ICyber Leadership Lab:Project Overview
From LLiSA
|
LLiSA Home • Project Overview • Team and Contact • Technology • Progress • Stories • Dissemination • Picture Gallery • Cube Elements |
Contents |
Vision
The iCyber Leadership Lab is an environment for innovation and human development where established and potential leaders are equipped and exposed to new and open computing solutions in the real world contexts.
Mission
iCyber Leadership Lab explores the use of different computing platforms (e.g. Human-centered computing, social computing practices, converged and open technologies) to improve leadership capabilities and effectiveness.
Medium to long-term interventions and studies are conducted of new and open computing solutions and discovery of innovation opportunities within the South African context. Research areas focuses on the concept of cyber leadership, the impact of different computing platforms on leadership effectiveness, ethics, trust and the business value of cyber leadership.
Location
- Please visit us at http://www.icyber.org.za
.
The Community
Cyber Leadership is an emerging multidisciplinary research field relating to human-centered computing, social computing, converged and open technologies. This relates well to the Living Lab approach to ICT research as it involves researchers from different disciplines such as computer science, sociology, psychology, cognitive science, anthropology, science and technology studies, and industrial design.
Stakeholders of iCyber Leadership Lab originates from participating individuals, business (Smme’s or Corporates), NGOs, government and academia, either from rural or urban areas.
What problem is being addressed?
A new breed of leaders is created through on-line workgroups, popular social computing and online role-playing games that use participants’’ own activities and data as the basis of the interaction. On-line social groupings, such as open source development communities, Linked-In, FaceBook and SecondLife, are lead by a new breed of virtual or digital leaders never experienced before in human history. The existence and exponential growth of these computing platforms are living proof that almost everyone is willing to become the friend of everyone else. Cultural differences do matter but in a different sense. Most amazingly, participants share information which may be very valuable or personal with essentially strangers they have never met in person.
The phenomenon of cyber leaders create many questions: Will cyber leaders over time evolve to become the most dominant leaders of society? Is the Internet and converged technologies transforming peoples’ values and behaviour? Are leaders adapting their behaviour and leadership strategies to the new opportunities delivered by computer mediated communication or mobile devices? How is computing platforms going to evolve in the near future to meet fast evolving needs of leaders and followers? Would it be possible to imagine people developing new behaviour and senses in cyberspace to perceive relevant existing information and knowledge resources which would normally be out of reach?
The principal question is how should exciting leaders adapt to these trends and changes? Conversely, which new innovations and behaviors will cyber leaders adopt to improve their leadership effectiveness and their areas of influence?
Our knowledge and understanding of cyber leaders is currently quite limited and subject to many interpretations. How are we going to better understand this phenomenon? Will cyber leadership evolve into a dominant phenomenon or will the escalating communication and information overload for leaders and group members lead to an overkill reaction. What will happen to leaders and group members not capable to deal with the evolving situation? What could be the most appropriate research approach and environment to investigate these crucial questions?
Proposed Solution
We believe the most effective way to answer the above questions is to adopt a user-centred multidisciplinary research approach to study cyber leadership. This research approach could be implemented through a range of emerging open technologies which creates prototyping environments that will enable leaders and scientists from different disciplines to explore cyber leadership. Technology Explained During the last 10 years, ICT has dramatically “softened” and is becoming more and more embedded into people’s everyday life. The general public have more powerful and easy to use computing devices and applications than the ones at work which are mostly secured, limited and difficult to use.
It is our conviction that the use of computing platforms can and does support established leaders to improve their leadership effectiveness and help people with leadership inabilities to improve on their leadership capabilities. Cyber leadership practices can significantly improve leaders’ ability to contribute to their constitution or community and enable people that would never had the opportunity to become effective leaders, to do so.
Social Challenges
The challenge is to create an operational model of cooperation between the established and potential cyber leaders and partners of the Lab (smme’s/companies, government agencies and universities). Partnerships with established leaders, communities and human resource development professionals form the basis of the operational model.
Technical Challenges
Information technology has progress to the existent that it has become pervasive, user friendly and usable by the masses from all cultures and educational standings. The technical challenges are therefore less technology related but more human conduct and performance centered.
Equipment Ownership
The Lab relays on sponsors and grants to pursue its mission. It does not intent owning any physical facilities as it lives within cyber space.
Intellectual Property
The results of the research conducted are put into practice via two channels.
- Firstly, through training, development and support of established leaders to improve their leadership effectiveness in cyber space as well as helping people with leadership inabilities to improve on their leadership capabilities using cyber space.
- Secondly, pilot projects are setup to support new and existing communities and organisations where progressive and cyber leadership development could contribute to improve leadership effectiveness.
.
Sustainability
iCyber Leadership Lab is funded by own activities, sponsorships and grants.
The Lab pursues the following goals:
- To study the leadership phenomenon within cyber space.
- To equip established and potential leaders.
- To promote the innovative use of computing platforms, techniques and practices.
Goal 1: To study the leadership phenomenon within Cyber Space and create a knowledge base relevant to the South African situation.'
1. The concept of Cyber leadership:
- To better understand the concepts of a cyber leader and cyber leadership
- To conclude if traditional leadership best practices are applicable to cyber leadership, given culture, bio- and demographical factors
- To identify the best practices for effective cyber leadership with specific reference to the South African situation
- To determine what the impact of different South African cultures, bio- and demographical factors are on applying best practices for effective cyber leadership
- To collect or reference case studies of cyber leadership
2.Impact of different computing platforms on leadership effectiveness:
- To identify which computing platforms, techniques and practices are mostly used by effective cyber leaders
- To conclude if cyber leaders that have a good command of computing platforms and techniques (e.g. Human-centered computing and social computing) are more effective that leaders that don’t
- To determine the usefulness of virtual environments for the cyber leader
- To identify opportunities to use game-like features to create computing platforms and techniques for business environments where leadership is both easier and more effective
- To determine the impact of different computing platforms on South African cyber leaders’ perceptions of satisfaction, quality and value of use
3.Ethics, trust and cyber leadership:
- To study the evolving impact of ethics and trust on cyber leadership, given the evolution of computing platforms, culture, bio- and demographics factors
4.Business value:
- To explore the business value of (and competitive advantage created by) cyber leadership
Goal 2: To equip established and potential leaders using the knowledge base
1.Equip established leaders
- To expose leaders from business, government and NGOs to the benefits and practice of cyber leadership
- To train selected leaders in the best practices of leadership and of cyber leadership
2.Equip potential leaders
- To provide progressive leadership development services via eLearning and high impact contact sessions
- To develop young people as cyber leaders, targeting schools, universities, professional and social institutions
- To develop disabled and disadvantaged people (e.g. people from rural areas) as cyber leaders
Goal 3: To promote the innovative use of different computing platforms, techniques and practices by established and potential leaders.'
1.To communicate case studies about cyber leadership
2.To establish pilot projects for leaders and apprentices to experiment with cyber leadership and supporting technologies
3.To establish a blog for achievers and leaders to publish their empowerment stories (http://www.iCyber.info)
4.To acknowledge achievements of cyber leaders (according to different categories) (http://www.iCyber.info)
Resources for the establishment of iCyber Leadership Lab was provided by Ayeye Solutions (Pty) Ltd.
