Greetings to the AI/ET Section’s 233 members around the world, 

I hope your year is going well.  There are several initiatives in the section that may be of interest to you. 

The AAA’s affiliate program is now up and running – and we have our first member!   How the program impacts our section depends on each of us.  Please consider inviting your non-accounting faculty (and non-practicing accountant) colleagues to become members of the section.   If each existing member is responsible for one new member, we will see a substantial increase in the diversity of emerging technologies that we represent.  The cost of affiliate AAA membership is $50 (US) plus the AIET section dues, currently $20 (US). 

Our task-force on the section’s name continues to gather information and opinions.  We expect a recommendation soon.  After the section decides what we want to do (keep or change the name) we will ask the AAA to help us market the affiliate program to other organizations. 

Another way to extend our name and influence is by supporting meetings with which members are significantly involved.  Since the annual meeting in Chicago, we have sponsored The 14th World Continuous Auditing and Reporting Symposium and The 1st Continuous Reporting Symposium, both at the Rutgers Business School – Newark (NJ/USA).  (Note: we cannot provide financial support.)  Both meetings were well attended and had excellent presentations. 

Make sure you spend some time looking at the section’s recent website updates/enhancements.  Andy Lymer does an excellent job as Webmaster.  One way you can show him your appreciation is to send him more content!  Likewise, if want more and/or different information in the next edition of the newsletter, send Murphy Smith something that is of interest to you (and others like you), and include your appreciation for the great job he does with the newsletter. 

Many of you are working behind the scenes on activities with the section’s various committees.  I personally appreciate the work that each of you do.  Keep up the good work and best wishes as you continue your year. 

See you at the AAA Annual Meeting in August, 

-Rick Dull 
Richard Dull, PhD, CPA, CFE, CISA 
Associate Professor of Accountancy 
School of Accountancy & Legal Studies 
Clemson University 
301 Sirrine Hall 
Clemson, SC 29634 
(864) 656-0610 
rdull@clemson.edu 

At the 2007 AAA Annual Meeting, the Executive Committee approved the reinstatement of the monograph series "Studies in Accounting Research" (SAR). The AAA issued 33 SARs from 1969 through 2000. SAR is a prestigious series that provides an outlet for seminal and innovative research not bounded by the usual space and topic constraints present in our journals. SAR is of significant benefit to authors in exploring a topic in great depth and as a resource for other researchers.

The AAA Southwest Region will hold its annual meeting in Houston, Texas, March 6-8, 2008. The AAA Southwest Region meets in conjunction with the FBD (http://www.fbds.org/).

The International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER) and Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) are pleased to invite research proposals to support the work of the International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB). The program supports scholarly research directed at the IAESB's standard setting activities. Up to five research grants of US$25,000 each will be awarded under this program. The deadline for proposal submissions is MARCH 31, 2008.

Research & Publications:

Opportunities for Artificial Intelligence Development in the Accounting Domain: The Case for Auditing  by AMELIA A. BALDWIN, University of Alabama in Huntsville, CAROL E. BROWN, Oregon State University, and BRAD S. TRINKLE, International Journal of Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 77-86, July/September 2006 

Abstract: 
This paper reviews the nature of accounting and auditing problems and the need for application of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to the discipline. The discussion includes current accounting issues for which new AI development should be fruitful, particularly auditing and assurance. 

_____

Accounting of Organization in the Future Knowledge Society by TUGUI AL. ALEXANDRU Jr. , Al. I. Cuza University, Working Paper (Available at SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=890205)

Abstract: 
In the future knowledge-based society, knowledge will be the regular working material, which will be easily handled in any organization. Organizations' accounting will be one of the tools by means of which this handling will occur, which means that knowledge will be the raw material of the future accounting. 

This stage of accounting will be reached following a standardization of the accounting procedures, practices and methods, following the integrated processing of the company data, following the increasing high performance of communication technologies, following the achievements in the field of artificial intelligence, as well as of the potential technologies that wait to be discovered.

In this study, we will discuss concepts like: knowledge, new economy, data-based accounting (d-accounting), information-oriented accounting (i-accounting), accounting in collaborative environments (e-accounting) and accounting in the knowledge society.

The road to knowledge-based accounting (k-accounting) will involve automation, digitization, virtuality, multimedia, mobility and inter-operability. 

Great Ideas for Teaching Accounting Website:

Great Ideas for Teaching Accounting -- South-Western College Publishing has created the Great Ideas for Teaching accounting site (http://www.swlearning.com/accounting/car/gita.html) to allow accounting professors the opportunity to share their teaching techniques. The teaching tips contributed by various accounting professors are categorized into a table of contents similar to that of an introductory accounting textbook. There is a separate section for teaching tips on management accounting. The site also provides tips on classroom management, communication skills and team work development. Visitors can use a form at the site to submit their own teaching ideas.

Professor Dan O'Leary (USC) starts his term as JETA editor on 1 April 2008. All submissions should be sent to Dan for the review process please from that date onwards. The purpose of JETA is to encourage, support and disseminate the production of a stream of high-quality research focused on emerging technologies and artificial intelligence applied or applicable to a wide set of accounting related problems. More about JETA, including submission information is available on the AIET website (http://aaahq.org/aiet/publications/jeta/callsForPapers.html). 

Upcoming Meetings:

CALL FOR PAPERS: The Seventeenth Annual Research Workshop on AI/ET in Accounting, Auditing and Tax:
 

The 17th annual research workshop on AI/ET will be held Saturday 2nd August 2008 in Anaheim/Orange County (immediately before the AAA Annual Meeting as usual). The full first Call can be found here (http://aaahq.org/aiet/events/2008WorkshopCFP.pdf) 
Deadlines - 
1 May 2008: Email extended abstract with paper title, name of authors and description of approximately 300 words or full paper to aietworkshop@yahoogroups.com. 
15 May 2008: Decisions emailed. 
1 July 2008: Full papers due.
_____

CALL FOR PAPERS: 2008 Critical Perspectives on Accounting Conferences:
Baruch College Conference Center, April 24th - 28th 2008

Accounting academics, practitioners, teachers, and students are invited to a 4-days of meetings at the Baruch College's Conference Center, from April 24 to April 28 2008. The meeting consists of the MAIN CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING CONFERENCE (Thursday Evening, April 24 through Saturday, April 26) and three mini- conferences: THE EMANUEL SAXE SYMPOSIUM (Monday, April 28 -- After Passover!), THE EMERGING SCHOLARS WORKSHOP (Thursday, April 24), and the EUROPEAN CRITICAL ACCOUNTING SYMPOSIUM (Thursday, April 24). New York CPE credits are available for registered attendees.

For more information, contact Professor Tony Tinker at: tonytinker@msn.com, Tel. 646 312 3175 and visit the Conference Websites: http://aux.zicklin.baruch.cuny.edu/Tinker/cpa2008/ or http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~cpaedit/2008CPA/

_____

CALL FOR PAPERS: The Allied Academies International Conference 2008:

The Allied Academies will hold its Spring 2008 international meeting in Tunica Mississippi. Presentation dates will be April 2 through April 4, 2008.  Registration materials are due by February 29. Submission information is available on the Allied Academies website (http://alliedacademies.org/Public/Conferences/Conferences.aspx). To provide  maximum outlets for research, the Allied Academies will hold joint meetings of all its member academies:

Academy of Accounting and Financial Studies (AAFS)
Academy of Banking Studies (ABS)
Academy for Economics and Economic Education (AEEE)
Academy of Educational Leadership (AEL)
Academy of Entrepreneurship (AE)
Academy of Information and Management Sciences (AIMS)
Academy of Organizational Culture, Communications & Conflict (AOCCC)
Academy of Marketing Studies (AMS)
Academy of Strategic Management (ASM)
Academy of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues (ALERI)
Academy for Studies in International Business (ASIB)
International Academy for Case Studies (IACS)
Academy of Health Care Management (AHCM)

JETA Reviewer Awards 2007: For excellence in reviewing papers for JETA, two members received awards at the 2007 annual meeting: Dr. Ingrid Fisher (University at Albany, State University of New York) and Dr. Marietta Peytcheva (Rutgers University). 
_____ 

The 2007 AIET SectionOutstanding Educator Award was presented to Dr. Carol Brown, Oregon State University. 
_____ 

The 2007 AIET SectionOutstanding Reearcher Award was presented to Dr. Bill McCarthy, Michigan State University. 

_____ 

The 2007AI/ET Section Outstanding Dissertation Award went to Dr. Jia Wu, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey (2006, 127 pp.) - "Continuous tests of details and analytical procedures in continuous auditing." The abstract follows: 

Abstract:

In a Continuous auditing (CA) environment audits are performed on a more 
frequent and timely basis than traditional auditing. CA is a great leap 
forward in both audit depth and audit breadth. Thanks to fast advances 
in information technologies, the implementation of CA has become 
technologically feasible. Moreover, the recent spate of corporate 
scandals and related auditing failures drives the demand for better 
quality audits. New regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley Act require 
better corporate internal control and shortened reporting lags. These 
factors have created an amenable environment for CA development. 
Especially in the past few years CA has attracted the attention of more 
and more academic researchers, audit professionals, and software
developers. The research on CA has been continuously flourishing. This 
study extends the prior research by using a real-world case to discuss 
two essential procedures in CA---tests of details and analytical 
procedures. 

This dissertation consists of two primary parts. First, it discusses how 
to apply continuous test of details to detect errors in the business 
processes of the company's procurement cycle. Second, it proposes new 
auditing protocols, tests various expectation models, and compares 
anomaly detection performance using aggregated and disaggregated data 
for the analytical procedures in CA. The online learning protocol and 
error correction protocol are introduced for expectation models to 
improve anomaly detection performance. Four different expectation models 
are analyzed in terms of the prediction accuracy and detection 
performance, which include Linear Regression Models (LRM), Simultaneous 
Equation Models (SEM), Subset Vector Autoregressive (SVAR) models and 
Bayesian Vector Autoregressive (BVAR) models. The results indicate that 
error correction protocol generally improves the detection performance. 
Using disaggregated data can lead to better anomaly detection when the 
entire error concentrates on a single day or a single location. However, 
the detection performance would deteriorate when error is dispersed 
evenly on every day or each location. 

 _____ 

Make Nominations for the AIET Section Awards:

1. Call for Nominations: AIET Section 2008 Outstanding Educator Award

The AI/ET Section of the American Accounting Association is pleased to announce its call to identify the 2008 Outstanding Educator.  The purpose of this award is to recognize an educator for their outstanding education contribution in the field of AI/ET. The winner of this award will be honored with a plaque presented at the AI/ET Section Business Meeting to be held at the 2008 AAA Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois. 

The primary criteria for the award are: 

    Educational impact made by the individual on the field of AI/ET
    Originality and innovation of the educational contributions 
    Contribution to the larger AIS and IS communities 

Selection Process: 

    Nominations should be sent (electronic submissions only) according to directions on the AIET website (http://aaahq.org/aiet/awards/outstandingEducatorAward.html). 

    To be eligible for consideration, the nominee must be a current member of the AAA.  A member of the AI/ET Section must nominate the individual. 

    The nominating letter should include a statement as to why the individual is nominated and an assessment of the individual’s educational contributions. 

    Educational contribution is broadly defined and not limited to any type of teaching. 

    Members of the Executive Committee are ineligible for the award. 

_____ 
2. Call for Nominations: AIET Section 2008 Outstanding Researcher Award

The AI/ET Section of the American Accounting Association is pleased to announce its call to identify the 2008 Outstanding Researcher.  The purpose of this award is to recognize a researcher for their outstanding published research in the field of AI/ET. The winner of this award will be honored with a plaque presented at the AI/ET Section Business Meeting to be held at the 2008 AAA Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois. 

The primary criteria for the award are: 

    Impact of the research on the field of AI/ET
    Relevance to the larger accounting information systems community 
    Relevance to the larger information systems community 
    Originality and innovation of the research 

Selection Process: 

    Nominations should be sent (electronic submissions only) according to directions on the AIET website (http://aaahq.org/aiet/awards/outstandingResearcherAward.html). 

    To be eligible for consideration, the nominee must be a current member of the AAA.   A member of the AI/ET Section must nominate the research. 

    The nominating letter must include a statement as to why the individual is nominated and an assessment of the individual’s research (which can include peer-reviewed books, monographs, and journal articles relating to research in the field of AI/ET).  Publications in AI/ET section publications should be highlighted. 

    Members of the Executive Committee are ineligible for the award. 
_____ 

3. Call for Nominations: AIET Section 2008 Outstanding Dissertation Award

The Section periodically (usually annually) awards the AIET Outstanding Dissertation Award. The award is to recognize outstanding dissertations in the fields of artificial intelligence and/or emerging technologies. 

Selection Process: 

    Nominations should be sent (electronic submissions only) according to directions on the AIET website (http://aaahq.org/aiet/awards/dissertationAward.html). 

For the purposes of this award: 

(a) Artificial intelligence includes, but is not limited to, the sub-fields of knowledge-based systems, neural networks, and heuristic problem solving, expert systems, case-based reasoning, machine learning, natural language processing, intelligent databases, intelligent agents, and intelligent devices. 
(b) Emerging technologies include (among others) information system security, image processing, communications technologies, wireless connectivity, the Internet, World Wide Web, electronic commerce, workflow technology, private networks (local, wide, municipal, intranets), EDI, XBRL, XML, data mining, group technologies, continuous assurance services, voice recognition, and interactive multimedia. 

The winner of AI/ET Outstanding Dissertation Award will be presented with a plaque at the Annual AIET Section Business meeting. 

Educaton, research, and other links are available on the AIET website. Please send any suggestions for new links you think will be of interest to other section members to the Newsletter Editor or to the section's Webmanager: Andy Lymer. 

AIET Section Members in the News:

Andy Lymer's research interests lie in the areas of taxation (particularly International Taxation, the influence of technology on taxation and tax systems, and tax education) and of applied information systems/computing (in particular, in the use and potential of Artificial Intelligence in commercial environments and in the business potential of the Internet for use in areas such as in corporate reporting). Andy recently completed the 14th edition of Taxation - Policy and Practice. Andy's latest tax book has been released by Fiscal Publications. 'Taxation - Policy and Practice' aims to provide an introduction to the UK’s tax system in a readable style – something not usually claimed for books on topics like tax! Anyone need help with their tax return? Updated annually (with the help of Lynne Oats – Warwick University), this book has become the key University textbook for tax education in UK Universities and is also used by various professional firms for their trainees.

____

Consider Recommending Someone to Serve as a 2008/9 Section Officer:

You may make recommendations to the Nominating Committee for 2008/9 section officers as follows: 

A. The President-Elect (elected for a one-year term and upon completion of this elected term, will automatically become the President of the Section). 

B.  The Vice President (elected for a one-year term and is eligible for re-election for two additional one-year terms). 

C.  The Secretary-Treasurer (elected for a one-year term and is eligible for re-election for two additional one-year terms). 

(NB. The President is not nominated in this process - the current year's President-Elect automatically becomes the next President - this year Roger Debreceny will therefore become President) 

Our by-laws explain the nominations process thus; "Any member of the Section may make recommendations of nominees to the Nominating Committee.  The Nominating Committee will select and publish the slate of nominees for Section officers approximately 60 days prior to the Annual Meeting.  Voting will be closed no earlier than 15 days prior to the Annual Meeting.  In addition, an individual may be nominated by a petition signed by not less than ten (10) members of the AI/ET Section. Any individual nominated by petition must previously have agreed to serve if elected and must be a member in good standing of the Section.  Only members in good standing of the AI/ET Section are eligible to vote." 
 ______ 

Committees:
 

The AIET Section operates effectively through a structure of committees who collectively take responsibility for the variety of tasks and functions the section aims to provide coverage over. Current committee information is on the AIET website (http://aaahq.org/aiet/committees.html). 

Contact the Newsletter Editor:

Please send me items of interest for the next newsletter, including: 

- Recent books or journal articles related to AIET - whether you have published them or you have seen other peoples you think others should know about. Conferences and calls for papers related to AIET - make sure all regional or local events you may be involved with get good billing this way. 
- This could include non-AAA events too (if directly relevant to section members' interests) - Have you been to an interesting meeting recently? Why not write a few paragraphs for us describing who presented what so we can all benefit in some way from events we couldn't attend? 
- Personal accomplishments e.g. promotions or awards (don't be shy now!) Have you changed jobs recently? Let people know where you are now via the newsletter perhaps! 
- New research projects started or updates on current ones you may be working on. PhD students - tell us what you are doing and what you are finding out - there may be people out there who can help you in all kinds of ways you hadn't thought about - ask! 
- Other items related to AIET e.g. comments or questions you'd like answers to or help with. Maybe someone out there has an answer that can help you with an issue you are facing? Ask! 

Best regards, 
Murphy 

L. Murphy Smith, Newsletter Editor 
Lmsmith@tamu.edu