From the classical concept of Services to Service Systems

The “service” concept, which is very comprehensive and diversified, has changed over time and according to the knowledge area where it is used. The integration of technology in personal and professional routines of everyday life has changed its importance, number, variety and, consequently, its defining characteristics. In order to address the new emerging reality, it was necessary to evolve the concept incorporating new “services” and changing paradigms. From the observation of the services, to the abstraction that enables its systematization, there is a set of steps that can be taken and that will contribute to a better understanding of the term. According to Service Science, a Service System definition could be a starting point, which seems to be the actual research trend. This article presents an exploration of these and other related concepts, aiming to establish a set of characteristics/properties capable of clarifying the differences and similarities between the classical concept of Services and Service Systems

Conceitos em sistemas de informação: UML e sua adequação ao FRISCO

A área de Sistemas de Informação tem sido invadida de conceitos mal definidos e terminologia mal empregue, juntamente com metodologias e linguagens não solidamente fundamentadas. Tal tem sido motivo de preocupação para a comunidade de sistemas de informação e alvo de estudos no sentido de analisar, sugerir ou propor formas mais correctas e fundamentadas de expressar o conhecimento e de estabelecer a comunicação. O relatório FRISCO (“Framework of Information System Concepts”) realizado pelo “IFIP WG 8.1 Task Group FRISCO” é um destes estudos, no qual se propõe um esquema de conceitos entendidos como relevantes para a área de sistemas de informação, os quais permitam, juntamente com uma terminologia adequada, uma comunicação mais clara, efectiva e não ambígua na área sistemas de informação. Este estudo pretende analisar até que ponto a linguagem UML(“Unified Modeling Language”) será adequada para a descrição/modelação de sistemas de informação, com base no esquema de conceitos de sistemas de informação proposto pelo FRISCO (“Framework of Information System Concepts”). Este trabalho enquadra-se nos domínios de ontologias, sistemas de conceitos e linguagens de modelação orientadas a objecto, e constitui um contributo para o esclarecimento de questões relativas a conceitos utilizados na modelação de sistemas de informação

Endogenously Emergent Information Systems

This paper analyzes the concept of “emergence” in the context of information systems and discusses its implications to the IS research. The analysis shows that this literature as¬sumes emergence to be an outcome of exogenous, although, complex design agency, largely omitting endogenous emergence, rising from the complexity of the information system and its operational interaction with its environment. Reflecting the IS perspective, the paper reviews research on endogenous emergence conducted especially in Computer Science and Software Engineering

An Information System in Use: Beyond IT Acceptance

Organizations invest in information technology expecting positive outcomes, but to produce the intended results employees must use the technology. This study applies Adaptive Structuration Theory and Social Construction of Technology frameworks to expand research on the relationship among organizational users and mandatory IT artifacts beyond the initial process of acceptance, which currently constitutes the main paradigm in the IS field. A case study analyzes the mandatory use of an academic portal by lecturers and all the changes that users promote to the artifact and the tasks they perform while using it. Our findings show that, if the environment provides flexibility for it, participants refute, adapt, replace and complement the artifact that was adopted by the organization, while they appropriate it, in order to improve their efficiency in achieving organizational goals or their own. Although this study was carried out in a single university in Brazil, we believe that its findings can help expand the discussion of adoption and acceptance of IT in any other context in Latin America and elsewhere far beyond what was possible based on the models we have been using so far. Las empresas invierten en sistemas de información con la expectativa de obtener un resultado positivo, pero para que eso suceda, los empleados deben utilizar la tecnología. Este estudio aplica la Teoría de la Estructuración Adaptativa y la Construcción Social de la Tecnología para ampliar la comprensión de la relación entre los usuarios organizacionales y los artefactos de TI de uso obligatorio, además del proceso de aceptación inicial, que constituye el paradigma actual en SI. Un estudio de caso analiza el uso obligatorio de un portal académico por parte de los profesores y todos los cambios que los usuarios realizan en el artefacto y las tareas que realizan en él. Nuestros resultados muestran que el entorno brinda flexibilidad para que los usuarios refuten, adapten, reemplacen y / o complementen el artefacto que fue adoptado por la organización, apropiándose de él, con el fin de incrementar su eficiencia en el logro de las metas organizacionales o las propias. Aunque este estudio se realizó en una sola universidad en Brasil, creemos que sus hallazgos pueden expandir la discusión sobre la adopción y aceptación de TI en cualquier contexto latinoamericano y en otros lugares mucho más allá de lo que fue posible según los modelos que tenemos utilizado en el área de SI a lo largo del tiempo. Empresas investem em sistemas de informação na expectativa de obterem resultado positivo, mas para que isso ocorra, os funcionários precisam utilizar a tecnologia. Este estudo aplica a Teoria da Estruturação Adaptativa e Construção Social da Tecnologia para ampliar o entendimento sobre o relacionamento entre usuários organizacionais e artefatos de TI de uso obrigatório, para além do processo inicial de aceitação, que constitui o paradigma vigente em SI. Um caso de estudo analisa o uso obrigatório de um portal acadêmico por professores e todas as mudanças que os usuários promovem ao artefato e às tarefas que realizam nele. Nossos resultados mostram que o ambiente proporciona flexibilidade para que os usuários refutem, adaptem, substituam e/ou complementem o artefato que foi adotado pela organização, ao se apropriarem dele, de modo a aumentar a sua eficiência em atingir os objetivos organizacionais ou os seus próprios. Embora este estudo tenha sido realizado em uma única universidade do Brasil, acreditamos que os seus achados possam expandir a discussão da adoção e aceitação de TI em qualquer contexto latino americano e em outras partes para muito além do que era possível com base nos modelos que temos utilizado na área de SI

The History of Information: Lessons for InformationManagement

Information is a central yet difficult concept for information management. To understand the meaningof information today, it is important to understand its history. The goal of this paper is to provide anunderstanding of this history and to make explicit important lessons from this history for informationmanagement. First, a model of information’s history is presented that explicitly focuses oninformation’s relation with ontology and epistemology. Second, the history of information is describedusing this model. This history is then used to explicate lessons for information management today, asit has been unrealistically restricted by a narrow, objective understanding of information. The historyof information provides several directions to change this embarrassing situation

Notions of Information: A Review of Literature

For IS researchers it is important to know and understand the different notions of information,their assumptions and the consequences of using them. The goal of this paper is to inform the readerwhich notions exist in literature of various disciplines. An overview is given of different informationnotions and approaches to information. On the basis of this overview four basic notions are proposed,which I consider to be the most important notions used in literature. These notions are information-asthing(information is treated as if it is a thing), information-as-process (a mental process ofinforming/altering), information-as-social construction (the shared, constructed information base of socialsystems) and information-as-probability (the probability of a message being sent). Traditionallyinformation management is only concerned with information-as-thing. I argue that informationmanagement must consider information in all its perceptions

Context-aware OLAP for textual data warehouses

Decision Support Systems (DSS) that leverage business intelligence are based on numerical data and On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP) is often used to implement it. However, business decisions are increasingly dependent on textual data as well. Existing research work on textual data warehouses has the limitation of capturing contextual relationships when comparing only strongly related documents. This paper proposes an Information System (IS) based context-aware model that uses word embedding in conjunction with agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithms to dynamically categorize documents in order to form the concept hierarchy. The results of the experimental evaluation provide evidence of the effectiveness of integrating textual data into a data warehouse and improving decision making through various OLAP operations

Defining Information Systems as Work Systems: Implications for the IS Field

The lack of an agreed upon definition of information system is one of many obstacles troubling the academic information systems discipline. After listing a number of definitions of IS, this paper defines information system as a special case of work system as defined in Alter (1999a). This definition has many desirable characteristics: It is easy to understand; differentiates IS from IT; covers totally manual, partially automated, and totally automated information systems; links to a life cycle model that generates many insights about development and implementation problems; provides a simple guideline that helps in interpreting common IS/IT jargon; and has other useful implications related to IS concepts, IS terminology, and the analysis and design of information systems. The paper presents the proposed IS definition and evaluates the definition in terms of simplicity, clarity, scope, systematic power, explanatory power, validity, reliability, and fruitfulness. An Appendix summarizes previously published concepts and two frameworks that flow from the proposed definition and are useful for appreciating many points in the evaluation section