Challenges faced by divergent ICT schools regarding branding and establishing research foci. Panel discussion held at SACLA 2010, Cullinan, 4-6 June 2010.

Abstract

The audience will be informed about the process of establishing a new research niche area in a School of Information Technology situated on the Vaal Triangle Campus (VTC) of the North-West University (NWU). The School covers all aspects of IT as well as Operational Research. Since the topics of postgraduate studies and other research endeavours are very divergent it is a challenge to form a cohesive group with a central research focus. The panel will be enriched by the sharing of experiences of colleagues from UCT and the Marmara University in Turkey. The audience may learn from this group's experiences and will also be asked to give inputs that may be used to fine-tune the research focus and to suggest relevant research topics and directive, overarching themes. Mutual sharing of experiences and ideas should benefit both the panel members and audience. The target audience is all Information Systems and Computing specialists interested in a holistic view of the field encompassing information, knowledge and systems and/or in the leadership of research groups.