Data growth is one of the biggest challenges according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. (Nov 1, 2010). Organizations trying to find ways to harness the information value of that large data sets that they accumulate in time. Advanced analytics/data mining is the process of discovering valid, novel, potentially useful, and ultimately understandable patterns (i.e., nuggets of knowledge) in data stored in structured databases, where the data is organized in records populated by categorical, ordinal and continuous variables. Text mining, on the other hand, refers to the very same discovery process as it applies to unstructured data sources including business documents, customer comments, Web pages, and XML files. And analytics is the way of arriving at optimal or realistic decisions by applying "the science of analysis" to existing data. While simple analytics (e.g., multi-dimensional modeling, OLAP, etc.) are capable of producing answers to "what has happened," advanced analytics (such as predictive modeling, data/text/Web mining, etc.) are more focused on answering the question of "what is happening" and "what will happen".

This minitrack focuses on information systems and decision support aspects of advanced analytics and data mining, with emphasis on data, text and Web mining. A representative list of general topic areas covered in this minitrack (which is not meant to be complete or comprehensive):

• New methods and algorithms of data/text mining and advanced analytics
• The process and new methodologies of conducting data/text mining
• Ethical and privacy issues in data/text mining
• Novel applications of data mining for better decision making
• Data pre-processing related aspect of data/text mining, such as data characterization, data cleaning, data integration, data sampling, data reduction, data visualization, etc.
• Principles, theories, concepts and approaches for advanced analytics and data mining
• Methods, tools, and techniques for developing the underlying functional aspects of data/text mining
• Design issues, challenges and opportunities in agile analytics
• Emerging technologies and techniques, investment and governance mechanisms, co-production methodologies
• Evolutions to scoring and data mining algorithms for advanced analytics
• In-database vs. in-memory advanced analytics capabilities
• New algorithms and methods for advanced analytics in social networking, sentiment analysis, etc.
• Supporting business process management with data mining and advanced analytics
• Data mining in the cloud and grid
• Impact of advanced analytics on global business
• Visualization for supporting advanced analytics
• People and culture issues in managing advanced analytics
• Critical success factors for advanced analytics

SUBMIT INQUIRIES TO:
Dursun Delen (Primary Contact)
Oklahoma State University
Email: dursun.delen@okstate.edu

Haluk Demirkan
Arizona State University
Email: haluk.demirkan@asu.edu

This minitrack is focused on the theory and applications of fuzzy logic and soft computing to support the development and distribution of services and to support management in problem-solving, planning and decision-making. The focus includes but is not limited to the following themes:

Christer Carlsson, Director of the Institute of Advanced Management Systems Research, and a professor of management science at Abo Akademi University is a member of the Steering Committee of EUNITE, an EU/IST Network of Excellence, and chairman of the BISC-SIG on Soft Decision Analysis. Professor Carlsson got his DSc (BA) from Abo Akademi University in 1977, and has lectured extensively at various universities in Europe, in the U.S., in Asia and in Australia. He is a Fellow of the International Fuzzy Systems Association and a member of the Societas Scientarium Fennia. Professor Carlsson has organised and managed several research programs in industry in his specific research areas: knowledge based systems, decision support systems and expert systems, and has carried out theoretical research work also in multiple criteria optimisation and decision making, fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic, and cybernetics and systems research. Some recent research programs, which include extensive industrial cooperation, include Smarter (reducing fragmentation of working time with modern information technology), EM-S Bullwhip (eliminating demand fluctuations in the supply chain with fuzzy logic), Waeno (improving the productivity of capital in giga-investments using hyperknowledge), Imagine21 (foresight of new telecom services using agent technology), Chimer (mobile platforms for sharing the cultural heritage among European school children) and M-commerce (m-commerce products and services with enabling technologies; a national Finnish research program with an international partner network in France, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore and the USA). He is on the editorial board of several journals including the Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, Fuzzy Sets and Systems, ITOR, Cybernetics and Systems, Scandinavian Journal of Management, Belgian Journal of Operational Research and Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Business and Group Decision and Negotiation. He is the author of 4 books, and an editor or co-editor of 5 special issues of international journals and 12 books, and has published more than 270 papers.

SUBMIT INQUIRIES TO:

Christer Carlsson
Abo Akedemi University
Email: christer.carlsson@abo.fi

This minitrack emphasizes the significant research synergies that exist between information systems and environmental management for sustainable development from an organizational as well as a technical perspective. We maintain that collaboration and cross-fertilization between these domains can be mutually beneficial and may in fact present unique, timely and socially relevant "real-world' research opportunities as well as viable public sources of empirical ecological information for interdisciplinary research and application.

Accordingly, the minitrack welcomes both research articles and practitioner reports exploring technical and organizational issues that pertain to the development, implementation, and deployment of environmental decision support systems (EDSS) and environmental management information systems (EMIS) in the context of environmental management for sustainable development and Green IT. Theoretically founded papers that illustrate the application of information systems and decision technologies in environmental management for sustainable development are particularly welcomed. The minitrack is receptive to all types of research methodologies. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Sustainable development and decision making
• Emerging technologies for decision support systems (DSS) development and environmental applications (e.g., computational intelligence, service-oriented computing, web services, semantic web, artificial intelligence, agent-based computing, human computer interaction and multiple criteria decision making)
• Intelligent environmental decision support systems
• Integrated environmental modeling: issues, technologies, and case studies
• Environmental model management including model sharing and reuse
• Decision dynamics, processes, and issues in the context of multiple stakeholders
• Environmental knowledge acquisition and management
• Expert knowledge-based systems for environmental management
• Environmental management information systems (EMIS) and their role in Green IT
• EDSS and EMIS design and integration
• Adoption and diffusion of decision technologies and EMIS
• Evaluation and cost/benefit analysis of EDSS and EMIS
• Environmental online communication and collaboration
• Environmental education
• Community building and social software applications
• Applications and case studies of EDSS and EMIS for sustainable development

The minitrack features theoretical developments, real-world applications and software solutions related to solving decision problems in logistics and supply chain management. Methods include optimization, heuristics and meta-heuristics, simulation, agent technologies, and descriptive methods.

Information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) are prerequisites and enablers for successful supply chain management (SCM). With related advances, the logistics and SCM field is developing very dynamically. Business-to-business transactions are made via the Internet and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems managing the transactional information within the enterprise. While IT and IS are vital components in supply chains, their successful management rests on intelligent and coordinated decision-making throughout the logistics network. Intelligent decision support, using advanced decision technologies, are becoming increasingly important in logistics and SCM. Data warehouses and data mining can be used to store and analyze product, inventory, and sales information. Simulation and optimization, which can be found in advanced planning and scheduling systems, can be employed for, e.g., inventory, production, procurement, and distribution planning. Intelligent agents can, e.g., communicate with different partners in the supply chain, assist in collecting information, share product information, negotiate prices, and distribute alerts throughout the logistics networks. The design and implementation of intelligent decision technologies to support human agents in logistics and SCM is a very active field in research, consulting and software development. Many such technologies or systems have been implemented recently or are currently in the stage of implementation.

We seek papers dealing with decision technologies that contribute to intelligent decision support in the whole field of logistics and in particular in all categories of SCM. This includes but is not restricted to simulation, optimization, heuristics, meta-heuristics, agent technologies, descriptive models, data warehousing, and data mining. We are especially interested in real-world applications and in software solutions that assist in solving decision problems. This is extended towards, e.g., computational logistics, advanced planning systems and the intelligent use of ERP systems. Also conceptual ideas, reports on projects in progress, and case studies are welcome. Moreover, teaching cases both at the university as well as the executive level may be of interest.

We especially encourage 1) submissions on new sub-areas such as: adaptability and adaptivity of mobile services, mobile cloud services, privacy and security concepts. 2) For the business-oriented minitrack submissions on business models for the mobile value chain, user perception studies going beyond traditional TAM or contributions for special application areas such as mobile wellness, mobile participation or mobile services for the poor and underserved are invited. 3) Finally, the minitrack wants to extend to the emerging area of mobile consumer services and applications.

• We seek research papers, case studies, and practitioner reports related to business aspects of different stakeholders (e.g. device manufacturers, service providers, system and application developers and the operators) in mobile business.
• Of special interest are conceptual and empirical papers analyzing these business aspects, including product development, marketing, distribution and services as well as revenue logics and regulatory issues, of different players or networks.
• Also of interest are papers identifying the key factors and variables of the different business models as well as limitations in implementing them.

The minitrack also provides a venue to present and debate theory-based solutions for problems that industry is currently facing in the field of mobile consumers services. Such applications will contribute to the advancement of user-inspired and consumer centric information systems design within this paradigm. We welcome studies with either qualitative or quantitative research methods as well as design research.

Relevant topics for this minitrack include (but not limited to):

• Business models

• Mobile Value Services

• Business value of mobile services
• Location-based Services and related business models
• Critical success factors of mobile business

• Mobile cloud services
• Adaptability of mobile services and specific applications
• WiFi, Bluetooth, RFID and Their Applications and related business models
• Future of Peer to Peer on Mobile Networks and related business models
• Development of Ubiquitous and Pervasive Consumer Information Systems
• User Communities and Service Development
• Enterprise Mobility
• Privacy and trust issues in the mobile service context
• Mobile financial services

Network decision support systems (NDSS) are a new type of DSS which has evolved from the rapid development of mobile technology. NDSS differ from traditional DSS in that they consist of man and machine nodes connected via mobile networks with the salient property that nodes enter and leave the network in unpredictable fashion. Further, the dominant decision-making mode in NDSS is collaborative versus individual. This minitrack will address the challenges of integrating social and sensor networks into seamless manned-unmanned collaborative environments; collaborative service-driven processes for social and sensor networks on-the-move; synergy, adaptation, and collaboration between man and robotics exchanging services on top of tactical and global mobile networks; situational awareness services for mobile social and sensor networks; and holistic models of their behavior.

Topics include:

• Network DSS
• Synergy models for interagency data sharing
• Models for mobile system of systems interoperabiity
• Interfaces for remotely controlled sensors and unmanned systems
• Auction and Mechanism design for tactical markets
• Decision support for battlefield medical services
• Self-organizing Manned-Unmanned Tactical Grid
• Transactive memory for Manned-Unmanned collaboration
• Situational awareness with Robots
• Bandwidth adaptation services architecture

SUBMIT INQUIRIES TO:

Alex Bordetsky (Primary Contact)
Naval Postgraduate School
Email: abordets@nps.edu

Stefan Pickl
Universitat de Bundswehr Munchen
Email: stefan.pickl@unibw.de

Most decisions are based on multiple criteria, pursuing multiple, often conflicting objectives. The field of multi-criteria decision-making deals with problem theory and solution approaches directly involving multiple decision criteria. This mini-track solicits papers dealing with decision support for all types of multi-criteria decision problems. Case studies, papers focusing on specific types of decision problems or applications, heuristic approaches applying information technology, design of methods for automating parts of the decision making process, as well as papers focusing on the concepts and larger issues involved in providing information systems support to such decision problems are welcomed.

Heinz Roland Weistroffer is Associate Professor of Information Systems at Virginia Commonwealth University. His research interests include computer assisted decision support, systems development, and economics of information technology. He has published in IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, the Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, and Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, among many others.

SUBMIT INQUIRIES TO:

H. Roland Weistroffer
Virginia Commonwealth University
Email: hrweistr@vcu.edu

There is a need to apply robust research findings in the appropriate management and organizational contexts related to services innovation, quality, architecture, design and delivery, and the resulting customer satisfaction and business value (Ostrom et al. 2010)* . The goal of this track is to explore the challenges, issues and opportunities related to the innovation-services-based economy - from conceptualization to practical implementation. We are interested in novel approaches to "Service Systems", "Cloud Computing Services", "Technical and managerial approaches to service-oriented architecture, infrastructure, data, business processes, workflows and strategy". Possible topics of applied, field and empirical research include, but are not limited to:

• Service innovation and issues in service systems design
• Theories and approaches for integrating and/or sourcing services and cloud computing management and automated business process management
• Theories, challenges and impacts of service-orientation on enterprises, organizations and individuals
• Theories and approaches for services architecture, infrastructure, processes, workflows
• Planning, building and managing service infrastructure
• Co-production/creation/innovation as driving components of service orientation
• Decision models and decision support systems for service-related management and operations
• Data services and data management service level agreements
• Service discovery, design, modeling, delivery, deployment, measurement, maintenance, bundling and marketing
• Services implications to value chains, networks, constellations and shops
• Service-oriented enterprise industry standards and solution stacks
• Service-based grid/utility/autonomic computing infrastructure designs, approaches and implementations
• Service security, privacy and trust in distributed service networks
• Ontology, semantic web and business rules for services computing
• Service oriented solution patterns, choreographies, orchestrations and repositories
• Infrastructures, standards and inter-organizational practices for federations of service-oriented enterprises
• Managing service networks in the supply chain and procurement management context
• Case studies of service systems and cloud computing implementation and management
• Design of service blueprints for IT services
• Self-service and smart technologies and management
• Automated service-level agreement negotiation and orchestration
• Collaborative service management in B2B and B2C e-commerce
• B2B and B2C processes for service negotiation, operations, and management
• The commoditization of business processes (e.g. out-tasking, ITIL, SCORE)
• The commoditization of software (e.g. the software-as-service model - SaaS, software oriented architecture-SOA, application service providers-ASP)
• The commoditization of hardware (e.g., on-demand, utility computing, cloud computing, software oriented infrastructure with virtualized resources - SOI, infrastructure service providers-IaaS)

This minitrack will focus on papers that connect rigorous disciplinary research with the emerging interdisciplinary framework of the service system, which requires elaborating various stakeholder perspectives and understanding the broad context of use for specific cases. We will encourage the submission of research papers from a variety of disciplines and a variety of participating communities to address issues related to service policies, service process modeling, service delivery management, innovated service technologies, and the role of the Internet, the digital economy, and information technology. But more important than providing a forum for reporting research related to service and service systems, the SSME minitrack also aims to fit the research into the novel theoretical framework of the service system, and ultimately to contribute to development of service science itself.

Research related to but not restricted to the following topics will be addressed in this minitrack.

• Service science concepts and theory
• Research methodologies for service science
• The global services economy and national policies for service infrastructure investments
• Application of SSME to the digital economy
• Service modeling, optimization and analysis
• The dynamics of service evolution
• Business process management and transformation for service enhancement
• Mechanisms of service innovation
• Service process synthesis and decomposition for automated service delivery
• Methodologies, techniques, and tools for automated service composition and delivery
• Integration of organizational design and IT architecture for service system implementation
• Case studies on service innovation in various industries
• Behavioral studies for service system design
• Management of software as a service, web services, and related issues
• Integration of IT services (back-end) and customer services (front-end)
• The role of information technology and digitization in service innovation

Fu-ren Lin is a professor at the Institute of Technology Management, National Tsing-hua University, Taiwan. His research interests include business process innovation, e-business management, data/ text mining, and knowledge management. His research works have published in Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Decision Support Systems, and IEEE Intelligent Systems. Dr. Lin earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Business Administration, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1996.

Paul P. Maglio is senior manager of Service Systems Research, IBM Almaden Research Center. His group encompasses social, cognitive, computer and business sciences, and aims at creating a foundation for basic and applied research in how people work and create value. Since joining IBM Research in 1995, he has worked on programmable Web intermediaries, attentive user interfaces, multimodal human-computer interaction and human aspects of autonomic computing. He has published numerous scientific papers in various areas of computer science and cognitive science, and his research has been published in Communications of ACM, Knowledge-based Systems, IEEE Computer, IBM Systems Journal, as well as various academic conferences, such as ACM CHI, Cognitive Science, WWW, and many others. He earned his Ph.D. degree in cognitive science from the University of California, San Diego.

Michael J. Shaw is the Hoeft Endowed Chair in Information Technology Management and Director of the Center for Information Technology and e-Business Management at College of Business. He received his Ph.D. from the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University. Professor Shaw is the editor-in-chief of the journal Information Systems and e-Business Management, and he has published extensively in leading academic journals. Among Professor Shaw's recent books are the Handbook in Electronic Commerce, Information-Based Manufacturing, and e-Business Management. Currently, Professor Shaw works in the areas of e-business strategy, IT portfolios, CIO decision processes, and knowledge management.

Paul P. Maglio
IBM Almaden Research Center 
E-mail: pmaglio@almaden.ibm.com