We argue that the currently dominant methods in Information Systems are not satisfactory for emancipatory research and development whose starting point is work. Activity theory was proposed as such an emancipatory research-cumdevelopment approach in IS a decade ago. However, the potential identified in the theory has not fully materialized. As our own contribution toward making activity theory more operational in IS, we present an elaborated framework, ActAD, and review our experience in applying it to descriptive research, practical analysis, and constructive research. We claim that in order to fully unleash the potential of activity theory, activity-based methods should be developed further for IS requirements analysis projects and IS implementation projects, as well as for facilitating software development. The most appropriate way of developing such applied methods is through collaborative action Ever since the Manchester conference on Information Systems research methods in 1984, the international research community has recognized that a diversity of research approaches or philosophies exists within IS. According to Orlikowski and Baroudi (1991), three broad categories are commonly identified: positivist, interpretive, and critical. In this paper, we take the last mentioned, emancipatory or developmental standpoint (i.e., we are not only interested in understanding information systems within organizations, but also in developing "better" information systems). What, then, does better mean? What criteria should good information systems meet?Different theorists in different times have named different factors as the most important, distinctive aspects of information systems. The very term information system implies that information is what it all comes down to. Those who share this view delve into information flows and entity-relationship models, regardless of the technology and purpose of information processing. Others underline technology, usually equating it with computers, and particularly equating information systems with software systems. Those with cybernetic backgrounds emphasize the term system, searching only for systemic entities and ignoring how bits and pieces of information and communication technology (ICT) are used in organizations. Researchers applying Habermas stress the communication aspects of information systems, viewing them as language games. In the very title of IFIP WG 8.2, social and organizational aspects of information systems are emphasized, with the view that the term information system refers to the organizational processes and resources of information management. Finally, the human or individual actors of information systems are pointed out as the starting point much too seldom.In our mind, all these aspects-information, technology, system, communication, organization and the individual-are important factors, but still only elements. None of these viewpoints sufficiently explains the purpose for which information systems exist.Our starting point is that purposeful work is the pro...

The healthcare domain is a complex domain which lacks a unified terminological set, most especially in clinical cases. As a result of this, the messaging standards employed in the healthcare domain use different terms for the same concept which often results in clinical misinterpretation, knowledge mismanagement, misdiagnosis of the patient's illness or even death. Consequently, the healthcare system is characterized by high error rate and semantic heterogeneity. A lot of efforts have been made to resolve this problem through the use of standards, clinical terminologies, web services as well as the use of achetype. However, these solutions have proved unsuccessful in resolving semantic heterogeneity in healthcare. Ontologies have also been developed to resolve this problem by making explicit the meaning of terms used in healthcare. Ontologies provide a source of shared and precisely defined terms, resulting in interoperability by knowledge sharing and reuse. Unfortunately, the variety of ways that the healthcare domain is conceptualized results in the creation of different ontologies with contradicting or overlapping parts. Thus, the available ontologies also introduce semantic heterogeneity to this domain. An effective solution to this problem is the introduction of methods for finding matches among the various components of ontologies in healthcare in order to facilitate semantic interoperability. Therefore, this paper aims at examining the various attempts for achieving semantic interoperability in healthcare and also motivates the critical needs for ontology matching in healthcare systems.

Abstract-Requirements engineering (RE) addresses the first software development step and lays the foundation for a successful system. Consequently, ability to identify problems and suggestions for improvements in the RE process opens up significant potential for increasing the success of software projects. Since RE process is naturally collaborative in nature, the intensiveness from both knowledge and human perspectives opens up the problem of decision making on requirements that can be facilitated by requirements prioritisation. In this regard, the paper opined the need for requirements prioritization techniques that will help the developers to obtain consensus among stakeholders using a suitable technique. In particular, the paper proposed a RE process model using Delphi technique. The Delphi technique was suggested in this paper to facilitate and enhance the process of requirements prioritisation in a multilevel prioritisation dimension. Therefore, the proposed model on implementation will contribute to the formulation of an interactive framework for requirements prioritisation to produce a requirement ordering which complies with the existing priorities.

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