Business communication evolution and technological dependence in modern contexts

Business Communication & Technology

Barnes, Cynthia, and Cavaliere, Frank. (2009). To Teach or Not to Teach: The Ethics of Metadata. Education, 129(4), 788-792.

Metadata has been causing problems over the past several years due to the fact that word processing and other well-known and often-used computer software programs become "more receptive to" collaboration (Barnes, 2009, p. 788). That is the viewpoint of this article. What is metadata? It is the personal information about a person, that is contained in computer-generated documents, and is accidentally sent to others, Barnes explains. This is a potentially scary situation, not because some personal information is being transmitted to others, but because computer uses don't realize what is happening. This article reviews the problems associated with metadata, and provides research that is eye opening.

To wit, a survey of 100,000-Word documents that were reviewed from Web sites the world over, "half the documents had up to 50 hidden words, one-third up to 500 words hidden, and 10% had more than 500 words concealed" (Barnes, p. 789). The information contained in those documents include social security numbers and other key personal data. The conclusion by Barnes is simply that people need to be educated about metadata.

Basole, Rhul C. (2008). Enterprise mobility: Researching a new paradigm. Information Knowledge Systems Management. Vol. 7, 1-7.

Typical of many scholars and journalists writing in journals about technology, Basole asserts that the literature on his particular topic is "relatively sparse." This is always the incentive of researchers, to fill in the gaps where others have failed to do so. In this paper, Basole delves into the potentiality of hand-held technologies such as laptops, smart phones, and other mobile technologies to deliver "tangible" business benefits (p. 1). He explains that mobile ICT was not embraced by organizations in the beginning of this particular technology advance, but today "much is changed," he asserts on page 1. Mobile DNA (devices, networks and infrastructure and applications) are coming of age and companies are realizing they the devices can deliver: a) efficiencies; b) cost savings; c) new competitive advantages; and d) core competencies.

Basole even insists that if used properly and pragmatically, these mobile devices can transform existing organizational, business model and strategy paradigms" (p. 1).

As to just how these mobile devices can transform a company into a more streamlined organization, and help overall, one can simply imagine a project manager in the field with a client, examining a building that is to be updated and upgraded. The company iPhone he works with digitally records the interview with the on-site foreman and the client; the video component of his iPhone records the places in the building that need most attention; then he uses the online capabilities of the iPhone to email subcontractors who will be part of the project.

Basole references Judith Gebauer's research into how mobile professionals work; after in-depth research, Gebauer concludes that: a) technology maturity explains and predicts mobile technology use; b) good functionality is a "critical factor" in the communication components of a mobile device' and c) job performance can be greatly enhance with mobile technology (Basole, p 4).

Briggle, Adam, and Mitcham, Carl. (2009). From the Philosophy of Information to the Philosophy of Information Culture. The Information Society, Vol. 25, 169-174.

In this article, Adam Briggle spends a great deal of narrative energy on the relationship between information and culture. Briggle posits that the communities of information and culture could benefit from some collaboration. Briggle argues that information more than technology, or information technology "more than simply technology," is the "distinctive feature of the contemporary world." In other words, it is not solely about technology; it's about the information that travels on technology. Therefore, the communities of culture could be used to interpret information or information to interpret culture.

A reader can become confused with Briggle's strategy of interchanging the concepts of "culture" and "information" -- as he seems mesmerized by the juxtaposition of the two. The bottom line in this piece is that yes, information and the technologies that transmit information "shape culture rather than just convey it" (p. 171). And much of the rest of the six pages of this scholarship bounces philosophical questions back and forth like a tennis ball on a concrete court. His conclusion suggests that he is only beginning his research: the linkage of culture and information in the piece are just an "outline" he says "are no more than indicators of work we hope to undertake more fully in future research…" (p. 173).

Byron, Kristin. (2008). Carrying Too Heavy a Load? The Communication and Miscommunication of Emotion by Email. Academy of Management Review, 33(2),

309-327.

Byron reviews the issue of emails in a very thorough way. She points out that many employees do not have the proper degree of sophistication or the education -- or just plain common sense -- to known how to craft just the right amount of emotion into their emails. In fact because of this lack of talent when crafting emails, business relationships can be (and often are) harmed. Unless the writer is an experienced person at the use of written narrative, communicating exactly what one wants to communicate can be difficult.

Conveying emotion through an email is tricky, the author insists. Emotion is a good thing, of course, when it carefully and professionally conveys information that helps strengthen group identity and relate company policy. However, employees that "inaccurately interpret others' emotions" are often failing to make "adequately informed decisions" as to what kind of response is required from any particular email (p. 310).

So in this article Byron references a number of scholarly studies that break down the facts of communicating emotions the correct way. She mentions (p. 311) Berlo's Source-Message-Channel-Receiver Model as her favorite model to present. Berlo's four factors may seem rather obvious, but they are nonetheless important in the framework and context of writing better emails in corporate environments. To wit, Berlo offers four factors that determine the effectiveness of communication attempts: a) the "source," or "sender" (S); b), the "message" itself (M); c) the "channel" (C); and d), the "receiver (R). This is a simple model, but Byron asserts that it is the perfect beginning place to examine where the process worked and where it failed. Was the "message" incomplete or too filled with emotion? Or did the receiver totally misunderstand the message because of a lack of knowledge about the sender and the message?

Chernatony, Leslie De, Cottam, Susan, and Segal-Horn, Susan. (2006). Communicating

Services Brands' Values Internally and Externally. The Service Industries Journal,

26(8), 819-836.

Chernatony and colleagues argue that companies need to do a better job educating their employees / staff as to the value of their own corporate brand (also called "service brand"). The authors go on to explain that the old way of simply advertising a company's services and products through the promotion of the brand is not sufficient anymore. What needs to be done in addition to traditional branding, marketing and advertising of the brand to the public, is to have the company communicate the brand values to the staff.

The brand pitch needs to be "accepted and internalized by staff," Chernatony explains (p. 820). And in fact, companies need to be sure that their employees are fully on board with the brand that they work under and for. The focus of this scholarly article relates to how the company can communicate the values of the brand to employees without insisting on "brand commitment" from their workers. Indeed, the research Chernatony and colleagues have conducted (Burmann and Zeplin, 2005: 284) shows that "the extend of psychological attachment of employees to the brand" has an enormous influence over the employees' willingness "to exert extra effort towards reaching the brand goals" (Chernatony, P. 821).

How best to engender the psychological attachment that the authors believe is important makes up a goodly share of this piece. First of all, when HR is hiring new staff, there should be a sense that the newly hired employee believes in the product, albeit new employees "may still hold some incongruent values," Chernatony writes on page 822. For those employees (and others) the authors suggest -- that besides good organizational communication -- the company should sponsor an "intensive, residential training course." This might be considered propaganda but unless every employee is extolling the values of the brand, the company is losing out on an opportunity to fully present its worth to the consumers and stakeholders.

The authors take several pages to discuss how brands are marketed and raised to high levels of visibility, but the key in this article is getting employees to commit to totally getting behind the values of the brand.

Choi, Sue Young, Lee, Heesok, and Yoo, Youngjin. (2010). The Impact of Information

Technology and Transactive Memory Systems on Knowledge Sharing, Application, and Team Performance: A Field Study. MIS Quarterly, 34(4), 855-870.

As other writers have done, this trio posits that they have done the research for this article because "little is known" of their particular choice of subjects. In this case, the authors say not much is understood in terms "…of how it support for knowledge management practices in organizations affects the development of TMS (transactive memory system) (Choi, et al., p. 855). In this research, the trio of researchers have come up with several interesting findings relative to the impact of information technology.

Indeed, after researching 139 technology teams (743 individuals) in South Korea, they learned that: a) knowledge sharing has a "positive impact on knowledge application" and that in turn has a "direct impact on team performance"; b) knowledge sharing "does not" have a direct impact on the performance of a team, and moreover the impact of knowledge sharing on team performance "was fully mediated by knowledge application"; c) organizations can improve the knowledge of team member regarding meta-knowledge…through the careful investment in information technology; and d) sharing knowledge stops short of being effective, unless organizations "ensure that shared knowledge is in fact applied in order to improve team performance" (Choi, p. 855).

What are TMS (transactive memory systems)? Choi and colleagues use TMS references throughout this article. According to Choi, there are three substructures to TMS: one, the specialization of knowledge (very important in the it world); two, "cognitive trust in others' knowledge"; and three, an ability to "coordinate knowledge according to the task structure and members' unevenly distributed knowledge" (p. 856). An interesting analogy is offered by the authors on page 856 to help the reader gain a deeper understanding of TMS. Couples that have been dating in a serious relationship and are very close "treat their partners as external memory devices."

Another description for TMS is that it can be enhanced when team members provide feedback to each other, help with learning and communication -- and indeed the strengthening of TMS has a positive effect on team performance over a period of time.

On page 858 the authors of this article explain that the use of advanced it can influence the way team members integrate knowledge, and that it allows team members to "solve complex problems" and along the way actually invent "new solutions by taking diverse perspectives into consideration." It also helps employees to embrace "tacit knowledge" in a more understandable and "standardized format"; hence the information captured can be easily applied to various contexts, Choi explains (858).

It is obvious that if knowledge isn't acquired from any source, it cannot possibly be used. The authors (p. 859) assert that in an organizational setting, knowledge can be acquired both formally and informally, and it can be used to the best advantage of the team. Moreover, if teams don't effectively apply the knowledge they share -- by communicating openly and frequently with one another -- their collective decisions can be "suboptimal."

Choi, Yoonhyeung, and Lin, Ying-Hsuan. (2009). Consumer Responses to Mattel Product

Recalls Posted on Online Bulletin Boards: Exploring Two Types of Emotion. Journal of Public Relations Research, 21(2), 198-207.

This article deals with the ways in which organizations deal with emergencies or order to best serve the reputation of the company when something goes awry. Basically, the authors are investigating how certain crisis situations influence the response strategies, and in turn how those response strategies influence and affect the consumer's view of the company -- e.g., how the company's reputation is affected.

To fully flush out the way that the public (referred to in this article as "publics") responds to communications from a company the authors embrace the situational crisis communication theory (SCCT). The emotions that the public experiences when learning about a crisis, and the appropriate tone of communication about the crisis, make up a good share of the research in this article. When first hearing of the crisis, the public is not necessarily looking to "seek the cause of a crisis," Choi writes on page 199. Once the initial reports have been sent, the public then will have generated their emotions and later they will search for "attribution" and attempt to learn why it happened and what / who was responsible.

The authors present a case study involving the 2007 production recall by Mattel. What were the consumers' responses? The authors reviewed the online bulletin boards and found 277 postings related to the Mattel recall of toys. The most "frequently manifested emotion" that was found on the online bulletin board -- no surprise -- was anger. Indeed, 49% of the posts on the bulletin reflected anger; 11.3% reflected "alert"; 9.7% showed "surprise"; 9.4% showed "worry" (which is logical given that parents were the principle respondents to the recall announcement); 7.1% indicated "fear"; 6.5% showed "confusion"; 2.3% of the posts showed people were "relieved"; and the remaining smaller percentages showed, in this order, contempt, disgust, shame and finally, 0.5% showed "sympathy" for Mattel (Choi, p. 202).

The article offers quotes reflecting the varying degrees of emotion, such as shock ("I am SHOCKED!!! it's ridiculous!") and contempt ("Shame on you Mattel and others for moving your companies out of the good old USA!") (p. 203).

DeKay, Sam H. (2010). Designing Email Messages for Corporate Readers: A Case Study of Effective and Ineffective Rhetorical Strategies at a Fortune 100 Company. Business Communication Quarterly, 73(1), 109-119.

Email is so important within the corporate community that many research papers have been written about what should and shouldn't be written in an email. In this article DeKay points to the fact that email now goes well beyond its original genre. Today email is used in newsletters, order confirmations, shipping receipts, account alerts, short reports, corporate bulletins and announcements (DeKay, pp. 109-110.) What does DeKay have to offer in this article that is not offered in other email research pieces in this paper? He asserts that since academic researchers are reluctant to review and critique email from "the perspective of document design," then someone must. Some researcher should focus on the need for organizations to build an email system that integrates "prose, graphics, and typography" in order to achieve "rhetorical objectives in email messages" (DeKay, p. 110).

In rejecting the notion that email research is a "sterile" field, DeKay instead insists that emails are "most likely to be read" if they embrace "complex sets of visual and textual conventions specifically intended to achieve rhetorical objectives" (p. 110). In his effort to promote his view of how emails should be created and presented, DeKay references a Fortune 100 company's emails to its employees that explain (with fun, interesting graphics) how to practice "computer security." The bottom line: making emails smart, attractive, and interactive is an important step in improving a company's communication abilities, not only with employees, but also with the outside world.

Desai, Mayur S., Hart, Jeff, and Richards, Thomas C. (2009). An it Manager's View on E-mail and Internet Policies and Procedures. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 36(4),

319-322.

Desai covers a subject that is well covered in the literature, email, albeit the author takes a slightly different approach than other authors in this literature. The author asserts that it is the responsibility of the it managers to "monitor and make sure" that employees use email properly. In fact, though the it department in many organizations is not involved in management per se, Desai insists that when the policies and procedures for email use by employees is written, the it administrator must have a role in those guidelines.

This article delves into subjects such as email etiquette, legal responsibilities and ramifications vis-a-vis email, privacy issues, employer risks when there is no way to monitor employees' use of email.

Du-Babcock, Bertha. (2006). Teaching Business Communication: Past, Present, and Future.

Journal of Business Communications, 43(3), 253-264.

Simply put, Du-Babcock's article relates to the fact that teaching business communication is going through a rapid period of change, and the question then becomes, how does an instructor utilize the best of the new strategies and technologies to make sure the challenge in that milieu are met? Du-Babcock is writing about teaching business communication within the theme of "conference"; the "past" (which reflects the actual establishment of business communication as a teaching field); the "present" (this is a transitional period now that information is instant and has global implications); and of course "future" (there will be new challenges and preparing for those challenges now is pivotal) (p. 253).

In the past, things were straightforward and instructors had a textbook to work with and for the most part "native English" speaking students from the United States. Instructors were not expected to have any "specialized knowledge of professional disciplines" nor did instructors need to have any particular knowledge of the "communication approaches and styles" of the professional genres in these other disciplines. This was a simpler time, and easier on the instructors, but it provided "incomplete and limited perspectives" vis-a-vis the multidisciplinary global communication environment.

The changes that are emerging today in Du-Babcock's field are intimidating, she writes. Messages have to be "concurrently translated into many national languages and professional genres" and after that they must be "adapted" into the various competency levels. The thrust of the article is, how does an instructor stay up to speed in this rapidly changing global environment?

Freyne, Jill, Coyle, Lorcan, Smyth, Barry, and Cunningham, Padraig. Relative Status of Journal and Conference Publications in Computer Science. (2010). Communications

of the ACM, 53(11), 124-140.

This article investigates the way in which academic performance is measured and evaluated in the computer science field. Freyne and colleagues explore whether or not conference publications enjoy "greater status in computer science than in other disciplines" (p. 124). One of the issues a reader discovers between the lines is that computer science researchers and scholars would like to be able to show that their conference publications are just as elite and respected as journal publications.

The basic point established is that journal articles are almost always given more value than "conference" publications. The issue being, computer science research almost always shows up in conference papers, unlike other disciplines that tend to present new research and salient information through journal articles.

In a way, Freyne and colleagues are complaining in this piece about the fact that their conference papers do not get bumped up to scholarly journal status as often as they should. To be fair, computer science is a very recent field; and in fact the academic aspect of computer science did not really evolve until the late 1980s. Examples of how the computer science field is short-changed is featured in this article. One example worth presenting is on page 126, where researchers in "Computational Linguistics" have presented their conference report and had it accepted without the "full rigor of peer review"; however, conference reports from computer science events and research "undergo a comprehensive peer-review evaluation" and often have "very high rejection rates." The implication is that computer science scholars and investigators are still the new kids on the block, and hence don't get the same respect as older fields do.

Insch, Andrea. (2008). Online communication of Corporate Environmental Citizenship: A

study of New Zealand's electricity and gas retailers. Journal of Marketing

Communications, 14(2), 139-153.

Insch presents in-depth material in this article about how New Zealand's gas and electricity sectors communicate the quality of their citizenship and good works. The actual doing of good corporate deeds is referred to as Corporate Environmental Citizenship (CEC). The value of a company presenting its environmentally friendly activities to the public and to stakeholders cannot be overstated in this era of global warming and ecological imbalance vis-a-vis pollution, loss of natural world habitat, and occasional contamination of food and drinking water.

No longer can corporations that provide gas and electricity to the public "control stakeholders' perceptions" of how they are doing. but, Insch continues, these companies can "positively influence their image" and gain the support of the community by using the proper technologies to communicate their initiatives. In this study, Insch presents research into how New Zealand's energy companies have effectively used the Internet and Web sites to keep customers and others -- "suppliers, activists, employees, and researchers" -- informed as to their activities.

Unlike many other countries, New Zealand energy companies generate most of their electricity from renewable sources, in this case hydropower. That said, the New Zealand electricity consumer is paying more for electricity because of the use of renewable sources, so it is all that more important that consumers are kept fully up-to-date in any kind of emergency or otherwise untoward event. New Zealand is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol but it is "grappling to find ways to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions," Insch points out. Keeping its carbon emissions to a minimum, and keeping the public informed, is made easier through its Web site, which is "not vetted by the gatekeeping function of journalists" or of broadcast media.

Jiyane, Veli, and Mostert, Janneke. (2010). Use of Information and Communication

Technologies by Women Hawkers and Vendors in South Africa. African Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science, 20(1), 53-61.

Jiyane and colleague reviews research that was conducted in South Africa; surveying forty-two women who are "informal sector workers" brought forward some interesting results. The point of the research was to see what role ICT (information and communication technologies) play in the lives and work of these women (who are rural entrepreneurs). The 42 women, from two local communities, were interviewed and observed by the authors, and it was learned that "the majority of the women" had mobile phones and other ICT (landlines, radios, televisions) but computers were not part of their lives.

All 42 women were very interested in computers, none had one and hence they could not go online to gather business information that would help them. What is there to be done about this lack of digital connectedness? Certainly training is needed. But beyond that there are serious resource problems in South Africa; i.e., there is a "lack of a well-developed and stable electricity supply and telecommunications infrastructure."

Karaosmanoglu, Elif, and Melewar, T.C. (2006). Corporate communications, identity and Image: A research agenda. Brand Management, 14(2/2), 196-206.

This article takes on the subject of how corporations can better communicate their stories to the consumer. Because of the changes in the way the public receives information businesses need to find new and better ways of communicating, Karaosmanoglu explains on page 196. That sounds fairly simple, but a recent study referenced by the authors of this paper reflects what companies need to learn about communication. The study (Melewar and Karaosmanoglu) shows that when companies figure out that the "dissemination and alignment of the core ideology of the company" needs to be incorporated in the company's communication process, favorable public exposure will follow. Performing well is one thing, but when a company sustains a "consistent image over the years," that company cannot only achieve a favorable reputation, but also "gain strategic and competitive advantages" over other companies.

Those competitive advantages include: a) a high level of satisfaction among employees; b) a thorough and loyal commitment to excellence from employees; c) consumers having more familiarity with the products and services of the company; d) an increase in sales; e) far better relations with the community, opinion leaders, investors and shareholders (Karaosmanoglu, p. 197).

The long and the short of this article is that building a corporate image (not just promoting the brand, but creating an image the public can be impressed by) has apparently been an under-appreciated theme. However, when a corporate image is promoted properly and thoroughly, that can in turn become "a strategic asset to gain competitive advantage in the long run," Karaosmanoglu continues (p. 197). Corporate image, Karaosmanoglu asserts on page 198, is based on "the perceptions of the reflected identity by any of a company's communication tools"; and hence, there is a close relationship between "corporate identity" and "corporate image," according to Karaosmanoglu (pp. 198-199).

Leonardi, Paul M., and Bailey, Dianne E. (2008). Transformational Technologies and the Creation of New Work Practices: Making Implicit Knowledge Explicit in Task-Based

Offshoring. MIS Quarterly, 32(2), 411-436.

Leonardi and Diane Bailey present a research article focusing on technologies that allow the smooth and safe transfer (and storage ) of digital information with reference to offshore business components. How do scholars view the dynamics involved in the flow of information across "time and space" in it environments? Leonardi asserts that when dealing with two types of technologies -- communication technologies (email, phones, chat rooms, Instant Messaging for example) and storage technologies (knowledge management systems and version control systems) -- in an offshore environment many problems can occur. It is the salient purpose of this article to offer solutions to the problems inherent in the transfer of digital technologies.

What are the problems that "plague individuals," that Leonardi, et al. references? For one, communication technologies that are commonly used in transfers to offshore entities "inadequately convey contextual cues" (Leonardi, p. 412). As a result, the communication between "separated individuals" is impeded, and the shared knowledge that is vital to the process is absent. Moreover, those glitches in contextual cues also prevent parties on either side of the process from "establishing mutual knowledge" and from "sharing unique knowledge," Leonardi continues (p. 412).

Those glitches pertain to just the communication technologies. There are also problems with storage technologies when a company is dealing with an offshore entity. At this point Leonardi embraces technological terms: He asserts that storage technologies store "decontextualized knowledge that is communicated asynchronously"; hence, those who later go to retrieved the storage technologies "struggle to appropriately apply it." Moreover, the have a difficult time integrating the stored knowledge into their "streams of action" (Leonardi, p. 412).

On page 415, without the use of technologically esoteric terminology, Leonardi puts his finger in one of the keys to understanding the problem of digital transfers to offshore sites. Many task-based offshoring arrangement involve highly trained technical experts "at the home site," but wait, the person at the other end tends to be "far less experienced" and therein lies the problem. Individuals at the other end of the transfer "may not be able to interpret the knowledge embedded in artifacts by their expert and distant colleagues," Leonardi write on page 415. The solution seems rather obvious: those individuals at the receiving end of the offshore experience may need more training in occupational skills and knowledge."

It seems a no-brainer to figure out that if the highly technical data that has been transferred to an offshore site cannot be fully understood, then it cannot be stored, or used for any worthy purpose at all. In this article, the authors use an example that had United States and Mexico collaborating on a development project related to automobile production. The U.S. / Mexico team sent digital technologies to India, but the Indian technology staff "lacked certain firm-specific knowledge of work practices" -- and moreover, the technicians in India were raised in families "without a car… [and] had never driven a car." Without the slightest bit of knowledge about how cars work, plus not being totally trained in the receipt of the digital files from the U.S. And Mexico, the Indians were ill prepared. One wonders why more thought wasn't put into this effort, but then again Leonardi wouldn't have an example to use if it all had gone smoothly.

Lin, Canchu, and Ha, Louisa. (2010). Subculture, Critical Mass, and Technology Use. Journal

Of Computer Information Systems, 50(3), 72-80.

The authors in this article review the concept of "critical mass" theory as it links with the "social construction of technology"; that is, the authors believe there has not been ample research into how critical mass helps explain the usages of technology in organizations. The authors (Lin, et al., 2010, p. 72) argue that "culture shapes social influence on technology use" and that the various subcultures in any organization have important influences on the use of technology.

If that sounds a bit circular and vague, they go on to simplify their narrative by focusing on a Midwestern state university in the U.S. that has about 2,500 faculty and staff members. The system that has been implemented at this university is called "Blackboard"; it is the interface for the "entire portal of the university internet site" (p. 72). Blackboard is a computer-mediated and comprehensive "information system" that is used for "information search, teaching, providing and receiving services from the university," Lin explains on page 72. By integrating such a system into all campus technologies -- into what is called an information communication technology (ICT) -- that means that every employee on campus, not just instructors and administrators, are empowered through this system.

That said, it is also important to understand that subcultures within the university have access to specific components of Blackboard. Professors, for example, have teaching tools to use within Blackboard; and though students were not included in the study, they certainly have benefited because of the tools available to faculty.

Moreover, the delivery of the beginnings of critical mass vis-a-vis usage of Blackboard means organizational members "are very likely to perceive the critical mass" as soon as they discover that "certain relevant others are among the early users," Lin explains. This harkens back to the fact that in any organization there will be stragglers, people who are technology-shy and need to be made comfortable with the new tools before they will utilize those tools. When top executives (and other leaders) in the organization are on board with the new technology, and when those individuals with "established reputations in their areas of expertise" are using the new tools (and they can become mentors for others), others will be willing to be "early adopters of the technologies," Lin goes on (p. 74). In essence the article is less about technology and more about engendering a critical mass of employees to become fully functional and comfortable with transformational technologies, notwithstanding the newness of it and the perceived difficulty in mastering it.

Mamaghani, Farrokh. (2010). The Social and Economic Impact of Information and Communication Technology on Developing Countries: An Analysis. International Journal of Management, 27(3), 607-625.

Mamaghani takes the strong position that information and communication technologies (ICT) can play a vital role in "accelerating economic growth" as well as promoting "sustainable local development" in developing nations. If used correctly, ICT can reduce poverty, Mamaghani asserts, and ICT can be a promoter of better health services as well as provide an expanded litany of educational services (Mamaghani, p. 607). That said, in order for ICT to be in a position to raise individual levels of income and help re-position a third world country's image in the world community, there must be an investment in education and infrastructure.

Without that investment, Mamaghani insists, these advances cannot be expected to take place. And that is the salient question to be asked: how many third world countries have the resources and funds to develop these technologies? And beyond the availability of money and resources, language plays a role, according to the author. Let's say the Chinese make an ICT investment in Egypt -- how will training be done if the user manuals are in Chinese? And if the education level in Egypt is quite low -- which in fact it is, as close to one-third of the citizens are illiterate -- that needs to be beefed up, Mamaghani writes, prior to any ICT upgrade. All that having been said, there are indeed technologies that can enhance educational levels in developing countries. One of those services is called the African Virtual University Project (AVU), and it has offered "efficient and cost-effective solution to urgent educational and economic development problems," Mamaghani continues on page 610. Basically the author is alluding to distance education as an answer to helping bright students in developing countries to know how to use these technologies prior to the installation of ICT.

The substance of Mamaghani's article is that technology can save the world, at least the world that truly needs assistance from the developed nations. One example of how the world of developing nations can be rescued from misery is in Botswana. This is another country that can use some help, hence the Livestock Identification Trace-back Systems (LITS) uses radio frequency identification technologies (RFID) to capture critical data on individual cattle. That data then is digitally transferred to a database and it allows the meat export officials to get proper certification from the European Union for the beef exports. No way could foot and mouth disease be tolerated in Europe again, hence, the LITS assures safe food for Europe and an expanding economy for Botswana, according to Mamaghani (p. 611).

Margherita, Alessandro, and Petti, Claudio. (2009). E-Business Adoption: A Readiness and Process Study of the Italian Tourism. International Journal of e-Business Management,

3(1), 3-19.

This article covers the issue of tourist operators and how information and communication technology (ICT) plays a role -- or could play a role -- in marketing their services. For example, why would a tour operator put a Website up and not make it interactive? If it is just an informational tool, the authors explain, it is not making full use of the technology. In many tour operators' Websites in Turkey and in China, potential travelers / visitors cannot purchase hotel rooms or make other purchases appropriate to their visit, Margherita explains.

It's not so much that the technology is not there to be used by the tour businesses, but the authors explain that "business re-engineering is often seen as a transformation-oriented rather than a process-focused initiative" (Margherita, p. 4). In other words, to the technology savvy tour operator providing the tools so people can do financial transactions online -- rather than just getting a confirmation email sent -- is just a process that needs to be launched. To those not as technology-savvy, it requires huge transformational adjustments, and many businesses see that process as risky or simply too difficult.