As a doctoral student at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, USA, before I settled on a fix stream of research, I began a number of different projects. Over time, these projects resulted in publications on mobile information systems, e-voting, and information systems usage, and mobile computing. Here I list these publications with their abstracts.

Web- and telephone-based remote electronic voting systems (REVS) offer a solution to the problems of manual counting, counting accuracy, timeliness of reporting results and reducing the inconvenience of voting. However, while access to telephones is ubiquitous, the unequal use and access to Internet technology across different demographic groups in the voting population is of concern. We sampled four different populations (college students, technologically-savvy parents, registered voters, and confirmed actual voters) to investigate if attitudes toward a REVS differ across age, race, income, employment status, education, and gender. We found that age was the only characteristic that unambiguously affected the preference of using a REVS over traditional booth voting, and the likelihood of using a REVS. Younger citizens were more likely to prefer an REVS. We also found that regardless of demographic category, most voters indicated a preference for using a Web-based over a telephone-based REVS.

Remote electronic voting systems (REVSs) have become a viable mechanism for official political elections. It can enable remote voting, facilitate monitoring, voting and tallying, and report immediate results. However, it is uncertain whether the use of REVS could increase citizens' participation in elections. This study examines this question in the USA. By analysing the data from multiple sources, we found that web-based REVS use can significantly increase the participation of non-voting citizens, and that young adults have a strong preference to using REVS. The implications and the recommendations about the use of REVS are also discussed.

The Delphi method has proven a popular tool in information systems research for identifying and prioritizing issues for managerial decision-making. However, many past studies have not adopted a systematic approach to conduct a Delphi study. This article provides rigorous guidelines for the process of selecting appropriate experts for the study and gives detailed principles for making design choices during the process that ensure a valid study. A detailed example of a study to identify key factors affecting the diffusion of e-commerce in Sub-Saharan Africa illustrates the design choices that may be involved. We conclude with suggestions for theoretical applications.

User information satisfaction (UIS) and system usage have been two important variables in MIS research because they are used to indicate system effectiveness, a factor that is hard to measure directly. This study presents the Information Satisfaction and Use Model (ISUM), a new framework that develops a comprehensive view of how UIS is formed and how it is determines system usage. This study draws from prior UIS measurement instruments, especially from those of Ives, Olson and Baroudi (1983) and Doll and Torkzadeh (1988). It also borrows heavily from Shirani, Aiken and Reithel's (1994) UIS model and from the American Customer Satisfaction Index model (Fornell, Johnson, Anderson, Cha and Bryant 1996). In addition to incorporating several UIS-related factors familiar in the literature, the ISUM develops and explicitly incorporates some less studied variables. The perceived value of an information system is a user's judgment of whether the system is worthwhile to learn and use, and is important in determining satisfaction. The confirmation or disconfirmation of expectations is a major direct determinant of UIS. This study clarifies the nature of user expectations in determining UIS, relating them to user and organizational characteristics. Also, when users complain about system deficiencies, the response to this feedback should significantly affect their satisfaction, which in turn determines sustained voluntary system usage. Thus the ISUM both consolidates and extends prior research in UIS.

Wireless mobile computing promises to usher in the next major paradigm in personal computing. Handheld computers in particular are truly portable and they are becoming increasingly capable of meeting most users' computing needs. In this paper we outline a vision for deploying wireless mobile computing technology within the realm of professional conferences by creating a Mobile Conference Information System (MCIS). With detailed descriptions of applications and hypothetical usage scenarios, we describe how the system can be used to access conference information, to network people, and enhance common conference services. We also describe several constraints, limitations, and challenges with this concept, and we suggest how these problems can be overcome. In this paper we consolidate many current applications of wireless networked computing into one comprehensive system; we highlight several of the complexities and challenges that apply to any wirelessly mobile information system; and we offer a vision for a valuable platform for future research on the use of mobile technologies. The MCIS will significantly change how conferences are managed and enhance the experiences of the attendees.