The Fox School’s Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT) regularly publishes The IBIT Report for its members. IBIT reports are based on rigorous vendor neutral academic research and are written to provide actionable knowledge to industry. Each report focuses on an important cutting edge topic that is of interest to our members. Please click on a title below to obtain a report.

Current Reports

Does the Internet matter?
A study of the 2008 presidential primaries  (password required)
Sunil Wattal, David Schuff, Munir Mandviwalla, November 2008

Will the Internet change the landscape of presidential politics? In this report, we show that Blogs had a significant impact on Gallup polls in the 2008 presidential campaign. YouTube and MySpace were beneficial to less known candidates. We discuss how the Internet can change the nature of competition in politics and replace or complement traditional media.

 

Wireless 1.0 (password required)
Munir Mandviwalla, Abhijit Jain, and Paul Weinberg
August 2008

Why was Google, an internet search provider, so interested in the results of the FCC 700 MHz spectrum auction? The Wireless 1.0 report provides a model that organizations can use to understand the importance of wireless and develop new capabilities and innovative new products and services. This report is a first attempt to treat the current set of wireless technologies as an integrated concept. We refer to this state of wireless development as Wireless 1.0 and present an integrated managerial model that includes Wi-Fi, WiMAX, RFID, and Bluetooth. A new perspective is needed for managers because wireless has the potential to disrupt existing business operations and models and also to create new forms of business opportunities and industries.

Social Computing and Networking: Is Your Organization Ready? (password required)
Munir Mandviwalla, Pradeep Racherla, Sunil Wattal
July 2008

The technologies related to social computing and networking such as MySpace, Face-book, Digg, collaborative wikis, interactive blogs, and even Second Life are now an established part of the consumer consciousness. Many observers have linked social networking to concepts such as flatness, openness, peer recommendation, and innovation enablement. Yet, the business role and impact of these concepts and associated technologies is unclear. The goal of this report is to provide a snapshot of the organizational adoption, usage, benefits, and risks associated with social computing. The report is based on interviews with business leaders; evaluation of specific tools; a symposium and focus group, and a survey on adoption.

Forthcoming Reports

Evaluating Web Frameworks: CakePHP, Django and Ruby on Rails
The web development software industry is changing rapidly. New frameworks that initially promise to make great changes for developers, often ultimately fail to live up to their initial press hype. Development frameworks are important; if developers work within a framework's parameters they can program an application with very little code. Selecting a web framework can be a difficult choice. This report will compare three different open source web platforms: Ruby On Rails, CakePHP, and Django. We analyze the benefits and difficulties of each one based on developing a simple blog application.

Browsing through information overload....is there an easier way?
Search engines make vast amounts of information available to Internet users. However, users are often faced with information overload when viewing results. Some search engines have incorporated visualization techniques such as cues to reduce information overload. But does it work? In this study, we have developed a visualization prototype with animation as a cue to identify whether this tool helps users find information faster.

New Frontiers for Corporate Blogging: Looking Beyond Customer Relations
Many companies are using weblogs to find new ways to reach out to their customers. However, an organization’s network also includes investors, partners, suppliers, and the media. This report surveys the current “state of the art” in corporate blogging. Over 25 blogs are studied for their message, audience, and the tools they employ in industries such as manufacturing, travel, technology, education, pharmaceuticals, and food. The report provides recommendations for companies who wish to create or expand their presence in the blogosphere.