企业架构设计及其在一位信息与通信技术

硕士毕业生的早起职业生涯里的影响

何文超

01 Apr 2010

2010年4月1日，我应邀回到我的母校之一卧龙岗大学做了一次演讲，听众主要是上“Enterprise Architecture Design”这门课的IT学生。我以我自身的经历，向他们传达一个很重要的信息——企业架构设计的技能，可以从不同的方面应用于实际工作中，它对IT职业生涯发展十分有帮助！以下是当时演讲的幻灯片，欢迎下载：

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Knowledge Management System for Web 2.0 Technology-Supported Electronic Television Program Guide

Wenchao He      Michael Jefferies Shankai Zhang Han Qin

School of Information System and Technology

Faculty of Informatics, University of Wollongong, Australia

Executive Summary

1    Introduction

1.1    Background

Program guides are designed to provide the users a categorical view of the content that can be viewed within a given day, week, or month. With the expansion of the internet capabilities such as Web 2.0, Electronic Program Guides have been an integral part of TV and Cable broadcasting, providing online and TV set feedback to the user directly.

1.2    Problem Statement

The rapid expansion of television content and channels has made theinformation on TV program guides overloaded. Users are not informed relevantprograms at the right time and they find it difficult to choose between thevast amount of content and channels. The problem is Cable providers andBroadcasters have no Program guide that is expandable in the near future.  Users often have their viewable content limited too a number of large content providers often overlooking some relevantprograms from small content providers.

1.3    Method

The approach that will be taken will be firstly to develop an organisation modelling methodology to contextualise the organisation and problem. This will be done in the CommonKADs framework (Schreiber et al.2000) starting with the OM-1 identifying the problems and opportunities that have arisen, then secondly the OM-2 which analyses variant aspects of the organisation in context. The next step is to break down the business processes in the OM-3 to identify details of critical tasks, while the final OM-4 is to classify knowledge assets in the organisation.

The social analysis will be an integrated approach involving the conclusions drawn from each organisation model of CommonKADs. This section will focus directly on providing social theory to link problem with potentialanswers. Finally, a business feasibility analysis will be conducted using the results from the CommonKADs analysis and social analysis of the TV program guide information overloaded problem.

1.4    Thesis Statement

This report has proposed the solution to be a user profile oriented program guide supported by Web 2.0 technology. The solution has been analysed and derived by the CommonKADs framework and social analysis. The businessfeasibility analysis has demonstrated that the proposed solution is practicable for Cable providers and broadcasting providers, although minor risks have been identified with the proposed solution.

1.5    Outline of the Report

The report will initially discuss the background of the problem where the problems and opportunities of Cable providers and broadcasting provider sand their organisational contexts will be analysed using OM-1 to propose a potential solution.

The second section will include the Organisational Analysis which identifies the organisation structure, processes, people and resources. This will also include the knowledge resources within the organisation and particular cultural and power issues surrounding the organisational environment.

The third part of this report will focus on the task breakdown and knowledge assets. The process or task breakdown will identify critical knowledge components.

The fourth major component of this report is the Business feasibility which will draw together conclusions from the CommonKADs methodology and the social analysis of the issue at hand. This will discuss the proposed changes to organisation structure, including expected organisational benefits and potential risks.

The final component will make recommendations in the form of a proposed solution to the problem defined by the CommonKADs framework. This will recommend the user profile oriented electronic program guides to solve this problem.

2.1.2    Opportunities

The first opportunity is that Cable providers and Broadcasters could receive significantly more users and subscribers by providing more content and programs (such as to equal that of the Internet).

The second perceived opportunity will be that from a users point of view, in which viewers will have significantly more content and programs to choose from without being limited to Cable sponsored channels.

2.2    Organisational Contexts

The purpose of Cable providers and Broadcasting providers is to provide the link between content and viewers so that TV programs can be accessed and viewed on their Television sets. Cable providers refer to organisations that provide availability to several hundreds of channels by either satellite or cable. They do not necessarily produce the content, which is generally done by the content providers.

The key players involved in the Cable providers are the employees, management and technicians.  On an external level are organisations that provide the content which produce the programs and actual content and the broadcast organisations which provide the link between content organisations and the end user (the viewer).

Cable providers or Digital television providers provide numerous channels and links to different content providers in order to receive subscribers – the main source of their revenue and livelihood. Clearly the only strategy is to increase the number of subscribers to their network by increasing their content spread and availability. To do this they must be able to cope with expanding technologies and competition such as that from the Internet. They must also be able to provide content from the smaller productions by advertising their programs to viewers, rather than focusing on the largerorganisations.

2.3    Social Analysis

The TV medium has been predominately a monopolistic industry regardless of country with a small number of large content providers dominating the primetime space. For example, in Australiathe two major cable providers are Foxtel and Optus. They provide a link between content providers and the viewer. Their services are often highly competitive with the duopoly often creating an extremely competitive environment each trying to outdo each other in terms of content, availability and quality.

2.4    Proposed Solution

The proposed solution is to utilise Web 2.0 technology to increase the range of content available to users by removing or eliminating the traditional limited project selection in order to create user oriented profiles for personalised television viewing. This will provide access to a larger number of content providers and channels regardless of their organisational size in order to reduce the hold larger content providers have on cable, satellite and digital services.

2.5    Problem Statement

The clear problem is the fact that the range of viewable and accessible content is rapidly growing to point where digital, cable and satellite providers have to considered options to expand methods to allow their subscribers to access this information especially if it is relevant to their needs and desires. The need for equal advertisement and air time for all providers will also need to be addressed by these providers in order to satisfy the subscribers of their services. Cable, Satellite and digital providers should be capable of delivering content that is suitable and relevant from arange of different services in order to meet these requirements.

3    Organisational Analysis


3.1    Organisation Structure

3.2  Business Processe

The current traditional process of conducting business in cable, satellite and digital television providers are to gather resources from content providers, mostly large and known providers. These programs are transmitted to the user by either cable or satellite facilities at which the local house or place has a receiver (digital set top box or cable receiver)which allows users to access all the channels and content provided by the cable TV provider. At this time, the user chooses between different programs and depending on the relevance to his/her desire and needs to choose the most appropriate to view.

OM-2:  Business Processes

3.3    People Involved

There are several key actors/people involved within this organisation. Since we established that the Cable Providers are the organisation in focus we have actors such as technical staff, support andoperation staff, middle line management and strategic management. Theseinternal actors can be seen in the organisational structure chart in 3.1. There are also external organisations and actors associated with this organisation. Although they are not directly related with the services provided by the cableprovider/s, they do have some interaction. These include competitors, content providers, broadcast providers, media authorities and customers.

OM-2:  People Involved

3.4    Resources Involved

There are several different resources involved in this organisation from gathering content to communicating it with the end user (the viewer). These include video or TV program archives, the methods of transmitting to the user via cable connection, satellite or digital devices andend user devices such as Digital television, set top boxes, satellite dishes orcable receivers. Technical staff requires a detailed amount of knowledge inthese respective areas including installation, operation and maintenance. Operation staff also requires accounting/billing systems and accounts to maintenance the users current status, payments and other details. This could typically be a database.

3.5  Knowledge Resources Involved

Some of the knowledge resources include Program databases, such as program running times, classifications, genre, channels, program descriptions and actors. Another knowledge item would be the user interests which refers to the preferences of the users in terms of the TV programs. This knowledge aspect would often be categorised and easy to assimilate into understandable means. In the same sense we could also understand knowledge such as program dislikes which refers to programs that have never been viewed or accessed by a specific user. This could help to identify the programs that the user may not be interested in. The final knowledge component is the content type which may represent several different mediums or programs. The idea is to understand the many forms of media and content.

3.6  Culture and Power Issues

There are several issues with the organisation that are important to discuss. Cable, Satellite and Digital TV providers are notorious for providing TV programs produced by the ‘big guys’. Most cable organisations have strategic alliances with large production or content providers. Another issue revolves around the censorship of particular content and the moderation of such information. Media authorities play a key role in this aspect, and organisations such as Cable providers must abide by these rules and regulations otherwise serious consequences can arise. Communications in organisations likeCable providers often are rigid and sensitive; as such programs are often linked to broadcasting rights.

3.7    Social Analysis

The frameworks of every organisation are unique and often have different business practices and processes to get tasks done. Cable providers for example are no different. The OM-2 Model identified the variable aspects of the cable provider’s generic model showing the business processes andorganisational structure.

Perhaps traditional organisational focus on business-orientation has been phased out or has no room in the new technological age of the semantic Web2.0. The focus should shift towards a customer oriented style of business, such as gathering feedback and meeting the customer’s needs. The solution to the problem should enable Cable providers to step into the future of business, focusing on meeting the needs of customers and clients by implementing a technological solution to expand their viewing portfolio and choosing to take important information from their most valued asset – the customer.

4    Task and Knowledge Analysis

4.1  Task Break-Down

The worksheet OM-3 depicts the task break-down in the previous present of main business process. The whole business process is generally divided into three parts: Gathering resources, Transmitting process and Users choosing. To finish the whole business process, the tasks must be finished in a sequential order beginning from the providers’ side, going through the middleman transmitters, and finally ending at the users’ side.

Each part differentiates at its knowledge assets involved. Each part differentiates at its knowledge assets involved as they are different role players in the entire business chain without many activities sharing happening. In the initiator’s side, as the origin of the whole supply process which is really decided the meaning and quality of whole TV industry, the speciality evaluation knowledge and the insight of whole market and customer’s demands are more needed to be special in. The second task, from the transmitter’ side, knowledge of technical aspects is given more consideration including devices manipulation and maintain. Last part to provide a product which in here is not completely and well design for every consumer to be use is the aim of the whole process. Users play the key role in the using process, so they are assumed they armed with knowledge of recognizing information and device manipulation.

The high significances are given to tasks of gathering resources and transmitting process considering the important role initiators play and the ensuring of product safety and availability transmitter need to undertake. The choose of TV programs is really upon individual preference and users choosing is the end point of the whole business process also means this part will not influence in others. So the significance of the knowledge assets in the user side is put in a low level.

4.2      Knowledge Components

The OM-4 table gives a description of main knowledge assets involved in the whole TV business process. Due to different department functions and the role department play in the whole business process, different knowledge from a number of different areas is assessed. Knowledge of TV content evaluation and Marketing is so important because they are the preparation of whole business activity and the origin of information overload in TV channels. During the assess process, interaction with consumers was found is the key area those two knowledge assets overlook. In the aspect of user, it is hard to identify all information the providers provide as information is overloaded and the form of presenting information is ineffective.

4.3    Social Analysis

Secondly, the utilising of the Web 2.0 notion emphasizes the change from the form of tacit knowledge personal feeling to explicit knowledge TV programs preference. Two dimensions are indicated for tacit knowledge. One is the technical dimension which often referred to as “know-how” encompassing the kind of informal personal skills or crafts and one is the cognitive dimension which is made of beliefs, ideals, values, schemata, and mental models that are deeply ingrained in us (Nonaka and Konno 1998). On the other side, explicit knowledge point at the way of expressing in words and numbers which are shared in the form of data, scientific formulate specifications, manuals and the like (Nonaka and Konno 1998). In the situation of TV users, most of their tacit knowledge is the cognitive dimension type. The change from personal feeling to TV programs preference benefits in users locating programs and not to cost another time to find something uncertain.

5    Business Feasibility

5.1    New Organisation Structure

The Web 2.0 technology-supported solution has taken users’ perspective into account when providing TV program guide. This will have an impact on the organisational structure. While rethinking and redesigning TV cable providers’ operating processes, we should focus on the organisation’s core competencies in order to achieve dramatic improvements in organisational performance (Lowenthal 1994). With applying the proposed solution, TV cable providers are to enhance their core competencies in the user management area. This includes a technical part as well as non-technical support. In the new organisation structure, two new departments will be created to support the new business processes. One is the Information System Department, in which there are several function units such as user interface design and maintenance, database management, information system administrators, IT infrastructure management, etc. Internally, this department will be technically in charge of the new system to collect, store, and make use of the information about users’ preference and viewing behavior.

The other new department is Customer Relationship Management Department. In the Web 2.0 technology solution context, such department should have three new sub-units, which will be online community moderation, program guide editing and user feedback management. This department will be in charge of initiating online interaction amongst users and between users and the organisation. The interaction can be supported by social networking service based on users’ common interests, discussion board, program rating and commenting. To make use of the information and knowledge generated by the users, it is necessary to reorganise the data for the program guide editing (e.g., an introduction to a show includes a digest of users’ discussion on the actors/actresses who will appear in that show). Furthermore, if users provide the organisation with suggestion or complaints, such information should also be organised and sent to relevant departments within the organisation.

New Organisational Structure

5.2      Expected Benefits for the Organisation

5.2.1 Increase of Revenue

As the digital TV cable providers apply the Web 2.0 technology-supported solution into practice, users’ satisfaction may be increased because they will have a better experience of using the digital TV broadcasting service with personalised guidance. This will lead to the increase of the organisations’ revenue as potential users are more likely to subscribe to the service. The root of the increase of revenue is that the new solution can enhance the intellectual capital of the organisations. Intellectual capital is the intellectual material – knowledge, information, intellectual property, experience – that can be put to create wealth (Stewart 1997). The activities and the behaviours of the users within the Web 2.0 framework keep generating such intellectual material and convey it to the organisations.

An organisation’s intellectual property is indicated by various factors, which include finance, customer, human, process, renewal and development (Kaplan and Norton 1992). Figure 1 is the balanced scorecard by Kaplan and Norton (1992), in which customer perspective is recognised as one of the important components of measuring an organisation’s intellectual capital. If we focus on “entities” instead of “perspectives”, the core value of intellectual capital is from human capital, organisational capital and customer capital (see Figure 2) (Petrash 1996). Thus, it is obvious that digital TV users’ satisfaction and feedback are forming a critical part of the cable providers’ intellectual property. The new solution will be facilitating the transition from customers’ experience into the organisations’ managed knowledge asset. This asset will be ultimately part of the organisations’ intellectual capital which is expected to create tangible benefit from sales.

· Figure 1 The Balanced Scorecard by Kaplan and Noron (1992)

· Figure 2 Intellectual Capital Framework by Petrash (1996)

5.2.2 Improvement of the Organisation’s Image

By applying the Web 2.0 technology-supported solution, the organisations’ public images will be managed and improved. Traditionally, much research into corporate image concluded that corporate image is determined mostly by the organisation per se (e.g., logos, advertisement, business management, etc.) (Dowling 1986; Wreford 1987). However, more and more researchers have found that image is also determined by both environmental and personal factors of the audience member. The combination of all these factors becomes a part of the impression-formation process and produces an overall perceptually-based audience image (Haedrich 1993; Moffitt 1994; Williams and Moffitt 1997).

Social networking activities amongst current and potential customers of the organisations are personal factors that influence the organisations’ image. In the traditional one way communication mode between digital TV program guide and current customers, it is difficult for the organisations to perceive, manage and response to such personal factors. To a large extent, the organisations’ image is at risk as long as the external factors are not controllable. This difficulty is determined by the nature of the knowledge generated during people’s socialisation. Such knowledge is usually about people’s ideas, feelings and experience and it is considered as tacit knowledge (Nonaka and Konno 1998).

However, if the organisations adopt the Web 2.0 technology-supported solution, such communication will be made explicit because customers are encouraged to use specific figures, words and/or choices to convey their preferences, feelings, ideas, and experiences on the mediums managed by the organisations. The organisations then combine the information from the customers into their service and response quickly once they receive negative feedback from the customers (e.g., low rating of a program, complaint on the online forum, etc.) so that the organisations’ image will be protected and improved as the customers will perceive the organisations’ respecting their feedback.

5.3  Risks of the Change

5.3.1   Immaturity of the New Solution

Although Web2.0 is used for EPG, it is still not mature enough for matching exactly the needs to the customer. Due to the high development of the current Internet technology, the organisation and the people can be connected much easier than ever before by network. Even by using the most advanced technology, some information can still not match the customer’s needs. So there must be some balance between richness and reach (Evans and Wurster 1997). In our situation, although the Web 2.0 will be merged with the EPG, no one knows whether this combination can work well or not. In other words, whether the new technology can customize the needs to the customers is still a question. Probably, when a customer search for a particular program, although most relevant information will be listed, some programs still may not appear on the screen. Consequently, the customer may potentially miss some really important programs which relates to his/her demand, but he/she has assumed that the “machine” is correct and does not manually browse the traditional view of TV program guide.

5.3.2   Small Content Providers May Be Still at Risk in the New Solution

Due to the similarities of the program, the small companies’ channels are usually ranking behind the big ones. According to Macdonald (1998), if the piece of information is scarce, the value of that information is just like gold (Macdonald 1998). On the other hand, if the information is very common and nearly every body knows, the value of that information will become poorer and poorer. In our situation, once both the big content provider and the small one provide the same or the similar programs, the EPG must list the big company’s content in front of the small company due to the strength of the big corporation. For most customers, they usually look at the first couple of programs and neglect the rest ones which may still affect the small company’s advertisement revenue. Thus, in order to survive in the competitive market, the small company has to do more brainstorming and try to be innovative and create some unique programs that the big company doesn’t have so that their programs can be the top one. As a result, they can attract more advertisements and their revenue can be guaranteed.

5.3.3   Fake Message Attack

Since small broadcasters can utilize the web to develop the online community, it is possible for the rival to post the fake message to criticize the company’s reputation.  According to Green (2000), in order to survive in today’s competitive world, a company has to find a good competition way to survive. The competition includes the normal competition and abnormal competition which most companies will take advantage in the market (Green 2000). In our situation, some companies may use the abnormal competition approach. As all the comments posted via the online portal could be anonymous and could be with fake identities attached, it is easy for a competitor to text any fake and bad information on the notice board without worrying about being sued by the law. When an audience reads the message, he/she may probably believe it and even transfer it into other forums. Consequently, the company’s reputation will be affected negatively and face the potential threat of losing customers.

6    Recommendations

6.1    Construction of a Two-Way Communication Channel

The existing one-way communication channel between the organisations and the customers stops the organisations from learning the customers’ program view preference, interests, feelings, etc. Such learning need is increasing as the information about programs seems to be overloaded because the digital TV cable providers have to provide the viewers with more relevant information. A two-way communication channel can facilitate the information flow from the viewers to the broadcasters. The interaction between the organisations and the customers helps increase the quality of the service as the presentation of the program guides can be modified according to viewers’ feedback.

6.2    Construction of the Profiles for Users and Programs and the Matching Mechanism

6.3    Business Process Reengineering and Enterprise Architecture Redesign

6.4    Reviewing the Solution

7    Conclusion

This report has used the CommonKADS method and social analysis approaches to identify the problems and opportunities of the electronic TV program guides which have emerged because TV channels and programs keep growing dramatically. The main problems are that the information from the increasing TV channels and programs seems to be overloaded and in the traditional one-way communication mode, it is difficult for TV cable providers to provide the users with the right programs at the right time. On the users’ side, because there are too many choices and they are not familiar with most of the channels and programs, so they only rely on several major channels which leads to smaller content providers’ being left out.

Thus, it is believed that if cable providers solve these problems, they will attract more subscribers. A Web 2.0 technology-supported solution has been proposed to solve the problems. In the proposed solution, profiles of users and programs are used to create personalised TV program guides within an automatic matching mechanism. However, the current organisational structure and business processes do not support the new solution because the responsibilities of the people involved in the current structure and process have nothing to do with the new knowledge management system. Thus, it is necessary for the organisations to redesign the enterprise architecture and reengineer the business process. New departments such as information system management department and customer relationship management department need to be created. Relevant IT infrastructure should be set up. As the new solution being implemented, users’ tacit knowledge will be transferred to explicit knowledge on managed mediums and made available to the organisations. Such explicit knowledge will be used for TV program guide personalisation. As a result, the organisations’ revenue will be increased because the new solution helps them increase their “customer capital”.  On the other hand, the organisations’ image will be improved because the new solution helps them better manage and monitor their users’ social activities where their image is carried. Some risks of the solution have also been addressed. To implement the solution, the organisations should be concerned about the immaturity of the new practice, the at-risk smaller content providers and fake message attack.

Finally, based on the comprehensive analysis, it is recommended that the organisations should construct the two-way communication channels between the organisations and the users,  set up the profile matching mechanism,  complete the business process reengineering and enterprise architecture redesign in time, and review the new solution as it is being implemented.

8   References

Davenport, T & Prusak, L 1997, ‘Information politics: information is not innocent’, in Davenport, T H & Prusak, L (eds.), Information Ecology: Mastering the Information and Knowledge Environment, Oxford University Press, New York, pp67-82.

Dowling, G R 1986, ‘Managing your corporate images’, Industrial Marketing Management, vol.15, pp109-115.

Evans, P B & Wurster, T S 1997, Strategy and the new economics of information, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.

Green, R 2000, ‘Competition in Generation: The Economic Foundations’, Proceedings of the IEEE, vol.88, no.2, pp128 – 139.

Haedrich, G 1993, ‘lmage and strategic corporate and marketing planning’, Journal of Public Relations Research, vol.5, pp83-93.

Kaplan, R S & Norton, D P 1992, ‘The balanced scorecard as a strategic management system’, Harvard Business Review, vol.70, no.1, pp71-79.

Lowenthal, J N 1994, Reengineering the Organization: A Step-By-Step Approach to Corporate Revitalization, ASQC Quality Press, Milwaukee, USA.

Macdonald, S 1998, The Nature of Information, Oxford University Press, New York.

Moffitt, M A 1994, ‘A cultural studies peapective toward understanding corporate image: A case study of state farm insurance’, Journal of Public Relations Research, vol.6, pp41-66.

Nonaka, I & Konno, N 1998, ‘The concept of “Ba”: Building a foundation for knowledge creation’, California Management Review, vol.40, no.3, pp40-54.

Petrash, G 1996, ‘Dow’s journey to a knowledge value management culture’, European Management Journal, vol.14, no.4, pp365-373.

Schreiber, G, Akkermans, H, Anjewierden, A, De Hoog, R, Shadbolt, N, Van de Velde, W & Wielinga, B 2000, Knowledge Engineering and Management : the CommonKADS Methodology, MIT Press, Cambridge.

Stewart, T A 1997, Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations, Doubleday/Currency, New York.

Williams, S L & Moffitt, M A 1997, ‘Corporate Image as an Impression Formation Process: Prioritizing Personal, Organizational, and Environmental Audience Factors’, Journal of Public Relations Research, vol.9, no.4, pp237-258.

Wreford, A 1987, ‘Planning far corporate communicarions’, in Han, N A (eds.), Effective corporate relations, McGraw-Hill, London, pp9-21.

1     Introduction

Emergent Medical Service （EMS） in the Netherlands has experienced difficulties in saving acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients’ lives by avoiding delay for treatment. The problem was associated with various weaknesses of the service system, which included (1) delay of patient (i.e., the patients did not contact their GP or EMS when the AMI occurred), (2) delay of GP (i.e., it took some time for the patients to see a GP and it took some time for the GP to diagnose the patients and decide to redirect them to EMS), and (3) delay of treatment (i.e., when the patients were delivered to the hospital, they might not receive treatment immediately) (He 2009).

As a result, a new solution proposed by EMS was to allow citizen to call EMS directly. An alternative solution proposed by He (2009) is to develop a priority service system for AMI patients and only let this kind of patients bypass the GP. In He (2009), the service processes within EMS has been analysed through a CommonKADS framework (Schreiber et al. 2000), but some theoretical and practical issues were not covered under the CommonKADS framework and still left unsolved. This paper will use another two frameworks to analyse the unsolved issues associating with the implementation of the solution by He (2009) from a social perspective.

2     Issues Identified

2.1   Absence of Systematic Analysis

CommonKADS can help identify key processes, knowledge, and problems within an organisation. However, this approach looks into the organisation from a general dimension gradually to more and more specific aspects. It can not provide us with a more systematic view of the organisation. If a problem is only rooted in one position or one task within the processes, then CommonKADS may be a good method to locate and analyse that particular point. For example, Task 2 Emergency Assessment by dispatchers was identified as problematic in OM-3 within the CommonKADS framework and then OM-4, TM-1 and AM-1 further detailed the knowledge asset and the agent involved in Task 2 (He 2009). The implementation of the new solution led by such findings within CommonKADS framework may ignore the factors from other departments of the organisations (e.g., Ambulance Service and AMI professionals) as well as from outside of EMS (e.g., GP, public media, etc.). In other words, the result from the CommonKADS analysis indicates that the focus for further action should be on Task 2 Emergency Assessment. However, this is obviously insufficient for developing a priority service for AMI patients.

2.2   Absence of Guidance on Implementing the New Solution

Although CommonKADS analysis of the EMS case specified the information about the problems existing in the current situation, it did not provide a clear guidance on implementing a new solution. This is a practical issue that prevent us from directly applying the CommonKADS analysis to the development of a new knowledge management system for EMS.

Even though the CommonKADS analysis can draw our attention to the knowledge management in the Dispatch Centre and specific problems associated with one of the dispatchers’ tasks—Emergency Assessment, have been identified, it did not indicate any direction for solving the problems. The CommondKADS framework lacks pre-defined general outcome for different kinds of input to each model in the framework. Thus, to make use of the CommonKADS analysis, we had better to put its results to other more practical frameworks and figure out the suggestion for a new solution.

3     Theoretical Frameworks

3.1   The SECI Model and Four Types of “Ba”

Nonaka and Konno (1998) introduced the Japanese concept of “Ba” to organisational theory. Ba is a shared space for emerging relationships such as a physical, virtual or mental space. They believe that knowledge is embedded in Ba, and knowledge is created within a spiralling process of interaction between explicit and tact knowledge, which is based on four specific platforms, namely Socialisation, Externalisation, Combination and Internalisation—the SECI Model. There are four types of Ba that correspond to the four stages of the SECI Model (Nonaka and Konno 1998):

(1) Originating Ba for Socialisation: Originating Ba is the place where individuals share feelings, emotions, experiences and mental models. It supports Socialisation in which tacit knowledge is exchanged through joint activities.

(2) Interacting Ba for Externalisation: Interacting Ba is the place where tacit knowledge is made explicit via peer-to-peer dialogue and extensive use of metaphors. This process represents Externalisation.

(3) Cyber Ba for Combination: Cyber Ba is the place of interaction in a virtual world instead of real space and time, where new explicit knowledge is generated and systematised through out the organisation by the combination of new explicit knowledge and existing information and knowledge.

(4) Exercising Ba for Internalisation: Exercising Ba is the place where the conversion of explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge is facilitated. Such conversion takes place when individuals use explicit knowledge in real life or simulated applications. Eventually the individuals internalise the knowledge.

3.2   Information Governance Models

Based on the degree of local or centralised control of the information environment, March (1997) developed four information governance models to describe the features of an organisation in terms of information politics:

(1) Information Monarchy: one individual or function controls most of an organisation’s information.

(2) Information Federalism: only a few information elements need to be defined and managed centrally, while the rest can be left up to local units.

(3) Information Feudalism: business unit managers control their information environments like lords in so many separate castles.

(4) Information Anarchy: every individual fends for himself or herself and defines information on their own terms.

These four models are based on the consideration of the control of information. There are some other models based on other dimensions. For example, a Market-Based Model can be used to describe organisations that put a variety of different types of information into a database but only maintain that which is heavily accessed by users. In other words, the demand for information controls how it is governed. Furthermore, a Technocratic Utopias Model can be used to describe those organisations assuming that technology will solve all problems of information governance (March 1997).

4     Findings

4.1   Using the SECI Model for a Systematic Solution

The SECI Model associated with the four types of Ba provides us with systematic view of knowledge creation and conversion and it is useful for analysing the EMS case from a systems perspective. Applying the SECI Model to the case can complement the CommonKADS method’s weakness in terms of systematic analysis.

To implement the new solution (i.e., developing a priority service system for AMI patients and allowing actual or suspicious AMI patients to call EMS directly), the dispatchers should play a critical role the emergency service processes. Once the dispatcher receives a call from a patient who claims he or she has AMI, the dispatcher should use assess the emergency based on what the patient says and determine if the case is eligible for the priority service. According to the case description and the CommonKADS analysis (He 2009), the main knowledge for assessing emergency was triage, but the knowledge was tacit and difficult to transfer. Sometimes the dispatchers have limitation in triage of some illness (e.g., AMI). Furthermore, the dispatchers did not socialise with the Ambulance personnel so their knowledge can not be exchanged and converted.

If we apply the SECI model in the implementation of the new solution, we should construct the four types of Ba to facilitate the four stages of knowledge conversion. The dispatchers should socialise with the Ambulance personnel so that they exchange tacit knowledge about patients who need emergent treatment (Socialisation). Then they should work with the AMI experts to develop an explicit protocol specifying what criteria should be met for determining a caller as suspicious AMI patients (Externalisation). After that, the protocol should be used for training and assessing dispatchers (Combination). Finally the dispatchers apply the new explicit knowledge into their work and make it tacit again (Internalisation). As a result, they may use the knowledge to assess emergency more accurately and efficiently.

4.2   The Information Federalism Model as a Guidance on Implementing the New Solution

The CommonKADS analysis lacks guidance on implementing the new solution because it does not generate output (e.g., suggestion) after we input information into its various models, whereas March’s (1997) information governance models not only helps us classify the information politics within an organisation but also provides us with suggestion on how to take advantage of a particular model.

Generally, the Information Federalism Model may be suitable for describing EMS’s information environment. On the one hand, EMS is part of a complex system—Municipal Medical and Sanitary Service and EMS define their own information such as the procedure of dealing with a call at the Dispatch Centre. On the other hand, EMS is controlled and supervised by General and Social Sanitary Care. EMS should follow various guidelines defined by their higher management. For example, they are asked to minimise the number of dispatches that do not result in patient transport to the hospital.

To apply the model into the implementation of the new solution, General and Social Sanitary Care should allocate AMI experts to work with the dispatchers to develop a protocol for assessing calls claiming AMI. Such protocol is information developed centrally and shared across departments. On the other hand, Dispatch Centre and Ambulance Service can still define their own ways for implementing the protocol. For example, Dispatch Centre can define their own plan for training the dispatchers to use the protocol in their work, and Ambulance Service can define what paramedics and drivers should do once they are told to pick up an AMI patient.

5     Conclusion

CommonKADS analysis can effectively help us locate and define problems within an organisation and its business processes. Nevertheless, it can not provide us with a systematic view for the solution, nor does it output clear guidance on implementing solutions. The SECI Model and the information governance models can complement CommonKADS. In this paper, the two frameworks have been used to perform a social analysis of the EMS case in regard to the implementation of the new solution. On the one hand, the SECI Model is used to facilitate knowledge creation and conversion within EMS. On the other, the Information Federalism model depicts a guideline for both higher management and local units to implement the new solution.

6 Reference

He, W. 2009. ‘Modelling Emergent Medical Service in the Netherlands with CommonCADS’: Unpublished assignment for ISIT917, University of Wollongong, Australia.

March, J 1997, ‘Information politics: Information is not innocent’, in Davenport, T H & Prusak, L (eds.), Information Ecology: Mastering the Information and Knowledge Environment, Oxford University Press, New York, pp67-82.

Nonaka, I & Konno, N 1998, ‘The concept of “Ba”: Building a foundation for knowledge creation’, California Management Review, vol.40, no.3, pp40-54.

Schreiber, G, Akkermans, H, Anjewierden, A, De Hoog, R, Shadbolt, N, Van de Velde, W & Wielinga, B 2000, Knowledge Engineering and Management : the CommonKADS Methodology, MIT Press, Cambridge.

Modeling Emergent Medical Service in

the Netherlands with CommonCADS

Wenchao He

School of Information Systems and Technology

Faculty of Informatics, University of Wollongong, Australia

1   Introduction

Emergent Medical Service in the Netherlands has experienced difficulties in saving acute myocardial infarction patients’ lives by avoiding delay for treatment. A new knowledge system should be introduced to the organization to improve their business processes. Before a proper solution to the problem is developed, an insight into the organization is necessary. In this paper, CommonKADS methodology (Schreiber et al. 2000) is used to perform a scoping and feasibility study and an impact and improvement study by modeling the organization from different aspects.

2   Scoping and Feasibility Study

2.1    OM-1: Problems and Opportunities

EMS aims to quickly transfer patients in need to hospital to receive proper medical treatment. To deal with the problem of delay of GP, they have an opportunity to allow citizens to call them directly. However, a new problem has to be expected, which is the increasing number of direct calls from patients.

2.2 OM-2: Organisation Focus Area Description

The structure of the organisation is not complicated. Relationship between each subpart is clear and well defined. The business process is straight forward. The number of roles in the organisation is not large. The following table depicts the basic information about the organisation in more detail:

Organisation Model	Variant Aspects Worksheet OM-2
Structure
Process
People	Managers of Dispatch Centre and Ambulance Service, Nurse Dispatchers, System Manager, Paramedics, Drivers, etc.
Resources	* IBM RISC/600/320 machines under Unix * An information support system that handles on-line emergency calls, and off-line reservations, reviews, finance, statistics, etc. * Fully-equipped Ambulances
Knowledge	* Emergency call answering * Triage * Process of emergency handling * Diagnosing and treating AMI
Culture & Power	* Dispatchers control ambulance personnel without being formally in charge of them * Dispatchers and ambulance personnel do not socialise * Paramedic is higher in the hierarchy than the driver * Manager of the ambulance service holds power over the paramedic and the drivers * Manager of the dispatch centre holds power over the system manager and over the dispatchers

3 Impact and Improvement Study

3.1    TM-1: Task Analysis

Task 2, Emergency Assessment, has been recognised as of high knowledge intensiveness and high significance. This task plays a critical role in the business processes of the organisation. The following table will describe this particular task’s different aspects:

Task Model	Task Analysis Worksheet TM-1
Task	Task 2: Emergency Assessment
Organisation	Dispatch Centre
Goal and Value	This task aims to determine the degree of emergency of the reported incident and prepare relevant medical treatment resources for the patient. This task is important as it can avoid delay of treatment for high-degree emergent illness.
Dependency and Flow	Input tasks: A call from GP comes in Output tasks: dispatching ambulance and sending useful information to paramedic
Objects handled	Input Object: In-coming call Output Object: Information package for Ambulance Service Internal Object: Emergency confirmation
Timing and Control	Frequency: 400 per day Duration: 3.6 minutes Control: Ambulance Service will only take further action when they receive the information package from Dispatch Centre. Constraint: the task has to be performed based on dispatcher’s heuristic triage knowledge; the decision has to be made within a short time.
Agents	Dispatcher
Knowledge & Competence	Online call system operation, call answering techniques, triage, internal Communication skills
Resources	Time, online call system, internal communication system
Quality and Performance	Proper response to the reported patients according to the correct judgement of their illness and degree of emergency

Evaluation Proposal for an Online

IELTS Writing Tutoring System

Wenchao He

Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong, Australia

1    Introduction

This plan describes the background, purposes, limitations, stakeholders, decisions, questions, methods, participants, instruments, procedures, logistics, and timeline for the evaluation of Chao Yue IELTS Online Tutoring System, which is an e-learning program for IELTS candidates who have purchased IELTS preparation books on www.cyielts.com.au. The methodology, procedures, and instrumentation included in this plan are based on several meetings between members of the development team and the evaluation team, as well as a review of several draft design documents. The primary objective of this evaluation is to provide timely and accurate information to support decisions regarding the enhancement and marketing of the e-learning program. The evaluation project will involve students and teachers who are to go through the standard instructional process and complete tests and/or questionnaire and/or interview. The system log will also be used for data analysis. The evaluation project will start on 1 June 2009 and finish by the end of the month. The estimated cost will be $27,200. This plan is to be reviewed, revised and approved in the first week of June.
 

2    Background

Chao Yue IELTS Online Tutoring System (http://e-learning.cyielts.com.au) is a Moodle-based learning management system providing IELTS candidates with tutoring service for their IELTS preparation. IELTS stands for International English Language Testing System. People from non-English speaking countries should take IELTS test and use the test result to apply for courses and/or jobs offered in English speaking countries (e.g., Australia). IELTS result is also a requirement for applying for a permanent visa and/or immigration to English speaking countries. Chao Yue IELTS sells IELTS preparation books online and provides the customers with tutoring services. The operation is that the students firstly purchase IELTS preparation books online, then receive and use the books for self-study. Once they have any difficulties in studying the materials, they can ask the online tutors for help on the e-learning system. When they complete an IELTS writing task, they are to submit the essays to the e-learning system and the tutors will provide them with feedback and a web-based customised small course with various learning activities. The tutoring service for the first essay that the student submits is free of charge. After the first round, the student can decide to pay for extra writing tutoring service. So basically, Chao Yue IELTS’s e-learning system offers two kinds of services – general questions answering and IELTS writing tutoring. This evaluation will focus on the IELTS writing tutoring part of the system. A detailed tutoring process is illustrated in Figure 1.

Besides the one-on-one tutoring mode in the IELTS Writing Tutoring Section, once the tutors identify the students’ common problems in IELTS writing, they will organise some instructional materials and make them available to the students. The tutors also moderate an online learning community where students discuss about their learning and help each other.
 

•    Figure 1    Chao Yue IELTS Writing Tutoring Process

 
3    Purposes

The overall purpose of this evaluation is to provide the directors and tutors at Chao Yue IELTS with the timely, accurate information required to support decisions regarding the enhancement and marketing of the IELTS Writing Tutoring program. This evaluation is primarily an effectiveness evaluation in the sense that the information collected will be used as the basis for determining whether the program accomplishes its objectives within the immediate or short-term context of its implementation. As a result of this evaluation and the decisions and actions stemming from it, the e-learning program should be ready for being further promoted in the IELTS preparation education market, or should be enhanced before being further promoted.
Specific sub-purposes of this evaluation are:

*    to collect information for promoting the e-learning program,
*    to investigate the reasons why the students subscribe to or not subscribe to extra tutoring service after they receive the first round of service for free,
*    to measure to what extent the program helps the students improve their English writing skills for IELTS, and
*    to decide if the program needs to be modified for students’ better learning outcome.

 
4    Stakeholders

The clients for this evaluation are the managers of Chao Yue IELTS. Important primary stakeholders include the tutors and marketing personnel involved in the development effort and the students of the e-learning system. The technical staff who is in charge of maintaining the e-learning system and the customer service staff may also be viewed as secondary stakeholders in this evaluation, but dissemination of the evaluation plans and results will be controlled by the clients.

 
5    Decisions

To empower this evaluation to provide timely and accurate information to support decision making, we have identified a set of anticipated decisions that will be made about the e-learning program. Most of these decisions must be made regardless of the quantity and quality of information available to the decision makers, but the evaluation will ensure that the decisions are informed by the best possible information. The following decisions are anticipated:

*    Advertising and marketing decisions will be made about the e-learning program by the managers of Chao Yue IELTS.
*    Modifications will be made in the e-learning program to improve its effectiveness and appeal.
*    Strategies will be made for persuading students subscribe to extra IELTS Writing tutoring service after the free-trial.
 

6    Questions

The following questions will be addressed during this effectiveness evaluation:

*    How are the knowledge and skills of the students changed by the program?
*    What are the students’ reactions to free trial of the program?
*    What are the factors in students’ decision to subscribe or not to subscribe to the program after free trial?
*    What are the fee-paying students’ reactions to the program?
*    What corrections must be made to the program?
*    What enhancements can be made to the program?
 

7    Methods

7.1    Data Collection Matrix

No single evaluation design can encompass the six major questions specified for the evaluation of the IELTS Writing Tutoring e-learning program. Therefore, a mixed methods evaluation design and multiple data collection strategies will be utilised to collect the information required to address these questions. The data collection strategies include questionnaire, interview, automatic data collection and tests. Table 1 specifies the data collection methods and their corresponding evaluation questions.

•    Table 1    Data Collection Matrix

7.2    Learner Questionnaire

7.2.1    Questionnaire Design

Questionnaires are one of the most frequently used methods of collecting data for effectiveness evaluation (Reeves and Hedberg 2008). The Learner Questionnaire for this evaluation will be addressing all the six research questions. The current enrolled and past non-paying and fee-paying students will be invited to complete the questionnaire. Although the questionnaire may be anonymous, the two groups of students will be labelled so that we can differentiate their responses. The objectives of the questionnaire are as followed:

*    to clarify what kinds of benefit in terms of knowledge and skills, if any, the students have got from the program,
*    to let the students recall and specify their reactions to the free trial,
*    to know about the subscribers and non-subscribers’ decision making process in terms of subscription,
*    to let the fee-paying students recall and specify their reactions to the program, and
*    to obtain the data about the weakness and strengths of the program from the students’ perspective.

Generally, the questionnaire will predefine a series of variables represented as a list of 5-point Likert scaling questions. The questionnaire will be web-based so it can be completed on the Internet. The respondents will be given an option to address if they are willing to be contacted for a follow up e-mail or telephone interview.

7.2.2    Rationale of the Questionnaire

A questionnaire is an effective tool to gathered responses in a standardised and objective way. It does not require too much time and effort for evaluators to prepare and analyse, and for students to complete (see Table 2). So this method is relatively quick to collect information. In this evaluation context, a web-based questionnaire is easy to develop in Moodle because this is an existing function built in the system.

•    Table 2    Requirement of Questionnaire (Harvey 1998)

However, it is believed that questionnaire’s response rate could be low, specially the questionnaire can not be delivered and responded to in face-to-face class time (e.g., in an e-learning context). This is because students may not be willing to answer the questions. They might not wish to reveal the information or they might think that they will not benefit from responding. Furthermore, the students may answer superficially especially if the questionnaire takes a long time to complete (Harvey 1998). Thus, we should simplify the questionnaire and most of the questions designed are of 5-point Likert scaling type. Where possible, every respondent should have an opportunity to enter a draw to prizes.

7.3    Teacher Interview

7.3.1    Interview Design

In the teacher interview session, the teachers who are offering IELTS writing tutoring service at Chao Yue IELTS will be asked semi-structured questions regarding the students’ progress and the quality of the program. The objectives of the interview are:

*    to obtain the information about the teachers’ impression and observation of the students’ progress, and
*    to let the teachers address their concerns about the design of the program including the instructional process detailed in Figure 1, the current configuration of the Moodle system, and the instructional materials they are using for developing customised small courses for the students.
The semi-structured interview will start with broad questions and then the teachers are free to add extra information to help achieve the objectives of the interview.

7.3.2    Rationale of the Interview

Generally, there are three types of interview design: (1) standardised interview, where questions are asked in the same way across a sample population by different interviewers, (2) semi-structured interview, where the interaction is kept focused on the same ground while allowing individual experience to emerge, and (3) conversational interview, where the evaluator responds quickly to individual differences and situational changes. According to Harvey (1998), all the three types of interview require much time and effort for preparation, conducting the interview and analysis afterwards (see Table 3). However, as the sample for the interview is not large – less than 5, this part of the evaluation would not be extremely time-consuming. Amongst the three types of interviews, the semi-structured one is adopted because the anticipated information from the interview is based on the teachers’ tacit impression, if we choose standardised interview, some important information may be missed; if we choose conversational interview, the teachers may provide too much information which is irrelevant to the predefined evaluation questions.

•    Table 3    Requirement of Interview (Harvey 1998)

7.4    Automated Data Collection

7.4.1    Automated Data Collection Design

In the Moodle system, users’ every single activity will be logged. The e-learning program includes a number of discrete modules, with each module containing several different types of instructional options, e.g., tutorials, quizzes, practice exercises, and mastery tests. The students’ paths through the modules, their choices among the instructional options, and their quiz and test scores, will all be recorded. However, not all the logged data will be used for the evaluation. Our focus is on the following aspects:

*    the frequency of usage,
*    the time spent on each activity and/or resource,
*    exit page (on which page the users are likely to exit the system), and
*    the comparison between expected activity paths and actual activity paths.

The primary objective of collecting the information about the above aspects is to presume the users’ attitude towards the program (e.g., high frequency and moderate time of usage may imply positive attitude while unexpected and sudden exit could be a sign of dislikes). Another objective is to identify any technical problems within the program which may be indicated by unexpected exit and/or unexpected activity paths.

7.4.2    Rationale of Automated Data Collection

Automated data collection is a step-by-step recording of user interaction with an e-learning program. The level of detail recorded is determined by a purpose-built program and can include mouse clicks, menu calls, and all operations on objects. Modelled on a “record” facility, log data is a useful way of tracking user preferences and navigational choices. This approach does not require any attention from the students and administration because once the logging function is turned on, everything is done automatically. However, the preparation time could be long because not all the data is useful for evaluation purpose (see Table 4). Evaluators need to determine what data needs to be logged, how it should be recorded and summarised and what level of detail of activities should be logged (Harvey 1998).

•    Table 4    Requirement of Automated Data Collection (Harvey 1998)

In the current evaluation context, the logged data is a useful resource for presuming users’ reaction and help refine the questionnaire and interview protocol. The reason that the logged data should be linked to the questionnaire and the interview protocol is that the data does not answer “why” questions and further evaluation is necessary to find explanations for occurring phenomena (Harvey 1998). We acknowledge that this approach has such nature so the logged data will not form a strong evidence for the evaluation result.

7.5    Pre- and Post-Testing

7.5.1    Pre- and Post-Testing Design

As the e-learning program being evaluated is an exam preparation program, to determine its effectiveness, a pre- and post-testing approach should be applied and the result can demonstrate if students are making progress or not. The tests are to solely answer the first evaluation question – “How are the knowledge and skills of the students changed by the program?” The subject of the tests will be the fee-paying students who have paid for extra five rounds of IELTS writing tutoring process (see Figure 1). The objective of the tests is to measure to what extent the five rounds of IELTS writing tutoring service has helped the students raise their IELTS writing scores.

7.5.2    Rationale of the Testing

Tests are widely accepted as an effectiveness evaluation strategy, but we should be wary of tests unless you have evidence of their reliability and validity (Reeves and Hedberg 2008). Pre- and post-testing’s result could be easily affected by external factors which influence student learning. It would be very wrong to assume that we can discount a variety of external factors which will affect student performance when considering the reasons for variation between pre and post test responses (Harvey 1998). The reason why this approach requires long time on preparation (see Table 5) is not only about the test questions preparation but also about organising the students (e.g., t