MIS 2000

Class 2:

Basic Concepts

Updated January 2014

Basic Concepts

Outline

• Data, Knowledge, Information

• Data, Knowledge, Information in Organizations

• Information System (IS)

• IS User

• Information Technologies

• Summary

 

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Information

• Is this information:

Treuliodd y rhif cwsmer ١٨ bron i dri chant o ddoleri mewn un pryniant - gwerthiant mwyaf y mis diwethaf!

- Why yes/no?

• Is this information:The customer number 18 spent nearly three hundred dollars in one purchase -- the largest sales last month!

- Why yes/no?

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Data

Basic Concepts

• Symbols created by people for communication purposes (voices, letters, numbers, pictures).

• Data are organized at different levels:• letters words text report

• Data can be recorded in electronic form or some other (paper etc.).

• Information systems help to organize and transform data (sorted text, tabulated numbers, structured report).

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Information

• We will define information from the process perspective taken in this course* in this way:

– Information is a result of interpreting data by using knowledge.

Or, information refers to data that are understood by a person.

• Understanding data refers to grasping a meaning of data, which happens in human brains. So, information can also be defined as the meaning of data.

DATA KNOWLEDGE INFORMATION

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1. DATA organized into a SALES REPORT

COMPUTER delivers:

2. Manager

observes Report

Process of informing

MANAGER UNDERSTANDS:Customer number 18 spent about234 dollars in one purchase, which is the largest sale in the month!

4. INFORMATION is understood(Manager “gets it”.)

MANAGER KNOWS: - Language, to read text, numbers, graphs, sales report… - Concepts of customer, purchase, time, salesperson, how these relate to each other…

3. KNOWLEDGE interprets DATA

Information

• Information to occur takes a whole process, process of informing. An example:

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Information (more)

• The term “information” is overused today.*

• People get lazy and don’t use their brain – instead of naming the content that is being talked about or communicated, the word “information” is stamped upon everything. Everybody and almost every technology is “information provider”.

• If all this is information, what is not? Why do we have the term “data”? How is “information” different from “data”?

• Better than calling anything “information”, try to name a given content by what it is about (e.g., customer address or record, explanation, instruction, response, report, text, figures…)**

• Every MIS 2000 student who can replace the word “information” with an appropriate term gets a participation credit!

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Knowledge

Basic Concepts

• Complex structures in human memory.

• Knowledge implies understanding

• What something is (concepts, relationships, taxonomies)

• Why something is (cause-effect relationships between concepts)

• How to do something (procedures, experience)

• Knowledge can be represented in talk, books, information

systems, and other forms.*

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Knowledge, Data, & Information

• Knowledge uses data to create information, i.e., enables interpreting of data to grasp the meaning of it

• New information advances knowledge, adds to it, changes it.

Basic Concepts

Info

rmat

ion

Knowledge

Data

1

pro

cess

es…

3advances

2 to create

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Data, Information, Knowledge in Organizations

• Most of work in modern organizations is about data, knowledge and information

• Occupational groups: Managers, Professionals, Clerks

Basic Concepts

ProfessionalsUse knowledge to analyze & resolve professional problems & advance knowledge.

ClerksManipulate

data

Information Know

ledgeData

ManagersInterpret data in reports

and elsewhere to get informed for

managing.

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Systems and Information Systems (IS)

• Any system is a set of related parts with a common purpose to produce some output from inputs.* (see Note)

• Systems are differentiated on the purpose – the outputs they produce.

• Purpose of educational system is to produce graduated students.*

• Purpose of IS is to organize and/or transform data for system’s users.

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Information System (IS)

Basic Concepts

• Definition: An IS is a system that provides transformed and organized data.

• A computer-based IS is a whole that consists of (1) data, (2) computer hardware and software (information technologies), and (3) procedures applied to data, software & hardware.*

ENVIRONMENT

keyboard, mouse

hardware

data storage;processors for

transforming datarunning software

screen, printer

hardware

Data Transformed & OrganizedData

INPUT part PROCESSING part OUTPUT part

• Data are the heart of IS. Inputted data are different than outputted data.

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IS and Information

• Outputted data are often called “information”, but human informing does not happen unless data are received and understood.

• Why it is important to differentiate between data and information:

– If the system designer assumes that any output from system is “information”, but the user really dos not understand the output (fully or partially), then the system fails to support the user and business.

– The test if information is communicated is on the user’s side, in his/her understanding of the system output.

• IS is not called so because it “outputs information” but because it transforms and organizes data so that data can become information for the IS user.

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Information System User

IS for Management

Primary User: direct use, manipulates data & IT

Secondary User: indirect use, interprets outputted data

Information SystemData

Transformed & OrganizedData

Basic Concepts

IS User is a person that uses an IS by manipulating it or by interpreting its output.

• Many higher level managers are (still) secondary users of IS.

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Information Technologies (IT)

• Electronic IT are machines and devices for managing data.*

• In a computer-based IS, each part (input, central unit, output…) is made from particular kinds of IT:

– hardware parts (monitor, motherboard with main circuitry, keyboard)

– software

• Application Software (Application) – supports users’ work; e.g.: MS Access, Excel, a Web browser.

• Systems Software - operates hardware so that application software can run; e.g.: operating system like MS Windows

• combinations of software and hardware in the computer.

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Basic Concepts

Summary 1/2

• Data are symbols created by people for communication purposes (voices, letter, numbers, pictures). Data can be recorded in various ways.

• Knowledge is complex structures in human memory that make a person ������understand what something is, why something is, and how to do something. Knowledge is in human brain and it can be represented in complex data structures.

• Information is the data that are understood by people, or the meaning of data. There is no understanding of data without knowledge. Information is created in human brain, although people often assume that external data is already "information."

• In organizations, clerks mostly deal with data, managers with information, and professionals with knowledge.

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Summary 2/2

• Any system is a whole made of related parts with a common purpose to produce some output from inputs. Systems are differentiated on outputs, that is, purpose.

• The purpose of information system is to store, organize and transform input data.

• A computer-based IS is a whole that consists of data, computer hardware and software (information technologies), and procedures applied to data, software & hardware.

• Data are the heart of IS. System procedures are often work procedures (the way tasks and job are done).

• The IS user can be primary or secondary user. Most managers are secondary users.

• Electronic information technologies are machines (computer, smart phone) and devices (computer storage, keyboard) for managing data.

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