exploring information systems
Questions: 1) In this course, we will be exploring information systems. Before answering these questions, spend some time researching on the Internet about what an information system is. Then answer these questions in your own words. What is an information system? What are some of the characteristics of information systems? Make sure you explain your answers to these questions in your own words, rather than quoting from the textbook or other online sources. 2) Find a web page that gives a definition of an application, and a web page that gives a definition of a computer-based information system. Summarize the definitions that you found on the web in your own words. I do not want you to quote directly from your sources, but to describe the concepts you learned in your own words. Then, in your own words, drawing on what you learned from your sources and from your textbook, describe the differences between applications and computer-based information systems. Be sure to include the urls of the web pages you used in your research to answer this question. Before answering questions 4-6, please read the following: for your Analysis Essays this semester, you will be applying what you learn about Management Information Systems to an Information System (IS) of your choice. This should be a system which you interact with regularly. Many students choose a unique information system related to their work. If you do not work with any information systems, you may choose an information system that you use in your personal life, such as a web-based information system that you use online. Since you will be sharing your analysis of your system on the discussion board throughout the semester, it is important that each student choose a different information system. Please note that the following are considered applications, rather than information systems, and are not suitable for the term paper: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Office (which is a suite of applications, rather than an information system), and Microsoft SharePoint (which is a networked tool for collaboration and document sharing, and which lacks the processing and transformation power and the complexity to be considered an information system). To make sure you are correctly understanding what kinds of systems qualify as an information system for this assignment, please refer to the Analysis Essay FAQ in the discussion forum for some examples of information systems that former students have chosen to analyze and write about in this class. 3) What are some information systems that you use in your work or in your day-to-day life? 4) Describe some of the characteristics of the information systems you identified above.
