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Agenda
1. Welcome 2. Introduction to the course
– Background – Structure – Focus
3. Expectations 4. Brief intro to Information Systems 5. Registration (first lecture is mandatory)
1. Welcome
Who am I? Petter Nielsen ([email protected])
• Associate Professor in the information systems group • Deputy Head of the Department of Informatics • Research interests:
– Complexity, architecting, platforms, standards and infrastructures – HISP/DHIS2
• Managing a global DHIS2 user community (RCAT) • Managing student exchange program (ETHIC) between IFI and Universidade
Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique) and the University of Malawi
• PhD from IFI (2006) • Hovedfag in Systemarbeid from IFI (1999)
• dot.com • VPS • 7 years as researcher/business developer in Telenor
Seminar Teachers
Contact information Ongoing projects Alexander Moltubakk Kempton Office: PhD reading room Email: [email protected]
Digital service innovation, infrastructures and platforms in Norwegian health care. Empirical focus on remote care projects in the primary health sector.
Troels Mønsted Office: 6467 Email: [email protected]
Studies of the complexities of development of (a) generative information infrastructures in Norwegian healthcare and (b) a digital infrastructure for early detection and preventive of lifestyle related disease in Denmark
Who are you?
2. Introduction to the course
Background of IN5210
• First time – Things are not 100% settled (yet) – Bear with me – and do let me know what is not
working!
• IN360->IN364->INF5210
Background: Motivation
• Introduce Information Systems research and practice broadly
• Prepare students for master thesis work – Beyond Information Infrastructure theory –
information systems theories and concepts – Practice reading papers – Practice academic writing
Background cont. • Reflecting the research focus in the Information
Systems research group • Lectures will appear as fragmented
– Reflecting our research group – Reflecting the information systems research field – Your challenge to draw things together!
• Fragments may be relevant for your thesis!
– To learn to know potential supervisors – To use in your thesis
Structure
• 2+2 hours of lecture per week – Monday 12:15 – 14:00 (Postscript) – Tuesday 12:15 – 14:00 (Postscript)
• 2 hours seminar/gruppeundervisning – Wednesday 10:15 – 12:00 (Pascal) – Mandatory (80%), including preparation
(submission of a short summary/reflection document prior to each seminar)
Seminar: Purpose and format Purpose • Prepare you for:
– The course exam – Your masters thesis
• Train the practice of reading and understanding research articles, and applying literature in theoretical argumentation.
Format • Within the Monday before each seminar you must:
– Read assigned paper(s) – Submit a summary (1/2-1 page) and at least three questions per paper
that you find relevant to discuss • Two main activities
– Discussion of questions to the paper(s) – Group work were you develop an accumulated portfolio of course
literature for later use at the exam
First seminar 6/9 10:15 Before the seminar: • Read Sørensen (2016): “The Curse of the Smart
Machine? Digitalization and the Children of the Mainframe”
• For this session you are not required to submit summary and questions.
Agenda: • Introduction to the seminars: Purpose, process, and
activities • Introduction to the “literature portfolio” • Group formation • Group exercise: Reading a research article
Stay informed
• Use the course website – Schedule – Curriculum – Messages
• Read your IFI email
• I am usually always available – Email – My office on the 6th floor
Exam
• Essay (written home exam) • The mandatory assignments and attendance
(80%) must be approved prior to the exam • Graded A-F • 2 weeks, 3-4 days work • Tentatively November 20th to December 1st
3. Expectations
Learning outcomes • Have insights in information systems practices in
organizations, and can relate these to complexity and organizational change
• Have an understanding of core concepts, models and approaches of information systems development
• Have an understanding of the socio-technical and complex nature of information systems
• Are knowledgeable of contemporary debates in information systems research
• Can review academic literature to identify relevant theories and concepts and use them to analyze and discuss empirical data
• Have an understanding of the role of theory in guiding research and as outcome of research
My expectations to you • Come to the lectures • Ask questions and engage the lecturers in
discussions
• Read prior to the seminars • Come to the seminars • Engage actively in the seminar discussions
• Form groups and work on your own • Identify interesting research areas, research topics,
theories, concepts as well as potential supervisors
Your expectations?
4. Brief Intro to Information Systems
What is an Information System?
• “An information system (IS) is an organized system for the collection, organization, storage and communication of information. More specifically, it is the study of complementary networks that people and organizations use to collect, filter, process, create and distribute data.” (Wikipedia)
• Phenomenon/subject matter/professionals • and a research field/discipline
Another definition (of the phenomenon) • “… a set of entities, shared patterns, and information
processing capabilities that support goal attainment.” (Watson, 2014, p. 520) – Entities: people, groups of people and organizations – Common language and protocols for communication – Capabilities like brains, but increasingly computers – For a purpose (utilitarian or hedonic)
• Assumptions that better information systems => we
are better – prepared to attain goals – collaborate – at transforming
Definitions (cont.)
• Does not necessarily include computers – they can for example be paper-based
• Information systems existed before computers
The Competencies of “Information Systems Professionals”
(adapted from Ives et al 2002)
Interaction between technology, people, and organizations
Data, information and knowledge
Information systems and environmental uncertainty
Systems thinking
Organizational competitiveness and information systems
The role of big data
Architectures, standards and infrastructures Networks and networking internally and externally
Information economics, i.e. network effects, lock-in, positive feedback
Relationship between information systems and organizational processes
Implementation of information systems Management of information systems
Ethics, privacy, security
IS as a Research Field/Discipline
• “ … a theory and design oriented study of information technology use …” (Dahlbom, 1996, p. 29)
• “… information systems has for nearly half a
century failed to create a coherent set of principles.” (Watson, 2014, p. 516)
Example of IS Debate Focus on people or technology? • «Some may very well wonder if, when exchanging
«information system» for «information technology», we will lose the social perspective stressed by Langefors. We will become more technology oriented, less interested in human aspects of computer technology use?» (Dahlbom, 1994, p. 34)
• “The field of information systems is premised on the centrality of information technology in everyday socio-economic life. Yet, drawing on a review of the full set of articles published in Information Systems Research (ISR) over the past ten years, we argue that the field has not deeply engaged its core subject matter—the information technology (IT) artifact.” (Orlikowski and Iacono, 2001)
Orlikowski, W. and Iacono, C. S. (2001). “Research Commentary: Desperately Seeking the “IT” in IT Research—A Call to Theorizing the IT Artifact. Information Systems Research, 12 (2), pp. 121-134.
IS research and practice Summarized
• Broad and with vague borders • Relatively young • Information technology and its contexts of
use is rapidly changing – Is knowledge development accumulative related
to the time-boundedness of the phenomena
Future of IS practice and research
• Broader scope than the organization • Driving forces – changes in technologies
– Digitalization in all aspects of life – Distribution and interconnection – Scale and capacity of computers
(Sørensen 2016)
Thank You!
