The election of a new federal government has placed the digital economy and the effective use of ICT as an enabler of business growth and government efficiency firmly back on the agenda.
The transformational role of the digital economy has been recognized as a strategic priority in the School of Computer & Information Science, and will be the focus of an exciting new initiative aimed at building partnerships between academia, government and industry.
Spearheading research and academic leadership in this area will be UniSA’s Professor of Information Systems Paula Swatman, who has over 25 years international experience in the fields of e-business, internet commerce and global systems. Her aim is to develop key capabilities that will enable Australian businesses to grow their share of emerging global markets and improve competitiveness in these markets.
Professor Paula Swatman will take on this new role after two years as the inaugural State Records of SA/Fuji Xerox/State Library of SA Chair of Business Information Management. In that role Paula led a multidisciplinary and cross-institutional team of experts that has put UniSA and its partners in a world-leading position by designing a suite of contemporary graduate programs linking the areas of information management, library studies, records management, archival management, and business information and communications technology (ICT) (see www.unisa.edu.au/bim for details).
The next phase of implementing the BIM Programs will be in the capable hands of Dr Simon Shurville who joined UniSA in November 2007 as a Senior Lecturer in the School of CIS.
Professor Andy Koronios
Head of School
School of Computer and Information Science
Meetings are an integral part of business life and when run properly they help make organisations work more effectively.
Information technology (IT) researchers at the University of South Australia are looking at how IT can help support meetings and they’ve developed an intelligent meeting room to explore the possibilities.
Dubbed IntelliMeet, the meeting room is a system of integrated technologies that records meetings through video cameras and individual microphone headsets. It then provides a written transcript and analysis of the key issues discussed.
IntelliMeet will be available for both research and commercial purposes.
Computer and information science researcher and IntelliMeet project leader, Professor Paul Swatman, said the system offers local businesses many services as well as the option to contribute to further research work the UniSA team is conducting.
“We have developed IntelliMeet to assist the business community in more ways than one,” Prof Swatman said.
“People can finish a meeting and walk away with a complete video and audio recording on DVD and a full transcript, which is in itself useful. By running the transcript through text mining software, Leximancer, we get a conceptual map that represents the main ideas and how they are related.
“The combination of a visual record and an analysis of the most significant issues covered during the meeting means that whether businesses are conducting a focus group, a strategy meeting or a brainstorming session, they will be able to make use of their meeting outputs in completely new ways.
“More broadly, the rich research data we can mine from the system will help us understand more about how teams operate, order tasks, share roles and make decisions in non-routine situations.”
Prof Swatman said IntelliMeet is also mobile so groups can have the system set up on their own premises.
“To research ways to make meetings more effective, we want to explore real meetings in real settings, so we can take the meeting room to them,” he said.
“It’s a facility that will aid any organisation or group that holds meetings. We are very excited about the launch and look forward to developing relationships and partnerships across Adelaide.”
Prof Swatman will be launching Intellimeet at this months UniSA International Business Week, which includes seminars and workshops covering some of the more critical issues exporters face when venturing overseas.
Intellimeet will be launched on Monday August 15, from 11am - 1 pm at the Imperial Room, Quality Hotel Rockford, Adelaide.
For more information contact Prof Swatman at UniSA’s School of Computer and Information Science.
Contact for Interviews
Professor Paul Swatman
office (08) 8302 9185
mobile 0423 783 175
email paul.swatman@unisa.edu.au