Tom McMaster - Böcker

I am honored to be General Chair for the 2007 (10*^) Working Conference of IFIP Working Group 8.6.1 had some part in helping with the formation of this working group. Participating in this conference in Manchester reflects my interest in the working group and its research domain. The conference is also something of an anniversary, since the second conference of the working group was held nearby 10 years ago. I have some reflections on the formation and early conferences of the working group, the comparative advantage of being sponsored by IFIP and TC8, the reasons for WG 8.6, and the important contributions of the working group and this conference. Reflections on the Formation of WG 8.6 and Early Conferences I was Chair of the IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) Technical Committee 8 (Information Systems) for two terms from 1990 through 1995. It was in 1993 when the proposal was made to form a new working group on Diffusion and Adoption of Information Technology. I supported the proposal and remember well how active and persuasive Priscilla Fowler and Linda Levine were in making the case for establishing a new working group.

The primary aim for this book is to gather and collate articles which represent current thinking in the domain of technology transfer, from research, academia and practice around the world. It addresses a number of key topics, including: theoretical models of technology transfer and diffusion; identification of risk/success factors; methodological innovations to promote successful design and implementation; user resistance and learning processes and defense mechanisms in technology transfer. This text should be of interest to practitioners, consultants, software engineers, managers, senior undergraduate and postgraduate students in IS/IT.