In the foreword to this volume of conference proceedings for IFIP Working Group 8.4, it is appropriate to review the wider organization to which the Working Group belongs. The International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) is a non-governmental, non-profit umbrella organization for national societies working in the field of information processing that was established in 1960 under the auspices of UNESCO. IFIP''s mission is to be the leading, truly international, apolitical organization which encourages and assists in the development, exploitation and application of Information Technology for the benefit of all people. At the heart of IFIP lie its Technical Committees that, between them, count on the active participation of some two thousand people world-wide. These Groups work in a variety of ways to share experience and to develop their specialised knowledge. Technical Committees include: TC 1. Foundations of Computer Science; TC 2: Software: Theory and Practice; TC 3: Education; TC 6: Communication Systems; TC 7: System Modelling and Optimization; TC 9: Relationship between Computers and Society; TC 11: Security and Protection in Information Processing Systems; TC 12: Artificial Intelligence and TC 13: Human-Computer Interaction. The IFIP website www.ifip.org) has further details. Technical Committee 8 (TC8) is concerned with Information Systems in organisations. Within TC8 there are different Working Groups focusing on particular aspects of Information Systems.

In this book Eileen Trauth peers inside the day-to-day work lives of the people who have been bringing about Ireland's transition from a small agricultural country to a healthy information economy. It is one of few book-length interpretive studies in the information systems field. This book links the disciplines of information systems, international management, economic development, history, and public policy to tell the story behind the statistics about Ireland's economic development. The findings from this ten-year study illustrate the range of socio-cultural factors, which influence the emergence of an information sector. Ireland's story contains a message for other nations that this change to a new way of working and living is intimately connected to the cultural context within which it occurs. This book reveals the ethnographic approach that was used by taking the reader through the interpretive process as it occurred. The Appendix is devoted to additional detail about the methodology. Audience: This book should be read by PhD students and others who want to learn more about the actual application of ethnographic methods in information systems research. It should be read by students, researchers, teachers, and policy-makers working in several fields including global information systems, the information society, management in the knowledge economy, and economic development.

This collection of research papers addresses the emerging field of e-commerce and e-business, and presents a number of key contributions as the research fields are maturing. Many of the texts represent cutting-edge research, illustrating the diverse nature of these fields, from conceptual frameworks to state-of-the-art implementations. The book includes contributions in areas such as: strategies for implementing e-business; business-2-consumer, business-2-business; internet marketing; evaluation tools for e-business; implications for SMEs; mobile commerce; trust; distributed knowledge management; and dot.com-driven business transformations. The volume comprises the edited proceedings of the Second Working Conference on E-Business: Multidisciplinary Research and Practice, which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), Working Group 8.4, as well as by the Danish Center for E-Business Development and the Copenhagen Business School. The conference was held in June 2002 in Copenhagen.

In the foreword to this volume of conference proceedings for IFIP Working Group 8.4, it is appropriate to review the wider organization to which the Working Group belongs. The International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) is a non-governmental, non-profit umbrella organization for national societies working in the field of information processing that was established in 1960 under the auspices of UNESCO. IFIP's mission is to be the leading, truly international, apolitical organization which encourages and assists in the development, exploitation and application of Information Technology for the benefit of all people. At the heart of IFIP lie its Technical Committees that, between them, count on the active participation of some two thousand people world-wide. These Groups work in a variety of ways to share experience and to develop their specialised knowledge. Technical Committees include: TC 1. Foundations of Computer Science; TC 2: Software: Theory and Practice; TC 3: Education; TC 6: Communication Systems; TC 7: System Modelling and Optimization; TC 9: Relationship between Computers and Society; TC 11: Security and Protection in Information Processing Systems; TC 12: Artificial Intelligence and TC 13: Human-Computer Interaction. The IFIP website www.ifip.org) has further details. Technical Committee 8 (TC8) is concerned with Information Systems in organisations. Within TC8 there are different Working Groups focusing on particular aspects of Information Systems.

In the foreword to this volume of conference proceedings for IFIP Working Group 8.4, it is appropriate to review the wider organization to which the Working Group belongs. The International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) is a non-governmental, non-profit umbrella organization for national societies working in the field of information processing that was established in 1960 under the auspices of UNESCO. IFIP''s mission is to be the leading, truly international, apolitical organization which encourages and assists in the development, exploitation and application of Information Technology for the benefit of all people. At the heart of IFIP lie its Technical Committees that, between them, count on the active participation of some two thousand people world-wide. These Groups work in a variety of ways to share experience and to develop their specialised knowledge. Technical Committees include: TC 1. Foundations of Computer Science; TC 2: Software: Theory and Practice; TC 3: Education; TC 6: Communication Systems; TC 7: System Modelling and Optimization; TC 9: Relationship between Computers and Society; TC 11: Security and Protection in Information Processing Systems; TC 12: Artificial Intelligence and TC 13: Human-Computer Interaction. The IFIP website www.ifip.org) has further details. Technical Committee 8 (TC8) is concerned with Information Systems in organisations. Within TC8 there are different Working Groups focusing on particular aspects of Information Systems.

In this book Eileen Trauth peers inside the day-to-day work lives of the people who have been bringing about Ireland's transition from a small agricultural country to a healthy information economy. It is one of few book-length interpretive studies in the information systems field. This book links the disciplines of information systems, international management, economic development, history, and public policy to tell the story behind the statistics about Ireland's economic development. The findings from this ten-year study illustrate the range of socio-cultural factors, which influence the emergence of an information sector. Ireland's story contains a message for other nations that this change to a new way of working and living is intimately connected to the cultural context within which it occurs. This book reveals the ethnographic approach that was used by taking the reader through the interpretive process as it occurred. The Appendix is devoted to additional detail about the methodology. Audience: This book should be read by PhD students and others who want to learn more about the actual application of ethnographic methods in information systems research. It should be read by students, researchers, teachers, and policy-makers working in several fields including global information systems, the information society, management in the knowledge economy, and economic development.

This collection of research papers addresses the emerging field of e-commerce and e-business, and presents a number of key contributions as the research fields are maturing. Many of the texts represent cutting-edge research, illustrating the diverse nature of these fields, from conceptual frameworks to state-of-the-art implementations. The book includes contributions in areas such as: strategies for implementing e-business; business-2-consumer, business-2-business; internet marketing; evaluation tools for e-business; implications for SMEs; mobile commerce; trust; distributed knowledge management; and dot.com-driven business transformations. The volume comprises the edited proceedings of the Second Working Conference on E-Business: Multidisciplinary Research and Practice, which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), Working Group 8.4, as well as by the Danish Center for E-Business Development and the Copenhagen Business School. The conference was held in June 2002 in Copenhagen.

In the foreword to this volume of conference proceedings for IFIP Working Group 8.4, it is appropriate to review the wider organization to which the Working Group belongs. The International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) is a non-governmental, non-profit umbrella organization for national societies working in the field of information processing that was established in 1960 under the auspices of UNESCO. IFIP's mission is to be the leading, truly international, apolitical organization which encourages and assists in the development, exploitation and application of Information Technology for the benefit of all people. At the heart of IFIP lie its Technical Committees that, between them, count on the active participation of some two thousand people world-wide. These Groups work in a variety of ways to share experience and to develop their specialised knowledge. Technical Committees include: TC 1. Foundations of Computer Science; TC 2: Software: Theory and Practice; TC 3: Education; TC 6: Communication Systems; TC 7: System Modelling and Optimization; TC 9: Relationship between Computers and Society; TC 11: Security and Protection in Information Processing Systems; TC 12: Artificial Intelligence and TC 13: Human-Computer Interaction. The IFIP website www.ifip.org) has further details. Technical Committee 8 (TC8) is concerned with Information Systems in organisations. Within TC8 there are different Working Groups focusing on particular aspects of Information Systems.