Virtual Organizations

Este artigo apresenta o conceito de organização em rede e mostra sua relação intrínseca com o tema gestão por competências; prática fundamental para a boa administração da rede. Mostra-se como parcerias entre empresas, que possuem competências complementares, vêm dando origem a redes de negócios. Dentre elas, destacam-se as organizações virtuais, objeto deste estudo de caso. Apresenta-se também um estudo de caso de empresa em rede – a UR2 –, cuja atuação baseia-se no modelo de gestão do conhecimento, dando especial enfoque na gestão de competências.

In response to VO challenges, research and development efforts shall address different features and components of VO, that cover a wide spectrum of areas. Considering the complexity of building technical support infrastructures and applications for VOs, clearly at the time of such developments, the choice of best approach, standards, technology, commercial tools/systems, or R&D developed prototypes plays a major role in their efficiency and sustainability. To assist developers in this challenging process, this chapter suggests a careful and systematic study of the problem/solution areas. This study discusses the properties required for technical support of VOs, the main related R&D focus areas, commercial development efforts, and the current trends in these areas.

This chapter identifies different types of virtual organizations that are emerging in the electronics sector. Examples of VOs are introduced that represent different forms of network-based functionality. A vision on electronic engineering VOs based on new ICT infrastructures developed within European R&D projects is shortly depicted. It is believed that new technologies of engineering collaboration supported by these infrastructures will enable new concurrent engineering design methodologies, adequate for complexities of currently designed Systems-on-Chip.

Giriş Küreselleşmenin etkileri günlük hayatta bir çok noktada görüldüğü gibi, iş dünyasına da yansımaktadır. Küreselleşme, yeni çalışma biçimlerini tetikleyen bir unsur olarak, " Sanal Takım " kavramının da ortaya çıkmasında önemli bir rol üstlenmiştir. Bugün özellikle çok uluslu şirketler için bir gereklilik halini alan sanal takımların kurulması, sanal olmayan takımlarınkine göre oldukça güçtür. İşte, bu noktada liderin gücü, elde edilecek başarının belirleyicilerinden birisi olacaktır. Gerek sanal takımlar kurulmadan önceki üst yönetime mal edilebilecek çabaların, gerekse kurulduktan sonraki genellikle daha operasyonel düzeydeki liderlik çabalarının, bir sanal takım kültürünün organizasyona yerleştirilmesi ve bu kültürün etkinliğinin sağlanmasında önemli bir rolü vardır. 1. Sanal Takım Kavramı Sanal takımlar; sanal olmayan takımlardan farklı olarak organizasyon duvarlarını ve zaman-mekan sınırlarını bilgisayar ve iletişim teknolojilerinden aldıkları güçle aşan takımlardır[1]. Sanal takım kavramını daha iyi anlayabilmek için, kavramı oluşturan kelimelerin kökenine inmek daha doğru olacaktır. Günlük hayatta sanal sıfatı daha ziyade varolmayan veya gerçek olmayan bazı objeleri nitelemek amacıyla kullanılmaktadır. Oysa bir takımı sanal kılan gerçekte onun varolmaması değil; işleyişi sırasında kullandığı bilgisayar ve iletişim teknolojileridir. Bir takıma sanal sıfatının yakıştırılmasına neden olan üç temel faktör vardır: Üyelerin takıma katıldıkları coğrafi mekan ve zaman dilimi anlamındaki farklılıkları, üyelerin ait oldukları kurum bağlamındaki değişkenlikleri ve üyelerin takımın görevlerini ve sosyal etkileşimlerini yerine getirirlerken bilgisayar ve iletişim teknolojilerini kullanma düzeyleri[2]. Bu üç unsurdan en önemlisi ve takımın sanal kimlik taşıması için kati surette gerekli olan, takımın görevlerini yerine getirirken iletişim ve bilgisayar teknolojilerini kullanmasıdır. Yani iletişim ve bilgisayar teknolojilerini takımın görevleri doğrultusunda kullanmayan takımlar sanal takım olarak kabul görmemektedirler. Diğer iki unsur, yani coğrafi mekan ve zaman dilimi anlamındaki farklılıklar ve bireylerin takıma geldikleri organizasyon bazındaki farklılıkları zorunluluk şartı kapsamında değillerdir. Yani bu iki unsur sağlanmadığı takdirde de bir takım, sanal takım hüviyeti taşıyabilmektedir. Öte yandan bu iki unsurunda takımın özellikleri içerisinde yer alması veya almaması takımın sanallaşma düzeyini de yoğun biçimde etkilemektedir. Bir takım; iletişim ve bilgisayar teknolojilerini takım görevleri doğrultusunda ne kadar çok kullanırsa, üyelerin takıma geldikleri zaman dilimi, mekan ve organizasyonlar ne kadar farklılık gösterirse takımın sanallaşma derecesi de bir o kadar

En este artículo se presenta una reflexión teórica de la organización virtual y de los diversos subtipos: organizaciones virtuales, organizaciones virtuales temporales y organizaciones con grados de virtualidad. Durante el desarrollo del texto se buscó hacer una revisión del sendero transitado entre las primeras organizaciones modernas, y las contemporáneas organizaciones virtuales, buscando rescatar el cambio y la diversidad en el devenir de las formas organizacionales. Dado el gran desconocimiento y eclecticismo que existe respecto a la organización virtual, el propósito del trabajo es realizar una reflexión en torno al concepto y proponer algunos elementos que permitan una caracterización de la misma, en el entendido que posibilita la clasificación, aporta a la clarificación y propicia, asimismo, la discusión. . Con ello se busca conformar una base teórica conceptual a partir de la cual se puedan llevar a cabo estudios de carácter comprensivo sobre el estudio de las organizaciones virtuales.

This paper explores current research around IT-related organizational change in the public sector, and in particular the emergence of “virtual organizations”(VOs) in government. We argue that despite their centrality to broader digital government visions, the tensions and challenges attending VO development remain a theoretical and empirical weak point in digital government scholarship to date. This paper draws on findings from the fields of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Science and Technology Studies (STS), and Organization Science to illuminate three central problems confronting the growth of public sector VOs: problems of distance, alignment, and resistance. Theoretically and empirically informed approaches to these problems promise to improve both understanding and practice of IT-related organizational change in government.

This article presents the application of management by delegation of power in virtual organizations showing the benefits from it. Through analysis of literature and made a series of comparisons, the author concludes that the assumptions of the management by delegation of power to enable more efficient management of people in virtual organizations with specific characteristics.

Virtual organizations, or "organizations without walls", the collection of geographically distributed, functionally and culturally diverse organisational entities linked through information and communication technologies (ICT) are key signposts of the shift from the industrial to the digital era. The article considers technologies and trends towards inter-operable tools for organisational agility and flexibility based on distributed business operations. The European Commission has been supporting these developments through its various research programs since the early 1980s. Besides the notable research and technological development (R&D) achievements, important progress has also been made in the area of standardization and through consensus building between the research and business communities in Europe. It is further recognized that technology alone will not be able to sustain the creative potential of the digital economy if the socio-economic, the legal and regulatory frameworks are not adequately taken into account. As more and more businesses are entering the digital economy, so the authors argue, more will be required than organizations merely becoming virtual: they must become smart.

This study addresses Schein's (1999) three levels of organizational culture and virtual universities, where an attempt is made to reflect on Schein's artifacts, values and basic assumptions when visiting an online university on the internet. The study examines three online universities and gives a thorough critique of the websites and the cultural factors derived from it. To describe such a complex concept, the study discusses scholars' work in this area, such as Hatch's (1993) expansion of Schein's trinity into a cultural dynamics model of four concepts evolving over time. She puts her concepts on one level, giving it an equal importance rather than Schein's hierarchy. Her concepts are values, assumptions, artifacts and symbols. This framework emphasizes the importance of artifacts as cultural elements that are worth studying and scrutinizing in different contexts such as the digital world. Hatch's model gives artifact the importance of value. Thus, an online university's website reflects its values. Moreover, definitions and different research papers about this theme are presented as well.

This dissertation describes and analyzes six themes that emerged during the first three years' development of Catalytic Communities, a community development organization meant to operate strictly in cyberspace, thus reaching a global audience, though legally based in the US and Brazil. I founded this organization with minimal experience and, through this dissertation, describe my learning during its pilot and maturation phase, as an idea was transformed into a viable organization, from September 2000 through December 2003.

My basic question was: what can be learned about a new type of civil society institution - the Dot Org - during its early years? The six themes that naturally surfaced, and which I then explore, fall into three broad categories: (1) those that explain its creation (the history of technology, the Brazilian reality, social network theory); (2) those that help describe what the organization came to look like (the concept of the Dot Org, the effect of the development of a physical space on the virtual organization); and (3) those that describe the management processes used to keep and develop such an organization (staff management and fundraising lessons).

Rather than attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of Catalytic Communities, I describe the results of a learning process, providing more qualitative and deep knowledge that only the protagonist in an academic function can provide. This dissertation is therefore a study of "learning by doing," for which the lessons learned are not only those referring to the six themes that surface but also those that help define a new research approach that I call Protagonist Action Research (PrAR).

Dissertation Supervisor: Seymour Mandelbaum
Title: Professor of City and Regional Planning
University of Pennsylvania

Awards:
2005 Winner of the Gill-Chin Lim Award for the Best Dissertation on International Planning.
2004 Nominee for the Barclay Gibbs Jones Award for the Best Dissertation in Planning.

This text develops a model based on network topology that can be used to analyze or engineer the structures and dynamics of an organization in which neuroprosthetic technologies are employed to enhance the abilities of human personnel. We begin by defining neuroprosthetic supersystems as organizations whose members include multiple neuroprosthetically augmented human beings. It is argued that the expanded sensory, cognitive, and motor capacities provided by ‘posthumanizing’ neuroprostheses may enable human beings possessing such technologies to collaborate using novel types of organizational structures that differ from the traditional structures that are possible for unaugmented human beings. The concept of network topology is then presented as a concrete approach to analyzing or engineering such neuroprosthetic supersystems. A number of common network topologies such as chain, linear bus, tree, ring, hub-and-spoke, partial mesh, and fully connected mesh topologies are discussed and their relative advantages and disadvantages noted.

Drawing on the notion of different architectural ‘views’ employed in enterprise architecture, we formulate a topological model that incorporates five views that are relevant for neuroprosthetic supersystems: the (1) physical and (2) logical topologies of the neuroprosthetic devices themselves; (3) the natural topology of social relations of the devices’ human hosts; (4) the topology of the virtual environments, if any, created and accessed by means of the neuroprostheses; and (5) the topology of the brain-to-brain communication, if any, facilitated by the devices. Potential uses of the model are illustrated by applying it to four hypothetical types of neuroprosthetic supersystems: (1) an emergency medical alert system incorporating body sensor networks (BSNs); (2) an array of centrally hosted virtual worlds; (3) a ‘hive mind’ administered by a central hub; and (4) a distributed hive mind lacking a central hub.

It is our hope that models such as the one formulated here will prove useful not only for engineering neuroprosthetic supersystems to meet functional requirements but also for analyzing the legal, ethical, and social aspects of potential or existing supersystems, to ensure that the organizational deployment of neuroprosthetic technologies does not undermine the wellbeing of such devices’ human users or of societies as a whole.

This paper discusses the competence required in the leadership of virtual organization. The speciics of virtual organization presents a challenge to traditional managerial styles. In order to achieve success in virtual environment, a leader must develop speciic abilities. This analysis examines the uniqueness of the virtual organization, including team work and management. The last part presents ndings and summaries regarding eeective e-leadership requirement. A virtual leader managing a virtual organization should possess several social competencies, as well as technological knowledge and managerial abilities. Virtual leadership is still evolving, therefore the diagnosis of its crucial elements is very important. The basic listing of e-leaders' competence has a great impact on our understanding of virtual organizations. The ndings indicate the main competencies that each e-leader should be focusing on.

10 th International Conference of Security, Privacy and Trust Management (SPTM 2022) looks for significant contributions to Trust management for networks. Original papers are invited on Security, Privacy and Trust Management of wireless and wired networks.

Warketing e-Business
Más que un canal de distribución

Hoy nada se puede concebir sin pensar en internet, cuando necesitas algo lo primero que viene a tu cabeza es Google, las cartas escritas a mano ya son una tradición de unos pocos románticos porque el email es parte fundamental de las comunicaciones actuales.

Dziennikarstwo branżowe ma istotne znaczenie dla tworzenia i użytkowania gier komputerowych (wideo), które stanowią podstawę jednego z przemysłów kształtującej się na początku XXI wieku gospodarki kreatywnej. Przedstawiciele mediów informują o postępach w pracach nad nowymi grami, testują je przed premierą, wskazują deweloperom wady i zalety ich produkcji. W ten sposób oddziałują na opinie użytkowników oraz opisują wydarzenia i trendy związane ze środowiskami zajmującymi się bezpośrednio grami, jak też z ich otoczeniem. Celem artykułu jest prezentacja studium przypadku modelu zarządzania zasobami ludzkimi w internetowej redakcji zajmującej się tematyką gier komputerowych wchodzącej w skład dużego przedsiębiorstwa medialnego.

*

Industry specialized journalism is essential for the creation and use of computer (video) games. They are representing one of industries from creative economy which is emerging on early XXI century. Media representatives inform about the progress in development of new titles, test them before their release date, show developers the advantages and disadvantages of their productions, impact on user feedback and describe events and trends related to the communities directly involved in the games, as well as with their surroundings. The article aims to present a case study of human resources management model in the Internet editorial absorbed in topics connected to computer games which is a part of big media company.

There has been considerable investigation into the nature, effectiveness and performance of virtual organizations, virtual teams and virtual collaboration (Cogburn, et al, 2011) based on the affordances of information and communications technology (ICT). The recent emergence of location-based social network technologies has resulted in new modes of ad hoc virtual organizations. Developers appear to improvise systems by cobbling together existing applications and technologies, almost overnight, with uncoordinated contributions rather than traditional designs or project plans. Heylighen theorizes that stigmergic self-organization explains this kind of system development (Heylighen, 2007). As defined by the biologist Grasse, stigmergy has been defined as a sequence of indirect stimulus and response behaviors that contribute to the coordination of actions among insects through their environment, for example termites coordinating their nest building activities (Theraulaz & Bonabeau, 1999). Heylighen likens human cognitive self-organization to stigmergy. In recent years, the advent of distributed ICTs like worldwide internet computing and pervasive ubiquitous networks have made traditional top-down techniques of system development increasingly irrelevant for software application development. Instead, modular, adaptable and self-managing end-user components are combined in “mash-ups” (Merrill, 2009). Similarly, software development teams are spontaneous and ad hoc, functioning as virtual organizations. In this study, the actions leading to the creation of the Ushahidi software platform and its subsequent adaptations are identified using longitudinal case study methodology and content analysis methods applied to newspaper, magazine, website, journal and social networking publications. Based on a socio-technical theoretical framework, the Ushahidi system is framed as a dynamic, ad hoc virtual organization in the context of emergency response. The actions leading to the instantiation of the Ushahidi system are examined as examples of human cognitive stigmergic response to critical incidents and naturalistic development of complex adaptive systems.

Virtual Organization Breeding Environments (VOBE) represents a framework of organizations, institutions and individuals that cohere to long term base co-operations and infrastructures, mainly towards ensuring the ability of rapid configurations of temporary alliances working in potential Virtual Organizations. In order to produce positive road safety outcomes, strong management in all aspects of road safety is required. Integrating road safety management technologies with VOBE will provide a unique resource sharing capability that will improve road safety .In this paper, we propose a framework based on the VOBE concept to model the functional structures and processes between diverse interdisciplinary entities (e.g. police stations, health institutes, intelligent systems etc.).Unified Modeling Language (UML) is used as a standard way to visualize the design of the new framework. We demonstrate the applicability of the proposed framework by applying it to two case studies representing major problems on the road. The evaluation of the framework shows that it is both applicable for resource sharing in road safety management scenarios. The framework is designed in a conceptual way without committing to any specific programming or technical aspects of implementation which make it very scalable

Improvements in today's information society have also changed the working styles of the organisations. Organisations are more focused on services and operate in a virtual environment. The origins of virtual teams are knowledge and expertise, and they also depend on the basic abilities of a virtual team's members. The aim of this study is to determine how to achieve coordination in processes such as communication, trust, technology usage, leadership, and differences while performing the activities of virtual teams. The main problem of the work is which process and/or processes affect the functioning of the virtual teams and which play a more important role in team effectiveness. The study is based on qualitative methodological evaluations and has a rich literature references about the subject. Finally, it is recommended that processes be supported with result-oriented practices and that team members should be interdependent with a strong communication network.

Abstract. The present emergence of loosely-coupled, inter-enterprise collaboration, i.e., virtual organizations calls for new kind of middleware: generic, common facilities for managing contract-governed collaborations and the autonomous business services between which those collaborations are formed. While further work is still needed on the functional governance of the collaborations and services, even more work is awaiting on the management of non-functional aspects of the virtual enterprises and their members. In this paper, languages and architectures for service level agreement between Web Services are discussed and the maturity of the service level management solutions is reflected against the needs of federated virtual organizations.

El estudio de las organizaciones, así como de la cultura dentro de
éstas, son tópicos de inagotable interés y grandes debates dentro del
campo organizacional. Especialmente, es un campo que se ha
caracterizado por presentar aproximaciones parciales de su objeto de
estudio. En años recientes, a partir del avance de las nuevas
tecnologías de la información y la comunicación, han surgido las
organizaciones virtuales, de las cuales poco se sabe acerca de lo que
son y representan. En este artículo se elabora un enfoque integral de la
cultura organizacional que posibilita una visión más completa y
comprensiva de la dinámica cultural en las organizaciones. Se
pretende con ello, presentar un esquema de análisis de la cultura
organizacional que sirva de referencia para comprender y explicar la
vida y el comportamiento de las organizaciones, en especial de las
organizaciones virtuales.

Advances in information, communication, and computational technologies allow digital volunteer networks formed by concerned publics across the globe to contribute to an effective response to disasters and crises. Digital volunteer networks are event-centric and emergent networks. Currently, the literature is sharply growing in the fields of communication, computer science, emergency management, and geography. This article aims to assess the current status of the literature and suggest a comprehensive conceptual framework of digital volunteer networks in response to disasters and crises. This framework is based on a traditional Input-Process-Output model consists of three dimensions: the disaster and crisis context; a voluntary response process; and outputs and outcomes. We also discuss challenges of digital volunteer networks for crisis response. This article is expected to contribute to the development of related theories and hypotheses and practical strategies for managing digital volunteer networks.

Many domains are well known for their resistance to social media. Currently, there is a dearth of literature that explores social media use in these contexts. This study seeks to help address this gap by evaluating the use of social media within a scientific organization (anonymized as SciCity) that has a strong virtual presence and quarterly face-to-face meet-ups. We evaluated SciCity’s use of social media to foster trust, collaboration, and mentorship. We found that the prominent social media platform Twitter fosters trust among organizational members and plays a role in creating and maintaining lightweight collaborative relationships. Additionally, Twitter-based relationships often act as precursors to collaborations that occur face-to-face. However, Twitter, by itself, was not found to be successful in promoting formal collaborations. Though the medium did facilitate sporadic mentoring, supplementary non-social media-based communication was needed to form mentorship relationships. Twitter was also found to serve as a “social lubricant,” making contact easier and faster, thereby helping foster a scientific social network. Though minor in its role in specifically fostering scientific collaboration, the use of social media by SciCity indicates a shift toward acceptable uses of social media for scientific organizations that have traditionally been hesitant to use social media.

Aiming at improving urban life through more sustainable integrated solutions, will certainly deliver quality-of-life benefits. Disruptive projects in cities are always a good opportunity to bring novel work models and know-how and develop it into business as usual for future use. The paper focuses on the issue of reducing the negative effects of rehabilitation projects requiring worksites usually located on main roads or sidewalks,by addressing the concept of dig once policies, thus changing from a rigid acting mode, to a more open, shared approach involving efficient partnerships.
Addressing the virtual enterprise experiential practice for better inter-institutional cooperation may be the key for creating the premises of new and smarter work model for infrastructure projects.

Celem pracy jest opracowanie modelu przedsiębiorstwa ograniczającego ryzyko
w warunkach wysokiej niepewności. Takie ryzyko towarzyszy m.in. wprowadzaniu
innowacji oraz start-upom. Analizowane są dwa uniwersalne procesy: projektowanie
produktu i zarządzanie łańcuchem dostaw.

A learning community is a collaborative network involved in maintenance and innovation which is based on common aims, shared meanings, common approaches, commitment to effective implementation and mutual accountability. All of these elements are focused on continuous creative tension. A technological district is a form of learning community, that is a collaborative network in a limited geographical area, where a variety of economic entities such as enterprises, research centres and public administrations are occupied in high-intensive research activities and distributed scientifictechnological processes, including knowledge sharing and technological innovation. In this paper, a technological district scenario is proposed where a virtual breeding environment (VBE) defines a set of key working and sharing principles that enable collaboration among its members. A theoretical and practical framework is presented designed to stimulate opportunities and preparedness of technological district members to create virtual organisations (VOs). A VBE organisational framework is introduced for a technological district and an approach is introduced to identify configurations of VOs whose aim is to conduct innovation projects. The paper is based on a pilot implementation of the project LogNET-LOGICA which involved research laboratories of the three universities in Calabria and a few enterprises of the technological district of Gioia Tauro, Italy. The central contribution of this paper consists in providing a mechanism to identify and assemble competencies in a technological district. This paper suggests the source and type of competencies needed to conduct innovation
projects as well as the partner enterprises that are best suited to carry out particular innovation projects

There is a growing demand to utilize distributed systems for remote measurement, monitoring and remote control of devices. These systems have a huge application potential in many areas, such as on-line training and collaborative work for geographically dispersed teams. The research program in progress involves designing and modeling a centralized remote laboratory brokerage system. More specifically, our work will focus on developing intelligent and user friendly adaptive interfaces required by those involved in remote laboratory environments, depending on the role each actor has to play during a laboratory session. These interfaces will provide individuals, either on site or geographically dispersed, with virtual access to the real tools and/or equipment they will need to use either individually or as part of a team. Our goals would be to a) propose pedagogical scenario models and tools for building interfaces for geographically dispersed users, while meeting the norms and standards for the learning objects; b) suggest mechanisms to allow for storing, tracking and retrieving the interfaces, interoperable resources as well as learning objects; c) suggest on-line laboratory management models allowing for sharing the human and physical resources of various institutions. As part of an inter-institutional remote laboratory environment, this management and organization of tutorial sessions will include a remote assistance system, optimization methods and operational research for planning, allocating resources right on schedule, organizing and managing tasks based on pedagogical scenarios in a synchronous mode.

The design and development of a transparent, easy to use and affordable ICT infrastructure is a key prerequisite for the effective large-scale implementation of the collaborative network organizations such as virtual organizations, professional virtual communities, e-science communities, etc. This chapter introduces an overview of the main classes of infrastructures required by different types of virtual organizations and summarizes the main approaches followed by a number of research projects in the area.

Being a virtual organization is the ultimate achievement for some organizations. As the mammoth step, organizations in the country need to explore the possibilities of accepting and implementing their move in telework and subsequently to turn the organization into a virtual working environment. Although the western world has been implementing telework and subsequently becoming a virtual organization. Malaysia as a developing nation has to look in the possibilities of embarking and encouraging the virtual organization's development.

İnsan, doğası gereği yeni bilgileri sorgulayan ve bir şeye inanmadan önce o konuda kanıt arayan bir varlıktır. Özellikle bu kanıtın gözle görülebilir, elle dokunulabilir olması da inanmayı teşvik eden en önemli unsurlardandır. Ancak günümüzde gelişen teknoloji ile birlikte insan doğasının bu en temel özelliklerinden birinin derinden bir değişime uğradığı görülmektedir. İnsanlar fiziksel olarak ellerinde bulunmayan paralarla, gözleriyle görmedikleri şirketler üzerinden, hiç tanımadıkları insanlar aracılığıyla ürün ve hizmet alış-verişi yapar hale gelmişlerdir. Bugün sanal örgütler olarak adlandırdığımız bu yapılar sayesinde ürün ve hizmet ticareti insanlığın ilk zamanlarında hayal bile edilemeyecek hıza ve boyuta ulaşmış durumdadır. Bu gelişmelerin sonucunda günümüzde sanal örgütlerin bir adım ötesinde, sanal paralar kavramı ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu çalışmada, öncelikle günümüzde ticaretin sanallaşmasının son noktası olan sanal paralara ve bu paraların temelinde yatan teknolojilere kısaca değinilmiş, daha sonra da bir sanal para alım-satım platformu olan BTCTürk şirketi örnek vaka olarak analiz edilmiştir.

Opening Keynote Address at the “Wireless Ready: Podcasting Education and Mobile Assisted Language Learning” symposium held at NUCB Graduate School, Nagoya, Japan on March 24, 2007. The presentation was conducted simultaneously in the 3D virtual world Second Life from a second computer in the auditorium, attended by avatars of educators in other countries. Various Web 2.0 technologies could thereby be shown both as objects and media of instruction. This is the colorful slideshow; for the Proceedings article, see More Info / Links / URL below.

Research scientists have become increasingly dependent on collaborations across laboratories and organizations to maintain their productivity. However, the increased specialization of individual laboratories works against the current drive toward understanding systems in the sciences. Consequently, there is a tension between the rising importance of collaborative efforts and the practical and structural challenges in establishing and managing such collaborations. Combining ethnographic case studies of three biology research labs with network data of their larger scientific community, we explore the changing process of scientific knowledge production in the age of Big Science. We find that virtual technologies open up the knowledge process as scientists have easier access to data, publications, and each other. At the same time, we find that these technologies-specifically scientific databases-do not eradicate the social aspects of scientific knowledge production as collaborative structures in science remain relatively unchanged. We discuss the implications for theory and practice of this seemingly contradictory character of scientific knowledge production.

This paper explores a variety of methods for applying the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) automated topic modeling algorithm to the modeling of the structure and behavior of virtual organizations found within modern social media and social networking environments. As the field of Big Data reveals, an increase in the scale of social data available presents new challenges which are not tackled by merely scaling up hardware and software. Rather, they necessitate new methods and, indeed, new areas of expertise. Natural language processing provides one such method. This paper applies LDA to the study of scientific virtual organizations whose members employ social technologies. Because of the vast data footprint in these virtual platforms, we found that natural language processing was needed to ‘unlock’ and render visible latent, previously unseen conversational connections across large textual corpora (spanning profiles, discussion threads, forums, and other social media incarnations). We introduce variants of LDA and ultimately make the argument that natural language processing is a critical interdisciplinary methodology to make better sense of social ‘Big Data’ and we were able to successfully model nested discussion topics from forums and blog posts using LDA. Importantly, we found that LDA can move us beyond the state-of-the-art in conventional Social Network Analysis techniques.

Being a virtual organization is the ultimate achievement for some organizations. As the mammoth step, organizations in the country need to explore the possibilities of accepting and implementing their move in telework and subsequently to turn the organization into a virtual working environment. Although the western world has been implementing telework and subsequently becoming a virtual organization. Malaysia as a developing nation has to look in the possibilities of embarking and encouraging the virtual organization's development.

Artykuł stanowi studium przypadku przedsiębiorstwa globalnego działającego w oparciu o wirtualizację. Przeprowadzono badania dotyczące podstawowych obszarów innowacyjności. W ich kontekście weryfikowano efektywność działań pracowników, rolę zarządzania wiedzą, wzajemnego dzielenia się wiedzą oraz skuteczności przepływu informacji.

RAED provides a computerised infrastructure to support the development and administration of Vicarious Learning in collaborative learning communities spread across multiple universities and workplaces. The system is based on the OASIS middleware for Role-based Access Control. This paper describes the origins of the model and the approach to implementation and outlines some of its benefits to collaborative teachers and learners.

In the modern business world, due to the impact of technological advancements and globalisation, organisations are obliged to keep up with the change in order to seize new opportunities they encounter and overcome the obstacles in their way. Concepts of virtuality and virtual organisations are among these concepts which surfaced as a result of these changes. All white-collar employees have a certain degree of virtuality and the fact that organisations are taking rapid steps towards virtualisation makes this topic a significant field of research. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the perceived degree of virtuality of organisations and the psycho-social performance and organisational commitment of employees. As a result, while a positive significant relationship was found between the degree of virtuality and psycho-social performance, while there was no relationship identified with organisational commitment. Moreover, according to a sub-scale about employees' individual propensity for virtuality, it was pointed out that virtual workers are happy with their conditions and are willing to continue to work the same way.

The information and communication technology evolution
is aggressively affecting the business world in the twenty first
century. The magnitude of change in business development from a global perspective, unconstrained by time or distance barriers, has reached both developed and developing nations. E-commerce currently represents 2 per cent of the global business transactions but promises to dominate the business environment during the course of the twenty-first century. The successful presence of
e-commerce through the Internet has helped create low cost and high efficiency for product and service sales through a more dynamic and interactive venue of opportunities where the world becomes the marketplace.