We are increasingly surrounded by and using small systems, which are equipped with sensors. Mobile phones, temperature sensors, GPS tracking, emerging nano/micro-size sensors, and similar technologies are used by individuals, groups, and organizations. There are valuable applications for industries such as medical and manufacturing. These new sensor applications have implications for information systems (IS) and, the authors visualize this new class of information systems as fractals growing from an established class of systems; namely that of information systems (IS). The identified applications and implications are used as an empirical basis for creating a model for these small new information systems. Such sensor systems are called embedded systems in the technical sciences, and the authors want to couple it with general IS. They call the merger of these two important research areas (IS and embedded systems) for micro information systems (micro-IS). It is intended as a new research field within IS research. An initial framework model is established, which seeks to capture both the possibilities and constraints of this new paradigm, while looking simultaneously at the fundamental IS and ICT aspects. The chapter demonstrates the proposed micro-IS framework with a working (open source) application of open demand response systems that address the engineering aspects of this work.

The main aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the co- creation of ICT Innovation.To do this we first review key innovation literature with the argument that each set of innovation literature considers the world of innovation from a sterile perspective, normally linear in nature. We propose an alternative view encapsulated in our idea of 'Co-creation of ICT Innovation'. To illustrate the nature of Co-creation of ICT Innovation, we present three case studies from India and show the distinctness in the nature of problem solving in each case. We then use this distinctness to develop a dual interactive framework. One framework is at a Meta level that develops the conceptual theme for the process of co-creation. The other framework, that populates the conceptual theme with operational drivers, is aimed to populate the Meta level with ideas that can initiate the process of Co-creation of ICT Innovation. Our contribution in this paper is this dual interactive framework that we argue explains the nature and process of co- creation.

In developing countries the creation of opportunities for improving the livelihood of citizens remains a major preoccupation of governments, non-government organisations, international funding agencies and technologists. In the past developmental strategists and policy makers have conceptualised development as an instance of capacity building (Thursby et al. 2009) where technology transfer in particular has been considered primarily as a diffusion process (José et al. 2009). Technology in this case, is introduced because it is seen to be a benevolent lever for human development (Musa et al. 2005). In this paper we will develop an alternative argument to the benevolence thesis predicating its success or failure in a local context on the nature of the cocreation process and the facilitation of a parallel market where the outcomes of the co-creation process can be exchanged. The paper aims to conceptualise co-creation as an alternative to technology transfer and demonstrate how co-creation of ICT innovation can enable the emergence of future markets. We argue how our conception of the co-creation of future markets using ICT can be a novel way to think of technology transfer for sustained social economic development. The first part of the paper will be a framing exercise i.e. it will describe the boundaries within which co-creation operates, what we understand by co-creation and how it may help bring about a future market around a locus. This locus is enabled by generative ideas, provides the catalysts for new and novel solutions; has the ability to construct artefacts and the power to sustain the dissemination of the virtues’ of the created artefact(s). We then explain how generative ideas combine with construction motives supported by an instructive environment that will facilitate and sustain the co-creation process. Finally we will explain how technology can be identified, modified for uptake and diffusion for creating future markets.

The fast growth in globalization stimulates the trend of open standards and challenges governments in devising policies for the national information infrastructures to foster equal access to and even distribution of knowledge among citizens and business. In response, governments may seek a more active role in standardization as they face challenges from being stakeholders in use of standards; a need for new standards may drive governments to become participants in the standardization process, and to require conformance assurance by the market, and search for a policy on migration from an installed base of proprietary solutions. In this chapter the authors identify some critical issues, which can help government decision makers opt for select positions and interventions in standardization.

To ensure a smooth running of the interview across region, we organized the post survey workshop. The workshop was designed to discuss the material we had submitted indicating how we thought the process of interviewing might take place and how they might be recorded and reported. Interviews though are a very exciting medium for researchers to collect data; they bring onto the table challenges and problems. To discuss these challenges we wanted to engage the workshop participants in understanding how best might they want to engage with the interview. In advance of the workshop we developed the interview’s recording template and interview’s reporting template. These two documents were to form the instructive framework on how to conduct the interviews.

In theory definitional clarity is critical for framing the subject matter under inquiry, in studying ICT innovation we are confronted with a pervasive diversity of definitions of ICT innovation. In this paper we apply theoretical definitions of ICT innovation with empirical reflections of the same as articulated by non researchers in their writing about ICT innovation in popular media in India. Our focus is to generate conceptual patterns to better reflect the diversity in ICT development in practice. Without ex ante theoretical exclusivity we measure ICT innovation as the public record of ICT innovations in a wide range of publications. In innovation theory we find a gap between material and immaterial innovations that is partly reproduced in the field of ICT, thus, ICT innovation theory reflects hardware and network innovations, as they are closely related to traditional R&D and associated IPR. Our research question is, how do theoretically derived profiles of ICT innovation match the publically recognised ICT innovations? We have concentrated on publically recorded ICT innovations irrespective of whether they are material, immaterial or application-like in their nature. We surveyed leading journals, trade magazines, popular newspaper articles, specialist journals from 2003 to 2007 (both included). The sample includes 12 of the largest national and regional broadsheets, (newspapers) and 45 trade journals, magazines and websites. We have identified 340 different ICT innovations for the 5-years. We captured key words or synonyms from the popular press generating a set of grounded profiles of ICT innovation. We then contrast these profiles to those that we derived from the literature study of ICT innovation theory. This study suggests that ICT innovation for changing market condition, improving technology are notions hidden at the background and does not appear in the foreground of what is perceived as ICT innovation.. The focus seems to be towards expected impact of the ICT innovation first and foremost leaving the nature of the innovation and its appropriation out of immediate concern

Abstract Information systems (IS) have a record of raising efficiency and effectiveness in business operations. In the modern economy, ongoing efficiency improvements,through innovation play a decisive role. A new theory of distributed relations refocuses innovations comptence from core to distributed competence, raising new efficiency opportunities. The paper suggest an economic model of the efficiency opportunities of information processing revealing the efficiency formof distributed relations, a type of efficiency recently supported by IS. Previous research suggests examples ,of distributed information systems that support this type of efficiency. The distributed relations

In an increasing number of countries governments consider to stimulate the role of open standards in public Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure development. The aim of this work is to identify important issues related to government policy with regard to open standards and the development of public ICT infrastructure. This multi-method research presents results from an exploratory literature review and multi-round Delphi survey of key experts in the field of standardization.

Complexity in information technology architectures and infrastructures, and an increasing need for executives to verify and secure value generation processes in private as well as public organisations, call for an increasing awareness and understanding of Corporate Governance in general and IT Governance in particular. The paper investigates how IT Governance is adopted in the case company Novozymes A/S, which is a biotech-based world leader in industrial enzymes and microorganisms. Based on a review of 17 IT Governance Tools, the paper analyses the challenges of the adopted IT Governance arrangements and mechanisms. Finally, the paper point to future development directions in order to further unfold the potential of IT Governance at Novozymes A/S.

Lately we have seen a growing interest from both public and private organisations to adopt Open Source Software (OSS), not only for a few, specific applications but also on a more general level throughout the organisation. As a consequence, the organisations’ decisions on adoption of OSS are becoming increasingly more important and complex. We present three perspectives organisations can employ in their decisions: seeing OSS acquisition as a business case, as COTS acquisition, and as ar-chitectural change within a governance framework. We present case studies of decisions on OSS adoption, and categorise the decision criteria we have found. Our results indicate that for large-scale adoption of OSS, focus will be on architectural considerations: enterprise-wide architectures will at first be a barrier, but in the long term OSS’s support of open standards can be a major enabler for OSS adoption. In contrast, in smaller organisations and in small-scale adoption of OSS, the cheap price of OSS is a major enabler, as it provides a good opportunity for experiments and short-term economic benefits. For small organisations these experiments can lead to development of a common IT-architecture, and in larger organisations OSS can be adopted in niche-areas, without significantly violating an existing IT-architecture. Keywords: open source, COTS, IT architecture, governance

In this paper we focus on managerial and technical decisions for acquisi tion of OSS and discuss potential approaches to a widespread adoption of OSS. Moving from mainly techni cal issues in procurement to corporate IS governance presents OSS with new challenges beyond outlining a business case for a particular OSS application. We draw parallels to the business case for commercial software products (COTS). Compared with COTS, OSS products seem to have several advantages, but based on existing literature and a case study, we develop and discuss the hypothesis that a major barrier may be the “customer's” uncertainty and unfamiliarity with OSS vendor relationships. We find that corporate governance and architecture needs to be accounted for in both COTS and OSS. This paper should be seen as a first step researching the fit between procurement and delivery models for OSS.

Free software, also known as Open-Source, is a new player in the software world. Though it is mostly popularized by the Linux operating system, it is not limited to it. More and more software applications, tools and libraries are available as free software, for free as well as proprietary platforms. In the COTS business, this raises a host of issues regarding both COTS producers and COTS users, issues that can be technical, economic or legal. From the point of view of producers, it is important to understand where the competition between free and proprietary production of COTS is heading, and what are the natural techno-economic niches for both. From the point of view of COTS-based development, one has to understand issues such as (this list is not limited in any way):

The paper presents an explorative study of Open Source Software (OSS) focusing on the managerial decisions for acquisition of OSS. Based on three case studies we argue that whereas small organizations often may chose adoption of OSS expecting significant cost savings, a major barrier for larger organizations’ adoption of OSS lies in the organizations’ consolidation of the enterprise architectures, in addition to that OSS will not be adopted before satisfactory delivery and procurement models for OSS are established.

In globalizing competitive markets knowledge exchange between business organizations requires incentive mechanisms to ensure tactical purposes while strategic purposes are subject to joint organization and other forms of contractual obligations. Where property of knowledge (e.g. patents and copyrights) and contract-based knowledge exchange do not obtain network effectiveness because of prohibitive transaction costs in reducing uncertainty, we suggest a robust model for peer produced knowledge within a distributed setting. The peer produced knowledge exchange model relies upon a double loop knowledge conversion with symmetric incentives in a network since the production of actor specific knowledge makes any knowledge appropriation by use of property rights by the actors irrelevant. Without property rights in knowledge the actor network generates opportunity for incentive symmetry over a period of time. The model merges specific knowledge with knowledge from other actors into a decision support system specific for each actor in the network in recognition of actor role differences. The article suggests a set of 9 static and 5 dynamic propositions for the model to maintain symmetric incentives between different actor networks. The model is proposed for business networks.