This volume explores emerging research and pedagogy in analytics collaboration and decision
support with an emphasis on business intelligence and social media. In general the chapters
help understand where technology involvement in human decisions is headed. Reading the chapters
can help understand the opportunities and threats associated with the use of information
technology in decision making. Computing and information technologies are reshaping our global
society but they can potentially reshape it in negative as well as positive ways. Analytics
collaboration and computerized decision support are powerful decision aiding and decision
making tools that have enormous potential to impact crisis decision making regulation of
financial systems healthcare decision making and many more important decision domains. Many
information technologies can potentially support assist and even decide for human decision
makers. Despite the potential some researchers think that we know the answers to how these
technologies will change society. The Wisdom of Crowds or Big Data become the topic of the day
and are soon replaced with new marketing terms. In many ways mobile technology is just another
form factor to adapt decision support capabilities too and experiment with new capabilities.
The cloud is a nebulous metaphor that adds to the mystery of information technology. Wireless
technology enables the ubiquitous presence of analytics and decision support. With new
networking capabilities collaboration is possible anywhere and everywhere using voice video
and text. Documents can be widely shared and massive numbers of documents can be carried on a
small tablet computer. Recent developments in technologies impact the processes organizations
use to make decisions. In addition academics are looking for ways to enhance their pedagogy to
train students to be more adept in understanding how emerging technology will be used
effectively for decision making in organizations. The chapters are based on papers originally
reviewed at the Special Interest Group on Decision Support Systems (SIGDSS) Workshop at the
2013 International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2013). Ultimately this volume
endeavors to find a balance between systematizing what we know so we can teach our findings
from prior research better and stimulating excitement to move the field in new directions.
