Exam Prep1

Economic Changes include increases in international trade, in the development of global financial systems and currency, and in the outsourcing of labor.

Cultural Changes include increases in the availability of multiculturalism through television and movies; the frequency of international travel, tourism, and immigration; the availability of ethnic foods and restaurants; and the frequency of worldwide fads and phenomena such as Pokemon, Sudoku, Idol television, and MySpace.

Technological Changes include the development of low-cost computing platforms and communication technologies; the availability of low-cost communication systems such as e-mail, Skype, and instant messaging; the ubiquitous nature of low-cost global telecommunications infrastructure such the Internet; and the enforcement of global patent and copyright laws to spur further innovation.

Information systems are combinations of hardware, software, and telecommunications networks that people build and use to collect, create, and distribute useful data, typically in organizational settings.

The technical components include the entire collection of hardware, software, and infrastructure or network components. This also includes the data resources of the organization. The people and organizational components include the users who interact with the system on an ongoing basis, as well as the IT professionals who operate and maintain the technical aspects of the system.

Data is raw material—recorded, unformatted information, such as words and numbers. Data has no meaning in and of itself.

Information is data that has been formatted and/or organized in some way as to be useful to people.

Knowledge is the body of governing procedures, such as guidelines or rules, which are used to organize and manipulate data to make it suitable for a given task. Knowledge is needed to understand relationships between different pieces of information.

Wisdom is accumulated knowledge, gained through a combination of academic study and personal experience, that goes beyond knowledge by representing broader, more generalized rules and schemas for understanding a specific domain or domains; wisdom allows you to understand how to apply concepts from one domain to new situations or problems.

Technology is any mechanical and/or electronic means to supplement, extend, or replace human, manual operations or devices.

Information technology refers to machine technology that is controlled by or uses information.

Information system is assumed to mean computer-based information systems, which are combinations of hardware, software, and telecommunications networks that people build and use to collect, create, and distribute useful data; this term is also used to represent the field in which people develop, use, manage, and study computer-based information systems in organizations.

Programmer, analyst, database administrator, and network engineer are four common information systems jobs.

Programmers create software programs. Analysts work with users to create specifications or designs for new or improved information systems. Database administrators manage the data resources of an organization. Network engineers configure and manage the firm’s network and telecommunications infrastructure.

Chief information officer (CIO) is a position that can be found in many of today’s large organizations. This is an executive level position responsible for overall management of information systems in an organization.

The fall of the Berlin Wall, and thereby the downfall of communism, is one of the key events flattening the world. The fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the Cold War between communist and capitalist countries and the breakup of the Eastern bloc, freeing millions of people. At once, people in many former communist countries could enjoy greater freedom. For many companies, this meant a tremendous increase in potential customers as well as access to a huge, talented labor pool in the former Eastern bloc countries.

Around the same time, Microsoft released the first version of the Windows operating system, which over time became the world standard in PC operating systems, enabling people from all over the world to use a common computing platform.

Describe work flow software. How did this technology drive the flattening of the world?