Miami University

LONG WRITING ASSIGNMENT FOR STUDENTS

Emerging Technology Guide

Semester Long Writing Project

What is the purpose of this assignment?

• To investigate an emerging technology
• To objectively discuss its capabilities and potential uses
• To identify its benefits, drawbacks and limitations
• To analyze stakeholders for the new technology (individuals, firms, society)
• To make recommendations to a firm regarding new technology
• To effectively communicate your analysis to an appropriate professional audience

What is an emerging technology?

• New hardware or software which has the potential to enhance the work effectiveness of an individual or an organization
• One that will enter the market soon or has only been available less than one year

What are the deliverables?

The project will proceed in 6 phases, each one building on the previous step. You will be asked to complete the deliverables for each phase following a prescribed timeline. Your topic must be approved by the instructor before proceeding to Phase II. Initial submission of each deliverable constitutes a rough draft. Feedback you obtain from your instructor or your peers should be used to revise your writing prior to final submission. In Phase VI, you will assemble the final project into a cohesive Emerging Technology Guide. A list of the phases is shown below with more detail on each phase provided at the end of this document.

Phase I -                Topic Selection and Justification

Phase II -               Descriptive Writing with Bibliography

Phase III -               Benefits, Drawbacks and Limitations

Phase IV -               Stakeholder Analysis

Phase V -               Recommendations

Phase VI -               Final Assembly and Presentation

How will my work be evaluated?

1. Appropriateness of the technology.  Does the technology you chose fit the criteria as an emerging technology?
2. Functional Description. Have you adequately described what this technology is and how it works? Is your project presented in an objective manner and not biased?
3. Depth of the analysis. Is your list of stakeholders thorough and have you discussed in depth what each one stands to gain or lose should this technology spread rapidly? 
4. Quality of the analysis. Do you demonstrate a complete understanding of the impact of this technology on individuals, organizations and society? Are your recommendations supported with logic and evidence?
5. Quality of the writing. Is the final research project organized and professional? Is your writing free from grammatical and spelling errors? Is the dialogue easy to read and interesting? Does the paper flow well from beginning to end? Have you provided a useful summary at the beginning and highlighted your recommendations and conclusions at the end?
6. Have you provided constructive criticism and useful feedback during the peer review process?
7. Was your presentation effective in demonstrating the use of the new technology, its advantages disadvantages and impact?

Phase Detail

What does each phase require?

Phase I -                Topic Selection and Justification

Pick a topic that meets the requirements to be considered a new technology. Your search for emerging technologies can include the technology sections of major news organizations, the web, technology trade journals or newspapers. Once you have found a topic that interests you, you will then prepare a justification document. (At least one page single spaced.). The purpose of this document is to convince your instructor that this technology is indeed an emerging technology and why it is important to study it. Remember that your team may not be only one to select this topic. Please address the following questions in your document.

• Why are you personally interested in this technology?
• Why do think this technology will be important in the future?
• How does this technology qualify as an emerging technology?
• Why should your team be chosen to investigate this it? (other teams may have chosen the same technology)

Phase II -               Descriptive Writing with Annotated Bibliography

Now you are charged with doing a full search to discover how the technology works. You must describe its components and major features. How does this technology differ from other technologies in its class? The purpose is to provide an objective overview of the technology, not to sell it to someone. There are some things it can do, and some things it cannot. Keep in this in mind as you review the technology itself. You can include graphics, pictures, diagrams and/or short clips as part of this phase. The writing itself should be at least 1-3 pages single spaced.

As you discover resources on the topic, record the source following bibliographic instructions provided for authors of AIS Journals (see attached). For each article, briefly skim the document to make sure it is appropriate. Annotations are for recording your comments on what you expect to obtain from it. This can also be a short summary of the content and usefulness of the source. For example below:

Traffic Supervision Systems. (2004) "Improving Bus Terminal Management using RFID Automatic Vehicle Location (AVI) System", Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility, http://www.aimglobal.org/members/news/templates/casestudies.asp?articleid=166&zoneid=25

(current May 15, 2005).  

This article reviews the application of RFID technology to improve routing and bus terminal management in the city of Vejle, Denmark.  Discusses how it was implemented, the benefits to customers and advantages it provides. Does not discuss drawbacks.

Phase III -               Benefits, Drawbacks and Limitations

Now that you have had the opportunity to see how the technology works, you must now consider that there are both pros and cons to using it. In this phase, you will write about both its benefits and drawbacks to individuals, organizations and society. What are the limitations inherent in the application of it? Does using it keep you from pursuing other technologies? What resources are needed to implement it (i. e. time, cost, training...)?  Is it a one time cost or are there ongoing expenses to consider? This phase of the writing should be a minimum of 2-3 pages single spaced.

Phase IV -               Stakeholder Analysis

Your task is to identify the major players who are either involved in promoting the technology or likely to be impacted by it. These stakeholders can come from the technology industry, from the business environment (competitors and customers), and from the government. Sometimes there are winners and losers. Who stands to gain by implementing it and who stands to lose? How will employees, customers, competitors and other stakeholders be impacted should this technology take hold?  

Phase V -               Recommendations

This phase will require some creative thinking. Assume that you work for mid-size company who has asked for your recommendation on this technology. Describe a hypothetical, but realistic problem the firm is facing where this technology might be applied. Give them your recommendation on whether or not they should use this particular emerging technology to solve this problem, but you should also provide arguments for and against using it. Remember that sometimes being a first mover on a new technology has it own set of problems. For example, there may be few people trained to use it and a lack of sophisticated help. Also, your competitors may be able to learn from your mistakes and advance faster than you. On the other hand, it may give the firm a competitive edge through cost or time savings.

Phase VI -               Final Assembly and Presentation

Documents prepared through each phase will require some editing and smoothing. Use the feedback you obtained from your instructor, teammates and peers to create a well-organized, objective emerging technology guide on the subject. Each section must flow into the next and the reader should have some idea where they are going. Headers on each section are helpful. Update the annotated bibliography and in-text citations to include any new articles or sources obtained since Phase II. Add an introduction or executive summary at the top and a conclusion at the end. Prepare a PowerPoint presentation for the class and any corporate executives who might be invited to hear about this new technology. Include a copy of the presentation (six slides per page) at the end of your research guide. Put the final document in a professional cover or binding.

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FORMATTING REFERENCES

The formatting instructions below are a subset of those offered by the Association for Information Systems Journals which can be found at : http://jais.isworld.org/style.doc .  Note that when you prepare your research references, specific components must appear in the bibliography. For example, when citing online references, particularly web pages, you should record the date you obtained the web page. As you write your research paper, the referenced you cite should appear in brackets in the text. Formatting of in-text references is described first, and then the formatting of individual references is covered. If you are having difficulty formatting a specific item for your bibliography, contact your instructor for assistance.

IN-TEXT REFERENCES

• Items included in the list of references should be referred to in text by author name and year within square brackets. E.g., [Gray, 2004]
• For two authors, show both names and year [Gray and Ein-Dor, 2005]
• For more than two authors, show first name and et. al.  [Gray et. al., 2003]
• If a direct quote is used, include page number  [Solomon, 2005, p. 2]

REFERENCE TYPES

Electronic Publications

Author name and paper title as for journal articles, followed by the URL and date of referenced version. URL’s can be shown in 10 point type if they are long. Record the date you found it on online!

Example: Burka, L. P. (1995) "A Hypertext History of Multiuser Dimensions," MUD History, http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/home/lpb/mud- history.html  (current Dec. 5, 2004).

Book 

Author(s) (date) Title in Italics, Place of Publication: Publisher, pages(if appropriate))

Example: McNurlin, B.C. and R.H. Sprague (1998) Information Systems Management in Practice, 4th edition,

Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall pp. 133-170.

Journal or Magazine Article

Author(s) (date) “Title”, Journal Name in Italics, (Volume) Issue, pages

Example: Lee, O. and P. Gray (1998) “Knowledge Base Clustering in KBS Maintenance”, Journal of Software

Maintenance, (10)2, pp. 395-414

Example: Barnett, M. “The Exchange Revolution” The Industry Standard, (2)24, pp. 37-38

Edited Book

Editors(s) (ed.)(date) Title in Italics, Publisher

Example: Coleman, D. and R. Kanna (eds.)(1995) Groupware Technology and Applications, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR

Newspaper Article

Author(s) (date) “Title of Article” Name of Newspaper in Italics, pages.

For newspapers and magazines, the exact date should be given

Example: Brown, J. (April 15, 1997) "Who, When, Why?" The New York Times, page B3