COP 4910 Frontiers in Information Technology Lecture 2

COP 4910 Frontiers in Information Technology Lecture 2 Top 10, Favorite 5, Other Stuff Hal Stringer 1

Today’s Agenda • Top 10 Review – Grading and common mistakes – Items selected for Favorite 5 – Items rejected (why? ) • Favorite 5 Assignment – Requirements – Change in Due Date • What is IT? • Scale, Specialization and Responsiveness 2

Top 10 List Review • Each member of task force to prepare list of 10 emerging technologies that may have an effect on ABC Widget Company over the next 2 -5 years • Avoid previously investigated technologies – Wireless & satellite networking, 802 Protocols – VOIP, RFID, Digital Paper, or IPv 6 • For each technology: – One paragraph description – Citation for reference where information found • use at least 4 different sources for entire list – Must include at least 3 software technologies 3

Top 10 List Review (cont. ) • Use standard format with following sections: – – Title Page Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Top 10 Technologies • each technology as a separate 2 nd level heading – List of References • Email to me by midnight Saturday, May 15 th – Send single MS Word. doc file – No zipped files please • I will try and reply on Sunday with favorite five 4

Grading Top 10 List • Hope to have them graded by Thursday • Most common mistakes – – – – – No Table of Contents No Parenthetical Citations No Reference Lists No Use of Section Numbers/Headings No Consistent Style Spelling/Grammar Errors Improper Pagination and Missing Page Numbers Turned in less than 10 technologies Last but not least, six of you turned in the report late • You each need to learn how to use MS Word!!! – Buy a book, use the Help feature, take a class. . . – To help out, I’ll give a MS Word tutorial on Thursday 5

Top 10 List Results • 87 Technologies Accepted – Kept preferred technologies if possible – Kept most appropriate for business – Some were selected due to lack of good choices • 68 Technologies Rejected – – Too consumer oriented Too current Not easily implemented Too specific • Compilation of Top 10 Lists posted on Website. 6

Favorite 5 Report • Emails sent out Monday with list of my Favorite 5 • You must create mini report on these five technologies – one page (double spaced) synopsis of each technology on separate page with its own second level heading. Include in your synopsis: • a description of the technology • how ABC Widget would use the technology • how the company would benefit from its implementation and • any downsides to the technology – use a professional business format for this second assignment including a title page, table of contents, introduction, and reference page. – one authoritative reference source for each technology. • Look at Citeseer for academic publications • Due date extended to midnight Friday via email • Include preference for Winning 1 presentation 7

What is Information Technology? • Answer depends on your point of view • What’s most important -- Changes over time: – CRTs – Networks and Communications – Database Managers & Office Automation – Personal Computers – Multiplan / Lotus 123 – Facsimile Machines & Cheap Long Distance – Windows / Access – Local Area Networking & Client/Server Computing – Internet, Google & Email – Object Oriented Programming (java) – My current favorite? • What’s important / interesting to each of you today and tomorrow? 8

Scale, Specialization and Responsiveness • Everything varies based on the size of an organization • This difference in scale impacts – Infrastructure Cost • Minimal to $$$$ – Employee skill requirements • General to Special – Speed of Change • Rapid to Slow 9

Thursday’s Topics • Hand back graded Top 10 Lists • Keys to Success in IT (as well as this class & life) • Winning 1 presentation requirements & schedule – Giving a good presentation – Evaluation Criteria • How to work with Microsoft Word 10