Data, Information, and Knowledge Quiz

Data, Information, and Knowledge

• Data: simple observations about the world, endowed with relevance and purpose
• Information: data that has been processed and endowed with human mediation, characteristics include:
  • Easily structured
  • Often quantified
  • Easily transferred
  • Mere facts
• Knowledge: information from the human mind, includes reflection, synthesis, and context, characteristics include:
  • Hard to structure
  • Difficult to capture on machines
  • Often tacit
  • Hard to transfer

Characteristics of Information Across Levels

• Top Management:
  • Time Horizon: long (years)
  • Level of Detail: highly aggregated, less accurate, more predictive, summarized, integrated, often financial
  • Decision Making: extremely judgmental, uses creativity and analytical skills
• Middle Management:
  • Time Horizon: medium (weeks, months, years)
  • Level of Detail: less aggregated, more accurate, less predictive
  • Decision Making: relatively judgmental

Failing to Consider IS Strategy

• Leads to:
  • IS that fail to support business goals
  • IS that fail to support organizational systems
  • Misalignment between business goals and organizational systems
• Consequences:
  • Breakdown in servicing customers
  • Sales decline
  • Damaged reputation
  • Poor spending (overspending or underspending)
  • Inefficient business processes

Skills Managers Need for IT Decisions

• Visionary role
• Structural
• Creativity
• Curiosity
• Confidence
• Focus on business solutions
• Flexibility
• Informational and Interpersonal
• Project management
• Analytical
• Organizational Planning
• Leading
• Controlling
• Communication
• Listening
• Information gathering
• Interpersonal skills

Economics of Information vs Things

• Information:
  • Doesn't wear out but can become obsolete or untrue
  • Is replicated at almost zero cost without limit
  • Does not physically exist
  • When sold, seller may still possess and sell again
  • Price based on value to consumer
• Things:
  • Wear out
  • Are replicated at the expense of the manufacturer
  • Exist in a tangible location
  • When sold, possession changes hands
  • Price based on production costs

The Term “Information Systems”

• Composed of:
  • Technology
  • People
  • Processes
  • Information
• IT refers to just the technology, while Information Systems include all four components
• Digital natives: people born or brought up during the age of digital technology and internet.