Roger Clarke’s Home-Page for Other Topics

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Photo of Roger Clarke

This page provides access to documents that don't fit into the primary classifications in the navigation buttons above.

This index is fully up-to-date as at 31 December 2023. See also:

(The reason that I use 'SOS' as the directory-name for this segment of my site is historical. This was originally the home-page for my Research Programme in Supra-Organisational Systems (SOS), which I ran from 1988-95 at the A.N.U. Those details are down at the bottom).


1. Information Systems:

1.1 Fundamentals

1.2 Teaching Materials

1.3 Introductory Materials for Researchers

1.4 Reference Materials for Researchers

1.5 Researcher Perspective

1.6 A New Research Method

1.7 Other Papers

2. Professional Aspects of the Information Systems Discipline:

2.1 Academic Publishing

2.2 History of the Discipline

2.3 The 'Rescue Your ACS' Saga 2019-21

2.4 Ethics and Information Systems

3. Homo Roboticus and Roboticus Sapiens

3.1 Robots

3.2 Drones

3.3 Cyborgisation

4. Open Access, particularly to Academic Works

5. Ethics in Cyberspace

6. Adventures in Futurism

7. Some Miscellaneous Writings


1.1 Fundamentals of the Information Systems Discipline

I integrated a number of these topics together in Fundamentals of Data, Information and Information Systems (2023)

Other papers are:


1.2 Teaching Materials in the Information Systems Discipline


1.3 Introductory Materials for Researchers in the Information Systems Discipline

This paper provides introductory and discussion material for early postgraduate studies:

Other papers are:


1.4 Reference Materials for Researchers in the Information Systems Discipline


1.5 Researcher Perspective

In this stream of work, I propose that the IS discipline has a major deficiency that needs to be urgently addressed in order to overcome the present low-grade service that it's providing even to executives, let alone to the economy and society as a whole.

I define the key term 'Researcher Perspective' to mean a particular stakeholder perspective that is adopted by a researcher as the, or a, viewpoint from which to observe phenomena during the conduct of a research project.

On the basis of considerable empirical evidence, I argue that 90% of IS research adopts a single perspective; and in almost all cases the interests of the 'system sponsor' are prioritised.

A first problem with that approach is that the interests of every other stakeholder are seriously short-changed, and in many circumstances simply ignored.

I contend that the longstanding history of low return on investment and of outright project failures is the attempted use by system sponsors to impose their will on other stakeholders. This frequently encounters resistance, both overt and covert.

This mindset has been supported by inadequate IS research, whose one-dimensionality has failed to deliver insights into the needs of stakeholders and the dynamics of the field of play.

To deliver quality research outputs, IS academics need to switch to dual-perspective research. They can then assist each of two protagonists to understand the viewpoint of the other, to anticipate the other's behaviour, and to find ways to achieve win-win situations.

Beyond dual-perspective research, many contexts arise in which the power is distributed across a number of stakeholders. In these circumstances, the only sensible approach is multi-perspective research.

Conventional, single-perspective research may be easy to perform; but its quality is so inadequate that potential clients and funders of IS research place very little value on it.

We need to grasp the nettle, develop and improve techniques that support dual-perspective and multi-perspective research projects, and deliver information of value.

The theory of researcher perspective is expressed in:

The theory was supported by the following empirical research:

The full set of papers is shown below in chronological order, with the primary sources picked out in bold-face type:


1.6 A New Research Method

The work on Researcher Perspective, in 1.5 above, required a new research technique for the Critical Analysis of Published Works. This was regarded by some reviewers as being contentious, and hence had to be itself the subject of research in order to achieve publication of the empirical papers. That resulted in the following series of papers:


1.7 Other Papers in the Information Systems Discipline


2.1 Academic Publishing [see also Open Access]


2.2 History of the Information Systems Discipline


2.3 The 'Rescue Your ACS' Saga 2019-21

In October 2019, I belatedly discovered that a clique had gained control of the Australian Computer Society, had achieved considerable progress in commercialising it, was well-advanced with plans to corporatise it with a constitution that centralised power in the Board, and presumably would have later privatised the organisation, its $40-50m p.a. revenue streams and its accumulated assets.

After only just failing to defeat the corporatisation proposal at the AGM in 2019, I pursued a Federal Court action based on the large number of procedural irregularities that had been committed. Having won that, I assembled a powerful Steering Committee to fight the proposal. Because I was denied access to communication channels to the 10,000 voters, I assembled an email-address list of 400 members and used that and two media outlets as channels to pursue the matter. Multiple members of the Steering Committee used their own reputations and contacts to build and maintain pressure.

Phases 1-5 below below track the unpleasant process, Oct 2019 - Nov 2020.
The subsequent Phases 6-8 track the rebuilding process undertaken in 2021-22.
Key documents are in bold-face type:


2.4 Ethics and Information Systems


3. Homo Roboticus and Roboticus Sapiens

3.1 Robots

3.2 Drones

The papers are shown in chronological order, with the primary sources (all of them refereed papers), picked out in bold-face type:

3.3 Cyborgisation


5. Ethics and Cyberspace


6. Adventures in Futurism


7. Some Miscellaneous Writings


Historical Material Only: Research Programme – 1988-1995

Between 1988 and 1995, while I was a full-time academic at the A.N.U., I ran a Research Programme in what I called 'Supra-Organisational Systems' (SOS), and most of my research and publications were undertaken within that Programme. Although I've long since returned to full-time consultancy, I've sustained my links with academe, and continue to conduct research and publish refereed articles, in areas that build on my SOS Research Programme.

My primary areas of interest during the period 1988-95 were:


Collaborations

During the period 1988-95, collaborative work was undertaken with a range of organisations, including industry associations (EDICA, now ECA, and Tradegate) and agencies of the governments of Australia and of several States (in particular the then Information Exchange Steering Committee, and the Departments of Administrative Services, Purchasing Australia within that Department, the Department of Finance and the Department of Transport).

I spent over five years of my business career outside Australia, in the United Kingdom and Switzerland. I have subsequently maintained my associations with German-speaking countries through participation in many international conferences, frequently as a member of the program committee, and as an editorial board member and referee for many international journals. From time to time, I undertake field-work overseas, and have been invited as a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Bern (Switzerland) and Linz (Austria). Links have also been established with the EDI World Institute, based in Montreal.

I collaborated with staff and students at other Australian and overseas Universities, in Australia (Curtin Uni. of Technology), Austria (Linz), Belgium (Namur), Canada (McGill and UBC), Germany (Hohenheim-Stuttgart), Singapore (NUS and NTU), Slovenia (Maribor), Switzerland (St Gallen), The Netherlands (Erasmus, Limburg), the United Kingdom (Sussex and Cranfield) and the United States (Denver and Arizona at Tucson).


Supervision of Research Candidates

In addition to undertaking research myself, working with academic colleagues, and employing casual research assistants, I supervised research candidates in the Graduate Programs in Commerce and in Computer Science & Technology at the Australian National University. (Subsequently, I've supervised doctoral and Honours candidates in Computer Science and elsewhere at A.N.U. In my role as a Visiting Professor at U.N.S.W. in the Baker & McKenzie Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre, I've also supervised several law doctorates).



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From the site's beginnings in August 1994 until February 2009, the infrastructure was provided by the Australian National University. During that time, the site accumulated close to 30 million hits. It passed 65 million in early 2021.

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Created: 15 February 1995 - Last Amended: 31 December 2023 by Roger Clarke - Site Last Verified: 15 February 2009
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