Seminar 2. IT development and diffusion…

Information Systems: stages of development?

This session will first explicate the convergence of computing and communications technologies, the development of ever more sophisticated applications of these technologies, their diffusion, and the associated expansion of access to ICT facilities. The second part of the seminar will discuss "stages" of Information Systems Development in organisational use of the new technologies.

The discussion topic will be: are there really "stages" in Information Systems development? are stages models still relevant? do they need to be elaborated to address new developments? what are the implications for managers?

Readings

SOURCES ON "STAGES" OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT IN ORGANISATIONS:

Make sure that you are familiar with the literature on "stages" that follows from Nolan's work (1973: Managing the computer resource: a stage hypothesis) ; look for instance for Bob Galliers' work via Google scholar (he has a good book, and the classic review - does this need updating? is:

• Galliers, R D; Sutherland, A R, 1991, "Information systems management and strategy formulation: The "stages of growth" model revisited" in Journal of Information Systems. Vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 89-114. 1991

I have had no luck in locating this online, however: anyone that can help with this, please do, its a vital paper! Here is a relevant study you can get via JRUL, however:

• S Newell, JA Swan, RD Galliers 1999 “A knowledge-focused perspective on the diffusion and adoption of complex information technologies: the BPR example” Information Systems Journal vol:10 issue 3 pp:239-

On stages in IS planning:

• V Grover, AH Segars, 2005 “An empirical evaluation of stages of strategic information systems planning: patterns of process design and effectiveness” Information & Management: vol:42 iss:5 pg:761- available via JRUL

On IS outsourcing - we return to this in later weeks:

• "Information systems outsourcing: a survey and analysis of the literature" by Dibbern et al, 2004, The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems - Fall 2004 (Vol. 35, No. 4) http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1035236

ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND "STAGES" OF INFORMATION SOCIETY

¨ I Miles 2001 “Information technology: A continuing revolution“ Background paper for the World Employment Report 2001: Life at Work in the Information Economy, published in the CD-ROM version ISBN 92-2-112343-X Geneva, ILO 2001 (available electronically on WebCT)

• I Miles 2005, “Be Here Now” INFO Vol. 7 No. 2, 2005 pp49-71 (I am putting a copy of an early draft of this paper online at the following locations (I hope one or bopth of them work, if not contact me for a copy): Mediafire at http://www.mediafire.com/?etmjkzyvyl1 and Savefile at http://savefile.com/files/450829

¨ David C. Mowery, Timothy Simcoeat “Is the Internet a U.S. Invention? – An Economic and Technological History of Computer Networking” at http://www.druid.dk/conferences/nw/paper1/movery.pdf

¨ Paul Windrum,"The collective invention of the World Wide Web ", December 1998 at http://www.dauphine.fr/imri/COLLINE/CONTENTS.html#CONTENTS%2004 Sorry, this is now an invalid URL, though details of the wider project are still available at the IMRI website.

¨ Good set of links to IT history: http://www.yorku.ca/sasit/sts/sts3700b/it_links.html

¨ more material at: http://www.computinghistorymuseum.org/

¨ popular history of computer http://www.thocp.net/

¨ http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~mck/ there is an article by this author on the history of the history of computing – possibly at: http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/reports/

Websites of interest include: http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/resources/infoecon/ http://vmoc.museophile.sbu.ac.uk/ ;http://www6.compaq.com/rcfoc/

THE FIRST SEMINAR, HELD 29 Jan, WAS: 1. Introduction – Alternative Approaches to “Knowledge Economy “ and “Information Society” Introduction to the course and subject area. Basic foundations: Why have the concepts of Knowledge Economy and Information Society become important, where do they originate? What are the main orientations adopted by commentators? What are the virtues and limitations of various approaches? Readings (ALL of these are relevant sources for later seminars, so don’t worry if you have not read them today!) ¨ Frank Webster 1995 Theories of the Information Society Routledge ¨ A Duff, 2000, Information Society Studies London: Routledge ¨ J R Beniger, 1986, The Control Revolution Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press ¨ Manuel Castells 1997 The Network Society London: Blackwells ¨ Daniel Bell The Coming of Post-Industrial Society Basic Books ¨ Carlota Perez, 1983, Structural Change and Assimilation of New Technologies Futures 15 no 5 pp357-375 ¨ The Information Society Journal: http://www.slis.indiana.edu/TIS/index.html (full text versions of all articles are available via the University library website (enter a periodicals search for ‘The Information Society’ and follow the links) Seminar question/exercise: ‘What are the main features of Knowledge Economy and Information Society –and how do the two differ - in terms of Technological; Economic; Occupational; Spatial; and Cultural factors? Where are the strengths and weaknesses of social, socioeconomic, and sociotechnical approaches?’

6. Course Timetable*

	Date at 10.00–13.00	Topic	Lecturer
	29th Jan, 2007	1. Introduction – Alternative Approaches to “Knowledge Economy “ and “Information Society	Ian Miles
	5thFeb, 2007	2. IT development and diffusion… Information Systems: stages of development?	Ian Miles
	12th Feb, 2007	3. Information Technology Revolution… Indicators of “Knowledge Economy “ and “Information Society”	Jonathan Aylen
	19th Feb, 2007	4. IT Success – and failures… Paradigms, designs, and institutions	Ian Miles
	26th Feb, 2007	5. Services and the Information Society… Virtual communities	Ian Miles
	5th March, 2007	6. E-Business… Electronic Commerce	Lawrence Green
	12th March, 2007	7. E-skills and IT Work... Organisational Structures	Lawrence Green
	19thMarch, 2007	8. Digital Content and New Media... Challenges of Convergence	Kieron Flanagan, Ian Miles
	26th March, 2007	9. New markets and consumption patterns? … A world Knowledge Economy/Information Society?	Ian Miles
	Vacation
	23rd April, 2007	10. e-government …. Policy Dimensions. … Series review	Ian Miles & Lawrence Green
	14 May, 2007	Submission of Essay

*Please note: owing to the commitments of PREST staff, the timing and sequence of lectures may be subject to change. Alternative topics may be addressed in later sessions subject to student demand (e.g. ‘International Development’; ‘Globalisation’; ‘e-government’, ‘Health’, IT futures etc.).

5. Key Readings

There are several collections that provide useful and wide-ranging introductions to the field (though no one of these is sufficient by itself). In particular we recommend:

• John Armitage and Joanne Roberts (eds) (2002) Living With Cyberspace: Technology & Society in the 21st Century London: The Athlone Press

• K Ducatel (ed.) Employment and Technical Change in Europe Aldershot, Edward Elgar, 1994

• Alistair Duff, 2000, Information Society Studies London: Routledge

• W Dutton (ed.) Information and Communications Technologies: Visions and Realities Oxford, Oxford University Press

• N Heap, R Thomas, G Einon, R Mason, H Mackay (eds.) 1995, Information Technology and Society London, Sage

• OECD, 1996, Employment and Growth in the Knowledge-based Economy Paris OECD, (various relevant documents are on the OECD websites at http://www.oecd.org, http://caliban.sourceoecd.org/vl=2937619/cl=24/nw=1/rpsv/home.htm )

Plus such websites as:

• http://srsweb.nsf.gov/it_site/html/rm_main.htm

• http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/

There are also some valuable research programmes that have published a good deal of material online. The first two are fairly wide-ranging social science; the others focus more on specific issues.

• Virtual society: http://virtualsociety.sbs.ox.ac.uk/intro.htm

• E-Society http://www.london.edu/e-society/

• FISTERA http://fistera.jrc.es/

• JANUS http://www.janus-eu.org/Temp2/index-f.htm

• MUTEIS http://muteis.infonomics.nl/ (I found this a poorly organised site, though the content is interesting. A good way into this is via http://muteis.infonomics.nl/?q=filestore2 )

• RISESI http://www.risesi.org/

• SEAMATE http://www.seamate.net/

This is a mainly UK/EU list – perhaps you can locate good sites in other regions. It’s also worth checking out what the big international organisations have to offer in the area: look for instance at OECD, ILO, EUROPA and several UN sites. Downloadable papers will be put on WebCT.

There is a huge number of relevant journals, e.g. The Information Society and various journals on innovation, futures and science and technology policy themes, as well as specialised IT, new media, information science and related journals.

3. Teaching Style and Methods

For most of the series (approx.) one half of the session will consist of a lecture, and the other half (approx.) will involve structured discussion of a particular topic. Often this will be based upon specified readings, with or without presentations by students. Some seminars will also contain an element of groupwork: for example, groups might be tasked with considering the indicators appropriate for measuring the development of “Information Society” in different regions, or with identifying major new occupational types or business opportunities.

4. Method of Assessment

This 15-credit course unit will be assessed as follows:

50% by examination

50% by by means of one piece of written coursework (c 3,000 words) dealing with the various themes of the course unit, selected from a number of set questions. Preferably this essay will draw on contributions to class discussions and group exercises.

Deadlines for Submission

The following deadlines will follow for the written coursework:

a) One page outline for approval (deadline to follow)

The one page outline should have your name and contact details (address and email address), the proposed title of your assignment and a brief description of your study (up to 500 words). We will respond to you within a week to approve the study or to suggest changes.

b) Full report (14 May)

Marks will be given for:

(i) Adequacy of approach, methods and argument to topic addressed. (50% marks);

(ii) Application of relevant concepts from the course and associated literature (25% marks); and,

(iii) Quality of analysis, synthesis of material, and written presentation (25% marks).

First Marker: Ian Miles

Second Marker: Lawrence Green

2. Course Objectives

The course seeks to provide an introduction to academic, business and policy concepts surrounding "Knowledge Economy” and “Information Society”, and examines key issues of technological, social and economic change that arise in this context.

After successfully completing the course, students should have:

(In relation to Subject Knowledge and Understanding)

• Covered the main academic literature relating to “Knowledge Economy” and “Information Society”, and have a much-improved understanding of the key concepts and disputes in this subject area.

• An awareness of established and emerging themes relating to the application of Information Technology across the economy and society, and the lines of research into these themes that have been developed.

• An awareness of wider policy and strategy issues facing firms, governments and social actors related to the use of information and knowledge in contemporary society, and the approaches being adopted by management and policymakers.

(In relation to Cognitive Skills)

• An ability to identify and assess indicators relevant to these themes, and develop outline research projects in the field.

• An ability to locate relevant literature and data sources from libraries and the Web, and to use these effectively for seminar contributions and for the written essay.

(In relation to Professional and Practical Skills)

• Prepared an essay on one relevant theme, and made a presentation on a further topic within the seminar series

(In relation to Transferable Skills)

•Participated in group discussion and teamwork.

• Developed presentational skills to report on a topic to the seminar group.

The “Knowledge Economy and Information Society” module should allow students to be sufficiently well-informed and skilled in order that they might consider undertaking further research associated with the topics addressed, for example in the context of a PhD degree.

KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY AND INFORMATION SOCIETY

(Code: BMAN 62052)

Academic Year 2006-07

M.Sc. in Science and Technology Policy and Management, MBS

Non-Core Module

Second Semester

Credit Rating 15 credits

Contact Hours 30

Study Hours 120 private study = 150 hours total

Day & Time Monday, 10.00am – 13.00pm

Venue Level 10 Teaching Room (10.02)

Contact Persons: Ian Miles (Harold Hankins room 8.19); Phone: Ext. 57360,

Email: Ian.Miles@manchester.ac.uk

Lawrence Green (Harold Hankins room 8.16); Phone: Ext. 50924,

Email: lawrence.green@manchester.ac.uk

Lecturers: Professor Ian Miles, Dr Jonathan Aylen, Dr Kieron Flanagan, and Dr Lawrence Green

1. Aims

The course provides an introduction to academic, business and policy concepts surrounding “Knowledge Economy” and “Information Society”, examining key elements of technological, social and economic change in this context. These terms, “Knowledge Economy” and “Information Society”, have come into wide use. They are deployed frequently - and often interchangeably - by policymakers, journalists, and other commentators as well as by scholarly researchers and managers in industry. They are used to signify distinctive and substantial changes, taking place around the turn of the millennium, in the economy and society of developed countries and emergent economies alike. (Though even this is disputed by some commentators - who say, for example, that change is perennial, nothing much is really new about the present period. Such commentators often reject the two terms outright, and their criticisms need to be considered.) There are many different accounts of what the main and distinctive elements of these changes might be. Such elements include: new modes of business and institutional organisation (“knowledge-based economies”, “post-Fordism”, “the control revolution”), rapid increases in capabilities for information processing and communication (the “IT revolution”, the “e-economy”, the network economy), new information- and IT-based industries (“information economies”, “content is king”).

This course explores the issues raised by these various accounts of Knowledge Economy and Information Society. This course will draw upon both theoretical and empirical material, including macrostatistics and case‑studies. It should provide students with improved understanding of the issues raised; the concepts and theories that may be used to understand them; and the implications for policies and strategies in public and business affairs. More broadly, the course will also mean considering how relations between technological and socioeconomic change can be understood, as well as examining approaches to management and policy issues concerning Information Technology.

Course Unit Title	KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY AND INFORMATION SOCIETY
Course Unit Code	BMAN 62052
Programme(s)	M.Sc./Diploma Science and Technology Policy and Management
Course Unit Co-ordinator	IAN MILES
Associated Staff	LAWRENCE GREEN
Credit Rating	15
Semester	Two
Level	Level 4 in National Framework (Masters level)
Methods of Delivery	10 sessions of 2.5 hours. Most sessions will feature two parts. (1) A lecture/discussion of 1.25 hour on a theme from one of the two strands of work (Knowledge Economy and Information Society); (2) groupwork, an exercise, or a structured discussion of 1.25 hour of specified readings and/or presentations by seminar members concerning a theme from the other strand of work of overviews of relevant topics.
Lecture Hours
Seminar Hours	25
Private Study	125
Total Study Hours	150
Aims	The course provides an introduction to academic, business and policy concepts and practices surrounding “ Knowledge Economy” and “Information Society”. It will examine the key elements of technological, social and economic change, and the strategies and policies that have arisen, in this context. It will thus be an explication of how we can examine relations between technological and socioeconomic change, as well as examining approaches to and management and policy issues concerning Information Technology, and related developments, in particular.
Learning Outcomes	(In relation to Subject Knowledge and Understanding) • Familiarity with the main academic literature relating to “Knowledge Economy “ and “Information Society”, and of the key concepts and disputes in this subject area. • Awareness of established and emerging themes relating to the application of Information Technology across the economy and society, and the lines of research into these themes that have been developed. • Awareness of wider policy and strategy issues facing firms, governments and social actors related to the “Knowledge Economy “ and “Information Society”, and the approaches being adopted by management and policymakers. (In relation to Cognitive Skills) • Ability to identify and assess indicators relevant to these themes, and develop outline research projects in the field. • Ability to locate relevant literature and data sources from libraries and the Web, and to use these effectively for seminar contributions and for the written essay. (In relation to Professional and Practical Skills) • Prepared an essay on one relevant theme, and made a presentation on a further topic within the seminar series (In relation to Transferable Skills) • Participated in group discussion and teamwork. • Developed presentational skills to report on a topic to the seminar group. The course should allow students to be sufficiently well-informed and skilled to undertake further research associated with the topics, for example in the context of a PhD degree.
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
Dependant Course Units	None
Syllabus	Introduction – Alternative Approaches to “Knowledge Economy “ and “Information Society”, Information Technology Revolution… Indicators of “Knowledge Economy “ and “Information Society”, IT development and diffusion… Information Systems: stages of development? IT Success – and failures… Paradigms, designs, and institutions. Services and the Information Society… Virtual communities. E-Business… Electronic Commerce 7. E-skills and IT Work... Organisational Structures Digital Content and New Media... Challenges of Convergence New markets and consumption patterns? … A world Knowledge Economy/Information Society? e-government …. Policy Dimensions
Reading List	Some of the more generic texts: A Duff, 2000, Information Society Studies London: Routledge J R Beniger, 1986, The Control Revolution Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press Manuel Castells 1997 The Network Society London: Blackwells Frank Webster 1995 Theories of the Information Society Routledge I Miles 2001, Services Innovation: A Reconfiguration of Innovation Studies, University of Manchester: PREST discussion paper DP01-05 (available online at PREST website) OECD (biannual) IT Outlook Paris, OECD (annual, available on OECD website) John Houghton (1999) 'Mapping Information Industries and Markets,' Telecommunications Policy, Vol 23(10-11) 1999, pp689-699.
Assessment Methods & Relative Weightings	This 15-credit course unit will be 50% assessed by means of one piece of written coursework (c 3,000 words) dealing with the various themes of the course unit, selected from a number of set questions, and preferably drawing on contributions to class discussions and group exercises. A further 50% of assessment will come from the examination.