It is my pleasure to present the second JITCAR issue of the year 2020. It is the final issue under my editorship that started with the founding of this journal in 1999. The contents of this issue are: Editorial Preface article by Dr. Steve Gordon; Research Case Article-1 coauthored by Drs. Cheuk Hang Au and Kevin K.W. Ho; Research Case Article-2 coauthored by Ms. Hafiza Sultana, Mr. Rajeeb Bin Zaman, and Dr. Muslima Zahan; Expert Opinion report by Ms. Naome Etori and Dr. Shana R. Ponelis; and Book Review by Dr. Vijay Vemuri. Summary information of these items is as follows.
In the editorial preface article titled, “Centralization and Decentralization in ICT: Duality and Complementarity”, the author focuses on trade off that exists between centralization and decentralization of resources. When centralization becomes too strong, benefits for decentralization naturally arise, and vice versa. Centralization economizes on an organization’s resources at the cost of providing better services to its clients.
In the research case article-1 titled, “The Role and Impact of Online Derivative Works in Social Movements: A Level Model Emerging from the Case Study of HKGoldenMusic,” the authors explore the role and impact of online derivative works on social movement. Based on their findings from the high-traffic online sub-community of HKGoldenMusic, a flagship online community in Hong Kong, they developed a three-level model to explain the evolution of online derivative works creation in social movement.
In the research case article-2 titled, “Big Data Challenges for Resource-Constrained Organizations in a Developing Economy,” the authors emphasize that little is known about how data analytics influences organizational performance especially within resource constrained developing countries like Bangladesh. The article explores in detail three use cases from trendy fashionwear, modern footwear, ethnic clothing industries in Bangladesh to probe deeper into causes of slow implementation and challenges at present and in future.
The Expert Opinion report documents interview by Ms. Naome Etori and Dr. Shana R. Ponelis with Ms. Barb Streubel, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Krueger International, a contract furniture company, and movable wall system serving educational institutions, healthcare industry, businesses, and government. With its headquarters in Green Bay, Wisconsin in the U.S. since 1945, the company employed approximately 50 people in the 1950s, produced 500 chairs a day and posted sales of less than US$500,000. Its international division was established in 1986 and in 1988, it merged its commercial and contract furniture divisions, becoming Krueger International (KI). In the 1990s, KI evolved from a manufacturing-driven company to a marketing-driven company. It is now the fastest-growing company in the contract furniture industry worth almost US$700 million in sales and ranks as the sixth-largest contract furniture manufacturer worldwide employing nearly 3,000 people with nine manufacturing facilities around the globe. Questions posed to Ms. Streubel are: (a) Please share with our readers how you started your career as a programmer? (b) You subsequently obtained a degree in Business Administration. How did that come about? (c) Can you please describe your current roles and responsibilities as a CIO at Kruger International? (d) The role of a CIO is constantly changing. How do you see the role of CIO today and how do you foresee that evolving in the future? (e) How does IT facilitate transformation and innovation within your organization? (f) How do you keep up with technology news and trends? (g) What other roles should IT perform to help business be successful? (h) What are some of the other challenges you face as a CIO? (i) How have disruptive technologies impacted your operations? (j) You mentioned security. Security concerns are consistently identified as one of the top five issues for senior-level IT managers. What are the biggest security threats to a company of your size? How do you proactively address security issues? Has the company ever suffered from any major security attack? (k) How does your organization use its data? (l) How have technological advancements made it easier for customers to buy furniture online? (m) While the majority of CIOs have an IT background, the trend over the past few years has been that fewer CIOs come from an IT position. What are your views and experience in this regard? (n) How important is having a mentor to one’s career? (o) What challenges do you encounter with regard to recruitment and retention? (p) One way of increasing the talent pipeline is to attract more women to IT. What can companies do to attract and retain women in the IT sector? (q) In the Society for Information Management’s 2018 IT Issues and Trends Study, 85.7% of CIOs who responded were male, which was very similar to 2017. From your own perspective and experience, what are the biggest challenges women in leadership positions face and how can women overcome these challenges? (r) What role can men play to help close the gender gap in IT? How can women themselves help to improve the situation? (s) Many women struggle with balancing a career and family. How do you ensure balance between work and family? (t) With more 30 years’ experience in the field, what are some of the most valuable lessons you have learned since you started your career? In particular, what advice can you give to girls and women, who want to pursue IT as a career or aspire to be a CIO in future?
Book review report by Dr. Vijay Vemuri provides a detailed coverage of the 2018 book titled, “The Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book,” authored and self-published by Andriy Burkov in 2019. This book emphasizes that difficult human skills can be easily transferred to robots, but so-called easy human skills are difficult to teach. Also, the book affirms that machine learning has now matured as exemplified by Siri, Alexa, Cortona, Google Assistant, and recommendation systems embedded in Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, and Facebook. While machine learning has and can transform nearly all business processes, it has not made a mark in the education sector. Very few students have the necessary background to learn the skills needed to implement relevant algorithms. The purpose of the Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book (HPMLB) is to alleviate this problem by covering relevant topics in simple terms through eleven short chapters.
Routledge, in line with the ongoing trends, has published this journal online for the last six years since 2014. The website to find all JITCAR issues is: http://www.tandfonline.com/utca. All authors and reviewers are encouraged to start using Routledge’s online manuscript submission and reviewing system http://www.editorialmanager.com/jitcar/. I urge all our current and future authors and reviewers to familiarize themselves with this system. I hope you all know that JITCAR is included in the SCOPUS index.
This is the last JITCAR issue under my editroship. It has been a challenging journey after founding the journal in 1999. For 3 years (January, 2008 to December, 2010), Dr. Steve Gordon was the editor and for 2.5 year (January, 2011 to June, 2013), Dr. Suprateek Sarker was the editor. I have nurtured the journal through infancy and youth and now it is an adult, 22 years old. I am handing over the editorship to Dr. Gaurav Bansal. I wish him the best.
And I say an emotional Good Bye and Bon Voyage.
I hope you will enjoy reading all the items in this issue. With best regards,
Sincerely