Computer and Society

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Computer and Society

• Olayele Adelakun (Ph.D)
• Assistant Professor CTI
•  
• Office Room 735 CTI 7th Floor
• Phone [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• Email yele_at_cs.depaul.edu
• Web http//facweb.cs.depaul.edu/yele

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CASE Summary

• What is the basic issue
• put yourself in the a position
• break it down
• Identify relevant areas of analysis
• Use facts from the case and theoretical
  frameworks to argue / support your analysis
• Make a conclusion for each area of analysis
• Draw conclusions and recommendations
• References

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A Tale of Two Airlines in the Information Age

• What assumptions did Prof. McPherson make
  regarding information technology support at the
  London-based airlines?
• Do you believe they are realistic assumptions for
  the technology environment of today.
• What factors do you think lead to the difference
  between Prof. McPhersons expectations and the
  reality of the situation?
• What alternative approaches could have been taken
  to resolve the situation?
• What were the differences between the
  Atlanta-based and the London airlines approach?
• In approaching the problem, did the Atlanta-based
  airline have any special advantages?
• What advice would you give the London-based
  airlines management?

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A Tale of Two Airlines in the Information Age

• What did Prof. McPherson assume the British
  Airway's gate agent would know about him and what
  are the enabling technologies that would be
  required to execute them?
• Assumptions Enabling IT
• Ticket Fare The reservation record (stored in
  London or
• downloaded to a USA server
• Gold Card Member The reservation system should
  have his Gold Card
• and a regular patron data and should be
  able to use it to their
• advantage
• Data on connecting flight Integration of two
  computers reservation systems
• They know he is on a which historically had no
  need to be
• connecting flight. interconnected with one
  another. The information
• accessible will show when the plane touches
  down
• and when it actually attached to the gate
• What are the possible service alternatives for
  British Airways?
• Delta (Atlanta-based airline) situation?

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Computer and the Information Age

• Assignment 1
• Write one page paper on the topic
• Has computers make our lives easier Yes or No

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Computer and the Information Age

• Ways to see the Social Word
• What is the quality of live
• And what is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good
  need we ask anyone to tell us these things?
• (Robert M Pirsig, 1974.)

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Computer and the Information Age

• Does computer improves our lives quality?
• Objective View Aristotle Philosophy - Realist
• Realist - A thing exists if the world cannot
  function normally without it.
• The realist maintains that the social world
  external to the individual is real and it is made
  up of hard, tangible and relatively immutable
  structures.
• Regardless of our awareness, they exist as
  empirical entities. They are independent of the
  individual appreciation of them.

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Computer and the Information Age

• Does computer improves our lives quality?
• Objective View Aristotle Philosophy - Realist
• The Realist Argument
• Took away fine art. There is no point in hanging
  a painting on a wall when the bare wall looks
  just as good.
• Similarly, other forms of art like comedy and
  drama will follow the same road as painting.
• In sports, ice-hockey will be the first to
  disappear, followed by baseball and all other
  games, and then football (please! no) will also
  disappear.
• Alcohol, tea, coffee and tobacco will have to
  disappear and so on.
• The world cannot function normally without it

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Computer and the Information Age

• Does computer improves our lives quality?
• Subjective View Socrates philosophy
• The measure of all thing is men, but never the
  scientific instruments.
• Socrates was one of the greatest sophists and he
  died for the ideal that truth is relative,
  against those who think that there is an absolute
  truth.
• In Socrates philosophy, quality is what we like
• It is external to the organization and it is
  subjective in the user's mind

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Computer and the Information Age

• Does computer improves our lives quality?
• Dialect View Plato philosophy
• To Plato, the immortal truths consist of ideas,
  which are changeless, and appearance, which
  changes.
• Horse vs. Horse-ness
• Plato uses dialectic as a means of logical
  argumentation. It is a technique of
  cross-examination with which truth is reached.
  Plato believes that dialectic is the sole method
  by which the truth can be arrived at

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Five Things We Need to Know about IT