Contents
Learning
Guide
Rationale
The
term information system has the following meanings:
- In information
systems, an information system consists
of three components: human, technology, organisation.
In this view, information is defined in terms
of the three levels of semiotics.
Data which can be automatically processed by
the application system corresponds to the syntax-level.
In the context of an individual who interprets
the data they become information, which correspond
to the semantic-level.
Information becomes knowledge when
an individual knows (understands) and evaluates
the information (e.g., for a specific task).
This corresponds to the pragmatic-level.
- In
general systems theory,
an information system is a system, automated
or manual, that comprises people, machines,
and/or methods organized to collect, process,
transmit, and disseminate data that
represent user
information.
- In telecommunications,
an information system is any telecommunications
and/or computer related
equipment or interconnected system or subsystems
of equipment that is used in the acquisition, storage,
manipulation, management,
movement, control, display, switching,
interchange, transmission,
or reception of voice and/or data, and includes software, firmware,
and hardware.
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(Federal
Standard 1037C, MIL-STD-188,
and National
Information Systems Security Glossary)
- In computer
security, an information system is described
by five objects (Canal 2004):
- Structure:
- Repositories,
which hold data permanent or temporarily,
such as buffers, RAM, hard disks, cache,
etc.
- Interfaces,
which exchange information with the non-digital
world, such as keyboards, speakers, scanners,
printers, etc.
- Channels,
which connect repositories, such as buses,
cables, wireless links, etc. A Network
is a set of logical or physical channels.
- Behaviour:
- Services,
which provide value to users or to other
services via messages interchange.
- Messages,
which carries a meaning to users or services.
Information
systems - for scholarly information on this subject one
should refer to the works of Peter
Checkland developer of SSM (Soft
system metodology) and one of the leading information
systems theorists and consultant's.
See
also
Today's
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and Learning Resources
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Why
Information Systems Matter? Information
Systems: The Big Picture.
Tutorials
Readings
Application
Software is a defined
subclass of computer
software that employs the capabilities of a
computer directly to a task that the user wishes
to perform. This should be contrasted with system
software which is involved in integrating a
computer's various capabilities, but typically
does not directly apply them in the performance
of tasks that benefit the user. The term application refers
to both the application software and its
implementation.
A
simple, if imperfect, analogy in
the world of hardware would be the relationship of an
electric light—an application—to an electric
power generation plant—the system. The power plant
merely generates electricity, itself not really of any
use until harnessed to an application like the electric
light which performs a service that the user desires.
The
exact delineation between the operating
system and application software is not precise, however,
and is occasionally subject to controversy. For example,
one of the key questions in the United
States v. Microsoft antitrust trial
was whether Microsoft's Internet
Explorer web
browser was part of its Windows operating
system or a separable piece of application software.
As another example, the GNU/Linux
naming controversy is, in part, due to disagreement
about the relationship between the Linux
kernel and the Linux operating
system.
Typical
examples of software applications are word
processors, spreadsheets,
and media
players.
Multiple
applications bundled together as a package are sometimes
referred to as an application suite. Microsoft
Office and OpenOffice.org,
which bundle together a word processor, a spreadsheet,
and several other discrete applications, are typical
examples. The separate applications in a suite usually
have a user
interface that has some commonality making it easier
for the user to learn and use each application. And often
they may have some capability to interact with each other
in ways beneficial to the user. For example a spreadsheet
might be able to be embedded in a word processor document
even though it had been created in the separate spreadsheet
application.
User-written
software tailors systems to meet the user's specific
needs. User-written software include spreadsheet templates,
word processor macros, scientific simulations, graphics
and animation scripts. Even email filters are a kind
of user software. Users create this software themselves
and often overlook how important it is.
In
some types of embedded
systems, the application software and the operating
system software may be indistinguishable to the user,
as in the case of software used to control a VCR, DVD player
or Microwave
Oven.
Activities
Information
Systems for Competitive Advantage
Tutorials
Readings
Competitive
Advantage (CA)
is a position that a firm occupies
in its competitive landscape. Michael Porter posits
that a competitive advantage, sustainable or not,
exists when a company makes economic
rents, that is, their earnings exceed their
costs (including cost of capital). That means that
normal competitive pressures are not able to drive
down the firm's earnings to the point where they
cover all costs and just provide minimum sufficient
additional return to keep capital invested. Most
forms of competitive advantage cannot be sustained
for any length of time because the promise of economic
rents drives competitors to duplicate the competitive
advantage held by any one firm.
A
firm possesses a Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA)
when it has value-creating processes and positions that
cannot be duplicated or imitated by other firms that
lead to the production of above normal rents. An SCA
is different from a competitive
advantage (CA) in that it provides a long-term advantage
that is not easily replicated. But these above-normal rents can
attract new entrants who drive down economic rents. A
CA is a position a firm attains that lead to above-normal
rents or a superior financial performance. The processes
and positions that engender such a position is not necessarily
non-duplicable or inimitable.
Analysis
of the factors of profitability is the subject of numerous
theories of strategy including the five forces model
pioneered by Michael
Porter of the Harvard
Business School.
In marketing and strategic
management, sustainable competitive advantage is
an advantage that one firm has relative to competing
firms. The source of the advantage can be something
the company does that is distinctive and difficult
to replicate, also known as a core
competency -- for example Procter & Gamble's
ability to derive superior consumer insights and implement
them in managing its brand portfolio. It can also be
an asset such as a brand (e.g. Coca Cola) or a patent,
such as Viagra. It can also simply be a result of the
industry's cost structure -- for example, the large
fixed costs that tend to create natural monopolies
in utility industries. To be sustainable, the advantage
must be:
- distinctive,
and
- proprietary
See
also
Activities
Data
and Knowledge Management
Tutorials
Readings
Knowledge
Management comprises
a range of practices used by organisations to identify,
create, represent, and distribute knowledge for
reuse, awareness and learning. It has been an established
discipline since 1995 with a body of university
courses and both professional and academic journals
dedicated to it. Most large companies have resources
dedicated to Knowledge Management, often as a part
of 'Information Technology' or 'Human Resource
Management' departments, and sometimes reporting
directly to the head of the organisation. As effectively
managing information is a must in any business,
Knowledge Management is a multi-billion dollar
world wide market.
Knowledge
Management programs are typically tied to organisational
objectives and are intended to achieve specific outcomes,
such as shared intelligence, improved performance, competitive
advantage, or higher levels of innovation.
One
aspect of Knowledge Management, knowledge
transfer has always existed in one form or another.
Examples include on-the-job peer discussions, formal
apprenticeship, corporate libraries, professional training
and mentoring programs. However, with computers becoming
more widespread in the second half of the 20th century,
specific adaptations of technology such as knowledge
bases, expert
systems, and knowledge
repositories have been introduced to further simplify
the process.
Knowledge
Management programs attempt to manage the process of
creation (or identification), accumulation and application
of knowledge across an organisation. Knowledge Management,
therefore, attempts to bring under one set of practices
various strands of thought and practice relating to:
While
Knowledge Management programs are closely related to Organizational
Learning initiatives, Knowledge Management may be
distinguished from Organisational Learning by a greater
focus on specific knowledge assets and the development
and cultivation of the channels through which knowledge
flows.
The
emergence of Knowledge Management ('KM') has also generated
new roles and responsibilities in organisations, an early
example of which was the Chief
Knowledge Officer. In recent years, Personal
knowledge management (PKM) practice has arisen in
which individuals apply KM practice to themselves, their
roles and their career development.
Activities
Telecommunications
and the Internet. The
Internet and Security
Tutorials
Readings
The Internet is
a worldwide, publicly accessible network of
interconnected computer
networks that transmit data by packet
switching using the standard Internet
Protocol (IP). It is a "network of networks" that
consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business,
and government networks, which together carry various information and
services, such as electronic
mail, online
chat, file transfer,
and the interlinked web
pages and other documents of the world
wide web.
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Voice
over Internet Protocol,
also called VoIP, IP Telephony, Internet
telephony, Broadband telephony, Broadband
Phone and Voice over Broadband is the routing of voice conversations
over the Internet or
through any other IP-based network.
Companies
providing VoIP service are commonly referred to as providers,
and protocols which
are used to carry voice signals over the IP network are
commonly referred to as Voice over IP or VoIP protocols.
They may be viewed as commercial realizations of the
experimental Network
Voice Protocol (1973)
invented for the ARPANET providers.
Some cost savings are due to utilizing a single network
- see attached image - to carry voice and data, especially
where users have existing underutilized network capacity
that can carry VoIP at no additional cost. VoIP to VoIP
phone calls are sometimes free, while VoIP to public
switched telephone networks, PSTN,
may have a cost that's borne by the VoIP user.
There
are two types of PSTN to VoIP services: DID (Direct
Inward Dialing) and access numbers. DID will connect
the caller directly to the VoIP user while access numbers
require the caller to input the extension number of the
VoIP user. Access numbers are usually charged as a local
call to the caller and free to the VoIP user while DID
usually has a monthly fee.[1] There
are also DIDs that are free to the VoIP user but chargeable
to the caller.
Internet
Security. This article provides tips on how
to make sure you can be safe on the Internet and
how to keep computer
viruses, malware,
and other unwanted software off your computer.
Activities
Electronic
Commerce, Intranets, and Extranets
Tutorials
Readings
Electronic
Commerce is exactly
analogous to a marketplace on the Internet. Electronic
Commerce (also referred to as EC, e-commerce eCommerce or ecommerce)
consists primarily of the distributing, buying,
selling, marketing and
servicing of products or services over
electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer
networks. The information
technology industry might see it as an electronic
business application aimed at commercial transactions;
in this context, it can involve electronic
funds transfer, supply
chain management, e-marketing, online
marketing, online
transaction processing, electronic
data interchange (EDI), automated inventory
management systems, and automated data collection
systems. Electronic commerce typically uses electronic
communications technology of the World
Wide Web, at some point in the transaction's
lifecycle, although of course electronic commerce
frequently depends on computer technologies other
than the World
Wide Web, such as databases,
and e-mail, and on other non-computer technologies,
such as transportation for
physical goods sold via e-commerce.
E-Commerce
according to Person Halls book E-Commerce started
in 1994 with the first banner
ad being placed on a website.
According
to the October 2006 Forrester Research report
entitled, "US eCommerce: Five-Year Forecast
And Data Overview, "Nontravel online retail revenues
will top the quarter-trillion-dollar mark by
2011. The driver of this growth? A segment of
the most active Web shopping households that
is approximately 8 million strong. This group
of consumers is extremely comfortable with technology
and values convenience above all else in the
online retail experience. As retailers begin
to wade through their copious data warehouses
and understand the who, what, when, where, why,
and how of this segment, they will benefit from
targeting these customers."[1]
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Activities
Organizational
Information Systems. Enterprise-Wide Information Systems.
Tutorials
Readings
An Enterprise
Information System is generally any kind
of computing system that is of "enterprise class".
This means typically offering high quality of service,
dealing with large volumes of data and
capable of supporting some large organization ("an
enterprise").
Enterprise
Information Systems provide a technology platform
that enable organizations to integrate and coordinate
their business
processes. They provide a single system that
is central to the organization and ensure that
information can be shared across all functional
levels and management hierarchies.
Enterprise systems are invaluable in eliminating
the problem of information fragmentation caused
by multiple information systems in an organization,
by creating a standard data
structure.
A
typical Enterprise Information System would be
housed in one or more Data
centers , run Enterprise
software, and could include applications
such as Content
management systems.
The
word enterprise can have various connotations.
Frequently the term is used only to refer to very
large organizations. However, the term may be used
to mean virtually anything, by virtue of it having
become the latest corporate-speak buzzword.
See:Enterprise
software#Criticisms
See
also
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External
links
Activities
Information
Systems Development and Acquisition
Tutorials
Readings
Information
Systems is the discipline
concerned with the development, use, application
and influence of information technologies.
An information system, following a definition of
Langefors, is a technologically implemented medium
for recording, storing, and disseminating linguistic
expressions, as well as for drawing conclusions
from such expressions.
The technology used
for implementing information systems by no means has
to be computer
technology. A notebook in
which one lists certain items of interest is, according
to that definition, an information system. Likewise,
there are computer
applications that do not comply with this definition
of information systems. Embedded
systems are an example. A computer application that
is integrated into clothing or even the human body does
not generally deal with linguistic expressions. One could,
however, try to generalize Langefors' definition so as
to cover more recent developments.
One
of the better descriptions of this discipline came from
Alan Lee, "...research in the information systems field
examines more than just the technological system, or
just the social system, or even the two side by side;
in addition, it investigates the phenomena that emerge
when the two interact." Lee AS (2001) "Editor’s
Comments" MIS Quarterly 25(1), iii-vii
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External
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Activities
Information
Systems Ethics and Computer Crime
Tutorials
Readings
Computer
Ethics is a branch
of practical philosophy which
deals with how computing professionals should make
decisions regarding professional and social conduct.
The term "computer ethics" was first coined by Walter
Maner in the mid-1970s, but only since the
1990s has it started being integrated into professional
development programs in academic settings. The
conceptual foundations of computer ethics are investigated
by information
ethics, a branch of philosophical ethics established
by Luciano
Floridi.
The
importance of computer ethics increased through the 1990s.
With the growth of the Internet, privacy issues as well
as concerns regarding computing technologies such as spyware and
web browser cookies have
called into question ethical behavior in technology.
Computer
Crime, cybercrime, e-crime, hi-tech
crime or electronic crime generally refers
to criminal activity where a computer or network is
the tool, target, or place of a crime.
These categories are not exclusive and many activities
can be characterized as falling in one or more category.
Additionally, although the terms computer crime or cybercrime are
more properly restricted to describing criminal activity
in which the computer or network is a necessary part
of the crime, these terms are also sometimes used
to include traditional crimes, such as fraud, theft, blackmail, forgery,
and embezzlement,
in which computers or networks are used to facilitate
the illicit activity.
Computer
crime can broadly be defined as criminal activity involving
an information technology infrastructure, including illegal
access (unauthorized access), illegal interception (by
technical means of non-public transmissions of computer
data to, from or within a computer system), data interference
(unauthorized damaging, deletion, deterioration, alteration
or suppression of computer data), systems interference
(interfering with the functioning of a computer system
by inputting, transmitting, damaging, deleting, deteriorating,
altering or suppressing computer data), misuse of devices,
forgery (ID theft), and electronic fraud.
Activities
Information
Systems Hardware. Information
Systems Software
Tutorials
Readings
Geospatial
Assessment Tool for Operations and Response (GATOR)
Florida's State Emergency Response Team (SERT) uses
an interactive map to view
RECON reports and
other activities along the shore.
Activities
Networking
Tutorials
Readings
Computer
Networking is the engineering discipline
concerned with communication between computer
systems. Such communicating computer systems
constitute a computer
network and these networks generally involve
at least two devices capable of being networked
with at least one usually being a computer. The
devices can be separated by a few meters (e.g.
via Bluetooth)
or nearly unlimited distances (e.g. via the Internet).
Computer networking is sometimes considered a sub-discipline
of telecommunications,
and sometimes of computer
science, information
technology and computer
engineering. Computer networks rely heavily
upon the theoretical and practical application
of these scientific and engineering disciplines.
A
computer network is any set of computers or devices connected
to each other. Examples of networks are the Internet,
a wide
area network that is the largest to ever exist, or
a small home local
area network (LAN) with two computers connected with
standard networking cables connecting to a network
interface card in each computer.
Recommended
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