(02) Information Technologies in Business: A technology-centric view Flashcards
The business-centric framework articulates three compelling reasons why information technology (IT) matters in business.
State the three compelling reasons in the business-centric framework:
(1) IT continually transforms industry and society
(2) executives decisions about IT investments, governance and strategy are critical to organizational success.
(3) deriving value from increasingly available data trails defines effective decision making in the decision making economy.
“A TECHNOLOGY-CENTRIC VIEW OF IT IN BUSINESS” provides several principles. Explain whit what these principles can help.
It provides principles that can help to:
(1) Interpret and analyze the past, and
(2) Make reasonable predictions about current and future IT
issues (faced by business executives).
In the article, the writers state 3 technological invariants.
A) State 2 reasons why they are called invariants
B) State all of them and explain them using an example.
A)
Principles are invariant (across time) because they are expected to:
1) Hold for the foreseeable future, and
2) Serve as foundations for thinking about IT in business and society
B)
(1) Digital representation
The first technological invariant is the rendering of things as information, and in particular, as digitally represented information in binary format
(Music, voice, and video are information about frequency, pitch, and color, and the rate at which these change)
(2) Computing power
The second invariant is the sustained exponential growth of hardware power, bandwidth, storage,
and the accompanying miniaturization of IT-based devices.
(Moore’s law is an empirical rendition of this phenomenon
(3) Modularity
Sustained increase in programmability, in a modular way, whereby increased complexity can be aggregated, codified,
and eventually integrated into standardized software platforms.
(AWS EC2, AWS Lambda, Weather API’s, File/Insert/Design/Print modules in word & Excel)
State the definition of “Modularity” as seen in Lecture 02.
“The degree to which a system’s components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit of flexibility and variety in use.” (Merriam-Webster)
Why are these invariants relevant to business?
(1) When combined they lead to at least three consequences of future importance:
1.1 Information separates from its artifacts.
1.2 Shared IT platforms of growing functionality.
1.3 Technology mediated spaces and interfaces.
(2) The technological invariants provide a basis for identifying other
consequences of this kind that are derived in the future.
One of the consequences of the invariants is that “Information Separates from its artifacts”. Explain how each invariant contributes to this consequence.
Digitization makes it feasible.
Computer power makes it practical.
Modularity makes the associated rendering of information possible via software running on a general-purpose device.
What is the second consequence of the invariants?
Shared IT Platforms of Growing Functionality
IT infrastructures become progressively larger,more powerful, and more accessible. –> “Platformization” of capabilities.
(Food delivery, takeout, groceries, hotels, all on google maps)
What is the second consequence of the invariants?
Shared IT Platforms of Growing Functionality
IT infrastructures become progressively larger,more powerful, and more accessible. –> “Platformization” of capabilities.
(Food delivery, takeout, groceries, hotels, all on google maps)
What is the last consequence of the invariants?
“Technology Mediated Spaces and Interfaces”
Growth in society of the importance and variety of spaces of interaction that are mediated by IT. These spaces are shaped continuously and fluidly by the participants who occupy them (compared to “built spaces”).
How did each of the variants contribute to the consequence: “Technology mediated spaces and interfaces?”
Digital representation:
Made it possible to exchange information (music, movies, pictures)
Computing power:
Powerful infrastructure -> Support complex interfaces and mobility.
Modularity:
Software modularity enables spaces to evolve and lets participants build new ones.
