Jon Frankel's blog

Connect! Don’t forget, 10% daily late penalty

Simnet starts this week in Blue Lab (Library 3rd floor) – optional attendance
– All due April 6 – DO NOT GET BEHIND!!

HW Categories – Figure A.3
Input – Keyboard, Mouse (Optical, Touchpad, Joystick), Microphone, Touchscreen, Camera (digital vs video), Scanner (QR Code, UPC, Amazon code

Output – Speakers, Monitor (LCD, LED, QLED, Projector), Printer (Inkjet, Laser, 3D – all materials)

Processing – CPU – Central Processing Unit. Billions of GHz (operations per second). GPU – Graphical Processing units & Graphical Cards

Storage

• A bit is a 0 or 1
• 2 bits – 00, 01, 10, 11
• 3 bits – 8 possibilites
• 4 bits – 16- powers of 2.
• 8 bits – 2**8 or 256 possibilites – BYTE
• Kilobyte 1024 bytes

Primary [Memory] vs Secondary [permanent storage] (vs Tertiary [External])

• RAM Memory – Random Access Memory (ROM) – 8GB of RAM
  • Highly specialized, very fast, but VOLATILE
• Flash Drive (USB) – Up to 1 Terrabyte.
• Floppy Disk – 640KB & 1.4MB
• CD (700MB) & DVD (6GB) – OPtical rather than Magentic
• Hard Disk Drive – Platters & Read/Write Heads – 256GB
  • Solid State Drives – Better battery life (no moving parts)
• USB – Universal data transfer device ALSO power gets sent
  Communications

Kilo – Thousand
Mega – Million
Giga – Billion.
Terra – Trillion
(Peta, Exabytes)

Gordon Moore – Moore’s Law in 1960s – # transistors on chip would double every 18 months (now more like 2 years) – Computers will get faster & cheaper. [Technically, in chapter 5]

Virtual Reality – Interesting, Fun, Future??? [Techincally in chapter 2 under AI]
Augmented Reality – This really is the future!!

Software
Operating System Software – Talk to the hardware
-Windows – Version 11, 10, 8, 7, XP, Vista, ME, 98, 95, 3.1.1, 3.1, 2.0, 1
– Android for phones, MAc – iOS, Linux or Unix,

Applications – The useful stuff – Sold for profit.
Word, Excel, Powerpoint –> MS-Office [home, professional, education]
Browsers – Chrome, Firefox, Edge…

Open Source – Code is available for modification

Licenses – Single User, Enterprise, NOT for resale

Grid or Multicore – Multiple CPUs – Leads to fault tolerance/redundancy

Today we talked about how money today is more valuable than money tomorrow. We factored in interest rates to illustrate what’s the best deal – $1 today, $5 in 5 years or $20 in 20 years. We also looked at how mutual funds work. This material is not in the text (so I will not test you on it) but it is important!!

We learned about the PV, FV and PMT functions in Excel, which we will spend more time learning about in the upcoming excel labs.

Internet is a disruptive technology

• It will DRASITICALLY change an industry eventually
• It will often lead to lower prices
• Others – AI, Smartphone, Cellphones,
• Sustaining – Incrementally better, usually cheaper (with tech)
• Cars – Electric (sustaining), Self Driving (Disruptive),
• Computers – PCss first came out. Laptops

Internet actually invented in 1969!! By DARPA (part of Dept of Defense)
PCs invented in 1981 – by both IBM and Apple
WWW “invented” in 1992 – 3 key events:

• Browser first invented by NetScape
• HTML invented to enable jumping from site to site
• Govt regulation had to allow it also

HTTP, URL, Browser – Internet terms, will do more on these in Chapter 7

Web 1.0 – 1992-2003 – Mostly Static. Selling like Amazon.com, Boston.Com
Why did the web take off – why did it disrupt EVERY industry:

• Convenience – From bed, kitchen table, 24×7
• Save time – Online vs Super Walmart (plus driving over)
• Payment system much smoother
• More types of content (information, news) available
• Any product is available & easily searchable
• Communication – More info available – Customer reviews
• Pricing – ALmost always cheaper online. Coupons, Compare
• Even with shipping, still usually cheaoper online
• Used goods available
• Global market – can get goods from around the world

Company perspective –

• No storefront, no employees! Lower costs!
• Purchasing efficiency! No time to run a 24×7 store
• Global target market- 4Billion who have smartphones
• Pre-order – Guarantee sell some, get the money up front
• Disintermediation – Eliminates stock
• Taking out the middle man (intermediaries) and thus save $
• Better idea of what inventory you have
• More price information availabe
• Lots of follow up – if you didn’t finish the txns, they’ll contact Le
• Errors – less errors because less shipping, less data entry errors
• Better advertising options
• Control goes up – shrinkage, damage,

Models – B2B, B2c (Amazon), C2B, C2C (etsy, Ebay)
(also B2G, G2C…)

• B2B is about 80% of the industry. Late to take off due to risk

Web 2.0 – 2004 onwards – User Generated content

• Facebook, Amazon reviews, Wikipedia
• The more you use it, the better it gets
• OPen Source, Collaboration, Crowdsourcing

Communication –

Synchronous (same time) Both parties must collaborate :
F2F – Face to face
Facetime, Virtual Reality
Phone Calls

Asynchronous:

• Old fashioned USPS – Completely separate send/receive processes
• Wiki (blog)
• Voicemail
• Email
• Social Media – Snap, X,
• Texting (imessage)

Features of Asynch:

• Breaks apart sender & receiver
• Can handle multiple sources simultaneously
• Works better globally (time changes)
• Timed sending
• Reviewable, Forward messages, Revise

Web 3.0 – Nobody know what this is. “Semantic”, “Temporal”, XML.

• These days, we often refer to this as Web3
• People thought it would be all blockchain or Metaverse. Not so much…

Downsides of the Web & Internet

• Amazon – boosted rankings; counterfeit products; fake reviews
• Youtube – Advertising – Bias, the money going to wrong person
• Inappropriate content (section 230)
• Shadow ban certain content
• Fake views of something pushes up the ratings
• Intellectual property violation

Reminders:
Connect due Friday 11pm – 2 chapters, 2 things each
Thursday will be an in-class group exercise. Be here!

Decisions – you’ve already made 100 decisions decisions today
Simple decisions (structured) – based on data (what to eat, wear) – For a store – Inventory replenishing
Complex (unstructured) – Why go to college? Why UMB?
Medium (semi-structured) – Why MSIS110?

From a business standpoint:
Simple – Letting students get into a section of MSIS110 (room capacity)
Medium – How many sections of 110 to offer
Complex – What shoould our curriculum look like?

Formal book terms:
Operational – Day to day
Managerial – Medium term
Strategic – Long term

KPI – Key Performance Indicators – GPA. Acceptance Rate. Graduation Rate. Job Placement.
CSF – Critical Success Factors – How to get there
ROI – Return on Investment. Increased salary for your career? Build a warehouse?

Kinds of systems that companies have

• Transaction Processing Systems – TPS; OLTP (online transaction processing); POS (Point of Sale) (vs Batch systems). Capture data to a database and record it as a transaction, Accumulate Data
• Online Analytical Processing – “What if” systems, Turning Data into Information – Like the amazon ratings, or which employees are showing up on time
• Decision Support Systems – Managerial to help understand what’s going on in a business. Often Drill down so can get details about details.
• Executive Information Systems – Highest level. Not that different than DSS despite book

Restaurant TPS vs DSS
– Orders, Supplies/Managing Stock, Hours worked,
– Total orders, Hours worked, Inventory value

Parallels to data/information/knowledge

Artificial Intelligence – Ai used to be mostly about Expert Systems – Replicate human thinking in
a very narrow focus (like 20 questions or even Deep Blue for chess)

Now AI is more about machine learning, or neural networks – the computer learns and draws conclusions based on data alone. Self driving cars, Jeopardy, AlphaGo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuK6gekU1Y&t=2s)

But – What about AI Bias? Race & gender biases have all been proven to live inside these new thinking machines!

Note – Book talks about AR and VR as AI – I think they’re more just a trick of hardware these days, not so much intelligence. Where do you draw the line between good tech & intelligent tech???

Reminder that first two Connect homeworks (and each has 2 parts) are due NEXT week

• Signup instructions are above.
• signup online with credit card or bookstore code, or get a trial code.
• Remember – late points taken off automatically.

Amazon Systems (parts of an organization and systems behind those parts):

• Algorithm collects searching and buying data and turn it into
  useful information
• Customer information (names, addresses, emails, ce4dit cards..)
• Website itself needs to updated
• Acquisition systems to buy products from vendors & pay them (A/P – Accounts payable)
• Pricing system to maximize profit
• Human Resources systems – Pay employees, track hours, benefits (including health)
• Financial system to collect money from customers (A/R – Accounts receivable)
• Prime system with membership
• Customer service (returns, complaints)
• Marketing system – Both on their website and outside in real world
• Dealing with 3rd party sellers. And paying them.
• Accounting systems
• Finance systems for warehouses & other capital expenditures
• Legal systems

Company goals – to be better than everyone else. Actually to make $$$!!

Competitive Advantage:

• Mac better because simple, interconnected
• UMB – Price – Public, Diversity, BEST Boston, Commuter friendly, Location
• Amazon – 2 day or even same day delivery, reliable, easy to use,
  have literally everything, price, satifaction guarantee

Understand the industry that you’re in. Michael Porter “Five Forces Model” – Your book figure 1.23

Grocery Store Industry

• Rivalry – Stop & shop, Costco, BJ, Whole Foods, H-Mart, Trader Joes
• Suppliers – Trucking industry, Farmers, Weather, Political, Fishing
• Buyers – Variety in stores, Demand, Ethinc foods, Frequent shopper,
  organic foods, local foods
• New entrants – SOme industries more than others.
  • Barriers to entry; Taxi industry Medallion. Bars.
  • Monopoly – No competitors. Utilities, MLB,
• Substitutes – Restaurants (fast food, slow food), Blue apron,

Focus – One of : Cost, Differentiation (Quality) or Focus/Niche
Cost – Costco. Differentation – Whole Foods. Focus – H Mart.

SWOT – Strengths, Weakness, Opportunites, Threats. NOT COVERED.
Value Chain – Again, not covering.

Definitions,
IT, IS, MIS – Sort of interchangeably. Computers to help you get your business running or see definition from last time for book definition.

Data, Information and Knowledge (not defining Business Intelligence yet)

• Data – Raw facts stored in a database
• Information – Data processed into a meaningful form
• Knowledge – Taking information & making decisions.

Funny (?) video about 5 Forces

And then we looked at problems IT has caused through comics