An interesting topic was discussed in the sixth session of Information Systems' class about Networking and how we define and build a network?
A network is a series of nodes or points interconnected by communication paths or lines. These series can be represented by people, things, or systems as well. A word network itself includes different types of networks such as social network, computer network, telecommunication network, television network…etc. It is very difficult to cover network’s types in one session or one topic, it is almost impossible. In this topic I choose to talk briefly about social networking and how we are interconnecting through different communications’ lines.
Social Networking is basically the practice of expanding social contacts by connections through individuals. For instance, the pictures above show how people are socially connected to each other. To make it easy to understand social networking from a network prospect, let us think of our previous job in the company we worked for. We had friends in the same office and we knew quite few people even if we weren’t friends with all of them, but it is likely that we didn’t know everyone.
Now we moved to a new office or may be to a new company and we start out in a new environment with no friends. After starting our work, we start meeting people, and as we meet them we begin associating with those that have similar interests. In this example the nodes are represented by individuals and the friendships are the lines that interconnect individuals and form the social network. It is the same basic idea in businesses, universities, schools, occasions…etc. This is the way how we form our social networking from a network prospect. People interconnect in different places using different communications’ lines. Online social networking such as Face book, Twitter, Linked in, My Space, YouTube…etc is another path of social networking where people can easily interact, interconnect and widely extend their network. In today’s era online social networks are getting extensive popularity among internet users. People are using online social networks for different purposes like sharing information, chatting with friends, family and planning to hang out. It is the new world of building social networks…

Design For Innovation

In the fifth session of Information systems’ class we discussed different ideas and thoughts about what Design for Innovation is? What is Innovation and what is not?
Innovation basically is an idea or invention that needs to be translated into a product or service. This product or service must have a value for people so they can pay for it and then use it. It is clearly obvious that any new idea must be offered to the public and must have an economic value in order to be considered as an innovation.
Let us have a look at the pictures of the nice designed house above to see whether it is innovatively designed or not? This house was designed by one of the Japanese architectures; he came up with this new design of housing as a solution to space problems in different places in Japan.
In this example the invention of this new idea or new design is not only the important thing even if it was the mother of necessity! But also bringing it to market, putting it into practice and exploiting it in a manner that leads to a new product makes it valuable and more important to meet people's needs. This new innovative design involves new technologies to generate new value and also to bring about significant changes in society. It is also obvious that this new innovative design of housing changed people’s life or their way of living, but it is still not the main point! Basically without having an economic value for the idea and without translating it into something useful and real to meet people needs in the public, we can’t consider it as an innovation. The idea by itself is not valuable, because nobody is going to buy a drawn house on a piece of paper; it is useless and has no value. Actually, the idea by itself is an invention which only has a value to the inventor himself. People may like the idea but it still has no impact on them since it has no value for them. People rather want to see a valuable product or service that satisfies their needs and has something valuable for them. This house can be used by different people and may solve different place problems in Japan added to that its economic value, that’s why people would pay for it and treat it as a successful design for innovation.

INPUT, PROCESSING, OUTPUT SYSTEMS

An interesting topic was discussed in the fourth session of Information Systems' class about what we called SYSTEMS! And how systems can be designed and created?
It seems pretty easy for some of us defining what a system is? And how we can create it or understand it, but the fact is NOT! In today’s topic I will be talking about what we called Control Systems or INPUT, PROCESSING, OUTPUT Systems. The first picture shows a basic example of this kind of systems. When we look at the diagram we may see it very easy to be explained and understood! I may also agree when I first see the diagram, since it only has a simple imaginable picture with few drawn lines in it. In fact we need to go a bit further beyond that. We need to understand what each part of the system means? Let us have another look at the second picture which has the same system’s design but in a bit more complex view. The picture has more than one input that each needs to be completely understood why it has been used as an input in the system. For instance, in the second picture we may ask ourselves, why did we choose eyes to be used or treated as an input? Why didn’t we use them as a process or output?
In order to understand and clarify this step of defining systems’ stages, we need to look at each step carefully and define it clearly in the way that makes it easier for us to be understood and imagined. Input is the first step we need to define in any system. It is the stage where the data flows into that system. We call it input stage because it is the point that data enters into the system. Process is the action of manipulating or transforming the input into a more useful form; it is the stage where data is converted and manipulated. Output involves producing useful information. It is basically the result of the input after processing it.
Back to the second picture and based on how we defined the system, we conclude that we used eyes as an input because it is the first point where the image as a data flowed into. After that the image went through the processing stage which is done by the brain. Finally, the output is the useful information we got from the processed data (image). It is not that difficult to understand such examples. It Actually becomes more difficult when we use some different complicated examples such as the University of New York teaching system! It would be very difficult to understand or even analyze systems’ stages (Input, Process, and output) of the University. It would also be hard to classify what the input, the process or the output is. Sometimes you may say I have a basic idea that the output will be the knowledge that students may learn, but in fact it can be the other way around! The core point of this topic is that we really need to understand carefully how we define systems’ stages and how we look at them from different prospectives.

Visualizing Information Flow In Science

We discussed in the third week's session of Information Systems different concepts of Visualizing and Communicating Information such as Information design and data Visualization. These concepts integrate tools, technologies and methods that enable human beings to communicate more effectively technical information and to extract at a glance greater meaning from it. Information Design addresses effective communication with a rational and scientific eye, while Data Visualization is the key to extract instant meaning from large amounts of information.

These two images are live examples of Visualizing Information on Science.
The first image represents a radial visualization based on hierarchical edge bundling, which gives an overview of the whole citation network. The colors represent the four main groups of journals that are further subdivided into fields in the outer ring. The segments of the inner ring represent the individual journals, scaled by Eigenfactor Score. In the initial view, the top 1000 citation links are plotted. Line size and opacity represents connection strength. The Bezier curves follow the hierarchical cluster structure, using the hierarchical edge bundling technique (pdf). Selecting a single journal (inner ring) or whole field (outer ring) displays all citation flow coming in or out of the selection.
The second image is a network visualization that puts journals, which frequently cite each other, closer together. You can drag the white magnification lens around to enlarge a part of the map for closer inspection. Clicking one of the nodes will highlight all its connections. If a journal is selected, the node sizes represent the relative amount of citation flow (incoming and outgoing) with respect to the selection; otherwise, they are scaled by their Eigenfactor Score.

Life Without Computers

Three weeks ago we discussed in the first Information Systems’ class how the world would be like without computers! Different views and different ideas were discussed in the class. Since we have no specific answer for the discussed question, let us first have such a general view about how computers are used today in our life? Computers are commonly used items in many areas. It is an important thing to people, especially the people who run organizations, industry, etc. . . Almost anything you know is run or made by computers. Cars and jets were designed on computers, traffic signals are run by computers, most medical equipment use computers and space exploration was started with computers. Most of the jobs today require the use of computers. These ‘mechanical brains’ made a huge impact on our society. We still need to know whether we can process our life without computers or not?

Let’s visualize for a minute. Let’s visualize a world without computers. People in the medical field wouldn’t have found a lot of cures to diseases, since most cures were found with the help of computers. Movies like Jurassic Park, Toy Story, A Bug’s Life or Godzilla would never have been made without computers because they used computer graphics and animation in them. Pharmacies would have a hard time keeping track with what medications to give to patience. Counting votes would be impossible without computers and most importantly, space exploration wouldn’t be possible without the help of computers. It’s a pretty tough life without computers. Some may not agree and say, “Well, we don’t need computers to live on.” They maybe right but mostly, they are wrong. Computers help in curing diseases, make entertainment a lot better, keep track of important records, etc. . . Without computers, all this wouldn’t be possible.
I think it would be very difficult to manage our life without computers. What do you think?

Discover What You Know

In the second week's session of Information Systems we discussed different concepts of Knowledge Management such as data, information and knowledge. This movie clearly shows the fact that data and information can not be useful without sharing them with people. The movie also shows that the information is something unclear when you only have it and you don't share it with others! That's why I personally recommend that sharing the information we have is the best way to make it valuable and subsequently increase our level of knowledge