Book excerpt: The ItAIS (http://www.itais.org) is the Italian chapter of the Association for Information Systems (AIS: http://www.aisnet.org) which brings together both individual and institutional members. The Italian chapter has been established in 2003, and since then, it has promoted the exchange of ideas, experiences and knowledge among academics and professionals in Italy, devoted to the development, management, organization and use of Information Systems. The contents of this book are based on a selection of the best papers presented at the Annual Conference of the ItAIS, that has been held in Paris, in December 2008. The book adopts an interdisciplinary approach, recognizing the need to harness a number of different disciplines in both the theory and the practice of information systems. The work here presented is comprehensive and up-to-date in this subject. The contributions to this volume aim to disseminate academic knowledge and might be particularly relevant to practitioners in the field.