I’m an Information Technology Writer, Educator and Researcher.
I write research studies and books dealing with information technology and
accounting, teach online courses and take on some consulting assignments.
My prime assignment at
present is Project Director for XBRL Canada, an organization dedicated to
developing the use of XBRL for accounting and reporting purposes. This work
is through the offices of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants
in Toronto. XBRL is fully explained at the XBRL International Website.
There is more about XBRL Canada at its website.
I retired in 2006 as a Professor of
Accounting and Information Systems from St. Francis Xavier
University in Antigonish, Nova
Scotia. Previously, I retired from the firm of KPMG
in 1996, after a twenty-three year career there, seventeen years as a
partner. In KPMG, I worked in the accounting and assurance areas for
several years, primarily as a quality control and research resource, but
then evolved into Information Systems Consulting. I’m now working towards
my third retirement, but have no plans to rush it.
Before joining KPMG, I
worked with the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants
as a Research Manager and as Assistant Director of Education. I’ve come
full circle in a sense, because most of my work now is with the CICA.
My
Interests
I have long been interested and involved in
research in accounting, business reporting and information systems and have
published several books. In recent years, much of my
attention has been focused on Information Technology and the Internet, more
specifically e-Business, XBRL and ERP systems. I also co-authored a
textbook on e-business for Pearson Education (Prentice Hall), the third
edition of which was released in March, 2008. It's called E-Business - A
Canadian Perspective for a Networked World and can be found on the Pearson
Education site. The text is now going into its fourth edition, to be
released early in 2011.
I am interested in fiction writing too and have
published some short stories. My interest in fiction led me to agree to
serve on the Board and now as editor of the Antigonish
Review, one of Canada's leading literary reviews. I recently formed my
own publications company – BlackAvon Books, which I see as an electronic and
print on demand type of operation. It’ll offer authors a better deal than
current traditional publishers. Right now I’m trying to figure out the
direction the publishing world is taking. Some people think it is going
fully electronic, but I think it is going to be mixed.
I also published a novel, called The
Opportunity and a book of short stories The
Ship Tossed Upon the Sea and Other Stories.
Both are available on Amazon.
My
Activities
A lot of my activity is now focused on research
and writing. I finished a study on Integrating XBRL into Accounting
Information Systems for the CICA in 2007. Then we started a new study on Data Level Assurance,
which was published in 2011.
I
taught for ten years at StFX, starting in Accounting
and migrating to Information Systems—the story of my life! Since my
retirement from X, I teach online courses in Electronic Business and
Electronic Commerce for them.
I've presented various
Seminars over the years such as: CICA Handbook Update, Accounting and
Auditing Update, Real Estate Accounting, Business Combinations, Current
Value Accounting, Foreign Currency Translation, Auditing and Information
Technology, Electronic Commerce, and Year 2000 issues. In November, 2001, I
presented a workshop on e-commerce at the Asian-Pacific Conference of
Accountants in Rio de Janerio with Robert Jensen
of Trinity College in Texas, who has the accounting world's most famous
website. During the summer of 2002, we did a similar presentation at
the conference of the American Accounting Association in San Antonio,
Texas, and then in November, at the Asian-Pacific Conference in Los
Angeles. In the fall of 2003, I did some seminars at the University of
South Africa, in Midrand, South Africa. Lately, I
have been focusing on XBRL, and have presented seminars on that topic in
Rhode Island, Orlando, Vancouver, Toronto and Paris. In 2006 I did a
presentation at the AAA Annual Meeting in Washington on Reporting on the
Internet and similar presentations 2008 and 2009. I also did a poster
session under the Innovative Research umbrella, on Data Centricity in
Accounting in 2006. This led to several great discussions on the topic and
a lot of fun. In 2007, I did a session on XBRL at the annual
conference of the Canadian Academic Accountants Association (CAAA) in
Halifax. During 2009, I began researching the impact of Web 2.0 on
financial and business reporting and did a presentation on this topic at
the AAA Annual Meeting in New York in August 09. Since then, I’ve done
several presentations on XBRL at various conferences, with one coming up on
Data Level Assurance at the XBRL International conference in Montreal
scheduled for October 25 – 27, 2011.
Slides for these presentations are
available to any educator or professional free of charge. Just send me an
email.
My Recent Publications
Currently, my major interest is business use of
the Internet and e-business generally as well as the emerging area of electronic
reporting and the use of XBRL. In 1999, I prepared a
Research Study for the CICA on the Impact of Information Technology on
Financial and Business Reporting. About the same time, I also finished a
book on Strategic Internet Commerce. And then in late 2000, my book
"Enterprise Resource Planning - Engine of E-Business" was
released. In fall, 2001, the CICA published "Collaborative Business -
Beyond e-Business" and in 2002, they published my "Mobile
Business - A Wireless World". During my sabbatical in 03-04, I
prepared a Research Study for the CICA on the subject of e-filing of
information with regulators and web based reporting. The Study focuses on
the information systems that support such reporting and explores the use of
XBRL for these purposes. It was published in December, 2004. Then we
(we being the Information Technology Advisory Committee at the CICA)
decided, since we were recommending XBRL for e-filing purposes, that the
subject of how to implement XBRL tagging within accounting information
systems was worthy of exploration, so we launched a study on that topic,
which was published in 2007. Then there was my most recent publication, Data
Level Assurance, published in 2011.
My More
Personal Side
My
beautiful wife, Sue, passed away in 2007 and I miss her terribly.
They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.
-
Dawson
I recently moved to the picturesque
town of Mahone
Bay, Nova Scotia. It has been called the most beautiful town in North
America and is rated in the top ten best towns in which to live. The
ocean is easy walking
distance and the scenery around the South Shore, as it is called, is
absolutely beautiful. I have a 28.5 foot Hunter sailboat and spend as much
time as I can sailing around Mahone
Bay and vicinity, sometimes solo and sometimes with friends and relatives.
I
travel quite a lot and
one of my
favourite cities is London, England, although
I love Florence,
Italy, as well as the Tuscan Hills in the Chianti area, where I
sometimes rent an “Agriturismo” near the little
village of Castellina. In the winter, I enjoy
Arizona, particularly the Sedona area, and sometimes go someplace warmer,
like the Bahamas or the Caribbean.
Page last updated—September 30, 2011
