DSS News is a free biweekly newsletter from DSSResources.COM about computerized Decision Support Systems. *********************************************************** DSS News D. J. Power, Editor July 17, 2005 -- Vol. 6, No. 16 A Free Bi-Weekly Publication of DSSResources.COM 1,175 Subscribers ************************************************************ Check the article by Marc Demarest "Technology and Policy in Decision Support Systems" ************************************************************ Featured: * Report from DSS 2005 in Porto Alegre * DSS Conferences * DSS News Releases ************************************************************ Visit DSSResources.com; Support our advertisers Advertise here! ************************************************************ 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. ************************************************************ Purchase Dan Power's DSS FAQ book 83 frequently asked questions about computerized DSS http://dssresources.com/dssbookstore/power2005.html ************************************************************ 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 ************************************************************ Please tell your DSS friends about DSSResources.COM ************************************************************ 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. ************************************************************ DSS News is copyrighted (c) 2005 by D. J. Power. Please send your questions to daniel.power@dssresources.com. |