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If you understand the fundamental objectives of your organization and how your telecommunication network assists you to achieve these objectives you will have a sound basis for the development of network security. The types of potential interruption must also be understood remembering that small, intermittent failures can be worse than complete collapse. Risk exposures can be prioritized and contingency plans established. Duplicated carrier communications, private network triangulation, and virtual private networks are considered as well as ISDN and switched backup services. The consolidation of discrete services to make switching to alternative sites much easier is also suggested.

The knowledge of artefact design in design science research can have an important application in the improvement of decision support systems (DSS) development research. Recent DSS literature has identified a significant need to develop user-centric DSS method for greater relevance with respect to context of use. The purpose of this paper is to develop a collective DSS design artefact as method in a practical industry context.

Under the influence of goal-directed interaction design principles the study outlines the innovative DSS artefact based on design science methodology to deliver a cutting-edge decision support solution, which provides user-centric provisions through the use of design environment and ontology techniques.

The DSS artefact as collective information technology applications through the application of design science knowledge can effectively be designed to meet decision makers’ contextual needs in an agricultural industry context.

The study has limitations in that it was developed in a case study context and remains to be fully tested in a real business context. It is also assumed that the domain decisions can be parameterised and represented using a constraint programming language.

The paper concludes that the DSS artefact design and this development successfully overcomes some of the limitations of traditional DSS such as low-user uptake, system obsolescence, low returns on investment and a requirement for continual re-engineering effort.

The design artefact has the potential of increasing user uptake in an industry that has had relevancy problems with past DSS implementation and has experienced associated poor uptake.

The design science paradigm provides structural guidance throughout the defined process, helping ensure fidelity both to best industry knowledge and to changing user contexts.

Briefly reviews previous literature by the author before presenting an original 12 step system integration protocol designed to ensure the success of companies or countries in their efforts to develop and market new products. Looks at the issues from different strategic levels such as corporate, international, military and economic. Presents 31 case studies, including the success of Japan in microchips to the failure of Xerox to sell its invention of the Alto personal computer 3 years before Apple: from the success in DNA and Superconductor research to the success of Sunbeam in inventing and marketing food processors: and from the daring invention and production of atomic energy for survival to the successes of sewing machine inventor Howe in co‐operating on patents to compete in markets. Includes 306 questions and answers in order to qualify concepts introduced.

William Baumol is best-known as an academic. He was a prodigious researcher and publisher of texts on microeconomic theory, and a highly regarded educator with roles as head of the Department of Economics at Princeton University, director of the C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics and director of the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at New York University. Less well-known were his engagements as a corporate consultant, notably for the telecommunications monopoly AT&T. Baumol’s work as an advisor, expert witness and theorist for AT&T spanned three decades from 1966. His relationship with AT&T arguably forms the context within which we can better understand his work on contestability theory, which he developed with a team of economists working for AT&T’s Bell Telephone Laboratories in the 1970s. Contestability theory was later deployed as a policy tool to justify industry deregulation and even advocate for monopolies and oligopolies on the ground that they were optimally efficient industry structures if potential competitors faced low barriers of entry. Baumol’s intellectual contribution to contestability theory was arguably influenced by the Chicago school and by AT&T’s drive toward the technological integration of telecommunications. Contestability was a rebellion against economic orthodoxies concerning competition and government regulation, and the status quo within AT&T which opposed market competition on the ground that it threatened the technological integration of the Bell system. The outcome was a revolution in industrial organization that would pave the way for the emergence of platform business models incorporating multi-sided and two-sided markets as exemplified by Amazon and Uber.

Purpose — This study assesses the effectiveness of initiatives by expatriate employees of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T, popularly referred to as the ‘Bell System’11The use of the term ‘Bell System’ as a synonym for AT&T reflected the firm's initial dependency on the exploitation of the telephone patents of Alexander Graham Bell. The Bell System consisted of AT&T, a holding company, and its affiliates including The Bell Telephone Laboratories (research), Western Electric (manufacturing) and 13 regional telephone operating subsidiaries.) in the revival of the Japan's telecommunications system and allied industries after World War II.

Methodology — Our primary methodology involves historical analysis of archival resources for AT&T and the Civil Communications Section (CCS) of the Supreme Command Allied Powers (SCAP), the American occupation government agency responsible for advising Japanese government and industry during the period 1945–1950.

Findings — Before the war, the Bell System maintained strong direct connections in Japan. AT&T's influence during the occupation, however, was indirect: knowledge dissemination through the activities of the CCS, which had several employees on loan from the Bell System.

Research limitations/implications — While our sample of organisations seems narrow and the duration of time relatively brief, the Bell System's people made a tremendous impact: transforming the Japanese telecommunications system. This suggests that guidance and tutelage by expatriate experts may enable host countries to master best practices rapidly without incurring high costs of evolutionary development.

Social implications — Local social mores and differences in workforce educational attainment may temporarily impede the acceptance of new foreign approaches to management and administration.

Value of the chapter — This chapter demonstrates how firm-specific and proprietary knowledge built up over decades at one firm could, through the agency of expatriates, revolutionise in just a few years the basic approaches followed in another country's telecommunications industry.

Common Core State Standards Initiative mandates increased readings of informational texts within English Language Arts starting in elementary school. Accurate, age-appropriate, and engaging content is at the center of effective social studies teaching. Textbooks and children’s literature—both literary and informational—are prominent in elementary classrooms because of the esoteric nature of primary source material. Many research projects have investigated historical accuracy and representation within textbooks, but few have done so with children’s trade books. We examined children’s trade books centered on three historical figures frequently incorporated within elementary school curricula: Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and Helen Keller. Findings revealed various forms of historical misrepresentation and differing levels of historicity. Reporting such lacunae is important for those involved in curricular decisions. We believe children’s books, even those with historical omissions and misrepresentations, provide an unique opportunity for students to incorporate and scrutinize diverse perspectives as they actively assemble historical understandings. All secondary narratives, even historically representative children’s books, can benefit from primary source supplementation. We guide teachers interested in employing relevant and rich primary source material.

As [Alexander Graham] Bell raced to perfect his telephone, he was also writing up specifications to be filed with the United States Patent Office in Washington. On March 7, 1876, he was issued patent number 174,465. Meanwhile, Bell had discovered that a wire vibrated by the voice while partially immersed in a conducting liquid, like mercury, could be made to vary its resistance and produce an undulating current. In other words, human speech could be transmitted over a wire. On March 10, 1876, as he and Mr. Watson set out to test this finding, Bell knocked over what they were using as a transmitting liquid – battery acid. Reacting to the spilled acid, Mr. Bell is alleged to have shouted, “Mr. Watson, come here. I want you!” (PBS, 2003)

In contrast to the ‘bell-curve thinking’ which can shape many teachers’ assumptions of student ability (Fendler, L., & Muzaffar, I. (2008). The history of the bell curve: Sorting and the idea of normal. Educational Theory, 58(1), 63–82.; Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011; Thomas, G., & Loxley, A. (2007). Deconstructing special education and constructing inclusion. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill International.), some researchers have been examining the ways in which teachers can shift their deterministic understandings of student capacities (see, Graham, A. (2014). Embodiment of knowledge and inclusive pedagogy.; Spratt, J., & Florian, L. (2014). Developing and using a framework for gauging the use of inclusive pedagogy by new and experienced teachers. In C. Forlin, T. Loreman (Eds.), Measuring inclusive education (Vol. 3, pp. 263–278). International Perspectives on Inclusive Education. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.). Despite the adverse effects on student self-efficacy and performance (Fraser, S. (1995). The bell curve wars: Race, intelligence, and the future of America. New York, NY: Basic Books.) that can result from teachers’ assumptions about students’ ability, evidence of teachers’ inclusive education practices can be difficult to find (Forlin, C. (2010). Teacher education for inclusion: Changing paradigms and innovative approaches. London: Routledge.; Jones, P. (2013). Bringing insider perspectives into inclusive teacher learning: Potentials and challenges for educational professionals. London: Routledge.). This chapter begins to address the lack of evidence of inclusive educational practices in some Geography classrooms. The chapter begins by providing an overview of literature which outlines how the development and sharing of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) can enhance effective inclusive practices in Geography classrooms. In contrast to many previous considerations of PCK as a teacher-focussed, individual attribute, this chapter presents an argument that the development of communal or distributed PCK in Geography classrooms can not only enhance creative ways for all students to participate in classroom life but also creates a sense of interdependence between teachers and students to create new knowledge, which in turn links to notions of identity development and inclusive practices. Finally, this chapter presents examples of ways in which Geography teachers can enact inclusive pedagogical approaches in both primary and secondary school contexts.

The following bibliography focuses mainly on programs which can run on IBM microcomputers and compatibles under the operating system PC DOS/MS DOS, and which can be used in online information and documentation work. They fall into the following categories: