This case is a narrative of the acquisition of HIRA, a healthcare IT startup, by Conversant, a large global consulting powerhouse from a few years back. The clash of two different company cultures, their conflicting business strategies, different IT infrastructures, and very different customer sets created significant challenges in their…

How do you dynamically customize the programming language available in a context within an existing system, without changing the underlying system? This dissertation introduces a language design approach that addresses this problem. The basic idea is to structure programs as systems of multiple interacting levels of abstraction, where all of the…

The Contra Costa County Library is located within the greater San Francisco Bay Area. With 26 physical locations and a virtual branch, it has more than 400,000 cardholders and serves a population of almost 1 million. As part of developing a strategic plan to meet the needs of the public in the 21st century, the library hired a consultant to gather…

Administrators at Bowdoin College (Maine) have translated lessons learned from the process of administrative software conversion into ten commandments for other small colleges undertaking such changes. Three approaches to management information systems are outlined, with advantages and limitations highlighted, as well as the ten recommendations,…

Copyright law, together with the market logic it carries, penetrates deeply into our daily life. The copyright regime is so restrictive that it turns a normal learning process into a series of potential copyright violations. The Free Software Movement (FSM) represents a substantial community effort to counter this trend. It seeks to supersede the…

The 1993 CAUSE Conference included eight papers on the adoption of Total Quality Management (TQM), in its various forms, by information technology (IT) sections of colleges and universities. Papers have the following titles and authors: (1) "The Impact of TQM on an IT Organization: The First Eighteen Months" (Paul M. Morris), which…

The evolution of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is examined, focusing on what has changed and what has not changed much during that time. A variety of changes are noted: the development of multimedia capabilities, color, animation, and technical improvement of audio and video quality; availability of databases, better fit between…

This report, the first volume in a three volume set, summarizes the results of a study performed by the DELTA (Developing European Learning through Technological Advance) Unit in parallel with the projects underway in the research and development Exploratory Action. The report identifies the key issues, associated requirements and options, and…

This report, the second volume in a three volume set, summarizes the results of a study performed by the DELTA (Developing European Learning through Technological Advance) unit in parallel with the projects underway in the research and development Exploratory Action. The report identifies the key issues, associated requirements and options, and…

Seven papers from the 1988 CAUSE conference's Track III, Financial Impact and Considerations, are presented. They include: "Providing Applications Development Services in a Competitive Environment" (Donald E. Heller and Mary Ellen Bushnell); "The Cost of Not Staying Current" (Jack T. Tinsley and Betty R. Nyer); "Project…

Seven papers from the 1988 CAUSE conference's Track V, Impact of Departmental Computing, are presented. They include: "An Approach to Departmental Computing Support" (Cedric S. Bennett); "DEANS--A Fully Integrated Academic Network System" (Eloy Areu, Albert Klavon, and Robert Munn); "Departmental Systems for Administrative…

Six papers from the 1988 CAUSE conference's Track VI, Hardware/Software/Networking Strategies, are presented. They include: "Technological Synergies Are No Accident!" (James I. Penrod and Michael G. Dolence); "Augmentation Quotient" (William H. Branch); "Step 2: Of Bridges and Gateways--The Linking of Winthrop College's…

This article suggests that it is time for sociologists to redirect their focus from critiques of policy makers' unrealistic visions for information and communication technologies (ICTs) to the more generic issues that consistently mobilise resistance to ICTs within schools and education systems. There is an extraordinary difference between young…

Presented are the proceedings of a national conference of the Professional Association for Computing and Information Technology, formerly known as the College and University Systems Exchange (CAUSE). Papers are organized according to the conference's eight concurrent tracks in the areas of policy and planning, managing technologies integration,…