Shana Ponelis

Associate Professor

Education

• PhD Information Technology, University of Pretoria
• MIS (with honors), University of Pretoria
• BA Honours Information Science (with honors), University of Pretoria
• BSc Mathematical Sciences (with honors), University of Pretoria

Bio

Shana’s mission and passion is to empower people to make informed decisions that benefit themselves, their organizations, their communities and broader society by using information and communication technologies (ICTs). Her research focuses on the application of ICTs in a variety of organizational contexts, predominantly situated in sub-Saharan Africa. Her work has been published in Aslib Proceedings, Information Development, Library Management, IFLA Journal, the Journal of Information Ethics, the South African Journal of Information Management, and The International Information & Library Review, among others. She serves as an Associate Editor for the Information Technology for Development journal and on several editorial review boards. She serves on the campus International Committee and is the VP for Education for the Association of Information Systems ICTs and Global Development (AIS SIG GlobDev). Before joining UWM, Shana was a Senior Lecturer with the Department of Informatics at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. She also gained industry experience as an IT consultant with Andersen and KPMG Consulting working on projects for organizations located across Southern Africa.

Courses Taught

310 Human Factors in Information Seeking and Use
340 Introduction to Systems Analysis
410 Database Information Retrieval Systems
451 Access, Security and Intercultural Contexts in Global Communications (Global Studies)
490 Senior Capstone
622 Information Marketing
691 Special Topics: Infopreneurship
790 Project Design, Implementation, and Evaluation (MSIST capstone)

Sample Publications

Ponelis, S. R., & Adoma, P. (2018). Diffusion of open source integrated library systems in academic libraries in Africa: the case of Uganda. Library Management, 39(6/7), 430-448.

Buwule, R. S., & Ponelis, S.R. (2017). Perspectives on university library automation and national development in Uganda. IFLA Journal, 43(3), 256-265.

Ponelis, S. R. & Holmner, M. A. (2015b). ICT in Africa: Building a Better Life for All [Editorial]. Information Technology for Development, 21(2), 163-177.

Ponelis, S. R. & Holmner, M. A. (2015a). ICT in Africa: Enabling a Better Life for All [Editorial]. Information Technology for Development, 21(1), 1-11.

Ponelis, S. R. (2015). Using interpretive qualitative case studies for exploratory research in doctoral studies: a case of information systems research in small and medium enterprises. International Journal of Doctoral Studies, 10, 535-550.

Ponelis, S. R. (2015). Information and IT in small and medium enterprises: opportunities and challenges. In: Mehdi Khosrow-Pour (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Third Edition (pp. 6688-6696). Hershey, Penn.: Information Science Reference.

Ponelis, S.R., & Britz, J.J. (2012). A descriptive framework of business intelligence derived from definitions by academics, practitioners and vendors, Mousaion: South African Journal for Information Studies, 30(1), 103-119.

Ponelis, S.R., & Britz, J.J. (2012). The Elephant in the Server Room: Confronting the Need for an Ethics Officer in the IT Function. Journal of Information Ethics, 21(1), 27-39.

Britz, J., & Ponelis, S. (2012). Social justice and the international flow of knowledge with specific reference to African scholars. Aslib Proceedings, 64(5), 462-477.