CCT 355: E-Business Technologies

Class 2: Technology in Context

Administratrivia

• Networking opportunities• Article analysis scheduling – later today• Case study brainstorming – later today

Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom

• Data - raw bits (e.g., 0’s and 1’s, many computer controls)

• Information - data organized into chunks that have semantic value

• Knowledge - Application of information to tasks and goals of value and importance

• Wisdom - Ethical and political judgements regarding tasks of importance

What is IT, then?

• IT transmits data - but data alone is rather difficult for use to process

• Information is generally central role (why IT has an I in it, I guess.)

• While knowledge is mostly human domain, IT increasingly supports knowledge communities, making knowledge creation easier

• Relation to wisdom?

Input Process Output (IPO)

• Data is provided, computer transforms, data is generated

• Output data usually then become inputs for other processes (including processes that make us understand data as information)

• Garbage in, garbage out (GIGO) - badly formatted inputs break processes, wrong inputs generate incorrect results

• What’s garbage? Depends on the problem.

Open Systems

• Inputs - various sources of data/information, human resources, money, tech, raw materials

• Outputs - Services/products – but also waste and its costs

• Process – must deal with available inputs and create desirable outputs as efficiently as possible

• Feedback loops – outputs are usually inputs for other processes – coordination of processes is key

• Balance – hard to predict – complex systems issues

Competitive Advantage of IT?

• IT can increase speed and lower cost of distribution and production of information

• IT and the productivity paradox - for years, the above was true, but return on investment (ROI) was stagnant or even negative - why?

• Paradox solved - IT now trends positive ROI - why?

Automation

• IT to automate scheduled, simple repetitive tasks

• Increases efficiency, reduces human error • Implemented for years in manufacturing and

logistics management - increasingly common in knowledge work (e.g., tax preparation)

• Examples?

A Balance…

• IT alone doesn’t do much - it must be used intelligently by intelligent people

• People, business process, technology, end objectives, market dynamics, partners and competitors, ethical concerns, legal concerns - all interact to determine success or failure of implementation

• IS types/functions blend – create information ecology usually as robust as weakest link

• Right balance? Well, that’s where knowledge and wisdom come in.

Cui bono?

• Literal translation: who benefits?• Figurative: to what good purpose?• Both excellent questions in any technology

implementation• Technology has potential to shape/be shaped

by existing social structures in an organization

Stakeholder Analysis

• Who stands to win/lose? Whose interests are compromised by corporate action/inaction?

• Suppliers, customers, government, shareholders, managers, information workers - all have varying interests - failure to consider usually leads to unbalanced system

• Not a technology question – but important in any technology implementation and change management situation

Org Types, Stakeholders and IT

• Differing relations among stakeholders in various org. types might enable or frustrate technology projects

• On hierarchy, matrix, decentralized organizations

• Different technologies fit better with different org. types – examples?

On “ba”

• KM framed as managing context – not technology

• Ba = “the context where knowledge emerges and is socially constructed.”

• Paper looks at different constructions of “ba” – a challenging and contentious concept (why?)

No creation without place

• Ba as a contextual space – either physical (e.g., office spaces, watercooler conversations) or virtual (e.g., email, intranets, IM, etc.)

• OL as “the process of making available and amplifying knowledge created by individuals as well as crystallizing and connecting it to an organization’s knowledge system” – and “ba” is where it happens

Tacit and explicit knowledge

• Tacit – informal, innate, cultural, “how things are done around here”

• Explicit – formal, recorded, storable• Tacit and explicit media – examples?

SECI Process

• Socialization – transfer of tacit knowledge• Externalization – conversion to explicit

knowledge• Combination – integration/synthesis of

explicit knowledge• Internalization – reembodiment of new

knowledge as standard practice

Four types of “ba”

• Originating – where people share stories• Interacting – a more consciously designed

structure of social interaction, transfer of tacit stories to explicit knowledge

• Cyber/systemizing – role of IT in integrating explicity knowledge

• Exercising – synthetic application

An analysis of literature

• Social/behavioural• Cognitive/epistemic• Information systems/management• Strategy/structure

Social/Behavioural

• Organization norms and culture• Tolerance of difference/diversity/error• Social networks and connections

Cognitive/epistemic

• Collection of diverse range of opinions/experiences (e.g., requisite diversity)

• Creative integration of different epistemic frames/cultures/communities of practice

• Production and sharing of knowledge, both tacit and explicit

Information Systems

• Design and implementation of e-business technologies

• Simulation, decision support, problem-solving systems, intranets, KM systems, collaboration systems, etc.

Strategy/Vision

• Organizational strategy to maximize value of knowledge

• Effects of org. structure• Learning/sharing incentives• Supporting knowledge leaders and leadership

Case assignment

• Where to get companies of interest?• Who to talk to?• How to approach?• What questions to ask?• Elements of a good narrative?• Proposal in a week – one page of approach,

questions and possibilities notes

Article Analysis

• Scheduling (don’t move spaces please!)• Sources• Presentation Tips and Mechanics – template

up online

Next Week

• A look at basic types of e-business technologies