Information infrastructure

About: Information infrastructure is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4017 publications have been published within this topic receiving 70440 citations.

Identifying, understanding, and analyzing critical infrastructure interdependencies

Abstract: The notion that our nation's critical infrastructures are highly interconnected and mutually dependent in complex ways, both physically and through a host of information and communications technologies (so-called "cyberbased systems"), is more than an abstract, theoretical concept. As shown by the 1998 failure of the Galaxy 4 telecommunications satellite, the prolonged power crisis in California, and many other recent infrastructure disruptions, what happens to one infrastructure can directly and indirectly affect other infrastructures, impact large geographic regions and send ripples throughout the national a global economy. This article presents a conceptual framework for addressing infrastructure interdependencies that could serve as the basis for further understanding and scholarship in this important area. We use this framework to explore the challenges and complexities of interdependency. We set the stage for this discussion by explicitly defining the terms infrastructure, infrastructure dependencies, and infrastructure interdependencies and introducing the fundamental concept of infrastructures as complex adaptive systems. We then focus on the interrelated factors and system conditions that collectively define the six dimensions. Finally, we discuss some of the research challenges involved in developing, applying, and validating modeling and simulation methodologies and tools for infrastructure interdependency analysis.

Adoption of new information technologies in rural small businesses

Abstract: The media discussion on `information superhighway', `Internet' and `national information infrastructure (NII)' has highlighted the potential of information technology in modern society. The changes in information and communication technologies provide both opportunities and threats to small businesses located in rural communities. The objective of this study is to identify the state of use of various communications technologies and the factors that influence the adoption of these technologies in small businesses located in rural communities in the US. A research model is postulated that contains 10 independent variables under three broad categories — innovation, organizational and environmental characteristics. The dependent variable, adoption of information and communication technologies, is measured as the degree of adoption of four modern communication technologies by the organization. Data from 78 organizations were collected using a structured interview process. The results of data analysis using discriminant analysis indicate that relative advantage, top management support, organizational size, external pressure and competitive pressure are important determinants of adoption.

Electronic commerce: structures and issues

Abstract: Electronic commerce (E-commerce) is sharing business information, maintaining business relationships, and conducting business transactions by means of telecommunications networks. Traditional E-commerce, conducted with the use of information technologies centering on electronic data interchange (EDI) over proprietary value-added networks, is rapidly moving to the Internet. The Internet's World Wide Web has become the prime driver of contemporary E-commerce. This paper presents a hierarchical framework of E-commerce, consisting of three meta-levels: infrastructure, services, and products and structures, which, in turn, consist of seven functional levels. These levels of E-commerce development, as well as of analysis, range from the wide-area telecommunications infrastructure to electronic marketplaces and electronic hierarchies enabled by E-commerce. Several nodal problems are discussed that will define future development in E-commerce, including integrating electronic payment into the buying process, building a consumer marketplace, the governance of electronic business, and the new intermediation. The paper also introduces the International Journal of Electronic Commerce, which will provide an integrated view of the new E-commerce.

Measuring the Flexibility of Information Technology Infrastructure: Exploratory Analysis of a Construct

Abstract: Researchers and practitioners alike have taken note of the potential value of an organization's IT infrastructure. IT infrastructure expenditures account for over 58 percent of an organization's IT budget and the percentage is growing at 11 percent a year. Some even have called IT infrastructure the new competitive weapon and see it as being crucial in developing a sustained competitive advantage. Unique characteristics of an IT infrastructure determine the value of that infrastructure to an organization. One characteristic, IT infrastructure flexibility, has captured the attention of researchers and practitioners. In fact, in most recent surveys featuring issues of most importance to IT executives, the development of a flexible and responsive IT infrastructure and related topics are always at or near the top of the responses. Although the importance of IT infrastructure flexibility has been established, the development of a valid, reliable instrument to measure this construct has not been reported in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to better define the IT infrastructure flexibility construct and to develop a valid, reliable measurement instrument for this construct. In addition to the definition and operationalization of the IT infrastructure flexibility construct, this study explores the instrument's predictive validity with possible antecedent and consequent variables.