What is the influence of software systems on an organization's ability to create knowledge, learn, adapt to change and innovate? While organization, management and innovation theory has primarily focused on the impact of software on measures such as process efficiency and speed, this book argues that integrated systems and digital technologies offer even more fundamental implications for the innovating firm. A series of detailed case studies provides the foundations for a deeper theoretical and empirical understanding of the nature and dynamics of software, knowledge, organization and their complex interactions. The author demonstrates how software induces the radical reconfiguration of organizational knowledge and learning dynamics, including an organization's ability to create, store, transfer and integrate knowledge across heterogeneous organizational boundaries. The book provides a unique perspective on what organizations know and how they use that knowledge to build, sustain and renew their capabilities. This includes understanding how information systems can be designed or implemented in such a way as to favour innovation and adaptation, and to prevent unfavourable patterns of behaviour. The book represents an in-depth and systematic attempt to characterize the fundamental influence of software over the processes that underpin an organization's ability to create and manage knowledge. Scholars and students interested in innovation, technological change and information technology, and managers in software and other hi-tech industries will find this an insightful and highly rewarding study.

Multimedia and its rich semantics are profligate in today s digital environment. Databases and content management systems serve as essential tools to ensure that the endless supply of multimedia content are indexed and remain accessible to end users. Methods and Innovations for Multimedia Database Content Management highlights original research on new theories, algorithms, technologies, system design, and implementation in multimedia data engineering and management with an emphasis on automatic indexing, tagging, high-order ranking, and rule mining. This book is an ideal resource for university researchers, scientists, industry professionals, software engineers and graduate students.

NEW MEDIA THEORY Series Editor, Byron Hawk 327 pages, including photographs, bibliography, and index. (c) 2012 by Parlor Press AVATAR EMERGENCY is Gregory L. Ulmer's fourth book featuring the EmerAgency, an online virtual consultancy for the digital age. This time his point of departure is Paul Virilio's Generalized Accident from which he develops and theorizes the new concepts of Flash Reason, and specifically Avatar, which serves as the site for electrate identity formation in the twenty-first century. I have taught Ulmer's work on electracy for years, and his theoretical sophistication as well as the practical ambition and applicability of his work never ceases to amaze me. With Avatar Emergency, Ulmer shows once again that he is at the top of his game; I am positively thrilled to share this new and very timely treasure trove of a book with my students. -JAN RUNE HOLMEVIK, author of Inter/Vention: Free Play in the Age of Electracy Ulmer advances a ratio: "Avatar is to electracy what 'self' is to literacy, or 'spirit' to orality." He explores this "emergent logic through the invention of concept avatar." He begins, urgently, by asking: "What might wisdom be today, upon what authority might it be grounded, . . . what vision of well-being?" Perpetually asking the questions, Ulmer searches for "a vital anecdote" as an antidote to the "internet accident" by way of "flash reason." He claims, "Within this frame I present, in the genre of Mystory Internet Invention], what I have come to understand about living, my decision to become a professor of the Humanities and the lifestyle embraced as part of that choice." He invites his readers, thereby, to discover their own Mystory (mystery). Their own wisdom. After all, he explains: "Concept avatar must be not only understood, but undergone." My advice: Undergo the book -VICTOR J. VITANZA, author of Negation, Subjectivity, and the History of Rhetoric and Sexual Violence in Western Thought and Writing: Chaste Rape GREGORY L. ULMER is Professor of English and Media Studies at the University of Florida, where he teaches courses in Hypermedia, E-Lit, and Heuretics. He is also the Joseph Bueys Chair in the European Graduate School, Saas-Fee, Switzerland. Ulmer's books include Applied Grammatology (1985), Teletheory (1989), Heuretics (1994), Internet Invention (2003), Electronic Monuments (2005), and Miami Virtue (2011

Although gaming was once primarily used for personal entertainment, video games and other similar technologies are now being utilized across various disciplines such as education and engineering. As digital technologies become more integral to everyday life, it is imperative to explore the underlying effects they have on society and within these fields. Exploring the Cognitive, Social, Cultural, and Psychological Aspects of Gaming and Simulations provides emerging research on the societal and mental aspects of gaming and how video games impact different parts of an individual's life. While highlighting the positive, important results of gaming in various disciplines, readers will learn how video games can be used in areas such as calculus, therapy, and professional development. This book is an important resource for engineers, graduate-level students, psychologists, game designers, educators, sociologists, and academics seeking current information on the effects of gaming and computer simulations across different industries.

Educational games facilitate players experiences, meet desired pedagogical objectives, and allow users to engage in learning while enjoying themselves. These educational games also give learners immediate feedback on their actions and decisions, inviting exploration and experimentation. Student Usability in Educational Software and Games: Improving Experiences explores new models of interaction and human-computer interaction paradigms as applied to learning environments. It focuses on the usability design and evaluation of learning systems and educational game environments. An excellent resource for experts in these fields, this research volume will help professionals, educators, and researchers improve their understanding of student experiences using learning-gaming environments.

Technological tools have enhanced the available opportunities and activities in the realm of e-business. In organizations that support real-time business-critical operations, the proper use and maintenance of relevant technology is crucial. Maximizing Information System Availability Through Bayesian Belief Network Approaches: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a pivotal book that features the latest research perspectives on the implementation of effective information systems in business contexts. Highlighting relevant topics such as data security, investment viability, and operational risk management, this book is ideally designed for managers, professionals, academics, practitioners, and students interested in novel techniques for maintaining and measuring information system availability.

Kansei Engineering and Soft Computing: Theory and Practice offers readers a comprehensive review of kansei engineering, soft computing techniques, and the fusion of these two fields from a variety of viewpoints. It explores traditional technologies, as well as solutions to real-world problems through the concept of kansei and the effective utilization of soft computing techniques. This publication is an essential read for professionals, researchers, and students in the field of kansei information processing and soft computing providing both theoretical and practical viewpoints of research in humanized technology.

Learn how to design and develop robotic process automation solutions with Blue Prism to perform important tasks that enable value creation in your work Key Features Develop robots with Blue Prism Automate your work processes with Blue Prism Learn basic skills required to train a robot for process automation Book DescriptionRobotic process automation is a form of business process automation where user-configured robots can emulate the actions of users. Blue Prism is a pioneer of robotic process automation software, and this book gives you a solid foundation to programming robots with Blue Prism. If you've been tasked with automating work processes, but don't know where to start, this is the book for you! You begin with the business case for robotic process automation, and then move to implementation techniques with the leading software for enterprise automation, Blue Prism. You will become familiar with the Blue Prism Studio by creating your first process. You will build upon this by adding pages, data items, blocks, collections, and loops. You will build more complex processes by learning about actions, decisions, choices, and calculations. You will move on to teach your robot to interact with applications such as Internet Explorer. This can be used for spying elements that identify what your robot needs to interact with on the screen. You will build the logic behind a business objects by using read, write, and wait stages. You will then enable your robot to read and write to Excel and CSV files. This will finally lead you to train your robot to read and send emails in Outlook. You will learn about the Control Room, where you will practice adding items to a queue, processing the items and updating the work status. Towards the end of this book you will also teach your robot to handle errors and deal with exceptions. The book concludes with tips and coding best practices for Blue Prism. What you will learn Learn why and when to introduce robotic automation into your business processes Work with Blue Prism Studio Create automation processes in Blue Prism Make use of decisions and choices in your robots Use UI Automation mode, HTML mode, Region mode, and spying Learn how to raise exceptions Get the robot to deal with errors Learn Blue Prism coding best practices Who this book is forThe book is aimed at end users such as citizen developers who create business processes, but may not have the basic programming skills required to train a robot. No experience of BluePrism is required.

The Web has metamorphosed into a powerful vehicle for the development and delivery of new, emergent products and services, creating vast implications for organizational strategies. E-Novation for Competitive Advantage in Collaborative Globalization: Technologies for Emerging E-Business Strategies highlights new business products, services, strategies, and philosophies drawn from an emerging collaborative information platform. This book explores connections between the development of new e-business technologies with users and consumers, existing and new businesses, and links to social and political visions and strategies.

The expectations of IT outsourcing in the delivery of strategic, economic, and technological benefits have drastically increased over the last decade. Although private companies and governments across the globe are involved in outsourcing arrangements, managing relationships and measuring performance still remains an issue. ""Managing IT Outsourcing Performance"" provides a unique collection of methodologies and tools useful in managing relationships and task execution to help in developing successful IT outsourcing interactions. A valuable compilation for a wide audience of managers and developers, this leading reference collection enables researchers to examine current issues and allows managers to improve outsourcing relationships.

This book examines the life of the Australian artist Harry Reade (1927-1998) and his largely overlooked contribution to animation. It constitutes a biography of Reade, tracing his life from his birth to his period of involvement with animation between 1956 and 1969. It explores the forces that shaped Reade and chronicles his experiences as a child, his early working life, the influence of left-wing ideology on his creative development, his introduction to animation through the small but radical Waterside Workers' Federation Film Unit (WWFFU), and the influence he had on the development of Cuban animation as an educational tool of the Revolution. Key Features The text offers an alternative framework for considering the political, social, and cultural themes that characterised 1950s Australia and 1960s Cuba. A rare look into the cultural heritage of labor organizations and the populist power of animation to stimulate radical social consciousness. The book also crosses a range of intellectual disciplines, including Animation Studies, Art History, Cinema Studies, and the Social and Political Histories of Australia and Cuba. Max Bannah lives on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. Between 1976 and 2010, he worked in Brisbane as an animator producing television commercials, short films, and cartoon graphics. He also lectured in Animation History and Practice and Drawing for Animation at the Queensland University of Technology where, in 2007, he completed his Masters by Research thesis, "A Cause for Animation: Harry Reade and the Cuban Revolution."

Free/Open Source Enterprise Resource Planning systems (FOS-ERP) are gaining popularity and acceptance due to two main factors: their lack of licensing fees and customizability. Given this, organizations are able to easily adopt and manipulate these systems to meet their individual needs. Free and Open Source Enterprise Resource Planning: Systems and Strategies unites research on FOS-ERP, comparing differences with proprietary Enterprise Resource Planning products, and demonstrating key research factors. It includes cases demonstrating how small enterprises have benefited from FOS-ERP in Spain and in Belgium, along with difficulties encountered and solutions developed. This essential reference addresses key issues such as security and legal risks, as well as challenges, opportunities, and barriers to adoption.

Linear Algebra: An Introduction With Mathematica uses a matrix-based presentation and covers the standard topics any mathematician will need to understand linear algebra while using Mathematica. Development of analytical and computational skills is emphasized, and worked examples provide step-by-step methods for solving basic problems using Mathematica. The subject's rich pertinence to problem solving across disciplines is illustrated with applications in engineering, the natural sciences, computer animation, and statistics.