Tom McMaster
Information Systems Institute
Faculty of Business & Informatics
University of Salford
M5 4WT (t.mcmaster@salford.ac.uk)

Chris Sauer
Oxford Institute for Information Management
Templeton College
Oxford University
OX1 5NY (Chris.Sauer@templeton.Oxford.ac.uk)

Richard Veryard
Veryard Projects
8 Glencairn Drive
Ealing
London
W5 1RT (rxv@globalnet.co.uk)

On behalf of IFIP Working Group TC8.6 we announce a workshop, and would like to invite you to attend this event designed to explore frameworks for the better understanding of technology transfer issues into the year 2000 and beyond.

This workshop will be held at the University of Salford, UK on the 14^th & 15^th September 2000

It may be that many researchers, both in academia and in industry, tend to focus on technologies at an early stage of the technology life cycle. They regard themselves as early adopters, and talk mostly to other early adopters. The focus for their attention is often on the novelty and the potential of new innovations, and they evaluate these largely on technical criteria.

However, there is another perspective on technology, which considers the whole technology lifecycle in relation to the users of the technology. This perspective is important both to practitioners, who work mostly with mainstream users and late adopters, and to students of the technology transfer process itself. It is also of crucial interest to institutions and funding bodies, as well as technology planners and investors.

Key questions from this perspective include:

• How do technologies develop and mature over time?

• How do technologies make the transition from experimental pilots to widespread use?

• How long does it take, and what factors affect the timescales?

• How do technologies designed for early adopters meet the needs of mainstream users?

• What are the risks of technology transfer, and how can they be assessed and managed?

We cannot answer these questions by studying new technologies alone. We also need to explore some older technologies, perhaps where the initial ‘glamour’ has worn off – technologies that have gone beyond the early adopter stage and have reached some degree of widespread use and maturity.

We would therefore like to invite you to participate in an exploration of what (in technological terms) might be regarded as ancient history. Nevertheless, we believe this will provide an excellent opportunity for developing theoretical and practical insights into the mechanisms underpinning the successful transfer of new and future technologies.

This workshop will provide an opportunity to compare and evaluate a number of different models of technology transfer by applying them to a case – we suggest either an existing ‘word-processing’ or perhaps an ‘E-mail’ system. We feel that limiting the focus in this way will permit us to compare the relative merits of various techniques / methods in terms of for example their powers for explaining / predicting / managing and controlling various aspects of the case.

The workshop proceedings will be published on the web, to provide a baseline for further comparison and evaluation.

The case we have chosen for this workshop is the diffusion and adoption of word processing, or e-mail software within large organizations. In particular, we are looking for detailed explanations of the following phenomena:

• the rate of adoption of word processing / e-mail in general

• the rate at which the previous technologies (e.g. typewriters / mainframe-based, internal e-mail systems) are discarded

• whether the users went straight to PC-based word processing / e-mail systems, or via specialist word-processing machines (e.g. Wang) / e-mail systems (e.g. proprietary mainframe-based systems)

• the growing dominance of Microsoft Word / PC-based e-mail packages

• different rates of these phenomena in different organizations / sectors

• different rates of these phenomena in different countries / cultures

The selection of the case is based on the belief that these are widely known examples of technology transfer, with considerable material already in the public domain.

Given the timescale of this call, we do not expect ‘new’ empirical data.

1. Persons wishing to propose a methodology, model or framework are required to submit a notice of intent by end of June. The model or framework may already be in the public domain, either published in a book, journal or conference, or available on the web. You should provide references and/or URL. Please provide a summary description of around 300 words.

2. There will be a limited number of places available for non-submitting attendees (those who may wish to attend the workshop but do not wish to propose a model or framework). However, please note that places are limited.

3. Participants may use source material that is already in the public domain. References to source material should be provided to the workshop organiser in advance, so that they can be made available to the other participants.

4. Participants should provide a brief (max 10 pages) description of the model or framework they intend to discuss / describe at the workshop. This should be sent electronically to: t.mcmaster@salford.ac.uk. The submission should be sent as a Word file by latest, 28th of July 2000.

5. Participants may also propose additional aspects of the case that they consider worthy of explanation.

6. At the workshop, each contribution will be considered in turn, providing an opportunity to compare the explanatory power of each theory, and the practical plausibility of each method.

7. A dedicated rapporteur will record the workshop proceedings, and will be posted on the workshop website shortly after the event.

8. A discussion forum will be set up on the workshop website, to allow the discussions to continue after the event.

Please notify Tom McMaster (t.mcmaster@salford.ac.uk) of your intention to attend this event as soon as possible, but no later than 30^th June 2000

The workshop fee for this one-and-a-half day event will be £150.00 per person. This includes reception, refreshments during the workshop, Lunch on both days, and attendance at the workshop dinner which will include entertainment (to be decided). It does not include accommodation, however special rates have been negotiated with the Quality Hotel, adjacent to Manchester United Football Club’s stadium, in nearby Old Trafford.