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In this paper we describe the results of an empirical study about the information needs of system administrators. This study is based on an electronic survey with more than 200 systems administrators, or sysadmins, working on incident management in a large scale IT service delivery organization. The survey covered their information needs in both complex and routine situations. The results of the survey described in this paper go beyond previous work on system administrators by presenting a much more complex picture, suggesting that sysadmins make low usage of knowledge management tools; largely adopt personal communication and collaboration tools; and finally, need to gather information about customers from a complex set of stakeholders. The system administrators also indicated in our survey that the most useful sources of information in handling complex incidents are: (i) the customer; (ii) the customer account team; and (iii) other employees who were experts both in the customer and in particular aspects of the delivery of services. This study indicates that knowledge management in IT service factories is very challenging and possibly should evolve from the often adopted passive model to a dynamic knowledge management style emphasizing both knowledge reusability through information technologies and knowledge sharing through informal discussions among employees.

Fluorescence spectra and lifetimes were determined for 16 synthetic flavylium cation analogues of anthocyanin plant pigments in dry acetonitrile acidified with trifluoroacetic acid (TFA). Phosphorescence was also observed from the lowest excited triplet state for all of the flavylium cations at 77 K in a rigid TFA-acidified isopropanol glass. The fluorescence quantum yields and lifetimes depend in a systematic manner on the nature and position of the substituents on the flavylium chromophore and three specific substitution patterns associated with significant decreases in the fluorescence quantum yield were identified. A 4′-bromo or 4′-iodo substituent in the B-ring of the flavylium cation produced a small but normal heavy-atom effect, reducing the fluorescence quantum yield and the phosphorescence lifetime relative to analogues without the halogen atom. In contrast, three flavylium cations with a 3′-bromo substituent exhibited an “inverse” heavy atom effect, i.e., an increase in the fluorescence quantum yield rather than a decrease, which was rationalized on the basis of the nodal properties of the natural transition orbitals (NTOs) involved in the S0→S1 radiative transition.

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