ResearchGate and Academia.edu have been increasingly acknowledged as the most popular academic social network sites (ASNS) for scholarly communication. Along with their benefits for supporting communication and knowledge sharing within academic communities, concerns over quality and credibility remain a pertinent issue. In terms of research…

An article in "The Atlantic" "Quantifying the Ed-Tech Market" (2015), which draws on a review by the Education Technology Industry Network, reports that the U.S. Ed-tech market totalled $8.38 billion in the 2012-2013 academic year, which is up from $7.9 billion the year before, and up 11.7 per cent from 2009. K-12 online course…

This case study follows the security breach that affected Target at the end of 2013 and resulted in the loss of financial data for over 70 million customers. The case provides an overview of the company and describes the reasons that led to one of the biggest security breaches in history. It offers a discussion on Target's vendor management…

With its new variety of IT products and services created in the last decade for students, teachers and schools, Google has changed the face of education. Google technologies that can be used completely free of charge via a single account in any device offer innovative alternatives to meet the needs of education. These technologies also help…

The crux of this study is on the adoption of E-payment system in Nigeria: Its economic benefits and challenges. The arrival of the internet has taken electronic payments and transactions to an exponential growth level. Consumers could purchase goods and services from the internet and send unencrypted credit card numbers across the network, which…

The emergence of Bitcoin as an online currency/payment system has been surrounded with controversy with equally passionate proponents and detractors arguing for its long-term viability. These debates lead to stimulating exercises for the finance or economics student eager to understand principles of money, currencies, and monetary economics. The…

On May 25-26 in New York, BookExpo America (BEA) will present new events for participants. To lighten participants' totes, BEA is partnering with Above the Treeline to create a free online catalog (Books@BEA) of the new and forthcoming titles on the show floor. There will also be a searchable database of all the authors participating in show…

In the very near future, students are likely to expect their universities to provide seamless access to e-books through online library catalogues and virtual learning environments. A paradigm change in terms of the format of books, and especially textbooks, which could have far-reaching impact, is on the horizon. Based on interviews with a number…

Rural small businesses struggling against the current of competition from "big box" retailers, weak consumer demand, and on-line shopping options must find strategies that work. Many are finding that adoption of e-commerce strategies is a key to survival, even prosperity. This article highlights the lessons learned from a recent case study…

One of the toughest challenges in an academic library systems office is how to manage and present the extensive selection of electronic resources from a variety of vendors. At York College of Pennsylvania, the authors participated in an admissions-driven web revision cycle and used a campus-provided CMS for 8 years. During this time, they tried…

Jokes about "Dark Angel" and "Blackborg" surfaced almost immediately after Blackboard Inc. announced its plan to buy course-management software competitor Angel Learning, the author reports. Angel had lured away dozens of Blackboard clients in recent years with a friendly, approachable corporate culture that stood in sharp contrast to Blackboard's…

In the early years of online retailing, having an online presence and low prices were believed to be key drivers of success. More recently, electronic service quality has become essential as an online marketing strategy. Online stores provide higher service quality to create online customer loyalty, improve customer satisfaction, and keep a…

Millennial students make up a large portion of undergraduate students attending colleges and universities, and they have a variety of online resources available to them to complete academically related information searches, primarily Web based and library-based online information retrieval systems. The content, ease of use, and required search…

Describes standards for computer-based information systems, including Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) and open distributed processing. The standardization process is explained, and the Open Software Foundation's Distributed Computing Environment is described as a de facto standard for open distributed processing that has already gained…

Several leaders in the online industry react to the sale of DIALOG by Lockheed to Knight-Ridder and comment on possible future directions for DIALOG. A sidebar describes the Knight-Ridder organization and its information services. (MES)