Welcome to

NINETEENTH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS HELSINKI, FINLAND December 13-16, 1998

The Nineteenth International Conference on Information Systems will be held in 1998 in Helsinki, Finland. This will be the third ICIS conference held outside North America. The theme for ICIS'98 is "Crossing Boundaries: Managing Virtual Enterprises". The choice of the conference theme was motivated by the rapid onslaught of new mobile, interoperable, and flexible technologies that will create new information rich environments and the possibility for the virtual organizations of the twenty-first century. As the title suggests, the conference program will focus on the emerging virtual forms of organizing and associated practices of managing in technologically rich environments. In such environments the borders of both technology and organization are non-rigid and their boundaries cross. The conference will shed light on new technology-mediated patterns of communication and organizing, and will make predictions for their future. Additionally, the focus will be on some of the counter-forces that seek to maintain the existing status quo.

We believe that Finland in general and Helsinki in particular are ideal places to host a conference around this theme. Finland has historically been a boundary between the Eastern (Byzantine) culture and the Western (Roman) culture. Accordingly, Finns have always operated in a borderland and across borders. Our symbol for the conference, an old Finnish information technology invention - the shaman drum, illustrates how Finland connects boundaries between the old indigenous culture and twenty-first century technology. In 50 years Finland has made a bold jump from an agricultural society into an information society, and has even become one of the leading vanguards of it. In 1997, Finland was pronounced the "most networked" nation in the world, by the New York Times, because of its leading role in the use of mobile networks and Internet technologies, and the large share of high-tech industries among its exports. In recent years Finland has become one of the most exciting social laboratories in the building of virtual organizations and societies. Its current initiatives in electronic trade, cyber citizenship and mobile computing are creating a truly new form of social life. This is the society where the traditional check is dead, where every citizen will have an e-mail address, and where phones (and later portable digital assistants) are used in all walks of life. Such an existence is reflected in the conference program. We offer opinions of the builders of this society such as the president and CEO of Nokia, Jorma Ollila, examine novel technologies that have been created, and listen to testimonies of the impact of these technologies. The conference will offer the high quality scientific program traditionally associated with ICIS, consisting of scientific papers, research in progress reports, panels and tutorials.

Welcome to Helsinki for ICIS'98! The conference will take place in downtown Helsinki in the beautiful Marina Congress Center, which hosted the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1992. The center offers a magnificent view over Helsinki archipelago, and provides excellent facilities for everything expected of a first rate conference.

We are keeping our saunas warm for you and expect to see you in Helsinki in December!

Kalle Lyytinen Conference Chair

Additional information about ICIS'98 and Helsinki (15 slides).

This website was updated October 26, 1998. For questions concerning the program, Doctoral Consortium, exhibition, registration etc. please see contact information. Observations concerning these web pages should be addressed to Jouni Huotari