DSS News is a free biweekly newsletter from DSSResources.COM about
Decision Support Systems.
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DSS News
D. J. Power, Editor
December 5, 2004 -- Vol. 5, No. 25
A Bi-Weekly Publication of DSSResources.COM
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Check the interview with
Jim Kashner "Bottom Line on Data Mining"
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Featured:
* Report from DSI in Boston
* What's New At DSSResources.COM
* DSS News Releases
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DSS News Has Approximately 1100 Subscribers;
invite your friends to join our DSS Community
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Report from DSI in Boston
DSI is an acronym for the Decision Sciences Institute
(decisionsciences.org). The group was founded in 1969 to promote
interdiciplinary research about all aspects of decision making. I first
attended a meeting of the group in November 1976. At that time, I was a
graduate student and Professor Jerry Rose and I had written a description of
my computerized decision aid research project for the meeting. The paper is
titled "Improving Decision-Making Behavior Using the Hewlett Packard
2000/Access System." That's the first publication entry on my academic vita.
Since then the group has changed names, but DSI/AIDS always brings back good
memories for me.
My flight to Boston was uneventful, but I arrived at the hotel after 7pm and
missed the conference Welcome reception. Sunday I was up early to attend
sessions. The program listed more than 1000 regular paper presentations, 45
workshops, 12 tutorials, 50 panels and 25 symposia. The DSS/AI/Expert
systems track was one of 17 tracks. Andre Everett (U. Otago) and James Teng
(UT Arlington) chaired the track. Program Chair Ken Kendall (Rutgers-Camden)
and the track chairs assembled a broad program with something for everyone
interested in decision making. Thanks.
The conference has grown to a four day event, but I missed the Saturday
sessions due to a scheduling conflict and cost issues. The four Saturday
DSS/AI/Expert Systems sessions covered DSS applications, data mining, and
new tools and techniques.
Sunday morning at 8am, I had to choose among a number of interesting
sessions. After some deliberation, I attended a panel discussion on GIS in
the Emerging Technologies track. Four faculty members from University of
Redlands led by Jim Pick and Julian Ray discussed the expanding role of
Geographic Information Systems in Business. Most of the applications they
discussed were for decision support. They discussed applications in
logistics including routing and scheduling, site selection, outtage analysis
for a utility, and health monitoring. Keith Roberts discussed the legal and
ethical implications of GIS in his presentation. He mentioned the recent
case where Payless Car rental failed to let customers know it tracked them
using GPS when they crossed state lines and then imposed surcharges. Keith
also discussed Orkin's use of GPS for fleet management, including the speed
watcher function.
At 10am Sunday, there were 2 DSS/AI/Expert Systems sessions. After reading
the abstracts, I attended the session that included a paper on a clinical
trial of a mobile emergency triage DSS. Mike Wojtek (U. Ottawa) explained
the system and the testing process. Check http://www.mobiledss.uottawa.ca/
for more information.
Following the buffet lunch, I attended the special session on facilitating
quality decision making. This was a work session and Ken and Julie Kendall
(Rutgers-Camden) and Roger Schroeder (U. Minnesota) were the faciliators. We
brainstormed and then discussed questions like "What are the specific
strategies you are using to enhance the quality of decision making?" and
"What kinds of technology would be useful in improving decision making
quality?" I was a bit skeptical at first of the process, but the session was
interesting and I'm looking forward to reading the summary of our
discusion.
At 3pm, I participated in a session on DSS technology and Ecommerce chaired
by Vijay Sugumaran (Oakland University). My talk was titled "Providing Web
-based DSS for Customers". My thesis was that web-based DSS could help
overcome the impersonal environment of Ecommerce and fulfill some of the
role of a salesperson. I showed screen shots and discussed various customer
-focused DSS. Also in the session, Ramesh Sharda (Oklahoma State) discussed
virtual trade fairs and William Wagner (Villanova) discussed enterprise
portals for decision support. I think the session was well received and a
success.
After 4 sessions, I was ready for a relaxing meal. My friend Ramesh Sharda
invited me to join the Oklahoma State group for dinner at the Kashmir
Restaurant on Newbury Street. Supposedly the Kashmir is the best Indian
restaurant in Boston. The food was tasty and the conversation interesting.
Monday was another busy day. After a quick breakfast, I attended an 8am
session on Innovations in Decision Support Systems Design and checked the
Exhibitor area. At 10am, I attended the CEO Service Forum that included
presentations by four prominant executives -- Charles Baker (Harvard Pilgrim
Health), Tom Galligan (Papa Gino's), Charles Gifford (Bank of America) and
Deborah jackson (Red Cross Mass Bay). The executives discussed delivering
high-quality service. The panel wasn't about DSS, but the topic is
critically important to all of us interested in DSS. In a perfect world, the
panel would have drawn an audience of hundreds, but only about 40 people
were at this great session.
After lunch at California Pizza Kitchen with Merrill Warkentin (Mississippi
State) and Vijay Sugumaran, I attended a special panel on the business
applications of Tablet PCs. Les Ball (Northeastern Univ.) organized the
panel and was a presenter. Executives from Thompson Learning and Prentice
Hall discussed how their sales forces were successfully using Tablet PCs.
Mike Werner (Microsoft) is the Tablet PC evangelist and he provided an
optimistic projection for the future. From what I have seen, the Tablet PC
has enormous potential as a DSS platform. As the Tablet PC hardware prices
continue to decline and wireless networks expand, I expect to see executives
and staff carrying them around to meetings, using them in their offices and
carrying them home at night. I'm looking forward to using a Tablet PC as my
primary computing platform. (I'll still need a keyboard for wordprocessing
and constructing spreadsheets.)
At 3pm, I participated in a session on designing and delivering successful
spreadsheet-based DSS courses chaired by Cliff Ragsdale (Virginia Tech).
Cliff, Paul Bergey (NC State), Kevin Scheibe (Iowa State) and I discussed
our teaching experiences. IMHO teaching DSS with labs and projects
associated with spreadsheet technology is a powerful learning combination.
The DSI President's reception was held from 6-7 pm Monday night. I ate and
mingled. In a crowd of almost a thousand people, I only knew about 30
people. DSI is not a major gathering place for the DSS crowd. I chatted
with George Marakas (Kansas) and briefly spoke with Jim Courtney (Central
Florida), but most people I met were involved with production or supply
chain. Courtney will be the DSS/AI/Expert Systems track chair for the 36th
DSI meeting in San Francisco, November 19-22, 2005.
Tuesday morning was hectic with packing and flying back to Cedar Falls. DSI
was a good meeting, but we are all confronted with too many opportunities
for professional interaction and development. My plan is to stay home for a
while and enjoy the holidays. Peace, Shalom and happy holidays.
References
Power, D.J. and G. L. Rose, "Improving Decision-Making Behavior Using the
Hewlett Packard 2000/Access System," Proceedings of the American Institute
for Decision Sciences, November 1976, pp. 47-49.
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What's New at DSSResources.COM
11/26/2004 Posted interview with Jim Kashner "Bottom Line on Data Mining"
conducted by Dan Conway. Check the interviews page.
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DSS News - November 22 to December 5, 2004
Read them at DSSResources.COM and search the DSS News Archive
12/03/2004 Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Dakota selects SenSage's Security
Information Management solution to meet the audit control requirements of
HIPAA.
12/03/2004 Park City Group announces first dairy department to use patented
Fresh Market Manager Software in 100 store supermarket chain.
12/02/2004 Decision Resources and PharMetrics partner to enhance the way
pharmaceutical companies analyze their disease markets.
12/02/2004 Cognos in leaders quadrant in new analyst report on business
intelligence.
12/01/2004 Microsoft announces winners of Tablet PC developer application
contest.
11/30/2004 Informatica data integration platform successfully implemented by
the Principal Financial Group.
11/29/2004 Barnes & Noble College Booksellers rollout Retail Expert's
NaviStor(R) loss prevention and business intelligence software.
11/29/2004 Netezza and MicroStrategy offer complete foundation for business
intelligence.
11/29/2004 Competitive Intelligence Leadership Perspectives and the Future.
11/24/2004 Cedara introduces OrthoWorks Care Manager, a powerful knowledge
management solution that tracks vital patient information.
11/23/2004 Traditional CRM vendors struggling to move downstream, study
shows.
11/23/2004 U.S. Army expands its use of IsoSpace real-time collaboration
software.
11/22/2004 World-wide organization formed to improve the quality of
information and data.
11/22/2004 London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority selects Hummingbird
to meet regulatory demands.
11/22/2004 Teradata leads data warehouse application server evaluation model
rankings for fifth straight year.
11/22/2004 Wolters Kluwer Health partners with Cerner to enhance decision
support at point-of-care.
11/22/2004 CA's CleverPath Portal r4.7 simplifies personalized delivery of
complex business process information.
11/22/2004 Attempted check fraud increase to $5.5 Billion according to ABA
survey.
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DSS News is copyrighted (c) 2004 by D. J. Power. Please send your
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