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Information SystemsRichard T. Watson (editor)
University of Georgia
Copyright © 2007 by the Global Text Project
This book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
,Preface
The Global Text Project (http://globaltext.org/) was initiated in early 2006 to develop a series of free,
open content, electronic textbooks. A description of the Global Text Project is available on the
project’s.
The impetus for developing the information systems text as one of the first in the series is based on:
The worldwide community of IS academics is a closely-knit community. Individuals know each
other and have a long history of cooperating with each other on a global scale. Creation of an
open content textbook will require the cooperation of the worldwide community of faculty and
their students, as well as practitioners.
The IS community, of all academic communities, should be the one that is an early adopter of
technology that holds the promise of being able to create a state-of-the-art textbook.
The Information Systems textbook created by the community will be best-in-class, up-to-date, and,
perhaps most importantly, made available at no cost to students anywhere in the world, but
particularly to students in the developing world.
The overall approach of the text
Introductory information systems textbooks often present the topic in somewhat of a vacuum. That is,
they focus on information systems without really succeeding in showing how IS is integrated in
organizations, how knowledge workers are supported, and how important IS is for an organization’s
success. Many undergraduate students do not understand why they are required to take an IS course
since they are not IS majors. Many also expect the introductory course to focus on personal
productivity software. This textbook will teach students how to exploit IS in a technology-rich
environment. It will emphasize why, no matter what their major, information and communications
technologies (ICT) are, and increasingly will be, a critical element in their personal success and the
success of their organizations. In other words, they need to be introduced to concepts, principles,
methods, and procedures that will be valuable to them for years to come in thinking about existing
organization systems, proposing new systems, and working with IS professionals in implementing new
systems.
Students need to understand systems and the systems concept, and they need to understand the role of
ICT in enabling systems. Students will learn the characteristics of good systems (e.g., intuitive, likable,
error-resistant, fast, flexible, and the like). Knowing the characteristics of good systems will permit
students to demand well-designed systems and to suggest how existing systems should be changed.
Students need to understand the affordances, directions, and limits of hardware, software, and
networks in both personal and organizational dimensions. They also need to appreciate that, as
technical capabilities change and new ones arise, more opportunities to apply ICT for efficiency,
effectiveness, and innovation are afforded. They need to understand the process for developing and
implementing new or improved systems and the activities of IS professionals in this process.
The distinction between information systems and
information technology
We distinguish clearly between information systems and information technology, a distinction that
seems lacking too often as the terms are often used interchangeably. We define these terms as follows:
An information technology transmits, processes, or stores information.
An information system is an integrated and cooperating set of software directed information
technologies supporting individual, group, organizational, or societal goals.
In other words, IS applies IT to accomplish the assimilation, processing, storage, and dissemination of
information. Thus, PDAs, cellular phones, music players, and digital cameras as information systems.
These devices use multiple information technologies to create personal information systems. Similarly
Information Systems 2 A Global Text
, This book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
other information technologies, such as database, networks, and programming languages, are used to
created organizational systems.
3
, Chapter 1 Being a Systems Innovator
Chapter 1 Being a Systems Innovator
Editor: David A. Bray (Emory University)
Contributors: Benn Konsynski, Joycelyn Streator (Emory University)
Reviewer: John Beachboard (Idaho State University)
Learning objectives
Define what broadly constitutes a “system” and an “innovation”
Describe examples of innovation
Describe how one might strive to be a systems innovator
Describe the benefits of innovation to society at-large
Introduction
Let us welcome you the modern age, so full of promise both in terms of human and technological
progress! In this chapter, we address the role of innovation and being a systems innovator. Without
systems innovators, it is quite possible that our modern age would not be so full of promise and
potential. In fact, without systems innovators, humanity might never have reached modernity at all.
Several historians say we humans are “modern” when we do not automatically reject new or foreign
elements in society. For human society, modernity begins when communities began to explore,
tolerate, and accept the new and diverse. Thus, modernity includes a receptiveness of human societies
to new ideas. Living in the modern age allows us to expect that modern enterprises and markets will
tolerate and potentially reward to new ideas and new practice. In a modern age, those individuals who
design insightful innovations (i.e., innovators) can be highly praised if their innovations are well
timed, well designed, and well implemented.
As systems innovators, we welcome the modern age and strive to be open to new and beneficial ideas
of change. Human societies value and evaluate new ideas by expected impact and effect. Modern
markets and firms represent particular types of human organizations. Markets and firms can
incorporate innovations by changing either their design or practices.
Being a systems innovator
Let us briefly consider the meaning of the essential words in the title: “systems” and “innovator”
(defining “being” is something we will leave to the philosophers).
Systems are the object of particular designs. Broadly speaking, systems involve the organization of
things, logical and physical. Systems include data, processes, policies, protocols, skill sets, hardware,
software, responsibilities, and other components that define the capabilities of an organization.
Systems include human and non-human aspects. The components, or parts, of a specific system can be
either real or abstract. Components comprise an aggregate “whole” where each component of a system
interacts with at least one other component of the system. Cumulatively, all the components of a
system serve a common system objective. Systems may contain subsystems, which are systems unto
themselves that include a smaller set of interactions among components for a more narrowly defined
objective. Systems may also connect with other systems. The following diagram (Exhibit 1) illustrates
an example system.
Information Systems 4 A Global Text
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