Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2011

Publication Title

Issues in Information Systems

Volume

XII

Issue Number

1

First Page

280

Last Page

290

Disciplines

Business | Management Information Systems

Abstract

As a case example for the design and implementation of a public decision support site, a variety of free Google tools are applied to supporting deer management decisions. A large number of communities throughout the country are engaged in what is often described as one of the most contentious decisions facing local governments. These decision makers routinely look to the internet for decision support, but information can be contradictory and difficult to find. To determine issues and requirements, data was collected using Google Search, Google keyword data, and a Google Alert was set up to retrieve news and information on the keyword “deer” every day for approximately 10 months. From this information, a support site was constructed using Google sites which makes development easy and free, but which has some restrictions such as a lack of standard database connectivity. As a compromise, the site itself was structured as a hierarchical, knowledge warehouse that could be easily searched using a built-in Google search tool. The results suggest that public policy decisions are being influenced by inaccurate information available on the internet and that keyword search statistics may disguise underlying decision processes so may not be an adequate source of information for site design.

Comments

Copyright © 2011 International Association for Computer Information Systems. Citation: Webb, G. K. (2011). Designing and Building a Knowledge Warehouse Oriented, Public Decision Support Site Using Free Google Tools: An Analysis and Case Application to Deer Management. Issues in Information Systems, XII (1), 280-290.

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