Chpt 1 Flashcards
What is abstract reasoning?
the ability to make and manipulate models. One of four key skills for nonroutine cognitive thinking.
Bell’s Law
“a new computer class forms roughly each decade establishing a new industry.”1 In other words, digital devices will evolve so quickly that they will enable new platforms, programming environments, industries, networks, and information systems every 10 years.
Collaboration
the activity of two or more people working together to achieve a common goal, result, or work product.
Not about being nice, but giving and receiving critical feedback.
Computer hardware
Electronic components and related gadgetry that input, process, output, store, and communicate data according to the instructions encoded in computer programs or software. One of the five fundamental components of an information system.
Computer-based information system
We have defined an information system to include a computer. Some people would say that such a system is a computer-based information system.
Vs a calendar
Data
Recorded facts or figures. One of the five fundamental components of an information system.
Ex: James Smith earns $70.00 per hour and that Mary Jones earns $50.00 per hour
Five Components of an Information System
computer hardware, software, data, procedures, and people. These five components are present in every information system, from the simplest to the most complex.
Information Age & digital revolution
You’ve probably heard that we live in the Information Age, or a period in history where the production, distribution, and control of information is the primary driver of the economy. The Information Age started in the 1970s with the Digital Revolution, or the conversion from mechanical and analog devices to digital devices.
Experimentation
Successful experimentation is not throwing buckets of money at every crazy idea that enters your head. Instead, experimentation is making a reasoned analysis of an opportunity, envisioning potential solutions, evaluating those possibilities, and developing the most promising ones, consistent with the resources you have.
Information- most common
- most common definition is that information is knowledge derived from data. Ex: the average hourly wage of all the graphic designers is $60.00 per hour
Information- 2
- information is data presented in a meaningful context. Ex: Jeff Parks earns less than half the average hourly wage of the company’s graphic designers
Information- 3
Another definition of information that you will hear is that information is processed data or, sometimes, information is data processed by summing, ordering, averaging, grouping, comparing, or other similar operations. The fundamental idea of this definition is that we do something to data to produce information.
Information- 4
psychologist Gregory Bateson. He defined information as a difference that makes a difference.
IS
An information system (IS) is an assembly of hardware, software, data, procedures, and people that produces information.
IT
information technology (IT) refers to the products, methods, inventions, and standards used for the purpose of producing information.
How are MIS, IS, and IT different?
You cannot buy an IS. But you can buy IT; you can buy or lease hardware, you can license programs and databases, and you can even obtain predesigned procedures. Ultimately, however, it is your people who will assemble the IT you purchase and execute those procedures to employ that new IT. Information technology drives the development of new information systems.
For any new system, you will always have training tasks (and costs), you will always have the need to overcome employees’ resistance to change, and you will always need to manage the employees as they use the new system. Hence, you can buy IT, but you cannot buy IS. Once your new information system is up and running, it must be managed and used effectively in order to achieve the organization’s overall strategy. This is MIS.
Kryder’s Law
named after Mark Kryder, the former chief technology officer of Seagate Corp., says that the storage density on magnetic disks is increasing at an exponential rate.
MIS
stands for management information systems, which we define as the management and use of information systems that help organizations achieve their strategies.
Metcalfe’s Law
named after Robert Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet. Metcalfe’s Law states that the value of a network is equal to the square of the number of users connected to it. In other words, as more digital devices are connected together, the value of that network will increase.3 See Figure 1-2. Metcalfe’s Law can be clearly seen in the dramatic rise of the Internet in the 1990s.
Moore’s Law
1965, Gordon Moore, cofounder of Intel Corporation, stated that because of technology improvements in electronic chip design and manufacturing, “The number of transistors per square inch on an integrated chip doubles every 18 months.” This became known as Moore’s Law. His statement has been commonly misunderstood to be “The speed of a computer doubles every 18 months,” which is incorrect but captures the sense of his principle.
Because of Moore’s Law, the ratio of price to performance of computer processors has fallen dramatically.
Nielsen’s Law
And it’s not just the number of users on the network that’s changing the way we use digital devices—it’s the speed of the network. Nielsen’s Law, named after Jakob Nielsen, says that network connection speeds for high-end users will increase by 50 percent per year. As networks become faster, new companies, new products, and new platforms will emerge.
People
As part of the five-component framework, one of the five fundamental components of an information system; includes those who operate and service the computers, those who maintain the data, those who support the networks, and those who use the system. Information exists only in the minds of people.
Procedures
Instructions for humans. One of the five fundamental components of an information system.
Software
Instructions for computers. One of the five fundamental components of an information system.
