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Class Schedule Change - Time and Location for Tuesday Feb. 10th Class - Please read

Class on Tuesday, Feb 10th will begin at 6:30 in the 4th Floor Programming Room. 

We will be listening to a presentation from Brian McManus, Director of eBusiness @ Under Armour.

Flickr - From a Database Perspective.....

Check out the following link:

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/organizing_images_with_a_database/

It's a great, albeit older article about Flickr from a database perspective. 

I'll be talking about it in class on Thursday. I'd like to discuss other applications that you use everyday that are databases or tied to databases.

When we talk about things like Flickr, and Snapfish, and iTunes and other commonly used everyday applications, we keep discussing the same topics, and how the data is relational. 

I tend to describe the database as the "engine under the hood" of most applications, as it processes the majority of the information that is being requested by users of the application.

However, this class is Information Systems and Operations Management. Not a course on Database Management, so I don't want us to focus too much on the database aspects. What I do want us to focus on is the business needs, and business impacts.

Flickr is a good example (believe it or not) from a business perspective due to the overarching reach of blogging. You can search the web and find someone blogging on almost any topic. Flickr is very commonly used as a repository for graphics to be used in blogs. It is a great repository for standard, stock images, that get used over and over again.

Have you used Flickr? If so, how? And how do you feel your use of Flickr relates to this class?

What's the point of I.T. anyway?

Nothing beats a blog post with a catchy title, right? What's the point of I.T. (information technology) may sound a bit vague for a blog, but let's discuss for a second.

 Now that you all have been thru the process of your first blog, I think it's important to take a step back and look at why we are doing this.

The point of the course overall, is that I.T. is everywhere, and touches every aspect of business. Hopefully, you are seeing that in the cases we have been reviewing, and the articles you have been blogging about. What I want everyone to think about as we get deeper into the semester, is how deep is the impact of IT. As you work on your group projects, you should start to begin to see trends, related to the types of systems being used, as well as why they are being used.

Let's think about it by industry for a second. Healthcare systems need IT for patient record keeping. Financial Institutions need IT to help you keep track of your money. Automotive companies need IT to help them sell and market more product.

In some ways all of the courses that you are taking build the backbone of everyday businesses. All the facets of the general business curriculum (Economics, Finance, Accounting, Marketing, etc) all rely on a common thread now....IT. IT has both a horizontal and vertical impact on corporations.

The title of this course is "Information Systems and Operations Management". So far weve been focusing on the Information Systems components. As the semester progresses, we'll be tying back more and more to how information systems impact operations management.

As you are contemplating your next blog topic, start by reading an article or a case study that you normally wouldn't. Buy a copy of the Wall Street Journal or CIO Magazine. Google some of the catch phrases we've covered in class. Research things like trends in IT. Why?

Let's look at the example of xobni.com that we covered in class. A practical advancement in IT that helps all facets of business. The same thing could be said with pieces like Google docs, and the other Google apps.

My intent with this course is not to have you regurgitate information back to me, or for you to all focus on the same topics. I want you all to walk away from this class at the end of the year with a handful of practical tools in your proverbial tool belt as related to IT.  And, at the end of the semester, to be able to truly answer the question, what is the point of IT?

Let's talk about surveys.....

We're going to spend a lot of time talking about survey creation tomorrow. I've created a new account on surveymonkey.com and will be sending over the login information shortly.

For the project, your groups are going to get assigned one of four topics. As a group we'll talk about the types of questions you'll want to ask in order to get valuable data. Remember, garbage in, garbage out. 

Example: Dunkin Donuts vs. Krispy Kreme donuts. 

You'll want to put together a series of questions that build a case based off of related data.

That being the case, you'll want to ask such questions as which age group are you, what area of the country are you from, are you an undergrad student or graduate, etc. 

See you all in class.

What happens when you build it, and they don't come?

Class,

Based on the case study send earlier today, please provide comments on the following:

What is sales force automation?
What problems were Biotronics trying to solve?
What do you feel they did right?
What do you feel they did poorly?
What should they have done differently?
How could they have achieved more user acceptance?

Please be concise with your posts. Use the "Purpose, Proceedure, Observation, Conclusion" model we discussed in class.

Thanks in advance. If you have difficulty posting to this blog, please let me know. Please comment prior to 1/27/09