From Diagnosis to Prevention

Case 1 of chapter 3 spoke about grid processing, and in class we reviewed the benefits and uses of utilizing such technology. One use that struck me as crucial to today is the diagnosis of cancer and how grid processing can identify cancerous tissue early on. It makes me wonder if using this regularly to monitor human cells can play a role in eradicating cancer by detecting any abnormalities in their early stages, or even before they occur. We also identified the use of grid technology to be beneficial in any case with large amounts of data. It's a stretch, but it makes me wonder if there is any way to apply this to economics and forecasting in regards to financial planning on the national level. By the way - are we supposed to be posting after every class session or just once a week? 

[IT]'s a doozie

Today in lecture we learned about the individual who made a publication in the HBR stating that IT is pointless, and that technology can be bought. To an extent, he is right. You can buy technology and even hire the people who can manage the IT of your company as well! But then again, you can hire people to do anything for you - calculate your financials, do your administrative work, do your strategic planning..the list goes on and on. But what good does it do to buy all of these things when you yourself do not have any understanding of their workings? How can you determine if your company is functioning properly and how will you know how to move forward and remain successful if you are unaware of the components that go into keeping it running? I think if IS/IT isn't our "forte", it is still helpful to understand it to remain both competitive and knowledgeable in the business workplace in the future.

An Interconnected World

While reviewing Case 2, Jet Blue & the VA, the importance of high interconnection became very apparent to me. I had never considered the idea that utilizing multiple data would ensure that other components are correct - somewhat of a self check system. This case also displayed to me the importance of developing an IT system for "meltdown" situations. Simply relying on everything to function properly is neither efficient not effective, and developing a disaster program after the fact is pointless and too late. I enjoy reviewing these cases as they apply real-life situations to the material that is lectured

Day 2 - Getting into the swing of things

Day 2 of Info Systems was good, and I'm glad we are supposed to "pretend" that we understand until we actually do. When taking calculus in high school, my teacher would always say "get on the calculus bus!" And every day she would let us know if we were walking to the bus stop, if we were at the bus stop, or if we were actually boarding. I think I'm still waiting for the IS bus to arrive.

I enjoyed learning about the differences of E-Commerce and E-Business, the Internet and the Worldwide Web, as well as IS and IT. I seem to have always these sets of terms synonymously, so it was interesting to hear which factors contributed to each. Another thing I found valuable was the importance of having both efficiency and effectiveness, but noting that if it has to be one over the other, it makes more sense to be effective rather than efficient. That's all for my second review..looking forward to the rest of the semester!

Ringing in Spring

Walking into Beckman room 206A I asked myself, "what is info systems?" I found that during the first lecture, it's quite relavent to my life. Familiar with technology at a surface level, I think this class will expose me to an array of information that will be pertinent to my career path as an entrepreneur in the future. Do I think it will be a breeze? No. In fact it may be a "Tuggle juggle", but I look forward to learning where IS can assist me and be utilized within business.