In our fast-moving global information economy, few people are aware that Dr Ergun Gide was a trailblazer in e-commerce teaching, research and its many practical business applications at CQUniversity Sydney.

Today, business leaders and government policy makers have begun to increasingly appreciate the impact which the information communications technology (ICT) sector can have on labour productivity, improved business management and global education.

Ergun Gide receives his award from the Vice-Chancellor

Indeed, the challenge of building and maintaining a reliable statistical database on ICT growth and its business use in Australia is a formidable one, which the Australian Bureau of Statistics has now begun to address in earnest.

For instance, Dr Gide points out that Australia's small open economy has a rapidly evolving ICT industry which employs more than 250,000 employees, the majority of whom are overseas born, young and male.

Almost half of IT workers are found in the computer services industry, followed by the communication services and wholesale trade industries (ABS, 2006). Furthermore, ICT related employment represents around 15 per cent of Australia's small and medium size enterprises (ITU, 2005).

As Senior Lecturer Dr Gide is responsible for coordinating, lecturing and teaching information systems to international students in e-commerce related courses. He also supervises Doctoral and Masters level e-commerce related projects at the Sydney campus.

Ergun Gide and Professor John Rickard

Dr Gide has an impressive academic background and was one of the first among educators to obtain a PhD in e-commerce. The subject of Dr Gide's PhD research was Internet-based E-Commerce; one of the earliest studies of its kind in Australia.

He also holds a BSc; together with the University Medal for Academic Excellence, as well as an MSc in engineering. All of this has given Dr Gide a keen appreciation and understanding of both the macro and micro dimensions of ICT and especially e-commerce.

Nor are his industry, administrative work skills and publishing record lacking. Dr Gide has an MBA with a management specialisation and has held the positions of Senior Program Advisor and Postgraduate Program Facilitator in the Faculty of Business and Informatics at CQUniversity Sydney.

Dr Gide has published a prodigious amount of research, including refereed journal articles, conference papers and chapters in books. He has served on the editorial boards of several international journals, including Contemporary Management Research, International Journal of Intelligent Technology and the International Journal of Information Technology.

Ergun was awarded the Gold Medal Mort Award for Teaching Excellence at the Sydney Campus in 2006.

More recently, Dr Gide was voted 2008 Teacher of the Year - an award which was officially announced and personally conferred upon him by the Vice-Chancellor of CQUniversity at the Sydney Campus Graduation Ceremony.

Dr Gide says his teaching style can be summed up in one word, ‘empowerment'!

Given the 21^st Digital Information Age, Ergun's educational philosophy is focused on understanding each and every student's needs, with a view to changing global market demand for IT graduates.

In other words, Ergun's teaching philosophy is totally student-centric. He inspires and motivates his students by using a combination of intelligent and innovative teaching strategies.

He seeks to build students' self-esteem and confidence by shifting their focus from "inward looking" values to larger global visions.

As a visiting Professor to several Chinese universities in 2006 Ergun was invited to put his ideas into action. He presented a number of seminars to academics and students alike and helped to design an undergraduate e-commerce curriculum program for Chinese IT students.

Outside his teaching and research time Ergun devotes considerable effort to helping connect his graduate students with prospective IT employers. A number of his students have found very good positions with IT firms in Australia.

- Story by Dr Chris Keane