A MODEL FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF INFORMATION KIOSKS IN SINGAPORE

The information kiosks of the past were dedicated machines, huge, cost ly, and designed mainly for the purpose of information retrieval and e xpensive to update. Today's information kiosk, however, uses a multime dia PC which is housed in a close-fitting casing. Placed in public are as or exhibitions, interactive kiosks are increasingly being used to d isseminate, access, process and collect information and/or perform tra nsaction (financial or non-financial). This paper examined the various types of information kiosks implementation in Singapore. A model in a form of a matrix is designed to map the various types of information kiosks, This matrix has 4 sectors with two dimensions, i,e, informatio n dissemination (low versus high) and transaction (low versus high). L ow information dissemination kiosk means that the information provided requires infrequent changes or updates and it has structured query, u sually guided by screen buttons. High information dissemination kiosk requires frequent changes to the information provided to users and use rs can perform semi-structured query, usually via a keyboard. Low tran sactional capability kiosk performs no transaction at all or it just a ccepts money during the transaction, e.g. car park kiosk, High transac tion capability kiosks on the other hand enable users to access and up date on-line databases on top of their transaction which may require p ersonal identification. The four sectors are categorized as Type 1, Ty pe 2, Type 3 and Type 4 kiosk. Type 1 refers to Low transaction/Low in formation kiosk, Type 2 refers to High Transaction kiosk, Type 3 refer s to Pure Information Dissemination kiosk and Type 4 refers to High Tr ansaction/High Information kiosk. In order for organizations to unders tand how kiosk technology can be employed in their industries to achie ve corporate goals, Cash and McFarlan's two-dimensional table is adapt ed as a framework. This framework is useful because it allows the CEO to know exactly where the resources (IT expenditures) are allocated wi th the most growth potential. As a result, we adapted the framework fo r our analysis, Lastly, the paper discusses on a typical kiosk configu ration and some guidelines are recommended for consideration during ki osks implementation. Future research areas on kiosks implementation ar e also highlighted in the concluding remarks. (C) 1998 Elsevier Scienc e Ltd. All rights reserved.