A new paradigm is transforming the society, organisations and business environments. In fact, society and business world alike are moving from its tangible bases to intangible ones based on knowledge and information systems (IS) to support its management, use and sharing. In this emerging paradigm, terms like information, communication, knowledge, and learning have acquired a critical relevance to the understanding of the nature of contemporary business. This led authors such as Drucker (1993) to state that “we are entering the knowledge society in which the basic economic resource… is knowledge”.
Since the mid-1980s, there has been an avalanche of a new kind of vocabulary. Organizations, thus far, had been economic entities, are being described as ‘information-based organizations’, ‘learning organizations’, ‘knowledge-creating companies’ or knowledge intensive organisations. Instead of product-market strategies, the fashionable business discourse invokes core competencies, intangible assets, knowledge-based capabilities, intellectual capital, knowledge management etc. Consequently, in this 21st century of ours, terms such as intellectual capital, knowledge management, and knowledge mapping have increasingly become part of the corporate landscape.
However, none of this apparent revolution would be possible without the underlying technological support provided by IS. The IADIS Information Systems Conference (IS 2027) aims to provide a forum for the discussion of IS taking a socio-technological perspective. It focuses on the issues of design, development and use of IS in organisations from a socio-technological perspective, as well as discussing IS professional practice, research, and teaching.
A set of key issues is identified (see below). However, these do not aim to be prescriptive, or set in stone, and innovative contributions that do not fit into these areas will be considered.
Key issues in this conference include:
| IS in Practice, Technology Infrastructures and Organisational Processes
– Power, Cultural, Behavioural and Political issues |
IS Design, Development and Management Issues and Methodologies
– Design and Development Methodologies and Frameworks |
| IS Professional Issues
– Ethical, social, privacy, security and moral issues in an e-society
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IS Research
– Core Theories, Conceptualisations and Paradigms in IS Research |
| IS Learning and Teaching – Patterns of Demand for IS Teaching Provision – Fads, Fashions and Fetishes in IS Curricula – Pedagogic practice in Teaching IS – E-Learning in IS – Instructional Design for IS – National Cultures and Approaches to Pedagogy – Multiculturality and Diversity Issues in IS Learning and Teaching |