David A. Bray

Emory University | EU · Goizueta Business School

The performance of prediction markets has been one driving force behind the renewed attention on distributed problem solving. This case reviewed the feasibility and performance of prediction or information markets, discussed some apparently successful applications, considered likely limitations of information markets, and identified important areas...

We extend March's model of exploration and exploitation to consider how environmental turbulence impacts organizational knowledge in hierarchies of varying size and depth. We then evaluate additional effects of a knowledge management (KM) system that collects and shares knowledge from expert individuals in an organization. We find that in the absen...

Adopt the viewpoint of a U.S. citizen and recall the contribution of knowledge exchanges (or lack thereof) to the major events of the last 6 years: incorrect estimates of the Al-Qaeda threat prior to the 9/11 attacks, failing to apprehend the culprit behind the anthrax events of 2001, inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Repeat investi...

This paper discusses how collaborations can improve government performance.

The Internet and related digital networking platforms facilitate searches for information and the sharing of information and expertise among individuals. In recent years, these behaviours evolved from focusing on information retrieval and sharing to include facilitation and coordination of collaborative problem-solving efforts and distributed co-cr...

Chris Pallaris is Head of Strategy and Open Source Intelligence at the International Relations and Security Network (ISN). In this capacity he oversees the ISN's intelligence-related activities on the national and international level. A graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science, Chris' professional experience covers a broad r...

As its purpose, this paper identifies connections between counter-narcotics activities (CN) in Afghanistan and strategic objectives (StratCom) that the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) or U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) can implement.

As its purpose, this paper identifies possible strategic objectives (StratCom and STRAT EFFECTS) to counter negative conspiracy theories regarding the activities of either the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) or U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A).

As its purpose, this paper identifies the organizational entities that representatives from NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) StratCom and U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) STRAT EFFECTS might collaborate with (in priority order), and then provides recommendations on how to collaborate with these groups.

As its purpose, this paper identifies a potential solution to improve internal situation awareness regarding the activities of the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

As its purpose, this paper identifies a potential expanded communications outreach vision for Afghanistan, and highlights noteworthy strategic communication initiatives (StratCom and STRAT EFFECTS) to improve outreach efforts regarding the activities of either the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) or U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR...

As its purpose, this paper identifies possible themes, images, and additional nuances associated with preparing information operations (IO)-related operations for the 2009 Afghan Elections.

Knowledge ecosystems include the influential relationships among knowledge technologies, motivational antecedents, knowledge transfer processes, and organizational performance outcomes. I perform three studies to investigate these elements of knowledge ecosystems and further contribute to the extant literature. First, I seek to research how knowled...

In this chapter, we review three different theories that can inform how researchers determine the performance of smart business networks, to include: (1) the Theory of Evolution, (2) the Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm, and (3) research insights into computers and cognition. We suggest that each of these theories demonstrate that to be perceived...

Norms play essential roles in regulating aspects of social behavior in groups. Viewed as quasi-formal rules that can “instruct strangers and convey to children” how to behave in specific situations from a particular groups’ perspective – norms are models of (situationally) correct behaviors that ostensibly afford some benefit to the referent group...

Originating as a study of the online news aggregator Digg, which relies on user ratings to determine which articles to put on the frontpage, this study evolved into a comprehensive survey of the online news aggregator space. This case study explores the conditions under which crowds are smart, analyzes the bias of several modes of information aggre...

We sit at a double crossroads in human history: Mounting evidence suggests we are at or near tipping points in carbon energy supply and ecological climate change. These are related borderless issues with existential threat potential. As a way to improve decision-making, an ecosystem approach to inform government policy presents great promise, foste...

What if advances in multi-agent and computational modeling in silico were married with advances in instrumenting real-world phenomena of interest in situ in near real-time? Specifically, what if business, academic institutions, and government agencies were able to both computationally model and predict complex phenomena while also comparing in near...

Concerned that the U.S. lacks a modern technology strategy for national security, this research paper discusses bottom-up approaches to inter-organizational collaborations that national security efforts must develop to successfully share knowledge within and across organizational assets. Without technology-aided collaborations and knowledge sharing...

This document discusses a few versatile, tool-like crowd performance algorithms necessary for humans to employ internet technologies to make better decisions collectively. This document also readily acknowledges that true collective intelligence approaches are foremost about organizational culture change and encouraging shared group norms (i.e., va...

Within the next few pages, we outline how the U.S. President might employ novel arrangements of human and technology elements to produce improved government efforts involving the collective insights of all government works to: (1) better serve the public, (2) protect our country, and (3) generate innovative solutions that both address present day p...

Virtual worlds like Second Life are becoming important tools for, among other activities, socialization, social networking, entertainment, collaboration, and business development. These environments offer information systems researchers a unique opportunity to study how these environments are built and managed by operators, how they are used and mi...

Within this paper we consider our results of using the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) over a period of 18 months to distribute our working papers to the research community. Our experiences have been quite positive, with SSRN serving as a platform both to inform our colleagues about our research as well as inform us about related research (t...

In November 2007, an international strategy design team composed of government, business, and academic experts met in Glasgow to consider the elements, objectives, and requirements for a strategic intelligence capability on energy and environmental security. The discussion built on the proceedings of a workshop held in D.C. on 19 September, which a...

Virtual worlds are now a reality, representing intriguing environments for researchers from multiple fields to pursue collaborative investigations. To provide a background, we first highlight the basic business and sociological phenomena occurring in virtual worlds. Real world institutions, ranging from business to governmental organizations, are a...

Our case study seeks to investigate how Seriosity operates as a distributed problem solving network (DPSN) with the goals of addressing the organizational challenges of limited attention spans - embodied both by information pollution and knowledge overload. We first consider the background behind such challenges and why they will increasingly dimin...

Our case study starts by describing the Sermo business model, the knowledge application, company financials, and potential indicators of success. Second, we examine the metrics behind the performance of Sermo and the challenges faced by its model. Third, we extend our inquiry to consider how Sermo demonstrates its value as and new ways an abstracte...

Adopt the viewpoint of a U.S. citizen and recall the contribution of knowledge exchanges (or lack thereof) to the major events of the last 6 years: incorrect estimates of the Al-Qaeda threat prior to the 9/11 attacks, failing to apprehend the culprit behind the anthrax events of 2001, inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Repeat investi...

The Internet that we access isn't self-organizing; instead, it's relatively limited in its intelligent abilities and exists as a wonderful example as to how the processes of creation can quickly become cluttered and entropic. Human beings create and remix information streams, adding to the web. The promise with Web 2.0 was that human beings would o...

For knowledge-intensive, information-sensitive organizations, we suggest two orthogonal constructs, namely the perceived levels of knowledge sharing and knowledge protection, influence the perceived levels of organizational performance, to include the constructs of organizational responsiveness and organizational efficiency. For a large organizatio...

In this paper, I suggest and review four perspectives within the information systems (IS) literature exploring the enterprise value of information systems from the perspective of traditional and transactional cost economics (TCE), agency theory and concerns surrounding a "productivity paradox", the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, and a gener...

Within modern society, we frequently rely on strangers for professional services. This course will examine the role of professionals and the professions in society. Specifically, this course will examine the role of ethics in maintaining autonomy of the professions as social institutions, as well as helping to ensure that we (as customers who rely...

In this paper, I suggest and review four perspectives within the literature surrounding knowledge management (KM) research at the organizational level: information systems, management, organizational learning, and strategy perspectives.

We develop and subsequently test a model detailing how knowledge technologies, embodied in intra-organizational information systems (IS), provide opportunities that influence individual-level human motivations to engage in knowledge exchange processes, thereby influencing organizational responsiveness. Our model both explains and predicts the diffe...

More than 15 million people now inhabit virtual worlds. We posit that virtual worlds represent an interesting intersection of three parties wrestling for power, influence, and authority in these relatively new spaces. Specifically: (1) corporations, representing economic and business interests; (2) governments, representing political and legal inte...

This course will bring together a group of students studying information systems (IS), primarily in business, though we welcome additional perspectives to include IS in medicine, public health, law, environmental sciences, neurobiology, or other fields. As a class, we will analyze and discuss the issues of individual and group cognitive sustainabil...

Let us welcome you the modern age, so full of promise both in terms of human and technological progress! In this chapter, we address the role of innovation and being a systems innovator. Without systems innovators, it is quite possible that our modern age would not be so full of promise and potential. In fact, without systems innovators, humanity m...

I enclose a general submission piece discussing information pollution and the problems associated with this phenomenon. I detail how information pollution arises, what challenges it brings for us as IS professionals, and future avenues of research and development that might remedy this problem. Specifically, the average knowledge worker - someone w...

In order to understand how public health information technology (IT) can aid public health preparedness in terms of bioterrorism preparedness and associated emergency response, it is apt to start with a definition of bioterrorism. In establishing the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program (BPRP), located under the National Center for Infect...

Most analyses of possible future bioterrorism events predict they may be similar to the anthrax events of 2001. Specifically: a limited population of individuals may experience morbidity or mortality, but the concern, panic, and worry stirred up by the threat will catch the attention of the entire nation. If public health IT is to help with bioterr...

James G. March conceived organizational learning as a balance between the exploration of new alternatives and the exploitation of existing competencies. This study extends March's model to consider exploration and exploitation in hierarchical organizations. First, the effect of additional tiers is analyzed and related to March's original constructs...

We seek to develop eight theoretical propositions relating use of a knowledge management system to improved performance in either the public or private sectors if employee perceptions of an organization's (1) formal incentives, (2) normative values, (3) inter-employee trust, and (4) enabling knowledge technologies cumulatively motivate employees to...

Virtual worlds are now a reality, representing intriguing environments for researchers from multiple fields to pursue collaborative investigations. To provide a background, we first highlight the basic business and sociological phenomena occurring in virtual worlds. Real world institutions, ranging from business to governmental organizations, are a...

Virtual worlds like Second Life are becoming important tools for, among other activities, socialization, social networking, entertainment, collaboration, and business development. These environments offer information systems researchers a unique opportunity to study how these environments are built and managed by operators, how they are used and mi...

James G. March conceived organizational learning as a balance between the exploration of new alternatives and the exploitation of existing competencies in an organization. This study extends earlier work by employing a computational simulation to evaluate the effect of additional tiers in a hierarchical organization; specifically regarding March's...

This theoretical paper discusses re-appropriating social dilemmas research to inform service science research. Service science researchers wishing to encourage collaborative, inter-individual exchanges may want individuals to behave such that individuals are not motivated solely by their own economic self-interests, but ultimately pursue actions th...

Two system-based views exist regarding managerial value chain analysis: Theory of Constraints (TOC) and Activity-Based Costing (ABC). There has been considerable debate whether TOC or ABC is the more optimal approach for strategic planning. This study seeks to compare TOC and ABC, while keeping constant the level of environmental turbulence each of...

The web is increasingly relied upon as a reflection of reality, which raises a number of key issues not yet fully recognized or articulated, warranting further study. This new digital reality and the unprecedented capabilities it embodies in terms of searchability, aggregatability, temporal persistence, and so on, give rise to great challenges in t...

Virtual worlds are now a reality. Virtual worlds such as the growing Second Life and Entropia Universe, allow everyone to create a digital character representing themselves and interact with other computer-generated individuals, landscapes, and even virtually-run global businesses in real-time. Fascinatingly, both endogenously produced economies an...

Discussion of how virtual, web-based interactions provide (1) a malformed context for human emotions, (2) a forum for publicizing of traditionally private workplace discussions, and (3) a source of information overload - potentially addressable through an evolutionary view. Subsequent discussion details examples of virtual worlds from 1991 to the p...

Government occupies a central role in our world of inter-connected human systems of work, transportation, utilities, commerce, healthcare, and public education. Focusing on the U.S. federal government, this essay advances the lens of our government as an information processing system that monitors, regulates, funds, and provides certain services. G...

Presently, certain U.S. government agencies face hyperturbulent environments, where organic, information-intensive changes occur rapidly with little warning. No one individual harbors sufficient knowledge to either mitigate negative outcomes or capitalize on positive opportunities. Knowledge exchanges in these government agencies must transcend phy...

The proximate objective behind a bioterrorism event is to cause fear, with morbidity or mortality as secondary effects. Information technology must empower professionals to respond rapidly and effectively. This paper links detection and identification of a bioterrorism event with opportunities for information technology to aid such efforts, drawing...

James G. March conceived organizational learning as a balance between the exploration of new alternatives and the exploitation of existing competencies in an organization. This study extends March's model to consider exploration and exploitation in a hierarchical organization. First, the effect of additional tiers in a hierarchical organization is...

Recently there has been a surge in dialogue both among public health partners and within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regarding efforts to identify a consolidated set of "best practices" of software application development, specifically to fit the mold of public health information technology (IT). While the intentions behind...

I n response to the threat of bioterrorism and following a presidential order, offi-cials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) established the Laboratory Res...

As this paper was aimed at finding dual/multiple-use for the bioterrorism technology made possible by the large infusion of funds to the states and territories through the Center for Disease Control and Prevention request for proposals (CDC RFP), its six Focus Areas serve as vertical criteria on the figures that follow. The CDC RFP holds this promi...

F5: Forest Fire Flame Front Forecaster is a user-friendly, three-dimensional computer simulation currently under development. F5 predicts the direction of the fire. Summer forest fires flare up throughout the western United States, costing hundreds of millions of dollars to fight and risking the lives of firefighters and the general population. Bei...