Submission Deadline: February 1st, 2016
Conference date: June 19th-22nd, 2016

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Conference theme on Digital Economy
• Strong relationships and cooperation with journals
• Coaching of PhD-students and postgraduates
• New: The Bled Forum for interactive poster presentations
• New special interest tracks: 1) Education in the Digital Economy, 2) The Workplace of the Future in the Digital Economy

THEME: DIGITAL ECONOMY

The Bled eConference 2016 is about the Digital Economy. We are engaged in the fourth industrial and economical revolution made possible by paradigm-shifting digitization. Proceeded by major innovative steps like EDI, eBusiness, mBusiness, self-servicing, big data, Internet of Things and more we are now in the middle of a digital transformation.
We will focus on many aspects pertaining to the dawn of the Digital Economy as well as how to seize the numerous new opportunities it brings through research and business papers, panels, workshops and more. Further we will examine issues such as how organizations can benefit from the Digital Economy, how new businesses are created, but also from the perspective of the individual, including: the empowered (ageing) citizen, the entrepreneur, the patient, the consumer, the student, the lecturer and the employee. Leveraging again the successful partnership with journals, through which excellent submissions were selected for extended versions, we look for innovative and unique research contributions.

CALL FOR FULL PAPERS

We invite submissions in all areas of research, teaching, and business related to the Digital Economy. We encourage submissions related to the conference theme, and also from the parts that build the Digital Economy, including:

eInnnovations I Future of work I Big data I eAnalytics I Open data I Big data I Digital services I Novel business and organizational models I eCollaboration I Social media I eCommerce I eBusiness I Interorganizational systems I eMarketplaces & communities I Mobile value services I Cloud computing I eHealth I Digital wellness I eSociety I eParticipation I eLearning 2.0 & eEducation I eSMEs I eLiving labs I eCollaboration I eRegions I eDependency I eTrust I ePrivacy I Research supervision dilemmas I eEducation I any other aspect of “e”.

In 2014 we first joined forces with the “Living Bits and Things” conference on the Internet of Things and it resulted in a very interesting blend of themes and researches from different fields interacting in lovely Bled. Given its success we will continue to join forces in 2016.

Next to a generic track on the Digital Economy, we offer the following special interest tracks for Bled 2016:

Social media and Big Data (Hans-Dieter Zimmermann, FHS St. Gallen, Switzerland and Jari Salo, Oulu Business School, Finland):
The Social Media track has also been present at the conference in the past years and is continuing to be a very relevant topic for the upcoming edition. Therefor we look forward to papers that look at how Social Media and Big Data can make life easier or more convenient for consumers as well as businesses and what are the options for both. In addition, we also would like to address which risks are associated with the wide-scale use of Social Media as well, for instance eBullying, reputation attacks and fraud with customer reviews, but also the risks associated with the Big Data movement. How can we find a balance between the anonymity of the Internet and the Freedom of Speech on the one hand, while not opening ourselves up for gratuitous and uninhibited attacks on individual persons as well as companies? Another aspect that we would like to welcome papers on is the fit and alignment of the ad-hoc trend of App-ification into a well-balanced extended enterprise architecture and application portfolio.

eHealth (Track Co-Chairs: Nilmini Wickramasinghe, Epworth HealthCare and Deakin University, Australia and Juergen Seitz, Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University, Germany):
In 2016 we want to emphasize the role that e- and m- technologies can play in finding the balance between societal costs on the one hand and the empowerment and wellbeing of citizens/patients on the other. Can we find ways to organize healthcare closer to patients’ needs which is also of a high quality, less intrusive and at lower costs? How is digitization changing healthcare processes? Can Domotics, the Internet of Things, and the quantified self-help in this effort? And how do we safeguard that the data are not abused?

Digital Wellness (Track Chair: Christer Carlsson, Åbo Akademi University, Finland):
In this track we invite papers that address the specific needs and opportunities for the “young elderly”, understanding that the age group of 60-75 have quite different needs and requirements, and experience Internet and Mobile solutions in quite a different way than younger generations. We have also found out, in a series of studies with consumers, that there are no digital/mobile services developed for the “young elderly” as both mobile technology developers and mobile network operators have found this market “not interesting”; the “young elderly” represent 18-23% of the consumer markets in the EU, which makes the disinterest in potentially significant revenue rather surprising. Also other topics in the areas of independent living, explorations of new business models and opportunities for using Internet of Things in this age group are warmly welcomed.

Internet of Things (Track Co-Chairs: Tomaž Vidonja, Internet of Things Competence Centre OpComm, Slovenia Rob van Kranenburg, IERC IoT Research Cluster of the EU Commission, Societal, iot.org Open Source Internet of Things and Andreja Pucihar, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Maribor, Slovenia ):
In the 2016 conference we bring back a theme that has been at the background somewhat in recent years, but is at the cross-roads of the e- or m- movement on the one hand and the Internet of Things on the other: logistics. On the one hand, many of the initiatives mentioned in the previous topics rely on the “last mile” to be of practical use, be it home delivery services for the young elderly and senior citizens, quality control in medical supply chains or other application areas where the clients of the e- or m- value chain live in remote areas and/or do want to change their schedule just to take delivery of goods. There are many possible applications of Internet of Things as for example smart cities, smart grids and smart energy, smart traffic, healthcare etc. Besides that also supply chain optimization is one of the earliest examples of the Internet of Things movement and we are convinced that bringing these two communities together will bring interesting new insights at the Bled eConference.

Education in the Digital Economy (Track Co-Chair: Mirjana Kljajic, University of Maribor, Slovenia and Matt Glowatz, University College Dublin):
Education is changing as IT allows for many new possibilities. New students enter educational institutions with highly developed digital skills. Part-time learning, continuous learning, and immediate-on-the-spot knowledge acquisition change the educational playing field. Electronic learning platforms bring together practice, teachers, scholars and students in one environment. How does this change education, what are good practices, how can research and education come together in leveraging e- and mLearning? We encourage research contributions on this particular domain.

The Workplace of the Future in the Digital Economy (Track Co-Chairs: Andreja Pucihar, University of Maribor, Slovenia and Christian Kittl, evolaris next level Research Centre, Graz, Austria):
The Digital Economy and especially recent developments towards smart machines (and devices) that assist, advise, extend, observe, and help knowledge workers perform non-routine tasks bring about many changes in the way we work. From robots and digital assistance systems in the Factory of the Future / Industry 4.0 to analytical systems and personal assistants these smart machines will have a profound impact on employment, people, and careers. Which jobs will become obsolete in the future and which new jobs will emerge? Which smart machines will actually be accepted by the people because they truly assist their work and how do such systems look like?

CALL FOR FORUM PAPERS

New in this year’s conference is the dedicated time-slot for interactive presentations on visionary ideas, showcases and research-in-progress. Through short presentations possibly enhanced with posters delegates will be able to show their (preliminary) research and receive feedback in an interactive way. Posters will be displayed during the conference. The Bled Forum invites submissions as short papers with possibly associated posters on topics related to the conference’s main theme and special interest themes.

JOURNAL PARTNERSHIPS

In 2016 we have secured the partnership of the following journals:

• Electronic Markets – The International Journal on Networked Business,
• Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research
• International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology
• International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations
• International Journal of Organisation Design and Engineering
• Organizacija – Journal of Management, Informatics and Human Resources
• Journal of International Technology and Information Management

that may facilitate the publication of enhanced versions of further selected papers. Several “Special Issues” have resulted from Bled eConferences, giving the authors of selected papers ample opportunity to get rated publications as a direct and immediate result from being at Bled.

Accepted papers will be published as a book under Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organization section by Springer (Indexed in Thomson Reuters and Scopus).

Instructions for Authors for Full Research Papers and Research-in-Progress Papers are available under the Submission section.

THE BLED eCONFERENCE: A LONG TRADITION

The Bled eConference has a history of close to thirty years now; it started in the late 1980s by prof. Joze Gricar, and is continued by dr. Andreja Pucihar. Since its very beginning it has been a conference that focuses on relevance with rigor as the underpinning foundation for contributions. This has always made the conference an excellent podium for testing out new ideas and research in progress, for senior and junior researchers alike. Not mentioning the number of partnerships between researchers that have originated at Bled and leading to fruitful cooperation.

Bled also has a long tradition of coaching young researchers and students. The Graduate Symposium has been on the program since the early 1990s with the ambition to help young PhD candidates to sharpen their research proposals and to help them find international colleagues working on similar themes.

Finally, another important reason for coming to Bled is the excellent location and facilities at and near the venue. Many professional and personal friendships originate from Bled, during one of the many social events or the morning run around the lake. We are eager to meet you in 2016 to participate in the truly unique experience that makes the Bled eConference.

See the video for some impressions:

please note that the PC meeting is scheduled for Sunday, June 7, 2015 in Libertas hall in Hotel Golf.

We are looking forward to seeing you all very soon!

by Werner Dorfmeister, Director Mobility and Workplace Solution Practice worldwide, Hewlett-Packard

We spend a lot of time in and with our work, but due to social, economic and technological changes work is completely different than it was 20 years ago. We are now mobile, we are connected and we can work wherever and whenever we want to. In fact our work is following us whatever we do and through new communication technologies we can spend 24 hours being connected to our work. In that respect we also need to consider the influence of the internet to our work and to social systems like companies. The way of how we collaborate today is different as well as how millennial solve problems, find solutions, buy things and take decisions. So what do we need to make the best use out of that change?

If somebody would have asked you a decade ago, could you imagine the world where the largest taxi company would own no vehicles (Uber); where the largest accommodation provider would own no real-estate (AirBnB); or where the most valuable retailer would own no inventory (Alibaba), what would your answer be? And today, if somebody would ask you, could you imagine a world where the largest healthcare provider would own no hospitals, and the largest education provider would own no schools? How hard would that be, seeing for example an amazing job that patientslikeme.com has done for 300.000+ people? Or analyzing e.g. what the LinkedIn’s acquisition of Lynda.com can do for our professional development?

The world has changed. Technologies such as cloud, social and mobile are enabling far more personalized and customer centric solutions that people in areas such as healthcare and education are desperately waiting for. The factory based model which we are seeing across these verticals today, founded on best practices and one size fits all thinking, in many ways doesn’t meet our individual needs, and as such allows for amazing opportunities for disruptive innovation. However, this transformation does not come easily, as many forces such as regulation, reimbursements, even the cultural inhibitors (“this is how we have done it for centuries” type of thinking) will sit as the roadblock. So the question is, are we as the society ready for the disruptive revolution?

A healthy mind lives in a healthy body. This year we want to extend the normal pleasantries at the Bled Conference to include the “Chairman’s Cup Golf Tournament” on Sunday 7th. As some of you might know, 3 kilometers down the road from our Conference is the Bled golf and country club. It is one of the best courses in Europe, and arguably the most beautiful one with mountain vista’s at pretty much every hole. It is Slovenia’s largest and oldest golf club and should not be missed. Check it out at http://www.golfbled.si/en.

We want to start a new tradition by hosting this tournament. There will be some nice prices for the best score, longest drive, nearest to the hole (ladies/gentlemen), sponsored by Bons Academic Services. Greenfee is 70 Euros (18 holes), club rental 35 Euro (possibly less depending on number of participants). We expect to tee off around 09.00 am so we are ready in time for the evening program of the Conference. It is on a first come – first serve basis as we have limited slots available due to this time restriction.

If you are interested in joining the tournament and starting this new tradition please send a mail including your handicap and whether you will need rental clubs (left/right) to roger@bonsacademicservices.com.

Best regards,

Roger Bons

eBled-program