DSS News is a free biweekly newsletter from DSSResources.COM
about computerized Decision Support Systems.
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DSS News
D. J. Power, Editor
July 17, 2005 -- Vol. 6, No. 16
A Free Bi-Weekly Publication of DSSResources.COM
1,175 Subscribers
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Check the article by Marc Demarest
"Technology and Policy in Decision Support Systems"
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Featured:
* Report from DSS 2005 in Porto Alegre
* DSS Conferences
* DSS News Releases
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Report from DSS 2005 in Porto Alegre
by Dan Power
The 8th International Conference of AIS SIG DSS: International Society
for Decision Support Systems was held in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do
Sul, Brazil, Tuesday, July 12 through Friday July 15, 2005. DSS 2005
was an outreach conference to our colleagues in South America and an
opportunity for some of us to present papers, chat and socialize. As
in the past, DSS 2005 was a selective conference with fewer than 65
attendees primarily from South America and Brazil in particular, but
with presenters from USA, Australia, South Africa, France, and Sweden.
My journey south began last Sunday night and I met Prof. Sean Eom
(Southeast Missouri State U.) in Chicago and we then traveled to Porto
Alegre, Brazil by way of Sao Paulo. The conference venue was the
Sheraton Porto Alegre and the meeting rooms, Internet access,
arrangements, etc. were four star. Sean Eom and I arrived a day before
the conference start to adjust to the time change and recover from the
long trip. Monday evening we dined at Na Brasa, a traditional
churrascaria or grilled meat restaurant, with Carmine Sellitto from
Victoria Univ., Melbourne, Australia. We feasted on grilled steak and
a splendid salad bar. We used sign language since none of us spoke
Portuguese to indicate what we wanted from the unlimited grill. Bovino
(beef) of various cuts and Aves (chicken) dominated our choices.
The first conference session was a welcome Tuesday evening and a
cocktail reception. Conference Chair, Denis Borenstein, Federal
University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, Dean João Luiz Becker, of the
School of Management, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil,
and I welcomed the attendees. On behalf of AIS SIG DSS, I reviewed
the history and goals of ISDSS and SIG DSS.
The conference rolled into full swing Wednesday morning with two
parallel sessions. In the session I attended, Carmine Sellitto made
the first presentation on ERP systems and Business Intelligence. The
morning keynote was by Sergio Maturana from Catholic Univ., Santiago,
Chile. Maturana gave an excellent overview of recent developments in
optimization-based DSS. Following a delicious lunch, we heard
presentations on Mobile and Web DSS or DSS and Health Care. The 16:30
session was a plenary with a talk by Jean-Charles Pomerol, Universite
Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, on Multi-level and Multi-model DSS.
Pomerol argued the need for examining and specifying competing models
in a specific model-driven DSS. Following Pomerol, I presented a paper
co-authored with Sean Eom titled "Decision support systems:
Achievements, needs and the next generation of DSS artifacts". Sean
and I argued that DSS is becoming established as a research
discipline, but we need to better articulate theories and especially a
theory of practice. Some of the material has appeared in various
forms in DSS News especially speculation about the next generation of DSS
artifacts. I set the time frame at 2020 and some felt I was being too
conservative in my forecast. Shashi Kaparthi, a colleague from
Univ. of Northern Iowa, presented the last paper on Wednesday about
evidence of a life cycle in DSS Research. Kaparthi made a case that a
life cycle model fits the data on published papers with "decision
support systems" in the title, abstract, etc. for the growth phase,
and even though article output is slowing it is not declining as a
life cycle model would predict. Personally, I feel that some
researchers are using new jargon in article titles like business
intelligence or revenue optimization and the ABI/Inform database is
incomplete. DSS articles are proliferating in many fields like
agriculture, conservation, emergency management and especially health
care. DSS is no longer the province of Business School researchers in
Information Systems or Management Science.
Wednesday evening was the conference banquet at "Churracaria Roda De
Carreta" or "35", a traditional Gaucha grill and music
restaurant. Approximately 25 to 30 of us gathered for food, drink and
entertainment. The talk was good as was the entire event. We were
especially amazed as a Gaucha dancer used his bolas to brush the hair
of an audience member and create a staccato of precision twirling. A
bola is a primitive weapon with 2-3 hard balls attached by a cord
popularized by the "gaucho" or "gaucha", the South American cowboys.
We returned to the hotel late, but we had a good crowd for the
Thursday morning session. The Thursday keynote by Pitu Mirchandani,
Univ. of Arizona in Tucson was outstanding. Pitu discussed decision
support and decision automation for real-time transportation systems.
He provided a state-of-the-art overview and progress report. Thursday
afternoon focused on knowledge management and DSS. I particularly
related to Mike Hart's, U. of Cape Town, report on work in financial
services organizations. I've been doing some work recently in that
sector. Then we had a free evening and celebrated Bastille Day
(storming of the Bastile July 14, 1789).
Friday morning finished with a number of excellent case studies and
the closing session. We had some PH.D student presentations and they
showed much promise for the future of DSS development and research in
Brazil. A small group of 12 including Dean Becker, Eom, Kaparthi,
Mirchandani, Ilona Jagielska (Monash Univ.), and Denis Borenstein had
an excellent baked fish lunch at the historic Central Food Market in
Porto Alegre. We visited the various campuses of Federal University of
Rio Grande do Sul ( http://www.ufrgs.br/ufrgs/ ). The campus is spread
out in four centers in Porto Alegre with about 29,000 students. Our
last stop was Escola de Administração, the School of Management. João
Luiz Becker is the current Dean and he served as our host. His
background is in optimization and decision support systems.
Well ... I didn't sleep much on the plane last night. A ten hour
flight from Sao Paulo to Chicago wore me out. But it was worth the
long journey. Great conversations, an exchange of ideas, great
people, great hosts. Obrigado e adeus (thanks and goodbye).
AIS SIG DSS is trying to identify possible venues for DSS'07. If you
have a suggestion for a University host and possible chair for local
arrangements, please contact me or Prof. Ramesh Sharda (email:
sharda@okstate.edu). We are especially interested in a venue in
India.
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Purchase Dan Power's DSS FAQ book
83 frequently asked questions about computerized DSS
http://dssresources.com/dssbookstore/power2005.html
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DSS Conferences
Upcoming Conferences
1. AMCIS 2005 with SIG DSS mini-tracks in Omaha, Nebraska,
USA, August 11 - 14, 2005. Check amcis2005.isqa.unomaha.edu .
SIGDSS meeting Thursday, August 11 from 5:30 - 7:30PM.
2. 2005 NPRA Plant Automation and Decision Support
Conference, October 18-21, 2005, Gaylord Texan Hotel,
Grapevine, Texas. Check npra.org .
3. Call for Papers: ACM Eighth International Workshop on Data
Warehousing and OLAP (DOLAP 2005), November 4-5, 2005,
Bremen, Germany. Submissions due July 19, 2005.
Check http://gplsi.dlsi.ua.es/congresos/dolap05/ .
4. Call for Papers: Fourth workshop on e-Business (WEB 2005),
a pre-ICIS workshop sponsored by AIS SIGeBIZ, papers due
August 31, 2005. Workshop URL: www.web-workshop.org
5. Call for Papers: Third Annual Pre-ICIS Workshop on Decision
Support Systems sponsored by AIS SIG DSS, December 11, 2005,
Las Vegas, Nevada. Papers due September 1, 2005. Workshop
URL: mis.temple.edu/sigdss/icis05
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Please tell your DSS friends about DSSResources.COM
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DSS News Releases - July 2 to July 17, 2005
Read them at DSSResources.COM and search the DSS News Archive
07/14/2005 IHOP serves up enhanced site selection with MapInfo(R)
location intelligence technology.
07/14/2005 Microsoft and Marvel sign worldwide licensing agreement for
massively multiplayer online game development.
07/14/2005 New Flash authoring software is streaming onto the
scene.
07/13/2005 Polycom completes award-winning VSX video conferencing line
with new systems and enhancements.
07/13/2005 Yankee Group identifies price management and profit
optimization as the best-kept secrets with enterprises.
07/13/2005 Balanced Scorecard Collaborative teams with Cognos for
Office of Strategy Management Program.
07/12/2005 Hellmann Worldwide Logistics optimizes performance with
BusinessObjects XI.
07/12/2005 Laidlaw enhances planning and analysis with Hyperion
Business Performance Management software.
07/10/2005 8th International Decision Support Systems Conference
(ISDSS'05) meets July 12-15, 2005.
07/09/2005 Microsoft continues to evolve worldwide partner
program.
07/08/2005 Astea announces strategic planning tool for field service
workforce optimization.
07/07/2005 Annual PROS Revenue Management Conference is the World's
best and largest pricing and revenue management conference.
07/07/2005 Computerworld's Second Annual Business Intelligence
Perspectives Conference announces lineup of executive presenters; call
for presentations deadline extended to July 15, 2005.
07/06/2005 All companies need strategy on information access in
Internet Age, author Don Tapscott says in Gartner Fellows
Interview.
07/06/2005 Hyperion and Unisys partnership delivers breakthrough
business intelligence performance from boardrooms to frontlines.
07/05/2005 Hyperion continues as 2004 revenue leader for financial and
business performance management analytic applications.
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DSS News is copyrighted (c) 2005 by D. J. Power. Please send your
questions to daniel.power@dssresources.com.
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