Management of the Interconnected World

* Joey F. George I was honored to be asked to open the VI Conference of the Italian Chapter of the Association for Information Systems (ItAIS), held in Olbia, on the Costa Smeralda of Sardinia, Italy, in October 2009. Over 90 research papers were presented over two days, and over 120 people attended the conference. Each day, five par- lel sessions featured papers on diverse information systems topics. Session themes included Information and Knowledge Management; Organizational Change and Impact of ICT; IS Quality, Metrics and Impact; E-Justice and Ethics of Information Systems; Information Systems Development and Design Methodo- gies; E-Services in Public and Private Sectors; Innovation Transfer of IT Research Projects; the Strategic Role of Information Systems; Accounting Management and Information Systems; Human Computer Interaction; and Emerging Issues in a Globalized and Interconnected World. The majority of attendees were from Italy, which would be expected for a meeting of the Italian Chapter of AIS. However, as much as 30% of participants came from elsewhere, from other parts of Europe to be sure, but also from as far away as Nigeria, Mexico and Australia. That the conference was so decidedly international provides support for the 2009 con- rence theme, "Achieving Fusion in the Interconnected World. " Amid lively d- cussion and intellectual exchanges, professional networks were extended well beyond the Costa Smeralda and new connections and friendships were made.

The book adopts an interdisciplinary approach, recognizing the need to harness a number of different disciplines in both the theory and

Part I: E-Services in Public and Private Sector.- Open Innovation in Research Libraries-Myth or Reality?- News as a Service: Adoption of Web 2.0 by Online Newspapers.- Citizens Participation in Public Decisions: the Open Source Role.- A System Dynamics Model to Identify and Measure the Paper Digitization Advantages in Public Administration.- ICTs in an Ageing Society: an Overview of Emerging Research Streams .- Analyzing the structure and complexity of a service provision network: potential applications to network assessment.- Biometric Authentication and Authorization Infrastructures in Trusted Intra-organizational Relationships.- Reshaping eGovernment through Institutional Agents.- Patent Information System in R&D Strategies: Tasks, Techniques and On-line Search Tools. Part II: Organizational Change and Impact of IT.- ERP Acceptance: the Role of Affective Commitment.- Individual Readiness for Change in the Context of Enterprise Resource Planning System Implementation.- Changing Spaces for Social Learning in ERP Implementation: a Situational Analysis.- A Planning-oriented Approach for ERP Implementation in SMEs.- Motivators and Inhibitors to IT Infusion in Tourism SMEs.- The Utilization of Information Systems Security in SMEs in the South East of Ireland.-