B107 Principles of Information Systems
TOPIC 1
THE MEANING OF INFORMATION
Objectives:
· To define, information technology, computer science and information systems
· To examine the difference between data, information and knowledge;
· To describe the characteristics of information
· To introduce the role of information in decision making.
Readings:
· Ahituv, N., Neumann, S. & Riley, H. (1994) Principles of Information Systems Management, Chapter 3 pp47-55.
· Alter,S. (1996) Information Systems: A Management Perspective, pp28-30, pp170-178.
Information Technology (IT)
IT is a term “... used to cover the technologies used in the collection, processing and transmission of information” Hudson, 1992
The computer is only one of many Information Technologies used in this process.
Others include: facsimile, photocopiers, telephone, document scanners, data networks, etc.
IT tends to be used as an umbrella term.
Sometimes the term 'Information and Communications Technologies' (ICT) is used to emphasise the role of communications.
Computer Science
Computer Science is the discipline that laid the fundamental principles, designed the compilers and established the roots of all computing disciplines.
Computer Science dominates the area of research into the computer itself, its algorithms, and components and on their continued improvement.
What are some of the areas of CS research?
Information Systems
Up until the late 50s and early 60s, most computers were purpose built. However this changed when IBM and UNIVAC released general purpose, commercially available computers.
The airline, insurance and banking industries quickly recognized these as offering large gains in commercial efficiencies.
With the largely scientific and military focus of the CS discipline, it was left to commerce to solve its needs through the creation of its own computing discipline.
This discipline was known as MIS - Management Information Systems - and was developed as a discipline within university schools of business.
This has evolved into the broader IS discipline of today. Areas within IS include:
· System development methodologies
· Human computer interaction (HCI)
· Computer supported collaborative work (CSCW)
· End user computing (EUC)
· Etc, etc
What are some of the other disciplines that contribute to Information Systems?
Early Information Systems
Early systems were found in ancient Mesopotamia (4500BC), where quite accurate records were kept on clay tablets.
Many historians feel that one of the main characteristics of progressive civilisations is their ability to produce, and use information effectively. There were many such systems in place - especially more recently in the ancient commercial trading cities such as Rome and Venice.
More than 500 years ago (1200AD), the Inca Indians of South America developed fairly comprehensive ISs with databases and processing models composed of thousands of knotted strings called quipus.
The knots on hanging strings, for example, represented the number of people in a village, their duties, the amount of grain in a storehouse, business transactions, poetry, records of battles, and other historical events.It is believed that it took three years training to be able to effectively use the quipus.
How IS Objectives have Changed over Time
Hand written:
Processing of data almost impossible owing to variations in recording etc.
Preservation of information is the goal;
Printing Press:
Many copies of same information, collation and cross-referencing is a manual process.
Distribution of information is the goal;
Machine readable:
First copies of machine processed information - designed to allow collation and analysis of data from defined sources. Increase in speed is the goal;
Machine maintained:
Files of business information appear. Efficiency is the goal;
Databases:
Complex information on a wide variety of business and government issues is stored. Economy of scale, integrity, and efficiency important goals;
Relational database:
Cross referencing and cross tabulation of information becomes inexpensive. Business and societal planning decisions can be made by analysing existing information.
The objective is flexibility of use;
Information Resource:
Information becomes a commodity to be traded bought and sold;
Data, Information and Knowledge
Data
Processed Data à Information
Processed Information à Knowledge
Processed Knowledge à Intelligence
Processed Intelligence à Wisdom
We normally see data and information as the subject area of IS, above that as the philosopher’s domain, with perhaps some Computer Science interest in AI related to knowledge and intelligence.
But we need to understand a little of what we mean by knowledge, to see how people use information, what information they need to know enough about a situation to make informed decisions.
So far we have had a simple differentiation data/information in B105. This relied on the idea that data is structured and put in context to become informative.
How would you define data?
How would you define information?
Where does knowledge fit in?
'Knowledge is a combination of instincts, ideas, rules, and procedures that guide actions and decisions' Alter, 1996
People use knowledge about how to format, filter, and summarise data as part of the process of converting data into information useful in a situation. They interpret that information, make decisions, and take actions. The results of these actions help in accumulating knowledge for use in later decisions.
Example: cooking for a dinner party.
This simple process involves accessing data and information sources, but also utilising internalised knowledge.
Beyond the information available from a recipe what knowledge do you need to cook a meal?
So how do people acquire, process and apply this accumulated knowledge base?
Knowledge ctd.
Lets try and define what we mean by knowledge more precisely. There is a whole sub branch of philosophy called Epistemology
Knowledge:
· Explicit knowledge (or formal knowledge) - can be articulated in language and transmitted among individuals,
· Tacit knowledge (or informal knowledge) - personal knowledge rooted in individual experience and involving personal belief, perspective, and values.
Both kinds of knowledge play an important role – hence the current interest in Knowledge Management as an area of IT.
Intelligence and Wisdom
Intelligence:
’the capacity to meet novel situations, or to learn to do so, by new adaptive responses’ (Drever,1996)
· Performance on IQ test ?
· Mental Ability ?
Wisdom:
· Judgement ?
· Right use of knowledge ?
· Often associated with age and/or experience
Domains of knowledge
You are in the process of acquiring skills in design and implementation of IS, mainly with respect to using IT. When you leave uni, you will have acquired lots of skills & knowledge in this area.
You will often find in your working life that you will have to cooperate with others whose knowledge is in a very different area or domain.
One of the skills you will need will be to extract that tacit knowledge & skill from individuals in order to make it more generally available or to incorporate it in an IS.
It is often very difficult for individuals to explain their knowledge verbally, or in quantifiable terms.
Domains of knowledge example:
Shoshana Zuboff , in her book “Age of the Smart Machine”, records an interview with the worker who attended the boiler in a pulp mill.
· He listened to the sounds the boiler made to tell how it was running.
· To see how the fire in the furnace was burning, he looked at the flames, and judged how to make adjustments by the colours he saw.
· Others relied on the smell to judge what changes to make.
· Other workers mixing the pulp would chew it to check consistency, or rely on the “gloop” sound made as it mixed to make adjustments to the ingredients......
This sort of accumulated knowledge is very difficult to explain, let alone convert to the type of quantifiable data needed to write a computer program!
Definitions of information
There are many definitions of information offered. These are a sample:
‘Information is data that has been processed into a form that is meaningful to the recipient and is of real or perceived value in current or prospective actions or decisions’ (Davis & Olson, 1985)
‘Information is data whose form and content are appropriate for a particular use’ (Alter, 1992)
‘..that collection of data, which, when presented in a particular manner and at an appropriate time, improves the knowledge of the person receiving it in such a way that he/she is better able to undertake a particular activity or make a particular decision (Nichols, “On the Nature of Management Information”)
The common theme that runs through most definitions of information is that it is both CONTEXTUAL and ENABLING
Information Quality
IQ relates to the characteristics of the information that an IS produces. Many different attributes of IQ have been identified. These include:
Accuracy - does the information portray the situation as it really is?
Timeliness - is it available when needed?
Is it out of date?
Relevance – is it relevant to the particular situation?
Completeness - does it supply everything that needs to be known?
Format - is the best presentation used?
Is it summarised at the right level?
Impartiality - is it biased to reflect a particular view?
Consider the transcript you received from Murdoch after the end of last semester. How would you rate the quality of the information it contained on each of the IQ attributes we just listed?
What other characteristics of information do you think might be important?
Information & Decision Making - the cynical view!
· Much of the information that is gathered and communicated by individuals and organisations has little decision relevance.
· Much of the information that is used to justify a decision is collected and interpreted after the decision has been made, or substantially made.
· Much of the information gathered in response to requests for information is not considered in the making of decisions for which it was requested.
· Regardless of the information available at the time a decision is first considered, more information is requested.
· Complaints that an organisation does not have enough information to make a decision occur when available information is ignored.
· The relevance of the information provided in the decision making process to the decision being made is less conspicuous than is the insistence on information.
Value of Information
The value of information is the gain from making a decision with information over making the same decision without the information
Value of information = / Value of decision -With information / Value of decision
Without information
The value of information is not absolute. It is a factor of who uses it, when it is used and what the situation is it is used for.
Types of information value:
Normative value
· Value is calculated based on preliminary knowledge of probabilities of occurrence of events (see Ahituv p48-52)
· Popular with statisticians and economists.
· Assumes you always make an optimal decision.
· Problem - often situations are so complex it is impossible to learn all the probabilities. Payoffs are not always quantifiable in cash terms.
Realistic (revealed) value
Value is measured empirically by its impact on performance.
· Problem – it can only be calculated after outcomes are known – no predictive power.
Subjective value
You do not have full information, or the facility to calculate the gains, so you make an intuitive guess on the value
In all cases the value of the information is a relative value, based on comparisons between payoffs gained under different sets of information
Examples
Subjective value of information
If the price of the West Australian were raised at what point would you stop buying it?
This is probably your maximum subjective value of the newspaper information
Example
If the value of information can be defined as:
Value of information = / Value of decision -With information / Value of decision
Without information
How could the value of an information system be defined?
Information as a Resource
Information is now widely accepted as a valuable resource for organisations, to be managed in just the same way as the traditional resources - financial, human and material.
It has its own special qualities as a resource. For example it is not consumed or expended as money is, but is infinitely reusable. However it ages ungracefully, the value of most information decreases with time.
Unlike most resources, you can have too much of it. A good IS will protect its users from information overload.
Most data collected by companies is generated internally, and concerns the internal operations of the organisation.
External information, concerning the company’s environment, is also of growing importance. This may be purchased, or freely available.
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