Internet technology continues to provide the foundation for offshoring
efforts by enabling greater connectivity between developed and
developing nations. With a growing labor market abroad and a challenging
economic situation at home, large and small firms are making the
push to outsource professional services to highly skilled personnel
in less expensive labor markets abroad. At a global customer summit
held in 2003, over 80 US firms indicated that outsourcing has
saved them between 25 to 40% annually. In the services-sector,
Forrester Research estimates that 2 percent of all American jobs
will move offshore. This move to create global work teams in knowledge-based
enterprises requires a significant rethinking of many topics related
to internet technologies. New technologies are being created,
while at the same time, existing technologies are being redesigned
to meet emerging needs. This special issue will examine the emerging
internet technologies required to build the global workplace of
the 21st century.
Papers are invited on all aspects of Internet technology related
to offshoring.
These include (but are not limited to):
Security and privacy: New requirements on privacy
for internet technologies with international sharing of data (for
example, medical data). How will technologies need to adapt to
satisfy both requirements and perceptions of customers who need
to share their data with countries who have lesser privacy and
security standards.
Internet application programming environment:
Will new standards be required to share code development across
geographic and temporal boundaries? Current development methodologies
assume either that the developers are temporally/geographically
co-located, or that they have zero interaction (i.e., documentation
for someone who will look at the code months from now). There
is very little in between. New models are required for programming
to be done over the internet where programmers have daily asynchronous
interaction.
XML/HTML document management: Can intelligent
tagging methodologies used on the internet, such as XML, be utilized
to satisfy the goals mentioned above regarding knowledge dissemination
around programming? Can these models be extended to other professional
environments, where tasks which were before only done by one person
will be shared across a geographical and temporal landscape, thus
requiring a method for tagging knowledge intelligently.
Performance and scalability issues: What happens
in a global work environment when workers are engaged in a 24*7
framework? Can internet technologies be utilized to share resources
in different manners (i.e., can servers in the US be used by developers
in India to test their software, during "off-hours"?)
How large can a distributed knowledge operation get before the
benefits of distribution are mitigated by the negatives related
to managing the enterprise?
Personalization: In a globally distributed work
environment, the same pieces of knowledge will need to be read
by individuals in different roles, each with varying needs and
authorities, but potentially without the availability of the one
who generated the knowledge what internet technologies can serve
this need? For example, if a software project is programmed in
India, the resulting deliverable may be reviewed by a senior developer
in the US, but also by a marketing product manager, by a pre-sales
expert, and by a project manager. Each of these will require a
different level of detail into the project and its technical details
(but without being able to phone or visit the programmer who produced
the code) - what personalization requirements can be satisfied
in this new model?
Networking and communications: What infrastructure
requirements are necessary for the global work environment on
the internet? What are the potential impacts of downtime in the
internet infrastructure, and how can risks be mitigated? How much
resource diversification is appropriate?
Library and education: How can internet technologies
be used to educate workers about their counterparts in other nations?
This can be approached both at the school-age level and at the
professional level. How can a large enterprise with employees
in many geographic locations help their employees get to know
and understand each other both socially and professionally?
Government: What new standards for cyber-security
must the government adopt as professional tasks become shared
across countries. Do fraud laws need to become stricter?
Taxation and international trade: How can intellectual
property be transferred freely (and daily) on the internet between
nations be valued and taxed?
SUBMISSIONS
Authors are requested to send an intention of submission (with
authors, title and abstract) as an email message in plain text
to acm-toit@mit.edu by January 01, 2006. Then, papers must be
submitted in electronic format as an attachment to the same email
address before February 15, 2006. Preferred formats are PDF and
PostScript (compressed with gzip or zip). Manuscripts must not
exceed 50 single-column, double-spaced pages (including figures
and tables) and must be written in English and set in 10 or 11
point font.
Please do not send papers directly to guest editors' email addresses.
IMPORTANT DATES
Intention of submission: January 01, 2006
Submission deadline: February 15, 2006
Notification: April 01, 2006
GUEST EDITORS
Professor Amar Gupta
T. R. Brown Chair in Mgmt & Technology, Professor of Entrepreneurship
& MIS and Sr. Dir. of Research and Business Development Eller
College of Management
McClelland Hall 417H University of Arizona
P.O. Box 210108
Tucson, AZ 85721-0108
Telephone: (520) 626-9842
Fax: (520) 621-8105
Email: gupta@eller.arizona.edu
Satwiksai Seshasai
Software Group
IBM
5 Technology Park Drive
Westford, MA 01886
Email: satwik @ us.ibm.com
Telephone: (978) 399-6241
For more information, please contact us.
