Simon Text Book

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Chapter 1
Information Systems Overview
Introduction to Information Systems
Judith C. Simon
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Chapter 1 Major Topics

• Developments leading to todays technology
• Effects of information technology (IT) on our
  lives
• Components of information systems (IS)
• Additional terms and related concepts

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Computational Technology in the Past

• 16th Century and earlier
• Abacus and other manual devices
• 17th Century
• Mechanical calculator
• 18th Century
• Punched card machine

• 1940s
• Stored-program concept developed
• 1950s
• Business applications began to be used
• 1960s
• Business programming languages developed
• Minicomputers developed
• 1970s
• Personal computers introduced
• Intel memory and processor chips developed

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20th Century Developments in IT

• 1980s
• Multiprocessors with multitasking developed
• Apple Macintosh introduced
• 1990s
• Intel processor chips estimated to be 5000 times
  faster than 1970s chips
• Explosive growth of the Internet

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Changes in Business Professional Activities

• Use of chip technology in automobile
  manufacturing, as well as for many other consumer
  products
• Use of computer-based simulations for medical
  training
• Use of automated load and destination systems for
  airline flight management systems
• Use of sensors and speech synthesizers for
  disabled workers

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Information System Components

• System Combination of related elements that
  work together to achieve some goal
• Information system components that work
  together to provide desired information in the
  proper format at an appropriate time, including
• people (human resources)
• procedures (instructions for the people)
• information technology (hardware, software, data)

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Digital Computers
Supercomputers
Mainframes
Minicomputers
Microcomputers
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Operating Systems Intermediary
Application Programs
Operating System Programs
Hardware
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Fields and Records in a File
File
Field 1
Field 2
Field 3
Record 1
data
data
data
Record 2
data
data
data
Record 3
data
data
data
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Data vs. Information vs. Knowledge

• Data raw facts that are collected
• e.g., customer name, address, purchasing history
• Information result(s) after data is processed
  into something meaningful
• e.g., purchasers of a specific product, who might
  be contacted about a related product
• Knowledge combination of methods for using or
  sharing information
• e.g., customers worthy of special promotions or
  ratings, usually based on a set of designated
  criteria

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Data/Information Flow
Input
Processing
Output
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Flow of Data/Information
Information