The AIS Faculty Directory

About

The AIS Faculty Directory, which began as a printed directory more than 20 years ago, currently contains online information about approximately 6,000 IS academics from six different continents. Through this tool, you can search for faculty by name, by institution, or by research areas.

While any faculty member can submit a directory listing or search the directory, AIS membership is required to view contact information or export search results.

If you are an AIS member, have been a member in the past, or already have a directory listing, login and click “manage profile” to update your information. Please do not create a new profile as this will result in multiple listings for you. If you aren’t sure if you have a profile already, click here and search for yourself!

The directory is updated weekly. If you make changes to your profile, please note those changes will be reflected in the directory the following week.

If you have any questions about the directory, please contact the AIS Webmaster.

History

In the age of the Internet, it is hard to imagine just how different the world was when the main form of communication was airmail letters. This made it extremely difficult to communicate, and it was a huge challenge to keep track of colleagues, to identify a community, to market a conference, to keep abreast of new scientific developments, etc.

Ever since the first PhD summer school (probably the first was in Gimo, Sweden organized by the late Professor Börje Langefors in summer of 1970), and the first IS conference (probably the first international conference was in Tampere, Finland in 1978), some type of database was kept of the IS faculty attending these events. These databases were used primarily for organizing and promoting future events. This is parallel to the situation in the U.S., where the first IS conference named CIS was established in 1980. When this conference was renamed to ICIS, reflecting the more international orientation, the task of updating and maintaining the growing number of addresses became even more daunting, when the list contained scholars from around the world. It became clear that there was a need for a more consolidated directory to keep track of addresses of participants.

The European development towards a consolidated directory started when the ICIS Council, at its spring planning meeting in 1985, decided to take the ICIS conference outside the U.S. for the first time, and have the ICIS conference in Copenhagen in 1990. For this to be a success, it was necessary to alert the IS researchers in Europe about the ICIS 1990 in Copenhagen, where most European IS researchers for the first time would meet on a supra-national level and meet their U.S. colleagues. For this to take place, there was a huge task in systematically identifying the local/national IS communities outside the U.S. to be able to market the conference to them. Accordingly, in the late 80’s Niels Bjorn-Andersen and colleagues launched a major effort to identify the many typically-isolated IS groups/communities in the European countries. They managed to collect almost 1,000 addresses with affiliations, research and teaching interests for the conference promotion. After many updates and revisions, the full directory was published as a book in 1992. Later, this was merged into the AIS directory.

Activities in the Asia-Pacific had begun in 1988, when Canberra-based Roger Clarke established the Australasian Directory of Information Systems Academics.  Three editions were published 1989-94 (in hard-copy) and distributed to departments.  The Asian Directory was compiled by Guy Gable in Singapore during the early 1990s. These two eastern-hemisphere collections were consolidated into the Asia-Pacific Directory in 1994-95.

In 1994, the newly-formed AIS, under the ISWorld leadership of Blake Ives, began to seek creative ways to use Internet applications, and particularly the new World Wide Web, to benefit IS academics. Since the printed faculty directories were so useful to members of the information systems community, it was natural to transfer the content and information to one online platform. A Directory Advisory Board met at ICIS in 1994 to discuss the future online coordination of print, regional, and specialty faculty directories. Through the generous support of McGraw-Hill, the University of Minnesota (who oversaw the directory until 2008), and countless faculty members, the online directory launched on June 1, 1995.

The AIS Faculty Directory has since had a significant impact on the development of the information systems profession. While many people were involved in the printed directories, Jan DeGross, in particular, made an invaluable contribution with her dedication, perseverance, and skill in maintaining the database, collecting and managing updates, and producing the finished copy. Furthermore, Gordon Davis and Gary Dickson foresaw the potential that a directory could have in unifying the information systems field, and contributed their own files for the initial data collection of the first printed edition in 1983.

In 2008, the University of Minnesota graciously agreed to donate the Faculty Directory to AIS to merge with the AIS member directory as part of a strategic initiative to integrate the various technology operations. Its provision as part of our professional association has led to increased use and value.