Communications of the ACM
In the virtual extension
In the Virtual Extension
What Determines IT Spending Priorities?
Hoon S. Cha, David E. Pingry, and Matt E. Thatcher
This article examines findings from a survey of 1,495 business leaders to determine IT spending priorities across business functions and the impact of firm and industry characteristics on these priorities. Survey results show the respondents' highest IT spending priorities are in the areas of administration and production and distribution while the lowest priorities are in research and development and security. In addition, factors such as industry type, firm size, and perceptions of the impact of past IT investments on product quality and revenue affect the allocation of IT expenditures across business functions.
Distinguishing Citation Quality for Journal Impact Assessment
Andrew Lim, Hong Ma, Qi Wen, Zhou Xu, and Brenda Cheang
Having a scientific way to evaluate journal influence based on cross-citations is important for researchers in order to identify impactful journals to submit their work. Earlier literature showed that citation analyses were determined largely through citation quantity. This article presents a novel approach that enables the reflection of citation quality as well. The authors applied this approach to 27 computing journals in the IS field to evaluate the resulting influences on both technical and social technical communities. To facilitate future research, they created a Web application system that allows influence analysis for over 7,000 journals.
Attracting Native Americans to Computing
Roli Varma
Based on empirical data collected by the author, this article discusses dichotomy between economic and socio-cultural factors for Native Americans to pursue education in computer science. It shows cultural, social, and economic factors juxtapose and complement each other, and one without the other would not be adequate to explain the challenges Native Americans face in CS education.
The Critical Elements of the Patch Management Process
Thomas Gerace and Huseyin Cavusoglu
Only a few years ago the term "patch management" was not part of the vernacular in the most advanced IT staffs. Today it is one of the more essential responsibilities of IT departments. The possibility of security threats can decrease by systematically applying patches to software products for which vulnerabilities have been identified. The success of the patch management process depends on several critical elements. This article explores the results of a survey of IT professionals to determine the importance of these critical elements in the patch management process.
Learning to Build an IT Innovation Platform
Rajiv Kohli and Nigel P. Melville
Innovation is a path for successfully competing in free markets, and a firm's IT platform is a key enabler. Organizations that can adapt to changes in the marketplace will continue to thrive and innovative. A multicompany case study finds that three faces of adaptation—customers, people, and creativity—and processes combine to form an IT innovation platform upon which successful companies create new sources of growth. Through six lessons for managers the authors provide practical guidelines on how companies can prepare to build an IT innovation platform to exploit people's creativity, integrate information to identify innovation opportunities, and deliver novel products and services.
Technical Opinion: What Drives the Adoption of Antiphishing Measures by Hong Kong Banks?
Inranil Bose and Alvin Chung Man Leung
Hong Kong has been a hotspot of phishing attacks and since majority of these incidences occurring worldwide are related to the financial services industry, banks in Hong Kong have been frequent targets. The authors studied Hong Kong banks in 2005 and 2007 to assess their phishing readiness and to understand the driving forces that shaped their adoption of anti-phishing measures. They discovered that banks that had smaller assets, higher number of online customers, or frequent attacks tended to be better prepared against phishing.
Ranking Billions of Web Pages Using Diodes
Rohit Kaul, Yeogirl Yun, and Seong-Gon Kim
The most fundamental task of search engines is to rank a large number of Web pages according to their overall quality, without yielding to the relentless attempts to manipulate their rankings. Conventional ranking algorithms based on link analysis have fundamental limitations exploited by many new types of spamming techniques. The authors show a new ranking method using an equivalent electronic circuit to model the Web with diodes in place of hyperlinks produces not only more intuitive and objective rankings than conventional link analysis, but also more effective measures against sophisticated search engine spamming techniques.
Global Software Development: Where are the Benefits?
Eoin O Conchuir, Pär J. Ågerfalk, Helena H. Olsson, and Brian Fitzgerald
Global Software Development (GSD) is gathering great interest in the software industry, as companies seek to realize such benefits as: reduction of costs; 'follow-the-sun' development model; potential access to a larger developer skill-base; potential for increased innovation and transfer of best practices; and closer proximity to customer markets. However, many challenges arise in GSD relating to communication, coordination, and control of the development process. Consequently, much research and effort has attempted to overcome these challenges, and potential benefits are taken for granted as realizable. The article suggests a definite mismatch in the extent to which benefits are realized in practice.
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