UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) (01/04/90)
I trying to collect a broad array of ideas that cover the topic of Office Information Systems of the near future. I am interested in current systems that corporations use, or that can be purchased from vendors, but I am more interested in ideas which lean toward the future. I am building a sysllabus for an MBA seminar for non-specialists. Some topics I've considered so far include: Expert Systems -- Both rule based and connectionist ideas about how to increase the availability of expertise in an organization. Decision Support -- Two ideas here. One is to look at commercially available "integrated" user systems (I'd probably have to use IBM's AS) which include database (SQL), statistics (SAS), graphics (pie charts and such), spreadsheet, and so on. The other is to look atadvanced characteristics of word processors and spreadsheets and dbms, or at "Influence Analysis" as represented by the software DAVID on the Mac. Group DSS -- PARC's CoLab, Arizona'a GDSS lab system, and ??? Systems that "improve" group work, such as Email and computer conferencing. Especially, I'd like to look at work that imposes structure on Email. I've heard a little about a system called GIBIS---references welcome. Information Retrieval -- Systems that permit efficient and productive browsing through large corpuses of text. In particular, wht methods are used to share knowledge about customers, products, policies, and so on, which brings us to HyperText -- We'll surely look at some of the articles in the recent CACM issue on HT, and we'll play with HyperCard (I *know* it isn't really HT). Has anyone looked at the HyperText software that ACM delivered with the HT issue. Is it worth using? Technology -- I think that MBA students need some exposure to the underlying techniques. Distributed database, OS, and file systems, and the communications sublayer. ******* What have I left out. What's hot, and what's not. What good articles and reference books can you recommend. Why me? lee sailer
sjm@sequoia.UUCP (Steve Murchie) (01/09/90)
In article: 90003.133030UH2@PSUVM.BITNET, Lee Sailer writes: > >I trying to collect a broad array of ideas that cover the topic of >Office Information Systems of the near future. I am interested in current >systems that corporations use, or that can be purchased from vendors, but >I am more interested in ideas which lean toward >the future. I am building a sysllabus for an MBA seminar for non-specialists. >Some topics I've considered so far include: > >Expert Systems ... > >Decision Support ... You should also consider Executive Information Systems. It's a hot topic in the DSS arena, and probably very interesting to MBA students. Hybrid DSS/ES applications are also a popular topic, more towards the leading edge of things. >..."Influence Analysis" as represented by the software >DAVID on the Mac. There's also products like Lightyear (IBM PC) that are for decision-tree analysis, and Stella (MAC) that do process simulation. >Group DSS -- PARC's CoLab, Arizona'a GDSS lab system, and ??? Paul Gray is doing some interesting things at Claremont Graduate School, and Jerry Wagner is back at it here in Austin. >Technology -- I think that MBA students need some exposure to the underlying >techniques. Distributed database, OS, and file systems, and the communications >sublayer. Don't object-oriented programming systems. Sure to be an important issue over the next few years. >What have I left out. What's hot, and what's not. What good articles and >reference books can you recommend. Why me? For the EIS and DSS stuff, try: "Executive Support Systems: The Emergence of Top Management Computer Use," John F. Rockart and David DeLong, Dow Jones Irwin, 1988. "Decision Support and Expert Systems: Managerial Perspectives," Efraim Turban, MacMillan, 1990. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Murchie | UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!execu!sjm Execucom Systems Corp | Internet: execu!sjm@cs.utexas.edu Austin, TX | sjm%execu.uucp@cs.utexas.edu (512) 327-7070 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------
muhanna@stock.cob.ohio-state.edu (Waleed A. Muhanna) (01/12/90)
In article <90003.133030UH2@PSUVM.BITNET> UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) writes: >I trying to collect a broad array of ideas that cover the topic of >Office Information Systems of the near future. I am interested in current >systems that corporations use, or that can be purchased from vendors, but >I am more interested in ideas which lean toward >the future. I am building a sysllabus for an MBA seminar for non-specialists. Lee, Here is something which, although not quite what you're looking for, might help you. I would be interested in getting a copy of your syllabus when it takes a final shape. Last year I taught a course on OIS which is taken by senior MIS students here at Ohio State. The course can also be taken be MBAs as an elective, although no MBAs did when I tought it. This course was designed to complement other parts of our curriculum, so your mileage may vary. Our MIS program is more technical than average. So, in this course as well as others we tried to balance technical issues with managerial concerns. The rationale is that talking about managerial issues would sometimes be vacuous without adequate technical background knowledge. Despite the increasing number of available books, none of the ones I examined were satisfactory. Most were targeted towards practitioners and written at a level that would insult the intelligence of our senior IS students. Lacking a text book, I prepared a packet of readings consisting of a number of handouts and eighteen papers on a variety of OIS issues. The handouts included among others some background material on Data Management and Decision Support Systems. A listing of the outside papers is shown below in the order in which they were examined. I do plan to revise the list by adding some papers and dropping others while keeping the topics coverage at about the same level. If your audience is going to consist entirely of MBA students, you almost have to do away with the technical papers in the list. OIS: A Framework for Study (1) Galbraith, Jay R., "Organization Design: An Information Processing View," Interfaces 4:3, May 1974. (2) Gorry, G. Anthony, and Michael S. Scott Morton, "A Framework for Management Information Systems," Sloan Management Review, Fall 1971, pp. 55-70. (3) Ellis, Clarence A., and Gary J. Nutt, "Office Informa- tion Systems and Computer Science," Computing Surveys 12:1, March 1980, pp. 27-60. Networking and Cryptosystems (4) Lefkon, Dick, "A LAN Primer," Byte, July 1987, pp. 147-154. (5) Tanenbaum, Andrew S., "Network Protocols," Computing Surveys 13:4, December 1981, pp. 453-489. (6) Rivest, R. L., A. Shamir, and L. Adleman, "A Method for Obtaining Digital Signatures and Public-Key Cryptosys- tems," Communications of the ACM 21:2, February 1978, pp. 120-126. OIS Modeling (7) Bailey, A. D., J. H. Gerlach, and A. B. Whinston, "OIS Modeling for Efficiency and Productivity," in Office Systems: Technology and Organization, Reston Publishing Company, Reston, Virginia, 1985. Languages for Office Automation (8) Hammer, M., W. G. Howe, V. J. Kruskal, and I. Wladaw- sky, "A Very High Level Programming Language for Data Processing Applications," Communications of the ACM 20:11, November 1977, pp. 832-840. (9) Shu, N.C., V.Y. Lum, F.C. Tung, C.L. Chang, "Specifica- tion of Forms Processing and Business Procedures for Office Automation," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering SE-8:5, September 1982, pp. 499-512. (10) Whang, K.Y., et. al., "Office-by-Example: An Integrated Office System and Database Manager," ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems 5:4, October 1987, pp. 393-427. Message and Document Processing (11) Tsichritzis, D., "Integrating Data Base and Message Systems," pp. 356-362. (12) Conklin, Jeff, "Hypertext: An Introduction and Survey," IEEE Computer 20:9, September 1987, pp. 17-41. Group Decision Support Systems (13) Kraemer, K. L., and J. L. King, "Computer-Based Systems for Cooperative Work and Group Decision Making," Com- puting Surveys 20:2, June 1988, pp. 115-146. Management of OIS (14) The Rocky Road to Office Automation, in Information Systems Management in Practice, eds. Spargue and McNur- lin. (15) Meyer, N. Dean., The Office Automation Cookbook: Mange- ment Strategies for Getting Office Automation Moving, Sloan Management Review, Winter 1983, pp. 51-60. (16) Keen, Peter G.W., and L. A. Woodman, "What to do with all those micros?" Harvard Business Review, September- October 1984, pp. 142-150. Implications of OIS (17) Irving, R. H., C. A. Higgins, and F. R. Safayeni, "Com- puter Performance Monitoring Systems: Use and Abuse," Communications of the ACM 29:8, August 1986, pp. 794- 801. (18) Hirschheim, R. A., The Effect of A Priori Views on the Social Implications of Computing: The Case of Office Automation, Computing Surveys 18:2, June 1986, pp. 166-195. Drop me a note, if you need more information. > >lee sailer Waleed A. Muhanna --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Waleed Muhanna Faculty of Accounting and Management Information Systems muhanna@stock.cob.ohio-state.edu The Ohio State University phone: (614) 292-3808 1775 College Road fax: (614) 292-1651 Columbus, OH 43210
arch_ems@gsbacd.uchicago.edu (01/17/90)
>In article <90003.133030UH2@PSUVM.BITNET> UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) writes: >>I trying to collect a broad array of ideas that cover the topic of >>Office Information Systems of the near future. I am interested in current >>systems that corporations use, or that can be purchased from vendors, but >>I am more interested in ideas which lean toward >>the future. I am building a sysllabus for an MBA seminar for non-specialists. > >Lee, > > Here is something which, although not quite what you're looking for, >might help you. I would be interested in getting a copy of your syllabus >when it takes a final shape. I would also be interested in a copy.. (thanks Waleed for the extensive bilbliography). A reference which I have found particularly useful which I did not see on Waleed's list is Gerard Salton's new book: Salton, Gerard _Automatic Text Processing: The Transformation, Analysis, and Retrieval of Information by Computer_, (Addison-Wesley, 1989) ISBN: 0-201-12227-8 Salton covers the following topics: The information environment; the computer environment; the automated office; text editing and formatting; text compres- sion; text encryption; file-accessing systems; conventional text-retrieval systems; automatic indexing; advanced retrieval models; language analysis and understanding; automatic text transformations; and paperless information systems. He is at times technical (describing phototypesetting equipment) and at times pedantic (for a survey work, he explains perhaps too much of the math behind text retrieval) but it is generally a good overview of current technology yours, Ted Shelton ARCH_EMS@GSBACD.UCHICAGO.EDU