In prior ages, alternate worlds are associated with symbolic expressions of storied space, here termed "mythic space." The digital age brings new forms of virtual space that are co-existent with physical space. These virtual spaces may be understood as a contemporary representation of mythic space. This dissertation explores the paths by…

This research study provides the findings of a modified Delphi methodology conducted to define components and baseline for effective information technology governance for higher education institutions member of the Research University CIO Conclave (RUCC) in United States. The participating experts are Chief Information Officers (CIOs) of…

The purpose of this study was to find evidence that employees in the project role of systems and software tester may experience less effect on their trust of team members in other project roles when working in a virtual team setting. In this study, the independent variables of geographic proximity, culture, and communications were studied as…

Innovation is a survival tool for the corporate world to play in the ever competitive free global market in the 21st century. The innovation process, especially at the front end, is the most challenging phase because of the inextricably intertwined fuzziness of high uncertainty and the deficiency of information available. Although the uncertainty…

Research in team science suggests strategies for addressing difficulties that groups face when working together. This dissertation examines how student teams work in project based learning (PBL) environments, with the goal of creating strategies and technology to improve collaboration. The challenge of working in such a group is that the members…

The information visualization pipeline serves as a lossy communication channel for presentation of data on a screen-space of limited resolution. The lossy communication is not just a machine-only phenomenon due to information loss caused by translation of data, but also a reflection of the degree to which the human user can comprehend visual…

Classification, clustering and association mining are major tasks of data mining and have been widely used for knowledge discovery. Associative classification mining, the combination of both association rule mining and classification, has emerged as an indispensable way to support decision making and scientific research. In particular, it offers a…

Unethical behavior in the use of IT may result in significant negative impacts on the productivity, profitability, and reputation of the organization. IT exacerbates moral problems through its constant evolution, multi-faceted nature and encroachment into our personal and professional lives. People have difficulty recognizing moral…

Over the last two decades, firms have operated in "increasingly" accelerated "high-velocity" dynamic markets, which require them to become "agile." During the same time frame, firms have increasingly deployed complex enterprise systems--large-scale packaged software "innovations" that integrate and automate…

The past decade has projected much of Africa as a haven for cybercrime perpetration. This view was widely evidenced in Cameroon, a country regarded as a miniature Africa due to its diverse socio-cultural, economic and political characteristics. In spite of efforts by government to curb cybercrime, the perpetration rate has not declined due to a…

Software maintenance and support costs account for up to 60% of the overall software life cycle cost and often burdens tightly budgeted information technology (IT) organizations. Agile software development approach delivers business value early, but implications on software maintainability are still unknown. The purpose of this quantitative study…

The microfinance industry provides financial services to the world's poor in hopes of moving individuals and families out of poverty. This dissertation document suggests that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are changing the microfinance industry, especially given recent advancements in mobile banking, Internet usage and…

Compressed sensing (CS) is an emerging signal acquisition framework that goes against the traditional Nyquist sampling paradigm. CS demonstrates that a sparse, or compressible, signal can be acquired using a low rate acquisition process. Since noise is always present in practical data acquisition systems, sensing and reconstruction methods are…

Community colleges have long taken pride in their ability to adjust to changing workforce needs. They adjust when local plumbers union requires a new certification. They also adjust when a biotechnology manufacturer seeks workers to staff its state-of-the-art research facility. But what happens when a new industry materializes almost overnight?…

The globalized Knowledge Society of the 21st century brings with it important changes in models of work and lifestyle, triggered by the revolution in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). It has led to new ways of understanding knowledge itself, human activity, and consequently, professional and economic activity. In this current…