Introduction to Information Systems

Assignement was done in collaboration with Karoline Schogren, Benedicte Owe and myself.

Describe the characteristics of the digital world and the advent of the Information age.

The industrial revolution progressed and started using machines and informational tools to improve the business over using human force. The need for information workers rised and education started to become paramount in the digital revolution. When the Information age started developing mobile, social media, big data, cloud computing and consumerization of IT became giant parts of the information workers life, and also the world.

Define globalization, describe how it evolved over time, and describe the key drivers of globalization.

Globalization is the development and increased use of information systems and made it possible to make great advances in transportation and telecommunication. The Information systems made it possible to use further expand globalization, through mobile, social media, big data, cloud computing, and consumerization of IT. The key drivers of the globalization is the economic, cultural and technological changes.

Explain what an information system is, contrasting its data, technology, people, and organizational components.

An informational system helps people manage data through the use of hardware, software and telecommunications network. Information systems are categorized based on the purpose they serve. Some examples to show differences in their purposes is facebook, which is a strictly communication based information system. Fronter which is an educational tool, netbanking is a business and economical tool and information system. The technology needs to be tailored for the target audience, which is altered by technology and people, and their organizational position.

Describe the dual nature of information systems in the success and failure of modern organizations.

Modern organizations often fail, because of their misuse of information systems. They tend to not do proper research and study their target audience which often produces information systems which is impractical or unusable for the users. A good example of a good information system is "Mrs. Fields", which made cookies and because of her information systems was able to minimize the amount of product that would perish and increased the quality of the product.

Describe how computer ethics impact the use of information systems and discuss the ethical concerns associated with information privacy and intellectual property.

Computer ethics is restrained by information systems that gathers all personal information posted online. Organizations normally find a loophole by making users agree to certain terms before letting them use their product. Sites such as piratebay.org uses another loophole which is links that takes away their responsibility. Piratebay.org threaten intellectual property by spreading download links.

Explain the origin of the internet, focus on where, when and why.

In the late 1960s the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency produced the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) in an attempt to interconnect networks of various kinds. The University of California, Los Angeles and the Standford Research Institute contained the first two nodes that used the ARPANET.^[1] Before this it was still possible to connect to other networks but it required a physical connection which was deemed unsafe for military and strategic use which was the birthstone for the necessity of the internet.^[2]

When did the internet come to Norway?

Internet was introduced to Norway in the start of 1971. Norway was the first non-English country to take use of ARPANET and connect to the internet.^[3]

Society relies heavily on the internet, discuss why this makes us vulnerable because of it.

Internet is unfathomably big that it created the term Big Data. What makes Big Data so scary is how it can be used, and even more terrifying is by who it can be used. In the 2008 Mumbai attacks the whole world could see how terrifying internet technology is in the wrong hands. The terrorists used command centers to keep communication between the terrorists on the floor and the news in real time. When the terrorists came upon a suit and saw a man hiding behind the bed they asked who he was in which he replied "I'm just a simple school teacher." The terrorists picked up his id and the command center googled him. They confirmed that he wasn't a school teacher, he was in fact the second riches businessman in India. The terrorists instantly killed him with this information.^[4]

HTML is a markup language. What does that mean? Explain with an example.

Markup language compared to programming languages does only format data. An example would be: Try to write "HTML is a data format, not a programming language." 100 timers. With a programming language you could simply create a loop which printed that 100 times, that's not something HTML can do on its' own.^[5] Hypertext is text formatted to direct you to embedded sites on the internet.^[6]

What makes e-trade grow?

The wonderful thing about doing your shopping online is that you choose when and where, furthermore the improvement of internet technology has made e-shops a comfortable environment.^[1]

Discuss what you think will happen to physical stores in the future.

Physical stores still provide a physical environment and what most people would call a safe way of shopping. The younger generation will grow up with online shopping and as the older generation that grew up without it fade out physical stores will need to step up their game to keep relevant. With most stores these days operate on a click and mortar level it might be perceived as this will drive people online. My own view on this is that most people still use online stores to find out where and what they want to buy. A good online store will always show you their location closest to you.

Digital economy is more prone to giant operators, maybe monopoly. Why is the digital economy more prone to monopoly than the traditional economy.

Simply put, security. What is stopping a lot of people from using “second rate” online shops is because while people are familiar with ebay and amazon, but online shopping is still fairly fresh to the general population. Horror stories of people ordering a phone online and receiving the box for the phone with a rock inside and peoples general lack of information about online stores security further the danger of shopping at second rate online stores. This makes ebay, amazon and norwegian shops like komplett.no and elkjop.no a better choice than taking a chance to loose everything.

Provide a short explanation, characteristics and examples of:

• B2C: business-to-customer, general online stores like amazon.
• B2B: business-to-business, offers services or products to other companies like IBM, a characteristic of these businesses is that they have fewer customer and more complex transactions.^[2]
• C2B: customer-to-business, considered a reversal of the traditional business model, elance was the first C2B e-commerce site and provide a platform where businesses can look for freelance professionals.^[3]
• C2C: customer-to-customer, customers are provided a platform where they can interact and supply services or more commonly products for other customers to buy, ebay is the most common example of this.
• G2C: government-to-citizen, less about product and more about creating a communication link between government and citizens, media campaigns and .gov sites are examples of this.^[4]
• G2B: government-to-business, non-commercial interaction between government and businesses, these interactions often contain 'best practices' methods to businesses.^[5]
• G2G: government-to-government, non-commercial interactions to join either a single governments' departments or joining several governments together such as Schengen Information System which is a database used in Europe.^[6]

What do you think is the positive effects of high internet propagation and use?
-for businesses

Businesses can connect their customers to their social-network profiles which lets businesses provide tailor made advertising and offers. They can provide online customer services and reach a bigger market through globalization. By creating online stores businesses can reduce the needed real-estate to operate a store and can gain an competitive advantage with better prices.

-for individuals

an effect of the positive effect of high internet propagation and use for the businesses, individuals can receive better deals and tailor made advertising. Ordering something online is not only cheaper in most cases but may cause you to be able to get the product on the door or at a local post office which is more and more integrated into your local grocery store.

What do you think is the negative effects of high internet propagation and use?
-for businesses

While the positive effects are great they are reserved only for those who can survive in a more globalized and therefore more competitive market. Physical stores might still be relevant but people is most likely to get their first impression from your website which might not be considered a 'legit' website if there are more popular sites offering same services or products but are more common knowledge and can cause monopoly or at the very least reduce the amount of businesses actually making through the start-up phase.

-for individuals

If a business should achieve monopoly or become popular it might start focusing on branding rather than the product. Example such as apple which focus their branding around being flashy and and 'innovative'. This effect can reduce the quality of the product and trick individuals.

Discuss societies addiction to the internet: imagine your country being victim to a cyber attack and the countries internet being down. Discuss the consequences.

If such an event should unfold then all shopping would stop as no bank-cards would work. Cell-phones, text messaging and tv would go down, working in the mindset that most people use cable tv these days. Looting would be imminent and if it lasted more than a few days a mass wave of unemployment would hit. While the repercussions would be unfathomable they wouldn't be immediately life threatening.