What is QualIT?

QualIT came about from a need for a place in Asia-Pacific to talk about the challenges we face in qualitative research. These challenges come from methodology choice, from environments or situations that a researchers find themselves in, and from uses of particular technologies. QualIT has two themes:

Qualitative research in IT - qualitative research in technology-focused disciplines/projects
IT in qualitative research - the impact of technology on the qualitative research process

We aim to be be a meeting place for qualitative researchers who conduct research in the IT/IS domain. We also bring together researchers and practitioners who use qualitative software, to discuss their challenges and the implications of their chosen technology.

Out of our strong qualitative team encompassing the School of Information and Communication Technology and the Griffith Business School, the organising committee are committed to delivering a high quality, useful conference to delegates interested in the current and future issues of qualitative research.

We look forward to you participating in 2006 :)

Liisa von Hellens and Jenine Beekhuyzen

Who are the Local Organising Committee?

Jo-Anne Clark is a Lecturer and PhD student at Griffith University within the Institute for Integrated and Intelligent Systems group. Jo-Anne’s PhD topic involves investigating technology acceptance in terms of organizational culture when applied to information systems within health care organisations. Her teaching areas include but are not limited to Ethical and Professional issues in IT, Management Information Systems, Systems Analysis and Design, E-Business and introductory IT courses. Jo-Anne’s research interests include information systems and health, technology acceptance, virtual schooling in the education sector and the online delivery of educational courses. Jo-Anne has recently consulted to the Queensland Education department managing large-scale National research projects. Jo-Anne has presented papers at National and International conferences.

Kaylene Clayton is a final year PhD student in the School of ICT at Griffith University, Australia. She completed an IT degree with honours, winning two medals for academic excellence. Her continuing research interests include investigating the under representation of females in ICT, with special emphasis on primary and secondary schooling. Her honours research project involved the exploration of ICT perceptions and experiences of Year 9 and 12 students and their teachers. Her PhD research project is investigating the ICT attitudes held by Year 4 and 8 students and the relationship that these attitudes and beliefs have on girls and their future involvement in ICTs. Over the past few years, she has been actively involved in a number of projects directed at correcting the imbalance of females choosing to become involved in ICT by providing hands on activities, access to role models and mentoring. These projects include working closely with the Queensland Education Department to help organise the annual Technology Can Take You Anywhere event, as a teacher associate for the Girls Build IT project and as a Senior Project Officer for the Get SET project. She is currently the chairperson of the Queensland Girls and ICT State Reference Group and secretary of the Brisbane Girls and ICT local action committee.

Natalie Dunstan

John Gammack is Professor of Information Systems at Griffith University. He has researched and published in knowledge based systems and knowledge management for over 20 years, with around 200 publications in these areas. His PhD work (Cambridge University, 1988) pioneered techniques for eliciting and structuring perceptions and conceptual understandings, allowing the design of systems relevant to user cognitions and needs. He subsequently researched and developed innovative decision support systems in the insurance, banking and defence sectors in the UK, aimed at finding common platforms for organisational learning and decision-making. In a 1996 book he conceptualised the idea of constructive end-user design environments, where system design emerges out of user communities and understandings. Prior to coming to Griffith John directed Murdoch University’s Centre for Electronic Commerce and Internet Studies, focussing on regional informatics and the tourism industry.

Heather Gray is a PhD student at Griffith University researching the perceived usefulness of information systems and the digital divide, by people aged 50 years and over. Her interests include the digital divide in developed and developing countries, her current research area being developed countries. She has presented at conferences and has had works published in journals and book chapters pertaining to the digital divide in developing countries. Heather is affiliated with Association of Information Systems (AIS), and Women in Technology (WIT).
http://www.footprintit.com/griffith/hgray.htm

Luke Houghton is an Associate Lecturer in Information Systems at Griffith University. He is also enrolled as a PhD student at the University of New England using the concept of engagement to study complex problem solving. Luke also has interest in the effect of ERP systems on social systems, the development of ‘feral systems’ in organizations and the use of pluralism in Information Systems Research.

Don Kerr

Dale Mackrell

Jo Rhodes

Bruce Rowlands

Alison Ruth is a lecturer in Information systems in the Department of Management, Griffith Business School. She recently completed her PhD in online learning environments for information systems courses. Her current project, funded by the Learning Environments Committee through the Griffith E-Learning Fellowship, is investigating the use of Wikis for learning.

Liisa von Hellens is Associate Professor in Information Systems and the past Head of School of Computing and Information Technology in Griffith University with a long IT industry experience including working as a programmer, systems developer and university educator in Australia and in Finland. Her doctorate at Templeton College, Oxford University was about package software development and use. She is Associate Editor of the Information Systems Journal and a member of the International Editorial Board of International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems and of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Encyclopaedia of Gender and Information Technology (Idea Group Reference). Since 1995 Liisa von Hellens together with Dr Sue Nielsen (also from Griffith University) has been running a longitudinal study Women in Information Technology (WinIT project see http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~jenine/WinITProject) that explores the perceptions and attitudes of women in high schools, undergraduate and postgraduate university study and in the work place and attempts to understand the factors which influence these females to take up and remain in an IT career. Liisa is also a member of the Advisory Group for the Minister Helen Coonan on increasing women’s participation in ICT.
http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~lhellens/

Megan Woods is an associate lecturer in the School of Management, Faculty of Business at the University of Tasmania. While completing her PhD research in inter-organisational co-operation she developed a research interest in using, teaching and assessing computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software programs, most notably QSR's NUD*IST and N VIvo programs. Her most recent work in this area has focused upon developing new methods for teaching and reporting computer-assisted qualitative data analysis with the N6, N-Vivo 2 and NVivo 7 programs, which she has also applied teaching qualitative research methods at a postgraduate level and providing training and user support to researchers using the NUD*IST and N-Vivo programs in the Faculty of Business.

Alison Young