CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS
Proposal Submission Deadline: February 15, 2015
Handbook of Research on Open Source Solutions for Knowledge Management and Technological Ecosystems
A book edited by
Francisco J. García-Peñalvo (University of Salamanca, Spain)
Alicia García-Holgado (University of Salamanca, Spain)
To be published by IGI Global: http://bit.ly/1qpO4kG

For release in the Advances in Knowledge Acquisition, Transfer, and Management Book Series
Series Editor: Murray E. Jennex (San Diego State University, USA)
ISSN: 2326-7607

The Advances in Knowledge Acquisition, Transfer, and Management (AKATM) Book Series brings together research on emerging technologies and their effect on information systems as well as the knowledge society. Advances in Knowledge Acquisition, Transfer, and Management will provide researchers, students, practitioners, and industry leaders with research highlights surrounding the knowledge management discipline, including technology support issues and knowledge representation.

Introduction
Over recent years more and more companies and institutions are committed to the use of Free Software and Open Source developments to cover their technological needs, both for their internal processes management and their public-facing visibility.

Small and medium enterprises (SME), large corporations and universities generate a large amount of data. The importance of transforming their data into knowledge has been increasing over recent years and the correctly management has become one of the main goals of companies and institutions.

In this context, companies and institutions search technological solutions to support these emerging needs and improve their current information systems.

There are a wide variety of Open Source solutions covering the basic ICT needs of any organization, from content management systems to decision making tools or project management software. Therefore, it is not a development issue but rather selecting, integrating and making interoperable the different existing tools or components and also defining the flows to support the information and knowledge management peculiarities of each organization. These solutions are called technological ecosystems and allow focusing on information and knowledge to set aside the underlying technology.

This approach means a more incremental and evolutionary system life-cycles, with a more orientation to the system integration than to software development, but with a very complex maintenance of both the system as a whole and each component. This maintenance complexity means a real challenge to face with more flexible and adaptable architectures and also using high-level dashboard for ecosystems deployment and evolution.

The technological ecosystems are the evolution of the information systems. The technological ecosystem can be defined as a set of software components and information flows in order to provide the required functionality for managing the internal and external processes of an organization. The simplest definition of mashup is a web-based information system that combines components from different sources to form a complete service. If we compare both definitions, we can define a technological ecosystem as a mashup with high flexibility and adaptability to the needs of both the end users and the technician or specialist.

Moreover, each technological ecosystem is unique; it is very difficult that two different institutions or companies share exactly the same problems and goals about their own knowledge management. Perhaps in an initial stage, the basic requirements may be very similar, but the evolutionary characteristic, which is intrinsic to the ecosystems, would cause that this similarity would last for a short period of time since each ecosystem evolves differently, as it occurs in nature. The key to control and improve the technological ecosystem evolution is the main goal of this publication. Learn about new methodologies, Open Source developments or software engineering solutions and contrasting different case studies in institutions and companies, provide a solid basis to enhancing technological ecosystems.

Objective of the Book
The main goal of this book will explore the evolution of the knowledge management systems in any kind of context, from companies to institutions. It will illustrate powerful approaches for the definition and development of technological ecosystems based on Open Source software.

Target Audience
The target audience of this book is composed by researchers, developers, university teachers, university students and institutions and companies whose goals include the knowledge management generated both their internal and external processes.

Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
Contributors are welcome to submit chapters on the following topics relating to Technological Ecosystems use, implementation, and adoption in developing countries:

Evolution of technological ecosystems
New proposal to enhancing technological ecosystems
Software engineering for technological ecosystems
Open Source developments for technological ecosystems
New methodologies supported by Open Source solutions for enhancing knowledge management in companies and institutions
Case studies: technological ecosystems in institutions
Case studies: technological ecosystems in companies


Submission Procedure
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before January 15, 2015, a chapter proposal of 1,000 to 2,000 words clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by January 30, 2015 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by February 28, 2015. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

Note: There are no submission or acceptance fees for manuscripts submitted to this book publication, Handbook of Research on Open Source Solutions for Knowledge Management and Technological Ecosystems. All manuscripts are accepted based on a double-blind peer review editorial process.

Full chapters may be submitted to this book here: http://bit.ly/XTYm5H

Publisher
This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), an international academic publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference,” “Business Science Reference,” and “Engineering Science Reference” imprints. IGI Global specializes in publishing reference books, scholarly journals, and electronic databases featuring academic research on a variety of innovative topic areas including, but not limited to, education, social science, medicine and healthcare, business and management, information science and technology, engineering, public administration, library and information science, media and communication studies, and environmental science. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2016.

Important Dates
February 15, 2015: Proposal deadline
March 31, 2015: Full chapter submission
April 1, 2015 – May 15, 2015: Review process
May 30, 2015: Review results returned
June 30, 2015: Revised chapter submission

Inquiries can be forwarded to
Francisco José García-Peñalvo and Alicia García-Holgado
GRIAL Research Group
Educational Science Research Institute (IUCE)
Paseo de Canalejas, 169
37008 Salamanca (España)
UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA
Tel.: +34 923 294500 Ext. 3433 • Fax: +34 923 294514
E-mail: fgarcia@usal.es – aliciagh@usal.es