Adoption and diffusion of ENUM technology through comparative international trials

¶ … adoption as well as diffusion of ENUM technology, a technological innovation at the center stage of the "one number for all." This is done via a comparative study of ENUM trials in various countries. The rate of adoption of the technology by end users is done using both the theory of reasoned action and diffusion of innovation (Kautz and Pries-Heje, 1995).In this paper; we present a strategic approach for the adoption process as well as the diffusion of the ENUM technology. In this paper, we discuss the concept of diffusion of innovation in relation to the concept of "one number for all," a technological innovation that is a global scheme to simplify communication by giving everyone a single contact number, through which they could be reached by telephone, e-mail, fax, or any other clever technology still to be invented. In a word, the solution is ENUM, or e-numbers. Proponents say that we should all be given a single 11-digit number which would make us all eminently easier to reach. The telecommunications industry believes that technology can be developed to direct messages to phones, faxes and e-mails using just one number. Individuals could customize the system, diverting callers to faxes or e-mails, or allowing only specified callers to contact them on their personal phone. The target audience of this innovation is appropriately described as well as the planned outcome of the innovation. The concept is illustrated using the concepts from Rogers (2003).

Introduction

"One number for all," is a technological innovation that is a global scheme to simplify communication by giving everyone a single contact number, through which they could be reached by telephone, e-mail, and fax. It is based on ENUM technology. ENUM is a protocol that was developed within the mandate of Internet Engineering Task Force (Faltstrom & Mealling,2004).The ENUM system is the Domain Name Service DNS (TMDENTON, 2003).When a user registers their telephone contacts in an ENUM-based system, the basic features of the DNS are made transferable to the process of managing the telephone numbers. In a nutshell, all the integral features of the conventional telephone numbering system are seamlessly migrated to a new technological platform through subscribing to ENUM-based services.

How ENUM works: An overview:

The process of making telephone numbers ENUM-enabled involves transmuting them into domain names. The domain name rules, characteristics as well as features would apply in this system. An individual seeking to contact another individual on the ENUM platform would generate an enquiry that is routed through various computers called nameservers and then to the information of the customer. On the way to the final destination, the inquiry is conveniently guided by other nameservers that are relevant to the query. This happens until the record of the customer is reached on the ENUM-based database. It is worth noting that if the customer does not enable their records for ENUM queries, then the nameserver issues a null reply meaning the record is shown not to exist on the server.

The target audience

The target audiences of ENUM are Telecommunication companies (TELCOs), governments and individual users. It is to be made up of individuals who are mainly busy and therefore need a seamless platform for the convergence of all their communication needs on a single platform.

The planned change or outcome that is expected

ENUM is expected to change the way, people communicate across the world. It will result in the adoption of a system of communication that uses one number for everything. One therefore would be able to use one number anywhere they go. This is regardless of their geographical, location since it is based on the internet backbone. The advantage of this nis increased efficiency and response as well as a reduction in operational costs.

Theoretical Model

The process by which a social system adopts an innovation can be conceptualized as a series of steps in which individual members of the society become aware of the innovation, develops an attitude towards the innovation, makes a conscious decision to either adopt or reject the innovation, utilize it and thereby reinforce the decision to adopt the innovation (Rogers,1995). The innovation or idea should basically be absolutely new or be objective. ENUM is a technological innovation that can be considered to be both hardware and software based. Everett Rogers is credited with the formulation of the initial treaties of the theory of diffusion of innovation (Rogers,1995). Several other studies have employed the model that was theorized by Rogers in the prediction of how technological innovations would be diffused through the general society. Adoption was defined by Rodgers (1995) as the decision that an individual or an organization makes in order to full make use of a give innovation as the available best course of action (p.21).

Currently, most of the technological innovations theory research are clustered in the domain of the adoption of improved information and telecommunication technologies such as cable television as pointed out by Collins, Reagan, & Abel (1983),emails (Bohr & Mason,2006), informatics (Trelease,2006) and cell phones as pointed out by Leung & Wei (1999).Rogers (1995) pointed out that the decision to fully adopt or even totally reject a given innovation is the subject of multiple factors. The factors can be arranged in four main groups/categories as pointed out by (Leung & Wei, 1999). These are;

1. Personality traits that are related to the adopter

2. Socioeconomic factors and influences

3. Interpersonal channels as well as the usage of mass media

Literature review

Innovation is an improved way of doing something. The work of Mohr (1982) stated that every organization must possess as well as be willing to appropriately commit the various resources that are needed to effectively implement a given new technology for these organizations to be successful. Lewin (1951) on the other hand, came up with a three-step sequential model that effectively described how various processes are changed. He pointed out that the present behavior that is 'unfrozen' gets 'changed' in order to reinforce the improved (new) behavior. He suggested that there are various forces that exist in the changing as well as maintaining the nature of the status quo (Stoner, James and Edward, 1989).These are; new technology, improved raw materials, competition from other entities, pressures from supervisors. On the hand, the forces that hinder change are; norms of a certain group's performance fear of change as well as the external threats. The work of Berth (1991) indicated that various organizational members are supposed to identify with a given champion who is mandated with spearheading the change to necessitate the 'unfreezing' process. The work of Cooper and Zmud (1990) defined the implementation of IT ideas as an organizational effort that is directed towards the diffusion of the necessary information technology within a given user community. They came up with a six-staged model for implementing IT-based projects on the basis of the work of Lewin (1951).The is;

1. Initiation: Which involves the active or active scanning of the problems as well as opportunities

2. Adoption: Which involves the negotiation for the backing of the implementation of the IT applications

3. Adaptation: The process of revising the IT applications as well as the organizational procedures

4. Acceptance: The stage where the organizational members are induced to appropriately commit to the given It application.

5. Routinization: Denotes the encouragement for the utilization of the IT application as a normal thing/activity.

6. Infusion: The increasing of the effectiveness that is gained by using the given technology.

There are also five main contextual factors that have an impact on the stages of the adoption process. These are; the user community, the organization, adopted technology and the organizational environment.

The methodology

This study makes use of documents that describes the ENUM trials in the UK, Australia and the U.S. with the need of identifying the key issues that would affect the adoption as well as the diffusion of the technology. The study is longitudinal so as to reveal any contextual factors.

The development of the model

A customized model is employed in order to identify as well as measure the various factors that have an influence on the ENUM innovation. The model used is the one developed by Liu Sheng (1999) as a modification of an earlier model by Cooper and Zmud (1990).

Key Issues that in the adoption of the ENUM system

A review of ENUM trials in USA, UK and Australia indicates a pattern of issues to be addressed. Security issues have been prevalent in ENUM related discussions. Contact information used by ENUM is stored in a public database with unrestricted access. This means ENUM security has been given much priority. Other features of the ENUM database may as well be specific procedures for contacting an individual, such as the gadgets to be utilized by a particular caller as per the time of day.

ENUM may also become a tool for business people, spammers, and other malicious people whose aim is to cause disturbance to others. This was stated by the Electronic Privacy and Information Center (EPIC). ENUM database, having unrestricted access by the public may be used by sales executives, spammers, and cyber criminals to acquire private contact information.

The absence of legal restrictions controlling the usage of ENUM contact material encourages its use by marketing personnel and spammers to send unwanted commercial e- mail and other types of business-related solicitations.

The system may enhance an unspecified volume of spam since developers could come up with software meant to forward solicitations to all of the applicant's contact devices.

Mealling and Daniel, (2005) point out that The Naming Authority Pointer Records (NAPTR) is involved with an applicant's phone number which is connected to a Domain Number System (DNS) query that can be launched by any user based on a contact.

An applicant is bound to provide sufficient details to facilitate the search work as ascertaining the precise details to be stored in the NAPTR records.

Questions on what magnitude of the security issue can be solved by scientific methods, and to what extent can be lessened legally have been asked. Proposals made by the government and organizations on how to enforce ENUM is one risk factor associated with its destruction. The other factor is the kind of technical strategies to be employed. These solutions will greatly influence the risk height of abuse of personal information.

New Privacy and Security issues emanating from ENUM

There exist two distinctive notions of how ENUM may be applied: the first concept gives the caller the ability to determine the mode of connection, while the second concept lets the person being called to control the call connection.

These two approaches differ significantly in the aspect of privacy. In the first concept, the caller is supplied with all possible contact information leading to the corresponding individual being called and may always select the suitable one to use. As a result, the caller may retain all the details received for future use.In contrast, the second concept allows only one contact detail to be inserted to the DNS record. (Rosenberg et al., 2002).Other concerns emanating from particular applications of ENUM are affected by mismanaged supervision of controls. This can mean that an entity copies another one's identity

Malicious users take advantage of this to expose confidential personal details or use it for certain unlawful purposes. This kind of security should also be put in place for downloads and study of web contentSince it can encompass execution of implanted or linked malware .As a result, the automatically download feature must be turned off on the user application. A number of ENUM services may also be addressed for software that demand some form of security protocol, but do not accord the required mechanisms themselves. For example, in the storage of personal details for support, user passwords can be applied by defining a necessary underpinning ENUM system.

Here, an outer privacy service is needed. Another concern that emanates from the new chances is that malicious service provider personnel put themselves in the call paths of a particular E.164 number, having no permission from the receiver. These security issues may hinder the accelerated adoption of the ENUM technology.

The Roger's adoption model for ENUM

Adopter categories

The Roger's model of adopting an innovation comprises of five adopter categories (Roger,1995). These are the characteristics that can influence the way an individual uses an innovation.ENUM can be regarded as an efficient and cost effective communication technology that is to replace the traditional and the rather conventional telecommunication via multiple devices such as telephone, fax and email. According to the model advanced by Rogers (1995) the adopter category comprises of;

Relative advantage; This is the degree to which the given innovation would be perceived to be better than the one that it supersedes. The relative advantage is made up of various factors. The first relative advantage of ENUM is that it is much more convenient that the currently existing telephone numbers. For example, an individual can have all of their voice mail, emails and fax in a single inbox that bears a single and common number. The second adopter category or advantage is efficiency; ENUM can save one a lot of time and money by using a single number and inbox provided by a single telecommunication provider at a discounted fee. The other advantage is the fact that ENUM has improved quality of data information received. This is There are however certain obstacles such as security and privacy concerns in ENUM implementations. The second characteristic is compatibility of the innovation. ENUM is compatible with the existing internet backbone and the current DNS services. What are needed are certain upgrades in terms of terminal hardware and software. The third characteristic is complexity. ENUM is perceived to be a complex system by certain would-be implementers (TELCOs).This can act as hindrance to its adoption by some players. The fourth characteristic is trialability and this has already been done for ENUM. Several trials have been carried out with positive results. Companies such as Google Inc. have tested ENUM and these makes the adoption process be accelerated. The fifth characteristic is observability which denotes the observable benefits that are attached to the innovation.

The Diffusion of the ENUM innovation across industry and society

The diffusion of innovation is described as the process by which a given innovation is appropriately communicated via certain channels over a period of time among the members of a given social system (Rogers,1995).Chew et al., (2004) pointed out that the attributes of the innovation that are active in influencing its rate of adoption are its relative advantage which denotes how superior the innovation is when compared with the one that it supercedes, the compatibility of the innovation, which denotes how consistent the innovation is with the extant values as well as the needs of the potential adopters, the complexity of the innovation, which denotes how difficult the innovation is to use, the trialability of the innovation which denotes the degree to which its users may experiment with the innovation on a limited basis and the observability of the innovation which denotes how visible the results of the are to other persons. This therefore implies that various innovations may be perceived as having a lower relative advantage, trialability, comparability, observability and more complexity and will therefore be adopted less rapidly.

The communication channel

A communication channel is defined by Rogers (1983) as the means by which a particular message would get from one individual to another. An analysis of the ENUM technology reveals that it is a technological innovation which can easily be communicated to the end users via social networks (Andrews,1994), main stream media and government regulations. The phenomenon of diffusion of innovation is regarded as a communication process that culminated in study of three main factors for the innovation adoption process; innovation, adopter and communication characteristics (Hovav et al.,2001).The work of Rogers (1983) postulated the importance of five main generic innovation characteristics that are very active in influencing the adoption of innovations. These are;

1. The relative advantage of the improved technology in comparison to the existing one.

2. The compatibility of the new technology with the one that exists currently

3. The complexity of comprehending the new technology

4. The new innovation's ease of triability.

5. The observability of the advantages attached to the adoption of the new technology.

There are studies that have been focused specifically on the influence of communications channels as well as the information sources that affect the adoption decision (Nilakanta and Scamel, 1990).

The economic outlook of the diffusion of ENUM technology

Several economists have provided their opinion on the process of diffusion of innovation on the basis of the increasing returns associated with the adoption of the innovation (Arthur, 1996). This approach is based on the belief that the advantages / benefits that are associated with the adoption of the innovation are dependent on the size of the population. In this case the population is very high since ENUM allows for the communication among a global audience. The factors that are in play for increasing the returns from the process of adopting a given innovation are;

Positive network externalities that exist among the adopters as pointed out by Katz and Shapiro (1986).This is based on theory that seems to suggest that the benefits associated with the adoption of an innovation are a direct function of the total number of current adopters.

Learning through use by the current adopters. This was advanced by Rosenburg (1982) and suggested that as the total number of adopter increase, the accumulated experience of the technology's use would keep rising inn order to provide an increase in the returns of adoption.

Economies of scale. This was suggested by Arrow (1962) and denotes a natural function that is important for the increase in the volume as well as cost of innovation that is shown to lead to a decline in the rate of its adoption.

The general knowledge of the industry regarding the innovation as pointed out by Arthur (1988) that denotes a natural consequence of trying to learn by use among the adopters

The rapid development of the related technological infrastructure-This was suggested by Van de Ven (1993) and suggests that it would be easier for an innovation to be adopted if there is a compatible product for which the innovation is meant to improve

The "Leaders"

The leaders have been indicated to be guided by a culture of innovation, change as well as creativity .The leading adopters of the ENUM are mostly likely to be telecommunication companies like Google Inc. (Hof,2009) and the traditional networking hardware suppliers such as Cisco and software suppliers like Sun. The most probable thing that these companies will do is to set the standards and be very active in standard setting consortiums like the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The level of inertia is therefore low as well as the drag. The adoption costs would be low due to the low technology costs to be used in the upgrades that form parts of the company's on-going budget. These leaders would be involved in the creation of prototypes with a heavy investment in R&D. These leaders may have a lower supply of the ENUM technology devices than what is demanded by their customers. They would therefore concentrate on gaining competitive advantage by leading in the secure and more privacy-centered ENUM systems. The ENUM-based systems will create a competitive advantage that they desire and therefore make them reap the predicted benefits.

The Laggards

Laggards are guided by a culture of standard operating procedures as well as structures that are static. The lagging corporations in the adoption of the ENUM technology would b The level of inertia as well as drag are notably high in this category.

Conclusion

The ENUM technology would be successfully adopted within the shortest time possible in our society as a result of globalization and the internet. These have made it possible for information on new product to be easily communicated across societies and industry. The social networks such as Facebook and professional websites and blogs (the web 2.0 phenomenon) would act as very efficient communication channels for the ENUM technology. These are however subject to the issues of privacy and security being addressed by the industry leaders.