CrewScout is an expert-team finding system based on the concept of skyline teams and efficient algorithms for finding such teams. Given a set of experts, CrewScout finds all k-expert skyline teams, which are not dominated by any other k-expert teams. The dominance between teams is governed by comparing their aggregated expertise vectors. The need for finding expert teams prevails in applications such as question answering, crowdsourcing, panel selection, and project team formation. The new contributions of this paper include an end-to-end system with an interactive user interface that assists users in choosing teams and an demonstration of its application domains.

This article introduces a complete storage and retrieval architecture for a database environment for XML documents. DocBase, a prototype system based on this architecture, uses a flexible storage and indexing technique to allow highly expressive queries without the necessity of mapping documents to other database formats. DocBase is an integration of several techniques that include (i) a formal model called Heterogeneous Nested Relations (HNR), (ii) a conceptual model XER (Extensible Entity Relationship), (ii) formal query languages (Document Algebra and Calculus), (iii) a practical query language (Document SQL or DSQL), (iv) a visual query formulation method with QBT (Query By Templates), and (v) the DocBase query processing architecture. This paper focuses on the overall architecture of DocBase including implementation details, describes the details of the query-processing framework, and presents results from various performance tests. The paper summarizes experimental and usability analyses to demonstrate its feasibility as a general architecture for native as well as embedded document manipulation methods.

This article presents DSQL, a conservative extension of SQL, as an ad-hoc query language for XML. The development of DSQL follows the theoretical foundations of first order logic, and uses common query semantics already accepted for SQL. DSQL represents a core subset of XQuery that lends well to optimization techniques, while at the same time allows easy integration into current databases and applications that useSQL. The intent of DSQL is not to replace XQuery, the current W3C recommended XML query language, but to serve as an ad-hoc querying frontend to XQuery. Further, the authors present proofs for important query language properties such as complexity and closure. An empirical study comparing DSQL and XQuery for the purpose of ad-hoc querying demonstrates that users perform better with DSQL for both flat and tree structures, in terms of both accuracy and efficiency.

Knowledge management (KM) has gained increasing attention since the mid-1990s. A KM strategy involves consciously helping people share and put knowledge into action. However, before an organization can realize the promise of KM, a fundamental question needs to be asked: What performance goal(s) is the organization trying to achieve? In this paper, we develop and offer a framework that provides a holistic view of the performance environment surrounding organizational knowledge work. We illustrate the KM framework using two organizational case studies. Then, based on the KM framework and further insights drawn from our case studies, we offer a series of steps that may guide and assist organizations and practitioners as they undertake KM initiatives. We further demonstrate the applicability of these steps by examining KM initiatives within a global software development company. We conclude with a discussion of implications for organizational practice and directions for future research.

This study reviews and synthesizes human factors research on conceptual data modeling. In addition to analyzing the variables used in earlier studies and summarizing the results of this stream of research, we propose a new framework to help with future efforts in this area. The study finds that prior research has focused on issues that are relevant when conceptual models are used for communication between systems analysts and developers (Analyst – Developer models) whereas the issues important for models that are used to facilitate communication between analysts and users (User – Analyst models) have received little attention and, hence, require a significantly stronger role in future research. In addition, we emphasize the importance of building a strong theoretical foundation and using it to guide future empirical work in this area.

The rise of the virtual organization in response to global competition and advances in technology has led to the deployment of global virtual teams. Global virtual teams are increasingly commonplace when team members are geographically dispersed and as travel budgets are cut. A global virtual team can be described as a culturally diverse, geographically dispersed, and electronically communicating work group. Virtual teams and the technologies that support them promise the flexibility, responsiveness, lower costs, and improved resource utilization necessary to compete. There is a need for research on how to make virtual teams work effectively when the central medium of the team's process is technology. In this paper, we will explore how cultural tendencies, specifically country-of-origin differences relate to communication styles and how these may influence perceptions of task-technology fit by members of global virtual teams.

Recent years have seen an increased interest in providing support for collaborative activities among groups of users participating in various information systems design tasks such as, requirements determination and process modeling. However, little attention has been paid to the collaborative conceptual database design process. In this article, we develop a model of the collaborative conceptual schema development process and describe the design and implementation of a graphical multiuser conceptual schema design tool that is based on the model. The system we describe allows a group of users to work collaboratively on the creation of database schemas in synchronous (same-time) mode (either in a face-to-face or distributed setting). Extensive modeling support is provided to assist users in creating semantically correct conceptual schemas. The system also provides users with several graphical facilities such as, a large drawing workspace with the ability to scroll or “jump” to any portion of this workspace, zooming capabilities, and the ability to move object(s) to any portion of the workspace. The unique component of the system, however, is its built-in support for collaborative schema design. The system supports a relaxed WYSIWIS environment, i.e., each user can control the graphical layout of the same set of schema objects. The system ensures that changes/additions made by any user are consistent. Any conflicts that may compromise to the integrity of the shared schema are flagged and resolved by the system. The results from a preliminary experiment suggest that the use of our system in a collaborative mode improved information sharing among users, minimized conflicts, and led to a more comprehensive schema definition.