This paper considers strategic green issues of teleworking in terms of the environment, transport, location, office space and resource use for modern organisations and business sectors and formulates a conceptual model of the processes involved. Teleworking technologies are variously implemented for green computing initiatives and many advantages include lower greenhouse gas emissions related to travel, greater worker satisfaction and, as a result of lower overhead office costs, increased profit margins. The paper initially investigates the appropriateness of a working definition of teleworking with regard to green computing and explores the benefits, and barriers, of teleworking in a green computing environment. Theoretical frameworks and models of teleworking are considered and a conceptual model of the contribution of teleworking to green computing is formulated. The application of the model is considered in terms of teleworking concepts, the organisational environment and driving forces. It is the intention of the paper to identify, and articulate, those teleworking concepts that will be useful to academicians, scientists, business entrepreneurs, practitioners, managers and policy makers, and to indicate future directions for research scholars and students with similar interests.

This article includes a discussion of the growing use of virtual professional development and learning for educators. Next the authors describe virtual professional development and learning within the context of a U.S. federally-funded Investing in Innovation (i3) grant, English Language and Literacy Acquisition-Validation (ELLA-V), and the need for a new understanding of such on an informal and individual basis. The proposed concept is a Massive Open Online Professional Informal Individual Learning (MOOPIL). Lastly, the authors provide an example of a MOOPIL from the ELLA-V grant which is called ELLA-Virsity—a collection of short professional development webinars for teachers and school leaders who work with English language learners.

Increasing the participation of women and minorities in clinical trials is a challenge for the healthcare industry. The lack of diversity in clinical trials prevents the tailoring of healthcare interventions specifically for women and minorities. The purpose of this paper is to explore how technology-oriented strategies can be applied in the clinical trial research process to increase the recruitment of women and minorities in clinical trials. An overview of clinical trials, the stakeholders, and current issues in diversifying recruitment are provided. In order to recruit diverse participant populations, the use of online advertising, social media, e-newsletters, tablets, smartphones, and apps are detailed. Lessons from previous use of technology in recruitment are outlined as well as future trends. With the support of clinical trial stakeholders, the current technology-oriented strategies available seem promising as methods for increasing the participation of women and minorities in clinical trials.

The measurement and evaluation of healthcare services continues to be challenged when the appropriateness of the services is its focus. Good outcomes do not mean the services were needed or that the process of delivering care was efficient. Further, patient and family satisfaction with the care episode is influenced by the promises the healthcare system in general and physicians in particular made to the patients. As such, physicians have the dual role of educating patients while they are managing their health status changes. Eventually, it is a question of accountability about the processes and outcomes of the care, which are expected to both demonstrate the social responsibilities of health care professionals and gauge the expectations of patients, families, and communities. The purpose of this article is to explore the determinants of what and why patients expect from healthcare and caring. Within the concept of accountability, the role of physicians as educators rather than exclusively healers of disease is explored.

The idea of Information and Communication Technology for development (ICT4D) has been gathering momentum since last decade. It contributes to the development of social, political, and economic growth of the underprivileged group of populations especially in the context of developing countries. Requirements Engineering (RE) is the most sensitive from all other activities involve in the ICT4D project development. This paper reports on a literature review of published ICT4D research and provides an analysis of the requirements design issues in ICT4D project development in terms of functional requirements, non-functional requirements, and user requirements. The analysis of this paper can serve the ICT4D researchers and practitioners as a means of understanding the requirements design issues in ICT4D project development.

In an era of ever fast connected digital communication technologies, network has become the buzzword of our work and daily lives. However, while the concept network has been employed by information and communication technologies for development's (ICT4D) authors the last few years, it has not yet received solid attention. In most cases, ICT4D's authors have merely referred to network, leaving its definition and related conceptual issues at the discretion of the reader. To make things worse, ICT4D has been exposing its readers to theories of various strides and disciplines, such as development studies, management science, information systems, Actor Network Theory, computer network, social networks, etc., but ICT4D's readers remain largely uninformed and misled about network theories/approaches. This paper seeks to fill the gap by heeding the continued calls for ICT4D's stronger theoretical grounding. The paper sketches networks in the social sciences, in general, and derives the consequences for ICT4D's research, in particular. To this end, ICT4D's articles have been analyzed to trace ICT4D's involvement with networks. The paper provides the groundwork from which to produce contributive works on networks in ICT4D. The goal is to instill a more informed engagement of ICT4D with networks.

For more than a decade, the Chinese government has poured copious resources into rural informatization as a means to increase agricultural productivity and rural economic growth. Such efforts so far have not produced definite results in rural areas, but increasing economic inequality and rising environmental threats have already forced the government to rethink its growth-centered development policy. Indeed, recent government releases clearly state the resolve to departure from the “GDP obsession” of the past. Meanwhile, the past three decades saw the rise of a powerful alternative development approach—the Capability Approach (CA), which focuses on empowering individuals and sees economic growth as one element of well-being. Given that the CA can potentially help devising a more coherent and holistic framework for Information and communications technologies for development (ICT4D), this paper examines the compatibility between the Capability Approach and the top-down socialist approach towards rural informatization in China. Built on two case studies of rural informatization in rural China, the present paper identifies potential obstacles to the adoption of the Capability Approach and discusses policy implications and suggestions.

In the context of the rapid growth of mobile phone penetration in developing countries, mobile telephony is currently considered to be particularly important for development as it may provide an opportunity to address the informational challenges. The research objective is to develop and examine a framework for assessing the impact of mobile phone towards the development of fsocio-economic stipulation in a remote area of Bangladesh as an innovative and effective way. To conduct this research, the authors have promoted an interpretive qualitative research style within a case study context. This research grounded on Communications for Development (C4D) approach for enquiry, analysis and testing. In this research, one of the mobile phone services named Krishi Jigyasha 7676 (agri-solutions service) has been used as ICT intervention in rural areas of Bangladesh. Furthermore, data was collected through personal interview, participant observation, group discussion and questionnaires from the rural community involving in agricultural activities and received information from Krishi Jigyasha 7676 services about their farming. The field results have been analyzed according to Communications for Development (C4D) approaches. Therefore, the field data reflected that how information diffusion improve and resolve the rural communities' agricultural queries and problems to enhance their livelihood.

This research is a theory building study regarding the design of distance learning environments from a socio-technical perspective. Within this study, a synthesis of current theories and approaches in addition to established theories in the field of distance education will be conducted, with focus placed on the notion that a flexible learning environment may be designed based on social and technical elements. In this regard, the process of designing the aforementioned learning environment is expressed in a theoretical manner, with the following two theories comprising the basis of the study: (1) the Flexible Learning Approach and (2) the Socio-Technical Theory. A theoretical matrix is established within the study utilizing these theories, while each cell in the theoretical matrix provides a statement that determines a flow chart regarding the design of Flexible Distance Learning Environments.