The UC Berkeley School of Information hosts a symposium to launch the new Information and Service Design (ISD) program at the I School. The symposium features the best graduate student papers on the Information and Services Economy.

 Introducing the ISD Program and the Symposium
AnnaLee Saxenian, Dean, School of Information
Bob Glushko, Adjunct Professor, School of Information

 Christo Sims - Defining Services for Designers
This paper is part of a larger effort to improve methodologies for service design. It focuses on one small, but fundamental, component of this endeavor: defining services in a manner useful for designers. Doing so provides common vocabulary and conceptual groundwork for differentiating services from products and distinguishing between different types of services. This paper begins by aggregating and refining existing definitions of services. As will be shown, services differ from products in that they are not entities; rather, they are social, technical or socio-technical relationships that transform something of value for the service recipient. The paper then offers conceptual strategies for characterizing similarities and differences between various service relationships. It proposes a multidimensional approach for mapping the service landscape. Such an approach differs significantly from existing classification approaches and represents an exciting area for future research.

 Saud Al Shamsi - Service Quality in the Physical and Virtual Marketplace
The rise of online retailing in the last decade has had a profound effect on the shopping experience as a whole. Customer expectations have shifted with the introduction of new concepts and techniques that capitalize on the Internet infrastructure, leading traditional bricks and mortar retailers to rethink their service models in order to better compete with the rapidly-evolving online businesses. This paper attempts to outline the different possible service encounters in all of the physical, the virtual, and the click-and-mortar business models, emphasizing service quality through meeting customer expectations.

 Elizabeth Goodman - Destination Services: Tourist Media and Networked Places
Tourism exists in the interplay between places and stories. In making sense of travel, we're also making sense of ourselves and the world around us. Indeed, the global tourist industry produces places as "destinations" through stories and souvenirs. The audience for tourism stories has changed greatly with changes in technologies of communication and representation, with one of the most radical changes the introduction of networked media. With the rise of web-based services, tourist experiences have acquired a digital penumbra of content available in ever more formats and locations. This paper examines these technological changes, and the potential consequences for digital storytelling, travel, and the production of destinations.

 Katrina Lindholm - The User Experience of Software-as-a-Service Applications
The software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model has grown in popularity over the last decade as computers and the internet have gained acceptance in both the corporate world and in the home. In conjunction with this movement, there have been significant changes in how software is developed. A recent trend towards an agile development process has resulted in shorter cycles and more frequent releases. Accordingly, user experience tasks such as interface design and usability testing have been forced to adapt. This paper will discuss the user experience challenges and solutions that have emerged in response to the advancement of SaaS.

 Andrea Moed - Generative Logging: Product Information Histories as Drivers of Service Ecologies
The mass customization trend in product design demonstrated that two-way information flows between manufacturers and customers can support the marketing of premium products. Since then, however, a new generation of digitally augmented products have started to offer a different and perhaps more viable customization experience. Represented by the iPod, the TiVo and other devices, these products are physically the same for every user, but are individualized in the process of use, through services in which the user an interaction history that is digitally stored and accessible by the user and the service provider. This paper will explore the features of these interaction histories and propose new services they can enable.

 Jessica Kline - The Future of Food Information Services
With growing attention to E. coli outbreaks and mad cow disease, consumers are increasingly questioning the food they eat. In response, many in the food industry are beginning to provide both transparent and convenient information regarding a food's history. Many small scale farms recognize this needed service and have created blogs that explain general farming principles, provide photos of the land, animals, and equipment, and portray the daily lives of farmers and their families. This paper describes these current information services provided to consumers and predicts the future direction of these vital services.

 Lindsay Tabas - Developing a New Services Design Methodology
Information technologies are ubiquitous in the domain of services, whether it be services offered by hairdressers or those offered by hotels and airlines. Every instance of a service is the product of a services chain within a service system, where information about the service is aggregated from start to finish, to the benefit of both consumer and provider. Understanding the larger service system and the way br in which information flows through its structure is a crucial foundation to effectively applying a service design methodology. We have yet to reach the critical point at which all disciplines of services science are effectively integrated to produce a holistic approach to services design. This paper proposes a services design methodology intended for the renovation of existing, information-intensive services. The methodology considers the often competing interests of the front stage, consumer experience of services, with the back stage, hidden processes and information technology driven services.

 Zach Gillen - Difficulties Implementing an Electronic Medical Record for Diverse Healthcare Service Providers
To mitigate rising healthcare costs and FFS (Fee for Service) charges, large healthcare organizations are beginning to restructure their models for providing patient services. Many of these healthcare organizations have implemented an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) to free the physical location of charts and automate business rules. This case study examines the failure of a large metropolitan department of public health's (DPH) attempts to upgrade their EMR system. While political, technological and economic barriers persist, the assumptions made by this proprietary EMR vendor did not reflect the diverse services provided by the organization. As a result, the implementation failed after two years of effort. Vendors of EMR systems need to provide flexibility with rules engines and user interface design to accommodate the changing landscape of healthcare as a service.

 Anya Kartavenko - eGovernment: Serving Small Business in California
Small firms account for a significant portion of the business in the state of California. They face greatest regulatory costs in complying with government regulations. They are also the ones carrying the burden of sorting through the government complexity. The problem is, of course, that historically government services have not been customer-centric. Due to the complexity of the organizational structure, its services are often department-based and not coordinated across respective government entities. This paper looks into the state efforts to help small business and examines existing resources for registering a firm in the state of California and compares it with existing customer-centric eGovernment solutions in other states.

 Yiming Liu - IPRs and Development in a Knowledge Economy: An Overview of Issues
The rise of the modern economy centered upon knowledge, knowledge workers, and knowledge artifacts has brought with it the promise of technological growth and innovation, but also new challenges in political governance and economic development. Maintaining the proper incentives for knowledge creation against the necessity of a broad information commons is a delicate compromise on both a domestic scale with various private and public interests, as well on an international one with developed states and developing states. The strength and scope of intellectual property regimes directly affect this balance of interests. As they are developed and revised for the modern age, these regimes raise broad implications for the health and future of the global knowledge economy.

 Bryan Tsao - Services Consulting in China
The sale of American services in China is an important growth area for U.S. corporations and the U.S.-China balance of trade. Firms such as IBM and McKinsey have been successful at adding value to clients in the U.S. by tapping into their wide networks of human capital and applying them in appropriate situations. However, because of China's relatively closed network economy and distance from the U.S., firms such as IBM and McKinsey's greatest challenge is in developing human capital capable of effectively applying their companies' networks of resources in China while, for reasons of efficiency, remaining relatively autonomous from company leadership in the U.S.