitted using the online submission system at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/amcis2016. For complete instructions for authors and information about the conference, visit the AMCIS 2016 website at http://amcis2016.aisnet.org.

CFP: 2016 AMCIS Mini-Track – Open Scholarship and Learning

Part of the IS and Open Research and Practice (SIGOPEN) track of the 2016 Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) in San Diego, CA – August 11-13, 2016.

Mini-Track Chairs:

  • J.P. Allen, University of San Francisco, USA, jpallen@usfca.edu
  • Lorraine Morgan, NUI Maynooth, IRELAND, Lorraine.Morgan@nuim.ie

Mini-Track Description:

Research papers, research-in-progress papers, and panel proposals are invited for the mini-track on “Open Scholarship and Learning”.

Openness has the potential to disrupt and transform academic work. Open approaches to scholarship have taken many new forms, including open data sets, open academic publishing, and open peer review. But have new forms of open scholarship lived up to their potential? In what ways have open approaches to scholarship transformed academic work (or not)? What are the most important research questions for open scholarship going forward? How can academic research be made more effective, innovative, and have a greater impact on the world through open approaches and technologies?

Where are the opportunities to improve education in Information Systems, Management, and other fields through increased openness? Early experiments with new approaches such as open educational resources, open courseware, and MOOCs may have hit an impasse. What kinds of new approaches to openness will be necessary to enable educational transformation that will make a positive difference in the world?

As we look at our own field of Information Systems, what is the current state of open education? What kinds of open examples, approaches, or initiatives have the potential to transform IS education? How can openness contribute to better educational outcomes in developing and developed economies?

This mini-track invites research papers, research-in-progress, and panel proposals on all topics related to open scholarship and open education. We are interested in the production, use, and impacts of open scholarship and education. Quantitative, qualitative, theoretical, literature review, case study, and other research approaches are welcome.

The potential list of topics for the mini-track includes, but is not limited to:

  • Open data sets
  • Open access publishing
  • Open peer review
  • Open educational resources
  • Open teaching and learning
  • Open courseware
  • MOOCs
  • Improving Information Systems education and/or scholarship through open approaches
  • The development, use, and/or impacts of open education
  • The development, use, and/or impacts of open scholarship

Important Dates:

  • January 4, 2016: Manuscript submissions for AMCIS 2016 open.
  • March 2, 2016: Deadline for paper submissions.

Instructions for Authors:

  • Completed research papers (< 5000 words, excluding references, tables, and figures)
  • Research-in-progress papers (< 3500 words, excluding references, tables, and figures)
  • All conference submissions will be double-blind, peer reviewed, and must be submitted using the online submission system at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/amcis2016. For complete instructions for authors and information about the conference, visit the AMCIS 2016 website at http://amcis2016.aisnet.org.

CFP: 2016 AMCIS Mini-Track – Social Media at the Crossroads of Social Impact, Response and Learning

Part of the IS and Open Research and Practice (SIGOPEN) track of the 2016 Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) in San Diego, CA – August 11-13, 2016.

Mini-Track Chairs:

Mini-Track Description:

Social media is at the Crossroads of Social Impact, Response, and Learning. Its use and impact has emerged in many sectors including healthcare, emergency management and education. In healthcare, it emerged as a way of providing not only emotional support and information for patients but also information for healthcare professionals and providers. In emergency management, it provides a way for the active engagement of the public in times of need and also possibilities for first responders to improve their communication and services. In education, it is emerging as a way to connect learners, educators, and industry professionals in new interactive platforms.  Social media is considered here as any Internet-based platform that supports the communication, coordination, and collaboration between people in a transparent network. This includes different specialized and general technological platforms available to the public. It also includes organizational and inter-organizational private platforms for both general and specialized purposes.

This track welcomes empirical and theoretical submissions from all research traditions (positivist, interpretive, design science, critical realism) applying different methodologies.

The potential list of topics for the mini-track includes, but is not limited to:

  • Organizational adoption and use of social media in emergency management, education and healthcare.
  • Socio-technical approaches to adoption and use of social media in emergency management, education and healthcare.
  • Social media and citizen participation.
  • Theoretical premises for the study of social media
  • Methodological issues.
  • Social media and design in emergency management, education and healthcare.
  • Social media analytics in emergency management, education and healthcare.
  • Ethical, legal and social issues.

Important Dates:

  • January 4, 2016: Manuscript submissions for AMCIS 2016 open.
  • March 2, 2016: Deadline for paper submissions.

Instructions for Authors:

  • Completed research papers (< 5000 words, excluding references, tables, and figures)
  • Research-in-progress papers (< 3500 words, excluding references, tables, and figures)
  • All conference submissions will be double-blind, peer reviewed, and must be submitted using the online submission system at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/amcis2016. For complete instructions for authors and information about the conference, visit the AMCIS 2016 website at http://amcis2016.aisnet.org.