[AISWorld] A small revolution in the IS field
Roger Clarke
Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
Thu Jan 3 22:16:58 EST 2013
At 2:38 +0000 4/1/13, Dalal, Nik wrote:
>"Wisdom sits atop the knowledge pyramid ..."
I've spent two decades arguing that the presumption that data,
information, knowledge and wisdom can be mapped onto a single
dimension is dangerously wrong.
Details here:
http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/ISFundas.html
http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/Know.html
Summary of useful working defintions:
'Data' is any symbol, sign or measure which is in a form which can be
directly captured by a person or a machine.
'Real-world data' is data which represents or purports to represent a
fact in the real world; whereas 'synthetic data' is data which does
not.
'Information' is data that has value. Informational value depends
upon context. Until it is placed in an appropriate context, data is
not information, and once it ceases to be in that context it ceases
to be information.
'Knowledge' is the matrix of impressions within which an individual
situates newly acquired information.
'Wisdom' is on an entirely different plane from data, from
information and from knowledge, because it has to do with judgement
exercised by applying decision criteria to knowledge combined with
new information.
_______________________________________________________________________
At 2:38 +0000 4/1/13, Dalal, Nik wrote:
>Thanks Nik H. for the wisdom in your posting and to all others for
>raising key questions and issues relating to the broader and deeper
>impact of IS research. In terms of foci of IS research that can have
>a significant impact in the world, can we look at "wisdom", which
>is emerging as an academic area of research? For the next AMCIS, Jan
>Kroeze and I have a mini track on transdisciplinary wisdom for which
>we invite your contributions. As I state in the abstract of a paper
>on this topic, "Wisdom sits atop the knowledge pyramid in the
>Information Systems (IS) literature. Yet there has been little
>research on wisdom in the IS field despite the need to transform
>knowledge to wisdom. Perhaps there is no other subject central to
>human existence whose exploration holds so much promise as wisdom to
>help address myriad crises affecting the worldŠ We believe that the
>IS discipline with its interdisciplinary focus on the relationships
>between information technologies and diverse individual,
>organizational, and societal issues including knowledge management
>and decision support systems is well positioned for wisdom computing
>research." Contributions to wisdom research in IS can be in terms of
>theories applied from various disciplines (including IS itself) to
>build tools and techniques for individual, organizational and
>societal uses. For example, a colleague and I have recently begun a
>study to understand "dialogue" and how technologies can facilitate
>meaningful dialogue (beyond conversation, discussion, and
>decision-making) among diverse groups of people on key questions in
>a domain. In fact, I know I'll be interested to explore potentially
>collaborating with anyone working on a wisdom topic in IS.
Thanks.
Nik D.
Reference: Nikunj Dalal, "Wisdom Computing: Toward a Framework for
Wisdom Research in Information Systems" (July 29, 2012). AMCIS 2012
Proceedings. Paper 14.
<http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2012/proceedings/PerspectivesIS/14>http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2012/proceedings/PerspectivesIS/14
Nik Dalal, Ph.D.
Professor of Management Science and Information Systems
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK 74078
<mailto:nik at okstate.edu>nik at okstate.edu
(405) 744- 8618
From: John Artz <<mailto:jartz at gwu.edu>jartz at gwu.edu>
Reply-To: <<mailto:jartz at gwu.edu>jartz at gwu.edu>
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2013 16:34:45 -0500
To: Ilia Bider <<mailto:ilia at ibissoft.se>ilia at ibissoft.se>
Cc: <<mailto:aisworld at lists.aisnet.org>aisworld at lists.aisnet.org>
Subject: Re: [AISWorld] A small revolution in the IS field
Dear Colleagues,
I would point out that physics was around for 2,000 years,
fromAristotle to Newton, before it began to produce really impressive
results. If we are willing to wait for another 2,000 years for the
research in Information Systems to eventually lead to something, I am
confident that the field willproduce some really impressive results
as well. However, if we do not wish to wait that long we might ask
what we can do to speed things up a bit.
We can just keep stumbling around and eventually enough research will
accumulate for a pattern to appear which will make sense out of what
we are doing. I have every confidence that this will eventually
happen and I have every confidence that by the time it does, we (and
several subsequent generations) will all be long past the point of
caring.
I would like to offer a few fairly simple questions, the answers to
which would greatly speed up progress in the field.
What are the constituents of the field? That is, what is the field
about? What are we studying?
For that matter, what is an information system? (The text book
definition is almost worthless for research purposes)
What would we like to know about the constituents of the field?
How are we likely to find out the things we would like to know?
These are largely philosophical questions. And instead of asking if
philosophy is relevant to IS, as is a current mantra, we should be
asking if the field is going to make any reasonable progress in any
reasonable amount of time if the philosophers of IS don't get busy
and try to answer them.
Just a few thought,
John
On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 11:17 AM, Ilia Bider
<<mailto:ilia at ibissoft.se>ilia at ibissoft.se> wrote:
Hi Nick,
Thanks for posting your reflections. It was fascinating to observer
the unfolding discussions.
Realizing that one created a monster by one's own will is the first
step on the way of cutting off its heads.
On 2012-12-30 20:32, Nik R Hassan wrote:
A small revolution in the IS field
As we approach the end of yet another year in the history of the IS
field, I'd like to say how glad I was to have attended ICIS this
year. It may just be me, but I think I just witnessed a small
revolution taking place (at least in North America) in the field. I
heard IS scholars making unconventional remarks I have not heard
before. I enclose some quotes, and what went through my mind in
parenthesis [I am just reporting - please don't shoot the messenger
:-) ].
[Varun*] "We can do very good research, but that doesn't mean we are
producing good knowledge Š can we create 'better' knowledge?Š
exciting, innovative and addressing important questions of our time"
(whaŠ [my jaw dropping] did Varun just say what I thought he said??
He's admitting we're not producing good knowledge?)
[Varun] "are we scripting the way we do research....requiring us to
select a theory and apply it to our phenomena, create a mid-level
model and then refine it ... add mediators and moderators to it Š
Does this script work for good knowledge?"
(Wow Š I kinda think everyone knew that was the game, the standard
publishing script, and I was taught exactly that in school, but to
hear a scholar say it in public and analyze it Š cool!)
[Bernard**] "I've been looking back at all the work that I've doneŠ I
don't think I've done enough ... We really should be doing research
to resolve significant global problems...
(if Bernard feels he hasn't contributed much, how much have the rest
of us done?)
[Bernard] ... at NUS, we've put together an inter-disciplinary team
and received a big grant using social media to reduce pests ... and
increase food production ... Let's not be too fixated about whether
MISQ or ISR would publish such research ... let's target our work at
Nature or Science .... to earn the respect of others outside our
community
(that's easy for him to say, he's already published tons in MISQ and
ISR. But isn't there something wrong with the picture? Isn't research
that's frequently published in the top journals of the field that's
supposed to make their way to journals like Science and Nature? What
does that say about our "normal" research?)
[Manju**] "After we have had the satisfaction of publishing in MISQ
or ISR, and at least after making tenure and Full, it is time to
start thinking about researching big ideas that make a difference "
(Publishing 2-3 papers in MISQ and ISR, and getting full professor is
going to take at least 10-20 years out of the most productive years
of anyone's life, if they're fortunate enough to get there. Shouldn't
those most productive years already be spent in researching big
ideas? Shouldn't big ideas be some part of getting a full
professorship in IS?)
[Steven Alter in a follow up email]
Our ICIS panel "DSR Š remind me again about whether it is a new
research paradigm or a rationale of last resort Š" chaired by Allen
Lee, with Steven Alter, Helmut Krcmar, and Mike Chiasson Š remarks
similar to Varun Š that DSR is increasingly governed by a script that
makes papers easier to review but Š becoming an obstacle to genuine
innovation Š script encourages DSR researchers to do design-related
work in a way in which few if any designers actually design things in
the real world, which is especially unfortunate for a type of
research that is called design SCIENCE research."
All of these remarks are making me rethink about the notion of
"value" in our work (not to be confused with "usefulness" or
"utility"). It's close to "relevance" but since relevance has so much
baggage attached to it, perhaps we should be taking a closer look at
what valuable research really means.
What kind of IS research is valuable anyway?
Nik Rushdi Hassan
Univ of Minnesota Duluth
Chair SIG Philosophy
*Varun Grover and Kalle Lyytinen presented at the SIG Philosophy
Workshop at ICIS on "IS Theory-State of the Art" - available soon on
the SIG Philosophy homepage
**Bernard Tan and Manju Ahuja presented at the Senior Scholars Panel
at ICIS 2012 chaired by Fred Niederman
--
Nik R. Hassan, PhD
Assoc. Professor, Finance & MIS Dept.
Labovitz School of Business and Economics
University of Minnesota Duluth
1318 Kirby Drive, LSBE 335Q
Duluth MN 55812
Office Phone: <tel:%28218%29%20726-7453> (218) 726-7453
Fax: <tel:%28218%29%20726-7516>(218) 726-7516
Home Page: <http://www.d.umn.edu/%7Enhassan>www.d.umn.edu/~nhassan
LinkedIn <http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nik-rushdi-hassan/33/591/a9b>
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nik-rushdi-hassan/33/591/a9b
Email: <mailto:nhassan at d.umn.edu>nhassan at d.umn.edu
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Dr. Ilia Bider
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John M. Artz, PhD
Webpages: <http://home.gwu.edu/%7Ejartz>http://home.gwu.edu/~jartz
Email: <mailto:jartz at gwu.edu>jartz at gwu.edu
Men are not influenced by things but by their thoughts about things -Epictetus
*********************************************************
* The geometry of innocent flesh on the bone
* Causes Galileo's math book to get thrown
* At Delilah who's sitting worthlessly alone
* But the tears on her cheeks are from laughter.
**********************************************************
This delightful piece of post modern poetry is from
Tombstone Blues by Bob Dylan (Highway 61 Revisited)
<http://www.bestmotivationalposters.com/images/curiosity-funny-motivational-poster.jpg>
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Roger Clarke http://www.rogerclarke.com/
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au http://www.xamax.com.au/
Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law University of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science Australian National University
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