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Develops an original 12‐step management of technology protocol and applies it to 51 applications which range from Du Pont’s failure in Nylon to the Single Online Trade Exchange for Auto Parts procurement by GM, Ford, Daimler‐Chrysler and Renault‐Nissan. Provides many case studies with regards to the adoption of technology and describes seven chief technology officer characteristics. Discusses common errors when companies invest in technology and considers the probabilities of success. Provides 175 questions and answers to reinforce the concepts introduced. States that this substantial journal is aimed primarily at the present and potential chief technology officer to assist their survival and success in national and international markets.

Using a modem, telephone, and telecommunications software, a computer can put you in touch with people and services. A computer isn't needed to go online. With a computer, however, services can be used more effectively and cheaply. The author defines and discusses modems, software, and several services, and notes one major problem with telecommunications: money.

Many organisations now find that their computer requirements are well‐defined, or at least well‐established. And in many cases it is clear that a single personal computer will not fill those requirements. Fortunately, many different equipment choices are available to meet the concurrent needs of several computer users economically.

This paper aims to discuss the challenge for the classical idea of professionalism in understanding the Chinese software engineering industry after giving a close insight into the development of this industry as well as individual engineers with a psycho‐societal perspective.

The study starts with the general review of the sociological concept of profession, professional and specialization of knowledge. Together with revealing the critical challenge from the empirical field of software engineering industry regarding its professionalization, a critique of the neglect of subjective agency in classical conception of professionalism in sociology theory and methodology is set out.

A case study with interpretation of the subject's continuously developing identification with their specialization in knowledge and occupation from their narration of career experience reveals the dynamics in this development process relating to individual, social practice and societal factors.

This paper contributes to empirical research of analyzing the professionalization process of software engineering and software engineers in relation to the concept of professionalism, and it contributes theoretically by discussing the challenge of this process to the development of professionalism within this highly knowledge‐based industry in a Chinese societal context.

The purpose of this article is to contribute to our stock of knowledge about who uses networks, how they are used, and what contribution the networks make to advancing the scientific enterprise. Between 1985 and 1990, the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) ACCESS data facility at the University of Wisconsin‐Madison provided social scientists in the United States and elsewhere with access through the electronic networks to complex and dynamic statistical data; the 1984 SIPP is a longitudinal panel survey designed to examine economic well‐being in the United States. This article describes the conceptual framework and design of SIPP ACCESS; examines how network users communicated with the SIPP ACCESS project staff about the SIPP data; and evaluates one outcome derived from the communications, the improvement of the quality of the SIPP data. The direct and indirect benefits to social scientists of electronic networks are discussed. The author concludes with a series of policy recommendations that link the assessment of our inadequate knowledge base for evaluating how electronic networks advance the scientific enterprise and the SIPP ACCESS research network experience to the policy initiatives of the High Performance Computing Act of 1991 (P.L. 102–194) and the related extensive recommendations embodied in Grand Challenges 1993 High Performance Computing and Communications (The FY 1993 U.S. Research and Development Program).

US Vice President Albert Gore first used on March 21,1994, what later became the phrase: “Information Superhighway,” The phrase suggests that information traffic rolls right over the static, long‐suffering fixture of mud, concrete and asphalt. But with each new development of IT, it is as though the vehicles have to renegotiate with the roadway the right of passage, making it very much an interactive process. To underscore its dynamic nature, a transportation analogy seems appropriate. If we are today in the propeller airplane stage, Broadband Network Technology (BNT) is beyond Supersonic Concorde, to reach which we need to traverse through [1] turbo‐prop technology, [2] jet engine technology, [3] 747‐technology, [4]jumbo jet technology, and [5] supersonic technology to [6] supersonic+ technology. Information Superskyway should result in what Dertouzos, Director of MIT Computer Science Labatory, calls Information Marketplace: “the collection of people, computers, communications, software and services that will be engaged in the intraorganizational and interpersonal informational transactions of the future.” 3C firms jockey for position on the Information Superskyway. While they offer better access to the Internet, they also seek to restrict the access to products and services they control. Dertouzos says that all companies shoud cooperate with their competitors to build a shared information infrastructure, so that they can compete. It echoes our own definition of Concomitant Coalition: association of one party(ies) with and against the same party(ies) in the same game or activity. We discuss three CONCOLs: [1] Microsoft‐Netscape working together and in competition, as Bill Gates puts it, to define standards that will help overcome the Internet's limitations. They compete on supplying components of the software platform for interactive networks; but they cooperate in developing an industry standard, no matter whose components finally get accepted. [2] Sun‐NCR‐Intel working together against Microsoft which is pushing its Windows NT as a substitute for Sun's Unix operating system. [3] Intel‐SAP working together against Microsoft, IBM on business management software. Pandesic, the 50–50 joint venture between Intel (whose chips control the basic functions of 80 percent of the world's PCs), and Germany‐based SAP (the world's biggest publisher of business management software), will provide on‐line merchants the necessary hard‐and‐software, to tap into the projected US$234 billion economy on the Internet by the year 2002. We saw in Chapter 4 that the main players in 3C industries are racing each other on their own pathways to the Information Superskyway. In this chapter we find 3C firms entering into CONCOLs to tap into the rich bounty on the Internet. However, Dertouzos warns that none of the awesome powers of fiber optics, real‐time video, virtual reality, multimedia, and electronic commerce would be realized unless computers and software at diverse sites can “understand” one another. But he says: “Hardly anyone today is paying attention to shared conventions that will allow interconnected machines to understand and work with each other without the constant intervention of a human being.”

Moi University must successfully manage change in order to improve institutional performance, ease of communication and the management of knowledge and information. To this end, information technology (IT) can be of great use, particularly regarding access to, and facilitation of the transfer of, knowledge and information. Clearly, Moi University must use IT to its full potential as it has invested heavily in IT for its strategic objectives. Evidence of this can be seen in the areas of library services, faculty activities, central services and administration and management operations. This paper focuses on improving information management and communication based on the new generation of multimedia computer packages within an academic institutional environment. It is therefore argued that a management information system designed for Moi University needs to reflect the organizational objectives and current multimedia technologies in order to remain strategically important. This paper then examines the potentiality or utility of integrated IT at the disposal of Moi University.

Considers the use of Remote Communications Software as a cost‐efficient solution to sharing information with offsite users. Discusses theuse of RCS, typical library applications, and the potential disadvantages of RCS. Concludes that RCS is particularly applicable in making technologies such as CD‐ROM and microcomputer databases available to remote users at a low cost.

Those who have an IBM/PC connected to a telephone line and find they frequently need to talk to the party on the other end, as well as use the keyboard, will appreciate the Asher modem board. It plugs into the computer and provides for a telephone handset that plugs into the board.

The “collaboratory” concept has recently entered the vernacular of the scientific community to reflect new modes of scientific communication, cooperation and collaboration made possible by information technology. The collaboratory represents a scientific research center “without walls” for accessing and sharing data, information, instrumentation and computational resources. The principal applications of the collaboratory concept have been in the physical and biological sciences, including space physics, oceanography and molecular biology. Discusses the attributes of the collaboratory, and applies the concept developed by computer and physical scientists to the design and operation of the SIPPACCESS prototype information system for complex data to be used through the Internet by sociologists, demographers and economists. Examines obstacles to collaboratory development for the social sciences. Concludes that four major obstacles will inhibit the development of collaboratories in the social sciences.