Introduction to IT: The Edge of Information Technology

1. The Edge of ITITEC-200 Spring 2007 Topic 1: Introduction to ITEC 200, IT and IS Professor J. Alberto Espinosa

2. CourseIntroduction

3. Introduction • The Edge of IT • Textbook: Introduction to Information Systems Rainer, Turban and Potter, 2007 John Wiley & Sons ISBN 0471736368 • Unless otherwise stated in the course schedule, we will meet in the classroom for the first half of the class and at the Kogod Lab for the second half

5. My Background • Started as New faculty at AU in Fall’02 • Previously at Carnegie Mellon University • PhD and MS in IS at Carnegie Mellon • Also, BS Mech Engineering & MBA • Many years of working experience • Designing, implementing and managing IT & as CFO • Mostly in international contexts • Teach: MIS, Systems Analysis, Database • Research focus: • IT support for global & geographically distributed collaboration • Effect of human factors on coordination in global software teams

6. Contact • Office: KSB 33 • Office Hours: • Tuesdays 2-8 PM (may change) • And by appointment • Telephone: • Office: 202-885-1958 • Fax: 202-885-1992 • E-mail: alberto@american.edu • Web: http://auapps.american.edu/~alberto

7. Class Web Site • Current versions of syllabus, class schedule, lecture notes, and homework assignments will be posted on the Blackboard class web site. • Course Syllabus also available at:http://auapps.american.edu/~alberto/itec200/syllabus.html • Class Schedule also available at:http://auapps.american.edu/~alberto/itec200/schedule.html • All homework assignments, lecture slides, and other class materials will be available via the Class Schedule link above, and also via Blackboard • Class announcements, grades, and e-reserve articles will be available via Blackboard only

8. What is Information Technology (IT)? What is an Information System (IS)? How are IT & IS different than computer science? What is the role of IT and IS in today’s business environment?

9. Business WorldTransactions ERP, SCM, CRM, etc. Decision SupportDistributed CollaborationEnterprise CollaborationFinancial Managementetc. Information BusinessApplications Transaction Processing ServerAppl Client Appl Microcomputers Mainframes Client/Server Computing ITInfrastructure Database DB DB Ubiquitous Computing Routers Security,Firewalls Distributed Computing (Local/Wide area) Networks Inter-Networking (Internet, Intranets)Virtual Private Networks Information Technology (IT) and Business

10. Business Applications e.g., Enterprise Resource Planning(ERP) e.g., Customer Relations Mgt(CRM) e.g., Supply Chain Mgt(SCM) Roadmap

11. INFORMATION SYSTEMS Information Systems ORGANIZATIONS(Business) TECHNOLOGY(IT) MANAGEMENT(People)

12. Information Technology (IT)vs. Information Systems (IS)? Information Systems IT for Business BusinessIssues in IT(People, Organizations, Management Processes, Strategy, E-Commerce, E-Business, etc.) IT Infrastructure(HW, SW, database, telecom) BusinessApplications(DSS, EIS, ERP, CRM, SCM, Security, Ethics, etc.) ITEC-350 (follow up course)Management Information Systems ITEC 200The Edge of ITClass Schedule

13. The Information Age • First Electronic Messaging: In 1835, Samuel Morse developed the telegraph. Used magnetic transmitters and receivers to send signals. • First Long-distance Communication: an iron wire, was strung between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. -- 37 miles. • First Message: On May 24, 1844, the first telegraph message, "What hath God wrought," was successfully sent and received. • First Information Code: Morse developed a language of signals called Morse Code, which used a combination of short and long signals - dots and dashes to represent numbers and letters.

14. The Information Age • First Transatlantic Cable : Atlantic Cable was established in 1858 to carry instantaneous communications across the ocean. It was a failure after a few hours. Subsequent cables laid in 1866 were completely successful. The cable remained in use for almost 100 years. • First Voice Communications: Alexander Graham Bell Exhibits Telephone in 1876

15. Circuit Switching and The Information Age A • Circuit Switching: • The first manual exchange was installed in New Haven, USA, in 1878. • The electro-mechanical switch was patented in 1889 by Almon B. Strowger, Kansas City, USA. • The first computer-operated exchange was put in service in 1960 in the US. • Today's telephone exchanges use circuit switching technology, just like in the end of the 19th century. • Lucent Technologies’ 5ESS digital switch consists of generic hardware driven by software • With more than 80 million lines of instructions written by more than 5,000 software developers. • And serves over 130 million subscriber lines, in 66 countries B

16. Packet Switching and The Information Age • Packet Switching: • President Eisenhower saw the need for the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) after the Soviet Union's 1957 launch of Sputnik. • Military needed a network that would survive a nuclear attack. (no single outage point). • Data split into tiny messages called packets that may take different routes to a destination. • Hard to eavesdrop on messages. • More than one route available -- if one route goes down another may be followed. A 1 B 2 3

17. Internet and the Information Age • Internetworking: • 15 nodes (23 hosts) on ARPANET (a defense network envisioned to survive a nuclear attack) in 1971. • E-mail invented—a program to send messages across a distributed network. E-mail is still the main way of inter-person communication on the Internet today. • Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) adopted in 1982—interconnecting independent networks rather than specific networks with an arbitrary design The full story: http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml#Origins Appl Appl TCP TCP Router Computer 1 Computer 2 IP IP IP Net 1 Net 1 Net 2 Net 2 The Internet

18. The Web and The Information Age • World Wide Web: • www: a friendly interface established in 1991 • 600 www sites in 1993 • 100,000 www sites in 1995 • >800 million www sites in 1999 • >70 million Internet users in the US • more than 50% of US households have Internet access • In the past 24 hours, >41 million persons went online • 500,000 new users every month in 2000 • 2.1 billion online in 2000 • The full story of the www: http://www.w3.org/History.html

19. Why are we here? • I.T. IS EVERYWHERE THESE DAYS: • 1/2 of all new businesses today involve computer products or services • Most of the ones that don’t, still use and rely on some form of IT to do business (e-mail, databases, Internet, etc.) • Need to be knowledgeable about IT/IS to succeed in an organization today (whether in an IT job or not) • Need to be able to discuss your IT needs with IT staff – i.e., need to have at least a basic understanding of IT

20. Information Systems Literacy • IT professional: • Hands-on knowledge of IT • Understand how IT adds business value • Non IT professional: • Ability to converse/interface with IT staff • Leverage the power of information via IS • Improve productivity in an IT context • Everyone: • Understanding of organizations and individuals from a behavioral perspective • Understanding of how to analyze and solve problems

21. Web Page Designand Implementation

22. Please complete the IT Background Survey • Use your AU EagleNet login ID • And password = “changeme” • Log into the MIS Student Systemhttp://www.jibe4fun.com/scripts/mis/misuserlogin.asp • Change your password and then • Click on Tech Background Survey • Complete the survey and click Submit

23. Agenda • Discuss basic design principles for web sites • Learn the basics about web page development • Get hands-on experience with FrontPage Follow up course: ITEC-334Computer Programming in the Web Era

24. What is the World Wide Web? • The Internet vs. the WWW • Internet applications: • WWW, E-mail, FTP, Telnet, Internet EDI, etc. • WWW: • Sharing of electronic documents via the Internet • System and set of rules (standards) for storing, retrieving, formatting and displaying information • Web servers and Web browsers

25. Web Servers and Browsers • Web Servers: • Located anywhere on the Internet • Store information to be retrieved • Serves electronic documents to users • Executes applications as needed • Web Browsers (clients): • Request information from Web servers • Formats and presents info to user • Standard user interface

26. HTTP & HTML • HTTP hypertext transfer protocol • A standard protocol to access Web documents • A protocol: needed for 2 apps to communicate • Protocol = communication rules • HTTP: designed for efficient document retrieval • HTML hypertext markup language • A standard file format used by Web browsers • Text is “marked-up” with tags • Hyperlinks to other documents

27. URL = Uniform Resource Locatori.e., location of a web page Web sites are located by specifying the Uniform Resource Locator • <access protocol>://<domain>/<file location> • ex. http://auapps.american.edu/~alberto/index.html • The domain is the main Web site, which may consist of many Web serversand it translates to an IP Address, e.g. • Ex. http://147.9.18.105/~alberto/index.html • For example, see domains to IP address mappingshttp://swhois.net/

28. Design Issue #1:Think of your page organization in advance

29. Bad (or no) Design:

30. Design Issue #2:Hyperlinks: internal external within a page or to other pages(like a bookmark) Link URL Link #name …. …. name …. URL …. …. …. …. ….

31. Design Issue #3:Hyperlink Types LINK TO SPECIFIC POINTS IN A PAGE (use #) • Relative reference: within currently loaded page #ITReviews • Absolute reference: to other pages (ext docs) http://auapps.american.edu/~alberto/itec200/syllabus.html#ITReviews LINK TO OUTSIDE PAGES • Relative reference: within your web site (your docs) index.html students/teams/webpages.html students/teams/webpages.html#names • Absolute reference: external to web (ext docs) http://auapps.american.edu/~alberto/index.html

32. Other Important Design Issues • Too many graphics slow down loading of page • Too much animation distracts • Use top page as a menu or index • Make navigation easy--back and forth • Soft backgrounds (white is best for business docs) • Dark or bright text (dark is best for business docs) • Test your colors/fonts on a variety of monitors • New things attract visitors—update your page • Include your URL and e-mail address

33. Web Publishing Basics • Many ways to create HTML pages • By hand (Notepad), FrontPage, Dreamweaver, etc. • It helps to understand how HTML works • Tips to ensure your web site works well beforehand • Compose a quick html file and call it “test.html” • View this file using your browser • Copy this file to the www folder on your G drive • Then browse this HTML file and ensure it works • You will do this shortly

34. HTML Tags Web Page Web Site HTML File Text Graphics Files (jpg,gif,etc.) OtherWeb Pages Other Files (video, sound) HTML Files, Web Pages and Web Sites • HTML file = Text (info) + HTML <Tags> (formatting) Ex. <BOLD>Hello</BOLD> there!! • Web page = HTML files + graphics & other files

35. HTML TagsGeneral format:<TAG attrib1=value1 attrib2=value2….>Text</TAG> • Ex. tag without attributes <BOLD> • Ex. tag with attributes <FONT size=2 color=blue> • Need a beginning tag, e.g. <U> (underline) • And often an ending tag, e.g. <U>Hello!</U>

36. Organizational Information Systems

37. Data and Information:Difference ??? Information Data

38. Data vs. Information • Data - Raw Facts - No intelligence by itself, data alone is useless • Information - Data processed into meaningful intelligence – useful • What is Knowledge???? Knowledge: how people process and relate to information Information

39. Information Technology (IT) • Technology Infrastructure(HW, SW, Databases and Networks) • + Business Applications (HR, Finance, Accounting, ERP, CRM, SCM, etc.) • Which allows business employees and managers to process data into useful information for managerial decisions and actions • i.e., it is the TECHNOLOGY itself

40. Information Systems (IS) • More than just IT!! • IS are systems to process data into useful information for managerial decisions and actions, but in addition to IT issues, it also involves an understanding o business and people processes employed to get the work done. • Not just a computer or technical issue, but also: • How an organization gets the work done and what are the work processes employed • How people do their work and how they relate to one another

41. Implementing Information Systems • Implementing IS means change • It affects people, groups, structure, tasks, processes, role relations, power structure, etc. • A successful IS implementation must take this into account • It cannot rely on technology alone

42. - Fit- Interdependence INFORMATION SYSTEMS MIS: Fit Organizations, IT & Management ORGANIZATIONS(Business) TECHNOLOGY(IT) MANAGEMENT(People)

43. Classification of Information Systems for Business By: • Organizational Level • Functional Area • Support Provided

44. 1. Classification By Organizational Level • Operational Level Systems (e.g. support production & operations workers) • Knowledge Level Systems (e.g., support engineers, lawyers, doctors, etc.) • Management Level Systems (e.g., support middle to upper management) • Strategic Level Systems (e.g., support CEO’s and other executives)

45. 2. Classification by Business Function Systems for: • Sales, Marketing • Manufacturing, Production, Operations • Finance, Accounting • Human Resources • Etc.

46. Classification by 1. Organizational Level and 2. Functional Area (together)

47. 3. Classification by type of Support Provided • Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)A basic business system that performs and records the daily routine transactions necessary to the conduct of the business. These are systems or system components that interact with the external world (e.g., customer registration, data entry, online purchases, point of sales, etc.) • Office Automation Systems (OAS)e.g., word processing, electronic mail, presentation graphics, desktop publishing • Knowledge Work Systems (KWS)e.g., engineering, software, medical systems • Management Information Systems (MIS)To extract data from data repositories and prepare management reports, e.g., budgets, financial summaries, client activity summaries, etc. • Decision Support Systems (DSS)To assist with decision analysis and application of business decision rules, e.g., loan application processing, investment analysis, etc.) • Executive Support Systems (ESS)To tie data from all levels and from external/strategic sources to the CEO and other business executives • Etc.

48. ESS MIS DSS KWS OAS TPS Systems Often Interact with Each Other

49. Integrating Functions and Processes:A New Kind IS for Business • IS also helps integrate business processes and data across organizational levels and functions: • Customer Relations Management (CRM) • Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) • And with other companies organizations (e.g., suppliers, customers): • Supply Chain Management (SCM)

50. Business Processes • A process: manner in which work is organized and coordinated to produce a product or service • Some business processes take place within a function • Some others cut across multiple business functions • Involves workflows of material, information, and knowledge • Provides unique ways to coordinate work, information, and knowledge • Example: processing a customer order