ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <title>Welcome</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"/> </head> <body background="images/bg.gif"> <div align="center"> <table width="800" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td height="150"> <img alt="" height="150" src="images/wits_banner1.jpg" width="800"></td> </tr> </table> <table width="800" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#4789c3"> <tr> <td width="12" height="61" align="left" valign="top" background="images/out_left.gif" bgcolor="#4789c3">&nbsp;</td> <td width="150">&nbsp;</td> <td width="15">&nbsp;</td> <td width="25">&nbsp;</td> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td><img alt="" height="60" src="images/title_welcome.jpg" width=300></td> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td width="25">&nbsp;</td> <td width="12" background="images/out_right.gif">&nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="12" height="20" valign="top" background="images/bg_flip.gif"> <img alt="" height="16" src="images/nav_upleft.gif" width="12"/></td> <td height="20" background="images/nav_bgup.gif"><img alt="" height="15" src="images/nav_upcross.gif" width="100%"/></td> <td height="20" valign="bottom" ><img alt="" height="15" src="images/nav_upright.gif" width="15"></td> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td width="15" height="20" valign="bottom"><img alt="" src="images/inside_upleft.gif" width="15" border="0"></td> <td valign="bottom" ><img alt="" height="15" src="images/inside_upcross.gif" width="100%"></td> <td width="15" valign="bottom"><img alt="" height="15" src="images/inside_upright.gif" width="15" border="0"></td> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td width="12" background="images/out_right.gif">&nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr height="340"> <td height="340" background="images/bg_flip.gif">&nbsp;</td> <td height="340" width="150" valign="top"> <table border="0" width="150"> <tr> <td width="25">&nbsp;</td> <td width="100%"> <a href="./default.htm">Welcome</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="25">&nbsp;</td> <td width="100%"> <a href="program.htm">Final Program</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="25">&nbsp;</td> <td width="100%"> <a href="./committee.htm">Committee</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="25">&nbsp;</td> <td width="100%"> <a href="./prototypes.htm">Research Prototypes</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="25">&nbsp;</td> <td width="100%"> <a href="./submission.htm">Submission System</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="25">&nbsp;</td> <td width="100%"> <a href="./venue.htm">Venue</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="25">&nbsp;</td> <td width="100%"> <a href="./registration.htm">Registration</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="25">&nbsp;</td> <td width="100%"> <a href="./hotel.htm">Hotel</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="25">&nbsp;</td> <td width="100%"> <a href="./sponsors.htm">Sponsors</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="25">&nbsp;</td> <td width="100%"> <a href="./keynote.htm">Keynote Speaker</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="25">&nbsp;</td> <td width="100%"> <a href="./dinner.htm">WITS Dinner</a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td valign="top" height="340" background="images/nav_rightside.gif" style="color: #000000">&nbsp;</td> <td height="340" style="color: #000000">&nbsp;</td> <td valign="top" height="1940" background="images/inside_leftside.gif" rowspan="3" style="color: #000000">&nbsp;</td> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#ffffff" rowspan="3" height="1940" style="color: #000000"> <blockquote> <p><font size="4" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Eighteenth Annual Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems (WITS)</b></font><font color="#1e5a78" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br/> <br/> <span style="color: #000000"> <I>Paris, FRANCE, December, 13-14, 2008. </I> In addition to providing a platform for research interaction and discussion, WITS 2008 is also aiming to induce collaboration within the MIS community in assisting with development and exchange of teaching ideas for IS curriculum (see below) </span> </p> <p><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><font size="4" color="#1e5a78" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><span style="color: #000000">WITS 2008 Call for Papers</span></b></font></font></p> <p><font color="#1e5a78" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color: #000000"> The world economy has been rapidly transitioning into an era of the global workforce that is unparalleled in history. We are no longer constrained space -- global work distribution and virtual operations have become de facto standards of international business. Central to these advances is the idea of Global Services enabled by Information technology tying worldwide corporate workforce, customers and business partners. Such services are made possible by a combination of: 1) series of innovations in communication technologies, 2) process coordination mechanisms, 3) creative applications of computing and communication systems, and 4) novel business models employing these services. This has led to a major paradigm shift in many organizations from an almost singular focus on manufacturing to a global services orientation. As economies continually shift towards global networking, the need for integrative multidisciplinary research on service innovations has become critically important. We invite papers addressing the challenges and opportunities in a services-led global economy from a wide variety of disciplinary and inter-disciplinary perspectives: computing, communication, economics, management science, social and cognitive sciences. Since it is a workshop, WITS actively solicits papers describing novel research ideas that may be at a relatively early stage of development. [Click </span><a href="Call%20For%20Papers%20WITS%202008.pdf"> <span style="color: #000000">here</span></a><span style="color: #000000"> for detailed call for papers.]<br/> </span> <br/> <br/> <span style="color: #000000">WITS 2008 Call for Submission - Technology Instruction in Business Curriculum Competition</span></font> <p> <font color="#1e5a78" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color: #000000"> Instructors teaching Information Technology (IT) in a business curriculum face significant challenges in organizing and developing instructional materials that effectively integrate technology concepts with business issues and problems. Often, instructional approaches tend to align themselves at extreme ends of the technology-business spectrum. At one extreme, the technological skills are given the main focus with limited emphasis on understanding the solution from the business contexts and requirements. At the other end, pedagogical materials are developed primarily with a business focus with little attention to understanding the key IT enablers and their potential to impact business solutions. Both approaches  lack of adequate and appropriate business contexts or the treatment of technology as a black box, lead to less than ideal learning outcomes for the business students.</span></font></p> <p><font color="#1e5a78" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color: #000000"> The objective of the technology instruction competition is to bring together well-developed ideas, which can assist the MIS community at large, in their quest to improve the business orientation of their IT curricula. We solicit submissions of instructional modules that would demonstrate innovative integrations of technology and business in graduate or undergraduate courses. [Click </span><a href="Technology%20Instruction%20in%20Business%20Curriculum.pdf"> <span style="color: #000000">here</span></a><span style="color: #000000"> for detailed call.]<br/> <br/> <br/><BR designtimesp="20911"> </span></font></p> <p><font color="#1e5a78" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color: #000000"> Deadline for abstract submission: ............... August 10, 2008<br/>Deadline for paper submissions: ................. August 17, 2008<br/>Notification of acceptance: .......................& September 26, 2008<br/>Camera-ready copy due: .............................. October 17, 2008</span><br/><br/><br/> <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial"><strong>WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS </strong> </span></font></p> <p> <font color="#1e5a78" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial"><strong>Co-chairs: </strong></span></font> </p> <p> <font color="#1e5a78" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial">Ram Gopal (<a href="mailto: ram.gopal@business.uconn.edu">ram.gopal@business.uconn.edu</a>) </span></font> </p> <p> <font color="#1e5a78" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial">R. Ramesh (<a href="mailto: rramesh@buffalo.edu">rramesh@buffalo.edu</a>) </span></font> </p> <p> <font color="#1e5a78" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial"><strong>Local arrangements chair: </strong></span></font> </p> <p> <font color="#1e5a78" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial">Nicolas Prat (<a href="mailto: prat@essec.fr">prat@essec.fr</a>) </span></font> </p> <p> <font color="#1e5a78" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial"><strong>Prototype and Technology Instruction competition chair: </strong></span></font> </p> <p> <font color="#1e5a78" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial">Kumar Mehta (<a href="mailto: kmehta1@gmu.edu">kmehta1@gmu.edu</a>)</span></font></p> </blockquote></td> <td valign="top" height="1940" background="images/inside_rightside.gif" rowspan="3" style="font-family: Times New Roman">&nbsp;</td> <td height="340" style="font-family: Times New Roman">&nbsp;</td> <td width="12" height="1940" background="images/out_right.gif" rowspan="3" style="font-family: Times New Roman">&nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr style="font-family: Times New Roman"> <td width="12" height="15" valign="bottom" background="images/bg_flip.gif"> <img alt="" height="16" src="images/nav_downleft.gif" width="12"></td> <td height="15" valign="top" background="images/nav_bgdown.gif"><img alt="" height="15" src="images/nav_downcross.gif" width="100%"/></td> <td height="15" valign="top"><img alt="" height="15" src="images/nav_downright.gif" width="15"/></td> <td height="15">&nbsp;</td> <td>&nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr height="1581" style="font-family: Times New Roman"> <td width="12" align="left" height="1581" background="images/out_left.gif" bgcolor="#4789c3">&nbsp;</td> <td height="1581" colspan="3" align="middle" valign="top"> <p><br/> <a href="http://www.business.uconn.edu" target="_blank"><img alt="" height="116" src="images/logo_sba.jpg" width="120" border="0"></a></P><p>&nbsp;</p> <a href="http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/"></a><p> </p><br/> <br/> <br/>&nbsp; </td> <td height="1581">&nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr style="font-family: Times New Roman"> <td align="left" background="images/out_left.gif" bgcolor="#4789c3">&nbsp;</td> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td height="15" valign="top"><img alt="" height="15" src="images/inside_downleft.gif" width="15"></td> <td height="15" valign="top" ><img alt="" height="15" src="images/inside_downcross.gif" width="100%"></td> <td height="15" valign="top"><img alt="" height="15" src="images/inside_downright.gif" width="15"/></td> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td background="images/out_right.gif">&nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr style="font-family: Times New Roman"> <td align="left" background="images/out_left.gif" bgcolor="#4789c3">&nbsp;</td> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td background="images/out_right.gif">&nbsp;</td> </tr> </table> <table width="800" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="font-family: Times New Roman"> <tr> <td><img alt="" height="41" src="images/wits_lower_work_odd.jpg" width="800"></td> </tr> </table> </div> </body> </html>