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The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study aimed at investigating the information requirements for broad use mobile applications for construction projects. It also presents the results of usability testing of a mobile application prototype for improving information management in construction projects.

To achieve the research objectives, the information required to properly design the mobile application was collected by distributing an online questionnaire among construction professionals. Then a server‐based application prototype was developed based on enterprise content management concepts. The mobile application was tested in a laboratory by setting a group of construction management postgraduate students who had experience of working in the construction industry.

This study determines and ranks the critical on‐site information artifacts, considered highly important from the perspective of clients, consultants, and contractors. The study also illustrates the development of a mobile application prototype and results of a usability test. The test results demonstrate that the application is well designed, user friendly, and meets user requirements.

The results of this study are useful for developing a functional mobile application to manage on‐site information in construction projects.

The paper makes an original contribution by investigating information requirements of a mobile application for on‐site information management.

The purpose of this study was to understand the knowledge sharing in projects based on knowledge flow patterns. The impact of attrition, thereby leading to a loss of tacit knowledge, inability to capture and reuse knowledge and inability to understand the knowledge flow patterns, which leads to lack of structured workspace collaboration, are frequently faced challenges in organizations. The change in knowledge sourcing behaviors by the current generation workforce has a high reaching impact in driving collaboration among employees.

This paper attempts to study this impact and identify means to improve the effectiveness of collective knowledge sharing via social computing platforms. As part of this study, customized solutions are devised based on knowledge flow patterns prevalent in teams. Knowledge network analysis (KNA), a socio-metric analysis, is performed to understand knowledge flow patterns among employees in a team which helps understand the relationships between team members with respect to knowledge sharing. KNA helps in understanding ties and interactions between human and system resources.

Significant changes were observed in knowledge sourcing and sharing behaviors. Capture of the tacit knowledge of employees further resulted in reducing the impact of knowledge attrition. For instance, targeted communities of practice (CoPs) based on the presence of cliques within teams enabled teams to complete projects effectively and efficiently.

The results are used to identify push and pull networks to enable effective knowledge management (KM). Results of this study reveal that analyzing knowledge flow patterns in a team and deploying a customized social computing platform that is tailored to address the needs of specific knowledge flow patterns within that team, significantly enhances collaborative sharing as opposed to a standardized “one-size-fits-all” platform.

This paper is an original creation after research by the authors for a continuous assessment of KM within the organization.

Collaborative ontology editing tools enable distributed user groups to build and maintain ontologies. Enterprises that use these tools to simply capture knowledge for a given ontological structure face the following problems: isolated software solution requiring its own user management; the user interface often does not provide a look‐and‐feel that is familiar to users; additional security issues; hard to integrate into existing electronic work flows; and additional deployment and training costs. This paper aims to investigate these issues.

To address these problems, the author designed, developed, and validated a plug‐in concept for widely‐used enterprise content and collaboration portals. The prototype is implemented as a Microsoft SharePoint web part and was validated in the risk and compliance management domain.

The research results enable enterprises to capture knowledge efficiently within given organizational and ontological structures. Considerable cost and time savings were realized in the conducted case study.

According to the results of the literature survey, this work represents the first research effort that provides a generic approach to supporting and increasing the efficiency of ontological knowledge capturing processes by enterprise portals.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and apply an ontology-supported asset information integrator system (AIIS) in the domain of infrastructure management. The two objectives are: first, to describe how different ontologies developed as part of this research support the design of message templates (MTs) that were implemented in the AIIS; and second, to explain the development and application of the prototype system for tangible capital asset (TCA) reporting.

The proposed system was developed in the MS SharePoint platform using a four-step methodology: create a web site and library; review and modify MTs; design and configure workflows; and add functionalities.

First, the architecture, methodology, and evaluation of the two ontologies: Transaction Domain Ontology and Tangible Capital Asset Ontology, developed as part of this research work were briefly introduced to describe how both the ontologies supported the design of MTs that were implemented in the AIIS. Second, the AIIS was successfully developed and applied in the domain of infrastructure management for the Asset Inventory and Condition Assessment Reporting.

The development of the AIIS would enable industry experts to exchange the tangible capital information. The built-in search engine and history services would help the experts to search a transaction and track the transaction history. The real-time visualisation of the data would help in decision making.

Infrastructure agencies use diversified information systems to manage infrastructure systems. Due to propriety nature of the information systems, the TCA data generated is heterogeneous and inconsistent, which make it difficult to exchange with other organisations. Also, the existing applications focus on processing and managing the TCA data for a variety of tasks; however, lack to support data exchange with other organisations. This emphasises the gap that requires the development of an ontology-supported collaboration system in the domain of infrastructure asset management.

Meeting accreditation requirements provides challenges for any size institution. One small, state-supported university found three solutions to problems associated with gaining accreditation: the creation of an accreditation “data pantry;” the use of common technological formats and technologically savvy faculty members to “work smarter, not harder” with accreditation tasks and data; and the participation of faculty members in new ways to revise curriculum, forge stronger relationships among faculty from different departments, and generate strong learning experiences for students. Two frustrations regarding the accreditation process remained: university responsibility for the performance of former education students long after they leave campus and competency testing that forces schools into reactionary leadership that may place gaining accreditation ahead of meeting students’ needs. Finally, the milieu of “teststeria” has a deleterious effect on faculty innovation, pulls faculty focus away from the students whom they desire to serve, and decreases the value of the teaching profession.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation of Microsoft SharePoint Services at the University of Mississippi Libraries with particular emphasis on the use of this technology in library departments. It aims to describe major components of the software, and to discuss examples of library use. This paper also seeks to explore some unanticipated benefits derived from using this software.

This paper covers key points from the preparation, setup, and training phases of this implementation.

Most twenty‐first century organizations need to collaborate electronically on a variety of projects. The suite of tools available in SharePoint offers one approach to electronic collaboration.

The University of Mississippi Libraries has been using SharePoint very successfully as a means of fostering online collaboration and communication. Other libraries could use this software in much the same way that University of Mississippi is using it. The discussion of specific library uses may help others identify potential uses in their libraries.

Reusability is an important concept in software development because it provides many benefits, including shorter development cycles, increased software reliability and lower production costs. This paper describes the experiences of developing a portal of reusable components to support information retrieval teaching and research in a Master’s programme in information studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The portal contains the source code of these components and covers a variety of areas in the field of information retrieval such as algorithms and data structures for lexical analysis, indexing and ranking. The portal provides users with features to search or browse for code, contribute new code under appropriate categories, participate in threaded discussions and rate source code. The portal also contains document management features that allow co‐ordinators to evaluate contributions before publishing them for general access.

This paper aims to discuss how the Library Systems Team at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) implemented Microsoft SharePoint as a portal to organize and share their collective knowledge.

This paper reports on why SharePoint was chosen, how it was implemented, and the results of the implementation.

The general conclusion of this paper is that implementation was a success and the team is now in the habit of creating and maintaining documentation in SharePoint.

This paper fills a gap in the literature on how systems librarians can document and share knowledge with colleagues and provides an example of how it was accomplished at UMUC.

This study aims to examine how a collaboration technology is used by three organizational groups. The main focus is on the interplay between the users’ perceptions (of the technology and of the knowledge shared) and the material properties of the collaboration technology.

Two theoretical frameworks (social representations and sociomaterial practice perspective) examine collaboration technology use to better understand the underlying dynamics. The research is conducted as a case study in a US company where a collaboration technology was being implemented.

The findings reveal a process model showing how social dynamics and users’ perceptions of what the collaboration technology can do and cannot do to share the users’ knowledge influence the users’ behaviour. Based on these perceptions, users will twist or amend their interpretation of the reality (the material properties of the technology) to justify their use of the collaboration technology.

This research is conducted as a single case study. However, the significant amount of time spent at the research site allowed for a very rich description of the events and processes involved.

This study offers guidelines on what influences use and adoption of collaboration technologies. It highlights the importance of providing more than just training, as social dynamics and users’ perceptions continuously influence users’ behaviour.

By combining two complementary theoretical frameworks, this study provides a novel and more in-depth explanation of collaboration technology use (or lack thereof).