Tensions are a ubiquitous feature of social life and are manifested in a number of particular forms: contradictory logics, competing demands, clashes of ideas, contradictions, dialectics, irony, paradoxes, and/or dilemmas. This essay aims to explore in detail tensions surrounding seven common findings of the information seeking literature relating to: interpersonal communication, accessibility, level of skill, individual preferences, psychological limits, inertia, and costs. Our incomplete understanding of these tensions can lead us to suggest resolutions that do not recognize their underlying dualities. Human information behavior stands at the intersection of many important theoretical and policy issues (e.g., personalized medicine). Policy makers need to be more attuned to these basic tensions of information seeking recognizing the real human limits they represent to informing the public. So, even if you build a great information system, people will not necessarily use it because of the force of these underlying tensions. While rationality rules systems, irrationality rules people. The proliferation of navigator roles over the last several years is actually a hopeful sign: recognition that people need a human interface to inform them about our ever more complex health care systems.

Understanding of social network structure and user behavior has important implications for site design, applications (e.g., ad placement policies), accurate modeling for social studies, and design of next-generation infrastructure and content distribution systems. Currently, characterizations of social networks have been dominated by topological studies in which graph representations are analyzed in terms of connectivity using techniques such as degree distribution, diameter, average degree, clustering coefficient, average path length, and cycles. The problem is that these parameters are not completely satisfactory in the sense that they cannot account for individual events and have only limited use, since one can produce a set of synthetic graphs that have the exact same metrics or statistics but exhibit fundamentally different connectivity structures. In such an approach, a node drawn as a small circle represents an individual. A small circle reflects a black box model in which the interior of the node is blocked from view. This paper focuses on the node level by considering the structural interiority of a node to provide a more fine-grained understanding of social networks. Node interiors are modeled by use of six generic stages: creation, release, transfer, arrival, acceptance, and processing of the artifacts that flow among and within nodes. The resulting description portrays nodes as comprising mostly creators (e.g., of data), receivers/senders (e.g., bus boys), and processors (re-formatters). Two sample online social networks are analyzed according to these features of nodes. This examination points to the viability of the representational method for characterization of social networks.

The Joint Interagency Field Experimentation (JIFX) event, organized by the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), is conducted 3-4 times a year at various locations. The four day event can be characterized as an informing system specifically designed to facilitate structured and unstructured communications between a variety of parties—e.g., software developers, inventors, military and civilian users of various technologies, academics, and agencies responsible for identifying and procuring technology solutions—that frequently are constrained in their informing activities in more restrictive venues. Over the course of the event, participants may observe technology demonstrations, obtain feedback from potential users, acquire new ideas about their technologies might be employed and, perhaps most significantly, engage in ad hoc collaborations with other participants. The present paper describes an exploratory case research study that was conducted over a one year period and involved both direct observation of the event and follow-up interviews with 49 past participants in the event. The goal of the research was to assess the nature of participant-impact resulting from attending JIFX and to consider the consistency of the findings with the predictions of various theoretical frameworks used in informing science. The results suggest that participants perceived that the event provided significant value from three principal sources: discovery, interaction with potential clients (users) of the technologies involved, and networking with other participants. These findings were largely consistent with what could be expected from informing under conditions of high complexity; because value generally derives from combinations of attributes rather than from the sum of individual attributes, we would expect that overall value from informing activities will be perceived even though estimates of the incremental value of that informing cannot be made.

This paper identifies areas in the design science research (DSR) subfield of the information systems (IS) discipline where a more detailed consideration of practitioner audiences of socio-technical design artifacts could improve current IS DSR research practice and proposes an initial conceptualization of these audiences. The consequences of not considering artifact audiences are identified through a critical appraisal of the current informing science lenses in the IS DSR literature. There are specific shortcomings in four areas: 1) treating practice stakeholders as a too homogeneous group, 2) not explicitly distinguishing between social and technical parts of socio-technical artifacts, 3) neglecting implications of the artifact abstraction level, and 4) a lack of explicit consideration of a dynamic or evolutionary fitness perspective of socio-technical artifacts. The findings not only pave the way for future research to further improve the conceptualization of artifact audiences, in order to improve the informing power – and thus, impact on practice and research relevance – of IS DSR projects; they can also help to bridge the theory-practice gap in other disciplines (e.g. computer science, engineering, or policy-oriented sociology) that seek to produce social and/or technical artifacts of practical relevance.

Web portals have been used as information products to deliver personalized, feature-rich, and flexible information needs to Internet users. However, all portals are not equal. Most of them have relatively a small number of visitors, while a few capture the majority of surfers. This study seeks to uncover the factors that contribute the perceived quality of a general portal. Based on 21 factors derived from an extensive literature review on Information Product Quality (IPQ), web usage, and media use, an experimental study was conducted to identify the factors that are perceived by web portal users as most relevant. The literature categorizes quality factors of an information product in three dimensions: information, physical, and service. This experiment suggests a different clustering of factors: Content relevancy, Communication interactiveness, Information currency, and Instant gratification. The findings in this study will help developers find a more customer-oriented approach to developing high-traffic portals.

The article presents Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) as an overdue individualized as well as a collaborative approach for knowledge workers. Designing a PKM-supporting system, however, resembles a so-called “wicked” problem (ill-defined; incomplete, contradictory, changing requirements, complex interdependencies) where the information needed to understand the challenges depends on upon one’s idea for solving them. Accordingly, three main areas are attended to. Firstly, in dealing with a range of growing complexities, the notion of Popper’s Worlds is applied as three distinct spheres of reality and further expanded into six digital ecosystems (technologies, extelligence, society, knowledge worker, institutions, and ideosphere) that not only form the basis for the PKM System Concept named ‘Knowcations’ but also form a closely related Personal Knowledge Management for Development (PKM4D) framework detailed in a separate dedicated paper. Reflecting back on a United Nations scenario of knowledge mass production (KMP) over time, the complexities closely related to the digital ecosystems and the inherent risks of today’s accelerating attention-consuming over-abundance of redundant information are scrutinized, concluding in a chain of meta-arguments favoring the idea of the PKM concept and system put forward. Secondly, in light of the digital ecosystems and complexities introduced, the findings of a prior article are further refined in order to assess the PKM concept and system as a potential General-Purpose-Technology. Thirdly, the development process and resulting prototype are verified against accepted general design science research (DSR) guidelines. DSR aims at creating innovative IT artifacts (that extend human and social capabilities and meet desired outcomes) and at validating design processes (as evidence of their relevance, utility, rigor, resonance, and publishability). Together with the incorporated references to around thirty prior publications covering technical and methodological details, a kind of ‘Long Discussion Case’ emerges aiming to potentially assist IT researchers and entrepreneurs engaged in similar projects.

Certain trends in scientific research have important relevance to bioethics theory and practice. A growing stream of literature relates to increasing transparency and inclusivity of populations (stakeholders) in scientific research, from high volume data collection, synthesis, and analysis to verification and ethical scrutiny. The emergence of this stream of literature has implications for bioethics theory and practice. This paper seeks to make explicit these streams of literature and to relate these to bioethical issues, through consideration of certain extreme examples of scientific research where bioethical engagement is vital. Implications for theory and practice are derived, offering useful insights derived from multidisciplinary theory. Arguably, rapidly developing fields of citizen science such as informing science and others seeking to maximise stakeholder involvement in both research and bioethical engagement have emerged as a response to these types of issues; radically enhanced stakeholder engagement in science may herald a new maximally inclusive and transparent paradigm in bioethics based on lessons gained from exposure to increasingly uncertain ethical contexts of biomedical research.

Based on the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory (Rogers, 2003), the uses and gratifications (U&G) theory, and trust theory, this study investigated the factors that influence the use of Twitter among the Kuwaiti community. The study surveyed Twitter users in Kuwait. A structured online questionnaire was used to collect data, and 463 respondents who provided complete answers participated. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the effect of three theoretical perspectives on Twitter usage. The result of the analysis showed that Twitter usage is better explained by DOI constructs than by U&G constructs. The findings indicated that the perceived relative advantage from DOI, and the need for information, need to pass time, and need for interpersonal utility from the U&G approach, have a direct positive significant effect on the use of Twitter. None of the trust theory constructs was found to be significant in predicting the general use of Twitter. The study results help Twitter providers and users in individual or organizational contexts to understand what factors generally affect the usage of the Twitter service.

In many cases, temporary websites may be simple, accessible solutions for knowledge management and dissemination of information. However, such sites may become outdated as the funding ends, but yet in many cases, still publicly available through the Internet. The issue of website sustainability is a relevant topic for all organizations that have websites. Website lifecycle, knowledge management, and website sustainability issues are discussed through a theoretical-based literature review. These issues are then summarized and used as lessons learned for the case study approach of this paper. The aim is to identify a solution to address a website’s life and longevity, post project. A practical case study assessment of the issue of project website sustainability is needed to address the website’s longevity—post project—as creation is often made through temporary endeavors. Recommendations for future project websites are made as the outcomes and results of this study and are expressed in the form of suggested practices for project website sustainability in future projects.

The all-pervasive Internet has created serious problems, such as Internet overuse, which has triggered considerable debate over its relationship with addiction. To further explore its genetic susceptibilities and alternative explanations for Internet overuse, we proposed and evaluated four hypotheses, each based on existing knowledge of the biological bases of addiction, inattention, novelty-seeking, and harm-avoidance. Four genetic loci including DRD4 VNTR, DRD2 Taq1A, COMT Val158Met and 5-HTTLPR length polymorphisms were screened from seventy-three individuals. Our results showed that the DRD4 4R/4R individuals scored significantly higher than the 2R or 7R carriers in Internet Addiction Test (IAT). The 5-HTTLPR short/short males scored significantly higher in IAT than the long variant carriers. Bayesian analysis showed the most compatible hypothesis with the observed genetic results was based on attention (69.8%), whereas hypotheses based harm-avoidance (21.6%), novelty-seeking (7.8%) and addiction (0.9%) received little support. Our study suggests that carriers of alleles (DRD4 2R and 7R, 5-HTTLPR long) associated with inattentiveness are more likely to experience disrupted patterns and reduced durations of Internet use, protecting them from Internet overuse. Furthermore, our study suggests that Internet overuse should be categorized differently from addiction due to the lack of shared genetic contributions.

The global Business Intelligence (BI) market grew by 10% in 2013 according to the Gartner Report. Today organizations require better use of data and analytics to support their business decisions. Internet power and business trend changes have provided a broad term for data analytics – Big Data. To be able to handle it and leverage a value of having access to Big Data, organizations have no other choice than to get proper systems implemented and working. However traditional methods are not efficient for changing business needs. The long time between project start and go-live causes a gap between initial solution blueprint and actual user requirements in the end of the project. This article presents the latest market trends in BI systems implementation by comparing Agile with traditional methods. It presents a case study provided in a large telecommunications company (20K employees) and the results of a pilot research provided in the three large companies: telecommunications, digital, and insurance. Both studies prove that Agile methods might be more effective in BI projects from an end-user perspective and give first results and added value in a much shorter time compared to a traditional approach.

Non-expert scientists are frequently involved in research requiring data acquisition over large geographic areas. Despite mutual benefits for such “citizen science”, barriers also exist, including 1) difficulty maintaining user engagement with timely feedback, and 2) the challenge of providing non-experts with the means to generate reliable data. We have developed a system that addresses these barriers. Our technologies, KnoWare and InSpector, allow users to: collect reliable scientific measurements, map geo-tagged data, and intuitively visualize the results in real-time. KnoWare comprises a web portal and an iOS app with two core functions. First, users can generate scientific ‘queries’ that entail a call for information posed to a crowd with customized options for participant responses and viewing data. Second, users can respond to queries with their GPS-enabled mobile device, which results in their geo- and time-stamped responses populating a web-accessible map in real time. KnoWare can also interface with additional applications to diversify the types of data that can be reported. We demonstrate this capability with a second iOS app called InSpector that performs quantitative water quality measurements. When used in combina-tion, these technologies create a workflow to facilitate the collection, sharing and interpretation of scientific data by non-expert scientists.

The main aim of this paper is to provide a theoretically and empirically grounded discussion on IT-based organizational creativity support. This study attempts to answer the following questions: (1) what is the issue of organizational creativity and its IT-based support, (2) what is the demand for IT –based organizational creativity support; (3) what are the main determinants and barriers to IT-based organizational creativity support; and (4) what success factors are crucial for IT-based organizational creativity support. This paper presents the analysis results of a survey conducted in 25 selected organizations. The paper provides valuable information on the possibilities of IT applications in organizational creativity support as well as the associated success factors. It makes useful contribution to our better understanding of IT-based organizational creativity support issues.

Group work can provide a valuable learning experience, one that is especially relevant for those preparing to enter the information system workforce. While much has been discussed about effective means of delivering the benefits of collaborative learning in groups, there are some problems that arise due to pragmatic environmental factors such as the part time work commitments of students. This study has identified a range of problems and reports on a longitudinal Action Research study in two universities (in Australia and the USA). Over three semesters problems were identified and methods trialed using collaborative tools. Several promising solutions are presented to the identified problems. These include the use of Google documents and color to ensure team contributions are more even.

As the complexity of a system grows, the challenge of informing the stakeholders of that system grows correspondingly. Nowhere is that challenge more daunting than in business education, where globalization, technological innovation, and increasingly complicated regulations continuously transform the business environment facing graduates and practitioners. Informing science theory proposes that different levels of complexity require different channels if effective informing is to be achieved. The paper first examines how two important sources of complexity—the diversity of clients and the ruggedness of the business landscape—are changing, and how these changes demand vastly more interactive informing channels if impact is to be achieved. Using an exploratory case study methodology, it then takes a detailed look at how one institution—the University of South Florida’s Muma College of Business—has introduced a variety of new channels, many of which enable informing flows without necessarily directing them, to adapt to these environmental changes. It then considers both outcomes related to these individual informing channels and college-wide outcomes related to a broad and deep mosaic of informing flows. Finally, it considers the question of the resources required to support these new channels and the relationship between resource acquisition and channel introduction. The proposed framework for looking at business school informing channels can be applied by administrators, faculty members, and key stakeholders in understanding, evaluating, and planning programs and activities supporting informing in a complex environment. Ultimately, the informing business school framework may also provide a means for communicating impact to business school accrediting agencies (such as AACSB).

Aim/Purpose: This study aims to provide a better understanding of individual acceptance of enterprise resource (ERP) systems. Based on the uses and gratifications theory (UGT) and informing science theory, the study developed and empirically tested a research model to explain the effects of ERP characteristics (specifically, informativeness and enjoyment) on ERP acceptance and use. Background: Individual acceptance of ERP systems is crucial for achieving the benefits associated with ERP systems. Unfortunately, little research has focused on acceptance of ERP systems at the individual level. This study attempts to fill this void. Methodology: A survey questionnaire was distributed to ERP users to collect data to empiri-cally test the research model developed in this study. In addition to demographic and background information question, the survey contained instruments to measure the study variables. Contribution: The empirical results show that UGT provides a sound theoretical framework for explaining users’ gratifications, attitudes, and behavioral intentions toward adopting and using an ERP. These results support the view that subsumes information systems and other fields that endeavor to inform their audience. Findings: Individuals’ perceptions of the informativeness and entertainment of ERP systems demonstrated strong direct effects on attitude toward using and satisfaction with ERP systems. In turn, satisfaction with ERP systems showed a direct significant impact on intention to use an ERP system. Recommendations for Practitioners: Maintaining a favorable environment and designing training workshops that highlight the information and enjoyment aspects of an ERP can boost users’ perceptions of ERP informativeness and enjoyment and, eventually, improve their attitude and satisfaction with an ERP. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers should test the proposed research model with other types of ERP systems and in different environments to enhance the generalizability of the results to other systems and settings. Impact on Society: The results of is study can be used as a foundation on which to develop plans and design strategies to enhance individual acceptance of ERP systems and realize the benefits associated with these systems. Future Research: Future research should extend the research model by integrating other personal and technology variables to provide further insights into what influences individuals to accept or reject an ERP system.

Aim/Purpose: Sharing ideas generated in a Business Intelligence (BI) Applications class to upgrade an Information System in to an Informing System. Background: Course Registration is the essential university’s business process in a university that follows a liberal-arts education model. Almost all categories of users are involved, including students, individual faculties and departments, and administration. A typical Information System, designed to support this process, allows departments to schedule selected courses for a particular time slot and location, and allows students to choose courses to study for the semester. Methodology: The course project is to design a BI application. Domain knowledge is essential for such projects and course registration was the natural choice for this class. The assignment includes (1) identifying the categories of stakeholders; (2) identifying the information needs of different categories; (3) identifying available information sources; (4) identifying how is possible to acquire the additional data; and (5) designing the Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) process and interface scenarios in a way to inform clients. Contribution: Contributions are in two directions: (1) pedagogy - involving students in such a project motivates creativity, also enforcing students to think in cost-benefit framework may lead to creation of really effective and efficient solutions; (2) practice - implementation of some of the ideas could be with low cost, but with high impact. Findings: Exploring BI techniques may increase the informing value of existing Information Systems. Recommendations for Practitioners: Careful analysis of information needs and the way information is used, combined with deep domain knowledge and understanding the value provided by Data Mining techniques, is the way to initiate a process of transforming an Retrieval Information System to better inform clients. Recommendation for Researchers : Combining pedagogy with practice allows one to overcome routine thinking and may lead to effective solutions. This needs further structuring and research on outcomes. Impact on Society Transforming Information towards Informing Systems has a significant impact by allowing users to make rational data driven decisions in an efficient way. Future Research: The future of this project is implementation of developed ideas and assessment of the results. Impact on Society : Transforming Information towards Informing Systems has a significant impact by allowing users to make rational data driven decisions in an efficient way. Future Research: The future of this project is implementation of developed ideas and assessment of the results.

Aim/Purpose: This paper aims to investigate how Kuwaiti Academic Libraries (KALs) have responded to the rapidly evolving Smartphone-Apps (SP-Apps) environment, as well as exploring the level of electronic services provided in these libraries. Background: This study can illustrate whether the governmental, academic libraries in the State of Kuwait have already benefited from the mobile services provided by smart phones or not. Methodology: In this study, the researchers use both qualitative and quantitative methods. Therefore, questionnaires and interviews are used in order to collect in-depth data in this field. The questionnaire sample was 400 respondents. They divided in two KALs: Kuwait University Library (KUL) and Public Authority of Applied Education Training Library (PAAETL), while eight individual interviews were conducted one-to-one in this research. Contribution: This paper may be important for academic libraries to identify shortcomings in the smartphones’ content and services they provide and in highlighting efforts by libraries to address their users’ needs in this area. Findings: The findings show that most participants expressed the need to introduce an SP-App to their library. They also confirmed that there are many difficulties in creating an SP-App including lack of budget, lack of awareness of library management, lack of clarity about library management strategic objectives, and vision for an SP-App. Recommendations for Practitioners: Designing SP-Apps that have reliable content and user interface that is easy to use is a considerable challenge. For this reason, the study highly recommends introducing SP-Apps for KALs as soon as possible. Future Research: The recommendations proposed are relevant to Kuwait. Further research may be useful in this field in other developing countries, in order to test or develop the suggested strategy.

Aim/Purpose : An important objective of any firm is escalation of its performance and the achievement of competitive advantages. Supply chain agility plays a prominent role to enhance the level of firm’s performance. Moreover, information technology (IT) plays a foundational role in supply chain management practices. Hence, this study proposes the relationship between IT integration as the competency of IT and firm’s market performance both directly and through mediating role of supply chain agility. Background: Many studies have been done to date on the impact of supply chain agility on overall firm’s performance. However, the effect of an agile supply chain on firm’s market performance per se needs to be studied. Furthermore, there is a gap in the literature about the effect of IT competency such as IT integration on firm’s market performance both directly and through mediating role of supply chain agility. Recommendation for Researchers: The first direction this study gives to researchers is to consider the different factors which have significant effect on the agility of supply chain, particularly the IT related ones. The second direction is about the study on the effect of IT competencies and supply chain agility on each category of firm’s performance separately instead of considering it as a one construct. Impact on Society : Although this is a conceptual study, it can highlight the importance of IT competency not only in our daily life, but also in our businesses and industries. Future Research: This study only proposes some relationships based on theory and literature. Future researchers can test these proposed relationships in different contexts and compare the results. Furthermore, this study proposes the relationships for large manufacturing sector in developing countries. The model could be tested for SMEs as well. In addition, the proposed theoretical model in this study might be tested in both developing as well as developed countries to compare the results which will be contributed to the body of knowledge.

Aim/Purpose: With information almost effortlessly created and spontaneously available, current progress in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has led to the complication that information must be scrutinized for trustworthiness and provenance. Information systems must become provenance-aware to be satisfactory in accountability, reproducibility, and trustworthiness of data. Background: Multiple models for abstract representation of provenance have been proposed to describe entities, people, and activities involved in producing a piece of data, including the Open Provenance Model (OPM) and the World Wide Web Consortium. These models lack certain concepts necessary for specifying workflows and encoding the provenance of data products used and generated. Methodology: Without loss of generality, the focus of this paper is on OPM depiction of provenance in terms of a directed graph. We have redrawn several case studies in the framework of our proposed model in order to compare and evaluate it against OPM for representing these cases. Contribution: This paper offers an alternative flow-based diagrammatic language that can form a foundation for modeling of provenance. The model described here provides an (abstract) machine-like representation of provenance. Findings: The results suggest a viable alternative in the area of diagrammatic representation for provenance applications. Future Research: Future work will seek to achieve more accurate comparisons with current models in the field.

Aim/Purpose: The objective of this paper is to review the vast literature of user-centric in-formation science and inform about the emerging themes in information behaviour science. Background: The paradigmatic shift from system-centric to user-centric approach facilitates research on the cognitive and individual information processing. Various information behaviour theories/models emerged. Methodology: Recent information behaviour theories and models are presented. Features, strengths and weaknesses of the models are discussed through the analysis of the information behaviour literature. Contribution: This paper sheds light onto the weaknesses in earlier information behaviour models and stresses (and advocates) the need for research on social information behaviour. Findings: Prominent information behaviour models deal with individual information behaviour. People live in a social world and sort out most of their daily or work problems in groups. However, only seven papers discuss social information behaviour (Scopus search). Recommendations for Practitioners : ICT tools used for inter-organisational sharing should be redesigned for effective information-sharing during disaster/emergency times. Recommendation for Researchers: There are scarce sources on social side of the information behaviour, however, most of the work tasks are carried out in groups/teams. Impact on Society: In dynamic work contexts like disaster management and health care settings, collaborative information-sharing may result in decreasing the losses. Future Research: A fieldwork will be conducted in disaster management context investigating the inter-organisational information-sharing.

Aim/Purpose: This study was undertaken to shed light on how the use of a heteronormative mobile dating application creates an environment to promote psychological empowerment among female users within the online dating scene. The study focused on a mobile dating application which specifically challenges traditional gender roles, namely Bumble. Background: Mobile dating applications have become an increasingly popular medium for people to meet potential partners. However, users’ pre-existing social norms and biases inform how they communicate on these platforms, and stereotyped judgment about women perpetuates ideologies which continue to oppress them within the cyber world. Despite this, very little research has investigated the experiences of female users of mobile dating applications. Methodology: The study was qualitative in nature, and 10 semi-structured interviews of female Bumble users were conducted. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Contribution: The study contributes to knowledge by highlighting how key features of mobile dating applications influence various aspects of psychological empowerment as articulated in the findings. Findings: The findings show that the Bumble application supports Intrapersonal variables of Psychological Empowerment of female users relative to Domain Specific Perceived Control and Self-Efficacy, Motivation to Control and Perceived Competence. However, Domain Specific Perceived Control can also be negatively impacted due to self-doubt when female users receive little to no matches. Interactional variables of psychological empowerment are also supported, as Bumble allows female users to be critically aware of the need to screen potential partners, understand relevant causal agents, develop skills relative to initiating conversations and mobilize resources. However, Bumble is not effective in supporting behavioral variables of psychological empowerment because of limitations in the tool’s functionality and the behavior of the people interacting on the platform. Recommendations for Practitioners: The findings are important as they suggest the need to enhance the features available to female users in order to better suit their needs and desire to take control of their lives in the context of dating and/or friendship. Recommendation for Researchers: The findings reveal the need for a change of perceptions and attitudes on the part of some users to create a safer and more considerate virtual dating space, to truly achieve psychological empowerment. Future Research: More research is required on how male and female users domesticate mobile dating applications and how the use of these applications influence their daily lives from a socio-cultural point of view.

Aim/Purpose: In this paper, we discuss how a Transdisciplinary (TD) and a Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) initiative was conceptualized, developed, implemented, and sustained at a small academic institution with limited research infrastructure, emphasizing the role of capacity building. Background: Most examples of the implementation of TD research come from large-scale initiatives in research-intensive institutions or centers with multiple resources to establish collaborations among experts from different disciplines. However less is known about the implementation of TD and CBPR initiatives in small academic settings. Methodology: This paper includes a discussion of the challenges and lessons learned of this process in a teaching-intensive Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), which included a research component as part of the institutional priorities when it transitioned to a 4-year college in 2001. Contribution: We hope that our experience helps other researchers in similar institutions to engage in this type of research. Findings: In this case, a collaborative TD and CBPR initiative was successfully implemented despite limited resources for capacity building and research infrastructure, as well as diversity among researchers and community members. Recommendation for Researchers: To sustain institutional collaborative capacity in this type of institution, authors recommend continuous capacity building efforts and the development of modules and/or courses to provide formal TD training for junior faculty while encouraging researchers to interact and collaborate. In addition, the importance of the role of the community liaison is highlighted. Impact on Society: Successful TD and CBPR initiatives may have a positive impact on the reduction or elimination of health disparities which involve complex phenomena that requires a broad view from different perspectives. Future Research: Even though capacity building can facilitate the implementation of TD and CBPR, many challenges arise as an inherent result of community engagement and the integration of different disciplines. Thus, the need of continuous reflection to acknowledge them becomes critical for advancing TD and CBPR efforts.

Aim/Purpose: This paper introduces a Social Machine for collaborative sensemaking that the developers have configured to the requirements and challenges of transdisciplinary literature reviews. Background: Social Machines represent a promising model for unifying machines and social processes for a wide range of purposes. A development team led by the author is creating a Social Machine for activities that require users to combine pieces of information from multiple online sources and file types for various purposes. Methodology: The development team has applied emergent design processes, usability testing, and formative evaluation in the execution of the product road map. Contribution: A major challenge of the digital information age is how to tap into large volumes of online information and the collective intelligence of diverse groups to generate new knowledge, solve difficult problems, and drive innovation. A Transdisciplinary Social Machine (TDSM) enables new forms of interactions between humans, machines, and online content that have the potential to (a) improve outcomes of sensemaking activities that involve large collections of online documents and diverse groups and (b) make machines more capable of assisting humans in their sensemaking efforts. Findings: Preliminary findings suggest that TDSM promotes learning and the generation of new knowledge. Recommendations for Practitioners: TDSM has the potential to improve outcomes of literature reviews and similar activities that require distilling information from diverse online sources. Recommendation for Researchers: TDSM is an instrument for investigating sensemaking, an environment for studying various forms of human and machine interactions, and a subject for further evaluation. Impact on Society: In complex areas such as sustainability and healthcare research, TDSM has the potential to make decision-making more transparent and evidence-based, facilitate the production of new knowledge, and promote innovation. In education, TDSM has the potential to prepare students for the 21st century information economy. Future Research: Research is required to measure the effects of TDSM on cross-disciplinary communication, human and machine learning, and the outcomes of transdisciplinary research projects. The developers are planning a multiple case study using design-based research methodology to investigate these topics.

Aim/Purpose: To understand the process of social change creation in social entrepreneurial ventures (SEVs), specifically emphasizing the role and nature of the communicative process in social change creation. Background: Drawing on data from seven SEVs from India and the US and employing a grounded theory methodology, this research scrutinizes the social change process and uncovers the role and characteristics of dialogue in this process. Methodology: Qualitative data was collected from seven social entrepreneurial organizations over a period of eight months from July 2011 to February 2012. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a wide range of members within these social entrepreneurial organizations (n=27) with additional informal interviews with field workers and volunteers. Data from the semi-structured interviews and notes from observations were integrated with analyses of archival resources. Contribution: There is little scholarship about the process of social change creation and the necessary conditions to promote social change over time. Understanding the process of social change creation and the individual, interpersonal, and organizational conditions that facilitate the process is central to design of effective trans-sector TD problem solving ventures. This paper focuses on the process of social change creation in social entrepreneurial settings, specifically emphasizing the role and nature of the communicative process in social change creation. Findings: The reflections and experiences of the members of SEVs revealed that social entrepreneurship is a collective endeavor and this collective character is essential to its success. Collective organization and synergy, deep intra-organizational communication, and a conducive organizational context are critical for the creation of collective wisdom and knowledge networks for long-term collaborative community capacity building. Dialogue emerged as a central category linking the other categories to explain the process of social change creation. Organic organizational structure enables knowledge creation and integration through the process of organizational learning through deep and continuous social interaction, or dialogue. Recommendations for Practitioners: This research elucidated the key characteristics of the organizational context required to support the creation of social change. It also identified the critical role and characteristics of the communicative process required to generate structural knowledge and collective wisdom at the organizational level. Recommendation for Researchers: For individual and organizational learning, trans-sector transdisciplinary organizations require an appropriate organizational context. Key elements of such an organizational context include (1) understanding the ecology of the social problem; (2) organic organizational structure; (3) continuous and deep social interaction among all levels of the organization; (4) employee and community autonomy and empowerment; and (5) attention to subtle environmental changes in the system. These elements in combination lead to the creation of collective wisdom. Collective wisdom then feeds back into the conception, planning, and action stages of the iterative cycle of organizational knowledge creation to create positive social change. Impact on Society: Same as above Future Research: Future research model theoretically and study empirically the ecology of social entrepreneurship and trans-sector TD problem solving more broadly. For example, the ways in the personal attributes of social entrepreneurs (e.g., their leadership style, networking abilities) combine with circumstances at organizational, institutional, and international levels to influence the effectiveness of their efforts to promote positive social change within local and global communities. Second, the grounded theoretical framework developed here should be further refined and elaborated through the identification of additional key contextual factors that affect SEVs’ capacity to promote positive social change and to achieve sustainability in different socio-environmental contexts. There is also a need to translate the findings from this research to facilitate the creation of more inclusive problem solving contexts and practices.

Aim/Purpose: Collaborative, interdisciplinary research is growing rapidly, but we still have limited and fragmented understanding of what is arguably the heart of such research—collaborative, interdisciplinary reasoning (CIR). Background: This article integrates neo-Pragmatist theories of reasoning with insights from literature on interdisciplinary research to develop a working definition of collaborative, interdisciplinary reasoning. The article then applies this definition to an empirical example to demonstrate its utility. Methodology: The empirical example is an excerpt from a Toolbox workshop transcript. The article reconstructs a cogent, inductive, interdisciplinary argument from the excerpt to show how CIR can proceed in an actual team. Contribution: The study contributes operational definitions of ‘reasoning together’ and ‘collaborative, interdisciplinary reasoning’ to existing literature. It also demonstrates empirical methods for operationalizing these definitions, with the argument reconstruction providing a brief case study in how teams reason together. Findings: 1. Collaborative, interdisciplinary reasoning is the attempted integration of disciplinary contributions to exchange, evaluate, and assert claims that enable shared understanding and eventually action in a local context. 2. Pragma-dialectic argument reconstruction with conversation analysis is a method for observing such reasoning from a transcript. 3. The example team developed a strong inductive argument to integrate their disciplinary contributions about modeling. Recommendations for Practitioners: 1. Interdisciplinary work requires agreeing with teammates about what is assertible and why. 2. To assert something together legitimately requires making a cogent, integrated argument. Recommendation for Researchers: 1. An argument is the basic unit of analysis for interdisciplinary integration. 2. To assess the argument’s cogency, it is helpful to reconstruct it using pragma-dialectic principles and conversation analysis tools. 3. To assess the argument’s interdisciplinary integration and participant roles in the integration, it is helpful to graph the flow of words as a Sankey chart from participant-disciplines to the argument conclusion. Future Research: How does this definition of CIR relate to other interdisciplinary ‘cognition’ or ‘learning’ type theories? How can practitioners and theorists tell the difference between true intersubjectivity and superficial agreeableness in these dialogues? What makes an instance of CIR ‘good’ or ‘bad’? How does collaborative, transdisciplinary reasoning differ from CIR, if at all?

Aim/Purpose: This series of papers on Fake News: Bias, Misinformation, and Disinformation examines fake news from an Informing Science perspective. As such, the papers in this special series make novel con-tributions to the field by viewing the issues through the transdisciplinary lens of informing science. This series makes no claim to summarize or review all that has been written on this topic. Rather it provides a glimpse into this immense literature from the perspective of informing science. Background: It is one small step on the 20+ year quest by the editor to explore better ways to inform from an approach that transcends academic disciplines (Cohen, 1998, 1999) and a 20 year quest to under-stand the issues of how we become misinformed and disinformed (Cohen, 2000). The series pro-vided here gains thrust for two reasons. One reason is that the study has become more popular with academicians due to the blathering of politicians and the attacks by national powers on de-mocracy. The second reason is more mundane; without the deadline that the end-of-year affords, the papers would become richer, fuller, and more detailed. Recommendation for Researchers: Taken together, the results brought forth across these papers is truly scary. Due to their biases, when presented with information, people can and do generate their own misinformation. People tend to communicate such misinformation that they self-generated with others in groups sharing their beliefs, strengthening the misinformation by some and silencing those do not share these thoughts. This process creates divisions in society. How can humanity seek wise decisions when we cannot agree even upon the facts. We see the results of this syndrome in Operation SIG and cur-rent divisions within politics in the West.

Aim/Purpose: The aim of this paper is to propose an ensemble learners based classification model for classification clickbaits from genuine article headlines. Background: Clickbaits are online articles with deliberately designed misleading titles for luring more and more readers to open the intended web page. Clickbaits are used to tempted visitors to click on a particular link either to monetize the landing page or to spread the false news for sensationalization. The presence of clickbaits on any news aggregator portal may lead to an unpleasant experience for readers. Therefore, it is essential to distinguish clickbaits from authentic headlines to mitigate their impact on readers’ perception. Methodology: A total of one hundred thousand article headlines are collected from news aggregator sites consists of clickbaits and authentic news headlines. The collected data samples are divided into five training sets of balanced and unbalanced data. The natural language processing techniques are used to extract 19 manually selected features from article headlines. Contribution: Three ensemble learning techniques including bagging, boosting, and random forests are used to design a classifier model for classifying a given headline into the clickbait or non-clickbait. The performances of learners are evaluated using accuracy, precision, recall, and F-measures. Findings: It is observed that the random forest classifier detects clickbaits better than the other classifiers with an accuracy of 91.16 %, a total precision, recall, and f-measure of 91 %.

Aim/Purpose: The growing complexity of the business environment and business processes as well as the Big Data phenomenon has an impact on every area of human activity nowadays. This new reality challenges the effectiveness of traditional narrowly oriented professional education. New areas of competences emerged as a synergy of multiple knowledge areas – transdisciplines. Informing Science and Data Science are just the first two such new areas we may identify as transdisciplines. Universities are facing the challenge to educate students for those new realities. Background: The purpose of the paper is to share the authors’ experience in designing curriculum for training bachelor students in Informing Science as a concentration within an Information Brokerage major, and a master program on Data Science. Methodology: Designing curriculum for transdisciplines requires diverse expertise obtained by both academia and industries and passed through several stages - identifying objectives, conceptualizing curriculum models, identifying content, and development pedagogical priorities. Contribution: Sharing our experience acquired in designing transdiscipline programs will contribute to a transition from a narrow professional education towards addressing 21st-century challenges. Findings: Analytical skills, combined with training in all categories of so-called “soft skills”, are essential in preparing students for a successful career in a transdiciplinary area of activities. Recommendations for Practitioners: Establishing a working environment encouraging not only sharing but close cooperation is essential nowadays. Recommendations for Researchers: There are two aspects of training professionals capable of succeeding in a transdisciplinary environment: encouraging mutual respect and developing out-of-box thinking. Impact on Society: The transition of higher education in a way to meet current challenges. Future Research The next steps in this research are to collect feedback regarding the professional careers of students graduating in these two programs and to adjust the curriculum accordingly.