Boek: Week 1
Intro section
- CIO: Chief Information Officer
Chapter 3: Black
This chapter focuses on the pre-computer history, in the context of Britain, of one such
category of professional, the information officer.
- The most successful early corporations were those that continually learnt
1. First, about customers and suppliers, to ensure the coordination of inputs and
outputs;
2. Second, about products and processes to gain technological leadership and
economies of scale;
3. And third about the management of labour
- Various information functions and occupations (pg 3)
1. Research Work: Much more emphasis on R&D. Involved the development of
expertise in statistical, forecasting and marketing work, as well as knowledge
of the broader social and political environments in which commrc operated.
2. Management of Mechanisation: 3 essentials for development of
mechanisation:
- Appointing a CO for mechanisation
- Establishing a Central Machine Office
- The continued existence of experts in charge of mechanical aids in
offices and departments
3. Filing and Registry Work: Intensified database assembly, encompassing new
filing and indexing methods for documents.
- Escalation of in-house company library provision can be summarised as follows:
1. War, Economic Depression and Organised Science
2. American Influences
3. Inadequacy of Public Provision
4. New Industries
5. Increased Merger Activity
6. Technical Education
7. Scientific Management: Black talks about Fordist Organisation (focus op
massaproductie), Taylorist Teaching (vergaande arbeidsverdeling)
8. Information Management
- Information and Intelligence Section identifies 4 functions: All functions were
interwoven. (pg 10)
1. Economic Survey: production of market reports for other departments in the
company and some outside bodies
2. Westinghouse Liaison: exchange of technical information with the firm’s
american parent company, westinghouse
3. Pure Scientific Liaison: exchange of information with individual experts and
scientific bodies
4. Intelligence and Library Service: including a reference library, an abstracting
service, a periodical circulation service and a service for translating
foreign-language technical literature
, - Differences between the information/officer and librarian. The work of information
officer/scientist:
1. Dealt with information extracted from whole documents
2. Sought to anticipate demand
3. Vigorously exploited new technological opportunities and was comfortable
with a multiplicity of formats
4. Was mostly anchored in practical, relevant and productive environments
5. Ideally displayed knowledge of the subject areas
6. Claimed a higher professional status
7. Emphasised customisation in classification and indexing
8. Demonstrated greater depth of analysis of materials
Chapter 4: Brunt
This paper explores the functions and activities of the ‘documentalists’ of the British security
services in the wider context of the information officer in the knowledge organisation
- A good indexer had the qualities of an intelligence officer in that the capacity to spot
and remember detail and make connections was vital to the effectiveness of the work
- Tasks of corporate information officer: Obtaining intelligence, organising it (for
retrieval and displaying relationships), extracting the useful kernel and transmitting it
to customers for direct action based on it
- Documents needed to be indexed to allow action to be ‘based on a knowledge of all
available facts, a knowledge which is obtained by consulting all relevant documents’
(pg 5)
Chapter 5: Bryant
Main purpose of this chapter is to address some of the key misconceptions about
information, since these relate directly to the topic of the role of the CIO, thereby
complementing the other two parts in this section.
- CIO became more common by the late 1990s
- 5 crucial misconceptions about Management Information Systems (MIS) according to
Ackoff (1967) (pg 3) → Come mostly from a more-is-better view
1. Managers do not lack information, they struggle with excess
2. Managers ask for more information than they need, and designers supply
more than requested
3. Decision making does not necessarily improve with more information
4. Performance is not necessarily enhanced by better communication
5. Managers must understand more about information systems (IS)
- Information behaviour is far less oriented towards rational decision making, and far
more concerned with coping with uncertainty and social interaction
- Role of CIO is seen in techno-centric terms as: a resource manager or engineer,
ensuring efficient and effective information and ICT use in a context of rational
decision making and technical communication
- 2 incorrect key assumptions about the engineering model of information and
communication:
1. Information is something refined from data, essentially raw material
, 2. Communication is accomplished through the movement of information, in a
fluid like manner, from (active) sender to (passive) receiver
- Why are they incorrect?
1. This fault can be termed praxeomorphism: the ascription of technological
features and facilities to human beings (opposite of anthropomorphism). In
this case, the role of the CIO should involve negotiating the ways in which
humans use and manage information in a context in which ICT has come to
play a significant role (pg 5)
2. This one is wrong because information is something to be despatched,
transported, delivered, and received; understanding, interpretation, and the
like are barely perceptible if at all. People’s understanding of information and
communication rests on a doubly misconceived foundation:
- Information is seen as processed data, with people performing the
processing in a fashion similar to that done by computers
- Communication is seen as a form of transfer, with the receiver in a
completely passive role
- Role of CIO (pg 8) is to ensure that an organization’s information system is one
centred on meaning and sharing
- Ideas of Beer (1981):
a. What, given computers, is the enterprise now? → Which translates to: What,
given the existence of ICT in its current forms, the practice of information
management and the role of the CIO now is?
- Weizenbaum (1984): Remaking of the world in the image of the computer started
long before there were any electronic computers’ (pg 9)
- Babbage Principle → pg 10
- Black and Brunt exemplify the ways in which the technology initially takes on the
terms and characteristics of the surroundings