-------- Original-Nachricht -------- Betreff: [isworld] CFP AMCIS2009 Minitrack "Spreadsheets: The Dark Matter and Dark Energy of IT" Datum: Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:42:37 -1000 Von: Ray Panko panko@hawaii.edu Antwort an: Ray Panko panko@hawaii.edu An: AISWORLD Information Systems World Network isworld@lyris.isworld.org

SPREADSHEETS: THE DARK MATTER AND DARK ENERGY OF IT

End-user Information Systems (SIGOSRA) Track 15th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) San Francisco, California August 6 - 9, 2009

Mini-track website: http://panko.shidler.hawaii.edu/SSR/

Description: Until recently, the spreadsheet was the Rodney Dangerfield of corporate IT. I got little respect. Spreadsheet applications were believed to be numerous but collectively unimportant from a strategic point of view. Recently, however, pressure from compliance laws have forced organizations to examine how their key business processes really use IT. What they have almost always found were spreadsheets—large numbers of massive, complex, and mission-critical spreadsheets—all developed by end users. They found that many processes use spreadsheets predominantly for their IT, and even processes that use packaged applications often use spreadsheets for the riskiest computations, such as end-of-period adjustments in corporate financial reporting. It now appears that spreadsheets are the dark matter of IT—larger collectively than traditional central applications in terms of computerized units of core business logic, yet invisible to IT (“It’s a business side thing”) and also to corporate management. Spreadsheets are also dark in the sense that research has shown that errors in corporate spreadsheets seem to be nearly universal. In addition, spreadsheets are an enormous liability for corporate efforts to protect personally sensitive information and trade secrets. At the same time, spreadsheets seem to be the dark energy of corporate IT, spreading information technology far beyond central computing to nearly every business function. IT professionals who believe that they can solve control problems by banning spreadsheets are at best misinformed.

Possible Topics: 汹Human error theory applied to spreadsheet errors. 汹Functional nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies 汹Errors in spreadsheet development and testing/inspection 汹The effectiveness of automated spreadsheet error detection tools 汹Corporate experiences using spreadsheets in specific business processes 汹Corporate experiencing governing spreadsheets 汹Errors in operational spreadsheets 汹Spreadsheet productivity and quality 汹The extension of spreadsheet development functionality 汹Surveys of developers and users 汹Surveys of spreadsheets 汹Surveys of corporate policies and practices 强Viewing spreadsheets as appropriate development tools 强Best practice recommendations backed by empirical data 强Exploding spreadsheet myths with data 强Advantages and disadvantages of spreadsheets as application development tools

Mini-track Chair: Dr. Ray Panko, Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaii E-mail: Panko@hawaii.edu or Ray@Panko.com

Submission Process Full paper submissions must be made electronically through the AMCIS on-line submission system by February 20th 2009. Papers should not exceed 5,000 words, including attachments.

Important Dates: Full Papers Due: February 20, 2009 Notification of Acceptance: April 2, 2009 Camera Ready Copy Due: April 20, 2009 Please contract Ray if you are interested in the minitrack (Panko@hawaii.edu)

Conference Website http://www.amcis2009.org/

Ray Panko IT Management Department Shidler College of Business University of Hawai`i http://panko.shidler.hawaii.edu

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