This book is a result of the Seventh International Conference on Information Sys tems Development-Methods and Tools, Theory and Practice held in Bled, Slovenia, Sep tember 21-23, 1998. The purpose of the conference was to address issues facing academia and industry when specifying, developing, managing, and improving information comput erized systems. During the past few years, many new concepts and approaches emerged in the Information Systems Development (ISD) field. The various theories, methods, and tools available to system developers also bring problems such as choosing the most effec tive approach for a specific task. This conference provides a meeting place for IS re searchers and practitioners from Eastern and Western Europe as well as from other parts of the world. An objective of the conference is not only to share scientific knowledge and in terests but to establish strong professional ties among the participants. The Seventh International Conference on Information Systems Develop ment-ISD'98 continues the concepts of the first Polish-Scandinavian Seminar on Current Trends in Information Systems Development Methodologies held in Gdansk, Poland in 1988. Through the years, the Seminar developed into the International Conference on In formation Systems Development. ISD'99 will be held in Boise, Idaho. The selection of papers was carried out by the International Program Committee. All papers were reviewed in advance by three people. Papers were judged according to their originality, relevance, and presentation quality. All papers were judged only on their own merits, independent of other submissions.

How does science work? Does it tell us what the world is “really” like? What makes it different from other ways of understanding the universe? In Theory and Reality, Peter Godfrey-Smith addresses these questions by taking the reader on a grand tour of more than a hundred years of debate about science. The result is a completely accessible introduction to the main themes of the philosophy of science. Examples and asides engage the beginning student, a glossary of terms explains key concepts, and suggestions for further reading are included at the end of each chapter. Like no other text in this field, Theory and Reality combines a survey of recent history of the philosophy of science with current key debates that any beginning scholar or critical reader can follow. The second edition is thoroughly updated and expanded by the author with a new chapter on truth, simplicity, and models in science.

Despite widespread interest in virtual reality, research and development efforts in synthetic environments (SE)â€"the field encompassing virtual environments, teleoperation, and hybridsâ€"have remained fragmented. Virtual Reality is the first integrated treatment of the topic, presenting current knowledge along with thought-provoking vignettes about a future where SE is commonplace. This volume discusses all aspects of creating a system that will allow human operators to see, hear, smell, taste, move about, give commands, respond to conditions, and manipulate objects effectively in a real or virtual environment. The committee of computer scientists, engineers, and psychologists on the leading edge of SE development explores the potential applications of SE in the areas of manufacturing, medicine, education, training, scientific visualization, and teleoperation in hazardous environments. The committee also offers recommendations for development of improved SE technology, needed studies of human behavior and evaluation of SE systems, and government policy and infrastructure.

Confidence was at its highest in the 1960s that governments could solve many of the country's urban problems by commissioning social science studies and being guided by their findings. Here 11 studies critically evaluate the three decades of such policy analysis in a wide range of urban policy arenas, including community development, transportation and land use, education, housing, family support and social welfare, drugs, and racial discrimination. They find mixed results in different areas: sometimes the system worked wonderfully, sometimes the studies were excellent but ignored, and sometimes the studies were conducted merely to support policy adopted for other reasons. No index. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Examples from a variety of settings, including nursing homes, hospitals, support groups and residential treatment centres make this method of analysis applicable to qualitative researchers in applied settings as well as to more traditional ethnographers.

A leading philosopher takes a mind-bending journey through virtual worlds, illuminating the nature of reality and our place within it. Virtual reality is genuine reality; that’s the central thesis of Reality+. In a highly original work of “technophilosophy,” David J. Chalmers gives a compelling analysis of our technological future. He argues that virtual worlds are not second-class worlds, and that we can live a meaningful life in virtual reality. We may even be in a virtual world already. Along the way, Chalmers conducts a grand tour of big ideas in philosophy and science. He uses virtual reality technology to offer a new perspective on long-established philosophical questions. How do we know that there’s an external world? Is there a god? What is the nature of reality? What’s the relation between mind and body? How can we lead a good life? All of these questions are illuminated or transformed by Chalmers’ mind-bending analysis. Studded with illustrations that bring philosophical issues to life, Reality+ is a major statement that will shape discussion of philosophy, science, and technology for years to come.

This philosophy of science book is written by a biomedical scientist for a lay audience but is well-referenced for use by scientific readers and college course curricula. Its thesis is that the current paradigm in the biological and medical sciences, which is responsible for rejecting the existence of a Divine Being, is outdated. There is no factual basis for creating a dichotomy between evolution and Divine Design. Misconceptions about the nature of reality, i.e., the belief that matter is the ultimate cause of everything we think, feel, say, and do, have made it easy to ignore data demonstrating an important biological role for the energetic aspects of matter and to leave the question of the existence of a Divine being to the purview of philosophy and religion. The author uses extensive scientific data to highlight the inconsistencies in current theories and relates her personal journey in trying to explain her observations with purely mechanistic theories. Her ultimate conclusion is that the existence or non-existence of God can no longer be ignored by scientists. It is one of the most important scientific questions there is and like many other issues that were formally relegated to the domain of philosophy, can and should be investigated by modern science.