The Year 2000 Problem
Computers' Year-2000 problem (Y2K), whereby some computer software won't recognize any digits as representing years in the 21st century, may well strike hoteliers particularly hard due to hotels' reliance on date-sensitive data (room reservations, for example). Moreover, unless hotels' software is updated, Y2K will manifest itself sooner among hotels than in many other industries, as hotels begin to book rooms in the year 2000. Hoteliers can (1) choose to do nothing (i.e., wait and see what actually happens), (2) debug their existing computer applications, or (3) purchase and install all new systems software. Some methods to remove the Y2K problem include these five techniques: size expansion, data encoding, date shift, soft windows, and hard windows. Replacing existing application software with new, Y2K-compliant computer software will resolve the problem. That approach, however, means that all of a hotel's related computer-program requirements be accounted for—which is an enormous undertaking. Moreover, new computer systems are costly, and “off the shelf” business software rarely is of much help to hoteliers. As a result, hotels' computer systems and software most often require extensive customization. Time is short; hoteliers don't have until 2000 to solve their Y2K problems, since a hotel's existing reservation system may not be able to recognize reservations for the year 2000 (“00”). In practical terms, the time required for software development and testing is substantial. Therefore, hotels need to handle the Y2K issue immediately.
DEVELOPING AN IT VIEW-BASED FRAMEWORK FOR IS ETHICS RESEARCH
The field of information systems ethics is much like the field of information systems (IS) in its diversity and wide range of applications. Utilizing this similarity, the following literature review demonstrates a unique framework for the body of research involved with information systems ethics. The new framework is based upon the idea that IS ethics is comprised of a set of research that is directly related to IS. The paper delineates the work that has been done in IS ethics by imposing a well-known classification of IS onto the IS ethics literature. The conclusion of the exercise is a roadmap for future research that illustrates the importance of maintaining a strong connection between IS ethics and all of the various perspectives from which information systems are viewed and studied.
Effects of signaling topic structure on text recall
Two experiments studied effects of signaling devices (headings, overviews, and summaries) on text memory. In Experiment 1, subjects read a text with or without signals, then recalled the topics of the text. Signaling produced better memory for the topics and their organization. In Experiment 2, subjects recalled the content of the text they read, and recalls were scored for the number of accurately recalled ideas. Signals produced recalls that were better organized by text topics. Signals also influenced the distribution of recall of ideas: Subjects remembered more topics but recalled less about each accessed topic if the text they read contained signals than if it did not