Keynote Presentations:

Conceptual Representations for Learning
by Professor Piet Kommers, University of Twente, The Netherlands

Abstract

Citizens in the knowledge economy face dense communication processes both in professional, social and educational aspects. Learning is not only the exclusive domain for schooling and training. Portable web-connected devices enable an ambient and continuous learning environment where virtual communities play a crucial role. An important process will be the role of "learning partner"; Peer students or experienced experts who facilitate the learning process of others. Web-based learning communities are likely to work on the basis of time credits: those who enable other members to make significant learning progress earn credits to consult even higher level experts for their own learning. We may expect that a voucher system will be kept by trusted bodies for its administration.

Ambient learning implies that the learning domain becomes wider and the incentive is not only a certificate. The key elements are interest, commitment to relevant societal issues and existential motives to acquire a more complete understanding. Meta-cognition and self-regulation are the key issues in learning-to-learn. This invited presentation will demonstrate how external conceptual representations help learning partners to articulate and share cognitive needs and perspectives. A special application for conceptual representations is the orientation and navigation in virtual learning environments. In the DIME project medical experts and -students can negotiate on plans, executions and results of surgical interventions. The targeted discussion is in how far conceptual representations facilitate the search for learning partners via the WWW and to what extent it supports the cooperative learning processes itself.

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Piet Kommers is assistant professor at the University of Twente and honorary professor at the UNESCO International Research and Training Centre in Kiev . His current research is into educational aspect of virtual reality and the role of conceptual representations. His more complete curriculum vitae can be found on his Home Page.

The Launching of The Information Society in Portugal: A perspective Seven Years Later
by Professor José Dias Coelho, New University of Lisbon, Portugal

Abstract

A personal view of the launching of the information society in Portugal is presented. The situation in 1995 regarding I.S. is described. The green paper for the information society, and the national initiatives for electronic commerce, and for citizens with special needs will be broadly described in their aims.

The European Union Lisbon Initiative up to the E- Europe Action Plan will provide the framework for recent developments.

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Professor of Information Management, Mathematical Programming and Operations Research, at the Faculty of Economics, New University of Lisbon. He was President of the ‘Missão para a Sociedade da Informação’ (1996-2000), an interministerial commission in charge of launching the Information Society in Portugal. He was Member of the Board, ISEGI - Instituto Superior de Estatística e Gestão de Informação, New University of Lisbon (1990-1996) and Chairman of the Faculty (1995-1996).

He took his Ph.D., The University of Leeds, Great Britain (1997), and a Licenciature in Applied Mathematics, The University of Lisbon (1971).

Author of more than 60 papers published in international journals on information systems, operations research and urban and regional management.  

Electronic Commerce and Business Modelling: Theory and Practice

by Professor Ulf Essler, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden

Abstract

The Internet and more precisely the TCP/IP protocol suite was adopted decisively by large firms in 1995.  We are consequently some eight years into the experience of using this new "space" for business purposes, a space designed for non-commercial purposes. Using established concepts and theories evolved in "real space" from the fields a management of innovation and strategic management to understand "cyberspace" as a business venue have so far generated poor results in both business practice and management theory.  Two reasons for this state of affairs are discussed in this presentation.  Firstly the unique character of cyberspace and its relative novelty as a business venue, and secondly a delay in acknowledging a fundamental shift in the topology of business relationships. A reformed business model approach is suggested based on new IT seemly working as a "solvent" of organizational structures, i. e., dissolving organizational structures; boundaries between work and leisure, boundaries between hierarchy and market, and boundaries between stationary work and mobile work.

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Ulf Essler, Ph.D., is Program Director of eCommerce/eBusiness with the Center for Information and Communications Research (CIC) at the Stockholm School of Economics.  He conducts research on adoption, assimilation, and effects of information technologies within firms and markets.  His background is in literature, systems theory and cybernetics, particularly second-order cybernetics and autopoiesis.