SIGPhil's Philosophical dialogues - the story behind the work

Today I talk with dr. Steven Alter, Professor Emeritus at University of San Francisco. Prof. Alter is the author of seven published books and many journal articles. His work is published in some of the top journals in the IS field. Over the course of many years of research he developed a systems analysis method for business professionals called the Work System Method. His published work describes work system theory and useful extensions related to work system principles, work system design spaces, workarounds, system interactions, and tools for establishing more effective communication between business and IT professionals. Through his work prof. Alter is recognized for creating an integrated conceptual basis for understanding and analyzing IT-reliant systems from a business viewpoint.

Today with professor Alter we discuss research motivated by philosophical pragmatism. We discuss the need for clear concepts, the quest to be pragmatic, the problem of method in IS field and the issue of whether the wider world would care if the IS academic field stops existing. With this I bring you prof. Alter.

Today I talk with Blair Wang. Blair is a lecturer in Business Information Systems at the University of Sydney Business School. His research takes a critical-theoretic perspective on emerging digital practices, such as digital nomadism and the digital futures of work. His research has been disseminated in top IS journals and conferences.

Today with Blair I talk about his journey in philosophy and how he combines it with his research. We talk about how to make people aware about the idea, how to come to the idea, about the need of making the click and much more. With this it is my pleasure to bring you our colleague Blair Wang.

Today I talk with prof. Nixon Muganda Ochara. He is a Research Professor at the University of Venda, South Africa. He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. He has held visiting positions at Southern University A & M, USA, Mandume ya Ndemufayo University, Angola, ICT University, Flensburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany among others. Prof. Ochara has a PhD in Information Systems from University of Cape Town, South Africa. Prior to joining academia, he held various positions in the private sector like Africa Online, a Pan-African Internet Service Provider and Symphony, an IBM Distributor. He has forged research programs in Open Development Innovations, Business Analytics, Digital Government, Digital Governance, National Information Infrastructures, ICT Governance and E-Business. He has published in leading Information Systems journals such as Government Information Quarterly, Information Technology & People, Information Technology for Development, among others. He has also published a paper on the logic of theoretical argument in research.

Today with prof. Ochara we talk about how in philosophy you start from the social problem, how you express your beliefs through philosophy, the need for IS emancipation (contextual, scientific, philosophical), that each voice needs to be heard and much more. With this it is my pleasure to bring you prof. Muganda Ochara.

Today I talk with Leona Chandra Kruse. She is an assistant professor at the Chair of Information Systems and Innovation at University of Liechtenstein. Leona's research is motivated by two alluring contradictions: the bright side and the dark side of digital transformation and the known and the unknown in designing for digital transformation. She is passionate about topics that lie at the intersection of Entrepreneurship, Information Systems, and Psychology, such as leadership, design approaches to management, venture creation, and building digital applications to tackle societal challenges. She has published in journals Journal of the Association for Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Communications of the Association for Information Systems. She is an Associate Editor of European Journal of Information Systems and member of the executive committee of the Special Interest Group on Pragmatism (SIGPrag) of the Association for Information Systems (AIS).

It is design, pragmatism, philosophy and wine we talk today with dr. Chandra Kruse. We talk about the importance of "why" question, about philosophical sensing, how you need to go deep in philosophy, but you also need to come back to surface and communicate it, about show and tell approach and about much more. With this it is my pleasure to bring you dr. Leona Chandra Kruse.

Today I talk with prof. Nik Rushdi Hassan. Nik Rushdi Hassan is associate professor of Management Information Systems (MIS) at the Labovitz School of Business and Economics (LSBE), University of Minnesota Duluth. With his 10 years of experience in the industry he began his academic career in two areas: investigating the philosophical foundations of the information systems (IS) field, and information technology (IT)-enabled business process innovations and modeling (BPM). Nik's research on the philosophical foundations of the IS field inspires studies on the field's disciplinarity, conceptual development and intellectual structures, core concepts of IS development (ISD), scientometric practices in IS, and more recently theorizing and theory building in IS. He has published extensively on philosophical aspects in IS in top journals. He has served as President of the Association of Information Systems (AIS) Special Interest Group on Philosophy in Information Systems (SIGPhil) and is currently Senior Editor of the Journal of Information Technology and the Data Base for Advances in Information Systems, and Associate Editor for the History and Philosophy Department of the Communications of the AIS. Nik is recognised as moving force behind the philosophical discourse in IS field and here we talk about his experience.

Today with prof. Hassan we talk about how philosophy can improve IS offering to the world, why we have not answered the same questions, how philosophy can provide a perspective to better perform your research and why the rapid changes of the field are not an excuse and much more. With this it is my pleasure to bring you prof. Hassan.