Information systems

The term information system (IS) sometimes refers to a system of persons, data records and activities that process the data and information in an organization, and it includes the organization's manual and automated processes. Computer-based information systems are the field of study for information technology, elements of which are sometimes called an "information system" as well, a usage some consider to be incorrect.

Overview

The term "information system" has different meanings:
* In computer security, an information system is described by three objects (Aceituno, 2004):
**Structure:
***Repositories, which hold data permanently or temporarily, such as buffers, RAM, hard disks, cache, etc.
***Interfaces, which exchange information with the non-digital world, such as keyboards, speakers, scanners, printers, etc.
**Channels, which connect repositories, such as buses, cables, wireless links, etc. A Network is a set of logical or physical channels.
**Behavior:
***Services, which provide value to users or to other services via messages interchange.
***Messages, which carries a meaning to users or services.
* In geography and cartography, a geographic information system (GIS) is used to integrate, store, edit, analyze, share, and display georeferenced information. There are many applications of GIS, ranging from ecology and geology, to the social sciences.
* In knowledge representation, an information system consists of three components: human, technology, organization. In this view, information is defined in terms of the three levels of semiotics. Data which can be automatically processed by the application system corresponds to the syntax-level. In the context of an individual who interprets the data they become information, which correspond to the semantic-level. Information becomes knowledge when an individual knows (understands) and evaluates the information (e.g., for a specific task). This corresponds to the pragmatic-level.
* In mathematics in the area of domain theory, a Scott information system (after its inventor Dana Scott) is a mathematical 'structure' that provides an alternative representation of Scott domains and, as a special case, algebraic lattices.
* In mathematics rough set theory, an information system is an attribute-value system.
* In sociology information systems are also social systems whose behavior is heavily influenced by the goals, values and beliefs of individuals and groups, as well as the performance of the technology. [Angell, I.O. and Smithson S. (1991) Information Systems Management: Opportunities and Risks]
* In systems theory, an information system is a system, automated or manual, that comprises people, machines, and/or methods organized to collect, process, transmit, and disseminate data that represent user information.
* In telecommunications, an information system is any telecommunications and/or computer related equipment or interconnected system or subsystems of equipment that is used in the acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of voice and/or data, and includes software, firmware, and hardware. [Federal Standard 1037C, MIL-STD-188, and National Information Systems Security Glossary]
* In organisational informatics an information system is a system of communication between people. Information systems are systems involved in the gathering, processing, distribution and use of information and as such support human activity systems [Beynon-Davies P. (2002). Information Systems: an introduction to informatics in Organisations. Palgrave, Basingstoke, UK. ISBN: 0-333-96390-3] .
* The most commonFact|date=March 2008. view of an information system is one of Input-Process-Output.

History of information systems

The study of information systems originated as a sub-discipline of computer science in an attempt to understand and rationalize the management of technology within organizations. It has matured into a major field of management, that is increasingly being emphasized as an important area of research in management studies, and is taught at all major universities and business schools in the world. Börje Langefors introduced the concept of "Information Systems" at the third International Conference on Information Processing and Computer Science in New York in 1965. [http://www.aisnet.org/award/bios/langefors.html]

Information technology is a very important malleable resource available to executives. [Rockart et. Al (1996) Eight imperatives for the new IT organization Sloan Management review.] Many companies have created a position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) that sits on the executive board with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Technical Officer (CTO).The CTO may also serve as CIO, and vice versa.

Applications of information systems

Information systems deal with the development, use and management of an organization's IT infrastructure.

In the post-industrial information age, the focus of companies has shifted from being product-oriented to knowledge-oriented in the sense that market operators today compete in process and innovation rather than in products: the emphasis has shifted from the quality and quantity of production to the production process itself--and the services that accompany the production process.

The biggest asset of companies today is their information--represented by people, experience, know-how, innovations (patents, copyrights, trade secrets)--and for a market operator to be able to compete, he or she must have a strong information infrastructure, at the heart of which lies the information technology infrastructure. Thus the study of information systems focuses on why and how technology can be put into best use to serve the information flow within an organization.

Areas of work

Information Systems has a number of different areas of work:
* Information Systems Strategy
* Information Systems Management
* Information Systems Development

Each of which branches out into a number of sub disciplines, that overlap with other science and managerial disciplines such as computer science, pure and engineering sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and business management.

There are a wide variety of career paths in the information systems discipline. "Workers with specialized technical knowledge and strong communications skills will have the best prospects. People with management skills and an understanding of business practices and principles will have excellent opportunities, as companies are increasingly looking to technology to drive their revenue." [ Sloan Career Cornerstone Center (2008). [http://www.careercornerstone.org/infosys/infosys.htm "Information Systems"] . Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Accessdate June 2, 2008.]

Information technology development

The IT Department partly governs the information technology development, use, application and influence on a business or corporation. A computer based information system, following a definition of Langefors [cite book|last= [http://www.aisnet.org/award/bios/langefors.html Langefors] |first=Börje|title=Theoretical Analysis of Information Systems|year=1973|publisher=Auerbach|isbn=0-87769-151-7] , is:
* a technologically implemented medium for recording, storing, and disseminating linguistic expressions,
* as well as for drawing conclusions from such expressions.which can be formulated as a generalized information systems design mathematical program.

See also

;Related studies
* Computer Science
* Bioinformatics
* Business informatics
* Cheminformatics
* Geoinformatics
* MIS;Components
* Data Processing System
* Data architect
* Data modeling
* Data Reference Model
* Database
* Metadata
* Predictive Model Markup Language
* Semantic translation
* Three schema approach;Implementation
* Environmental Modeling Center
* Enterprise Information System
* European Research Center for Information Systems
* INFORMS
* Information Processing System

References

Further reading

*Kroenke, David (2008). [http://www.pearsonhighered.com/kroenke/ "Using MIS - 2nd Edition"] .
*Lindsay, John (2000). [http://www.oturn.net/isfi/index.html "Information Systems – Fundamentals and Issues"] . Kingston University, School of Information Systems
*Dostal, J. [http://mict.upol.cz/skolni_informacni_systemy.pdf School information systems (Skolni informacni systemy).] In Infotech 2007 - modern information and communication technology in education. Olomouc, EU: Votobia, 2007. s. 540 – 546. ISBN 978-80-7220-301-7.

External links

* [http://aisnet.org/ Association for Information Systems (AIS)]
* [http://business.gwu.edu/grad/msist/index.html Information Systems Department, The George Washington University]
* [http://www.is.umbc.edu/ Information Systems Department, UMBC]
* [http://is.lse.ac.uk/ Information Systems and Innovation Group, Department of Management , London School of Economics]
* [http://lamp.infosys.deakin.edu.au/journals/ Index of Information Systems Journals]
* [http://mitsloan.mit.edu/cisr/ Center for Information Systems Research - Massachusetts Institute of Technology]