FULL EXAM REVIEW | ITM100

Weeks 1-12

Patent

An exclusive right to make, use, and sell an invention and is granted by a government to the inventor.

Copyright

The legal protection afforded an expression of an idea, such as a song, book, or video game.

Intellectual Property

Intangible creative work that is embodied in physical form and includes copyrights, trademarks, and patents.

Digital Rights Management

A technological solution that allows publishers to control their digital media to discourage, limit, or prevent illegal copying and distribution.

Legal/Ethical Quadrants

A framework where legal and ethical behaviors intersect, resulting in four possible categories:

• legal and ethical (Quadrant I)

• illegal but ethical (Quadrant II)

• legal but unethical (Quadrant III)

• illegal and unethical (Quadrant IV).

AI/ML Ethical Considerations

Include

• accountability and transparency

• bias and discrimination

• deepfakes and misinformation

• privacy and data protection.

Information

Data converted into a meaningful and useful context.

Secrecy

The category of computer security that addresses the protection of data from unauthorized disclosure and confirmation of data source authenticity.

Governance

A method or system of government for information management or control.

Management

Examines the organizational resource of information and regulates its definitions, uses, value, and distribution, ensuring that it has the types of data/information required to function and grow effectively.

Compliance

The act of conforming, acquiescing, or yielding information.

Property

An ethical issue that focuses on who owns information about individuals and how information can be sold and exchanged.

Policies

Written documents establishing employee guidelines, procedures, and organizational rules for information that set employee expectations about the organization’s practices and standards.

Acceptable Use

A policy that a user must agree to follow to be provided access to corporate email, information systems, and the Internet.

Workplace Monitoring

Tracks people’s activities by such measures as number of keystrokes, error rate, and number of transactions processed

SWOT analysis

Evaluates an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to identify significant influences that work for or against business strategies.

Stakeholder Analysis

A stakeholder is a person or group that has an interest or concern in an organization, and they drive business strategies.

Michael Porters Five Forces Model (Competitive Advantage)

Analyzes the competitive forces within the environment in which a company operates to assess the potential for profitability in an industry.

Buyer Power (Porter’s 5 Forces)

The ability of buyers to affect the price they must pay for an item.

Supplier Power (Porter’s 5 Forces)

The suppliers’ ability to influence the prices they charge for supplies including materials, labor, and services.

Threat of Substitute Products (Porter’s 5 Forces)

The threat of substitute products or services is high when there are many alternatives to a product or service and low when there are few alternatives from which to choose.

Threat of New Entrants (Porter’s 5 Forces)

High when it is easy for new competitors to enter a market and low when there are significant entry barriers to joining a market.

Rivalry Amongst Existing Competitors (Porter’s 5 Forces)

High when competition is fierce in a market, and low when competitors are more complacent.

Porter’s 3 Generic Strategies

Help businesses gain a competitive advantage by either achieving lower costs or commanding higher prices through uniqueness. 

Cost Leadership (Porter’s 3 Generic Strategies)

Aim to be the lowest-cost producer in the industry to offer lower prices or higher profits (e.g., Walmart, Ryanair).

Differentiation (Porter’s 3 Generic Strategies)

Offer unique products or services valued by customers to charge premium prices (e.g., Apple, Virgin Atlantic).

Focus (Porter’s 3 Generic Strategies)

Concentrate on a specific, narrow market segment (a niche) and apply either Cost Leadership or Differentiation within that niche (e.g., a luxury private jet service

MIS Environmental Issues

The three primary side effects of businesses' expanded use of technology include:

• increased electronic waste

• increased energy consumption

• increased carbon emissions.

eWaste

Refers to discarded, obsolete, or broken electronic devices.

Power Consumption

The amount of energy consumed by business processes and systems.

Carbon Emissions

Includes the carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide produced by business processes and systems.

Grid Computing

A collection of computers, often geographically dispersed, that are coordinated to solve a common problem.

Virtualized Computing

Creates multiple virtual machines on a single computing device.

Cloud Computing

Stores, manages, and processes data and applications over the Internet rather than on a personal computer or server.

SaaS (Software as a Service)

Delivers applications over the cloud using a pay-per-use revenue model.

PaaS (Platform as a Service)

Supports the deployment of entire systems, including hardware, networking, and applications, using a pay-per-use revenue model.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

Delivers hardware networking capabilities, including the use of servers, networking, and storage, over the cloud using a pay-per-use revenue model.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

The use of software with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to handle high-volume, repeatable tasks that previously required a human to perform.

Business Process Streamlining

Improves business process efficiencies by simplifying or eliminating unnecessary steps.

Business Proces Re-Engineering (BPR)

The analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises.

Algorithms

A step-by-step procedure or rules for solving a problem or accomplishing a particular task.

6 Types of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Machine Learning, Neural Networks, Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, Expert Systems, and Robotics,.

Machine Learning (ML)

A type of artificial intelligence that enables computers to understand concepts in the environment and to learn.

Neural Networks

A category of AI that attempts to emulate the way the human brain works.

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Refers to the development of algorithms that can analyze and understand human language, including text and speech.

Computer Vision

Refers to the development of algorithms that can interpret and analyze visual information, including images and videos.

Expert Systems

Computerized advisory programs that imitate the reasoning process of experts in solving difficult problems.

Robotics

Focuses on creating artificial intelligence devices that can move and react to sensory input.

AI & ML Bias in Training Data

Bias is a disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair, and any human bias will be built directly into machine learning models, algorithms, and training data

Intellectual Assests / Knowledge

Includes the skills, experience, and expertise, coupled with information and intelligence, that create a person’s intellectual resources.

Costs of Downtime

Associated with lost revenues, financial performance, damage to reputations, and other expenses such as travel or legal costs, stemming from a period when a system is unavailable.

Hackers

Experts in technology who use their knowledge to break into computers and computer networks, either for profit or simply for the challenge.

Malicious Software (Malware)

Software that is intended to damage or disable computers and computer systems.

Viruses

Software written with malicious intent to cause annoyance or damage.

Authentication

A method for confirming users’ identities.

Authorization

The process of providing a user with permission, including access levels and abilities such as file access, hours of access, and amount of allocated storage space.

Something you know, have, or something that is part of you (Authorization & Authentication)

The three categories into which authentication and authorization techniques fall; the most secure procedures combine all three methods

Something the user knows

refers to authentication typically consisting of a unique user ID and password.

Something the user has

refers to authentication that often uses devices such as a smart card or token.

Something that is part of you

refers to authentication that uses biometrics, the identification of a user based on a physical characteristic such as a fingerprint or voice signature.

2FA

This requires the user to provide two means of authentication, typically what the user knows (password) and what the user has (security token).

Prevention & Resistance

Technologies that stop intruders from accessing and reading data by means of content filtering, encryption, and firewalls.

Firewall

Hardware and/or software that guard a private network by analyzing incoming and outgoing information for the correct markings.

Detection & Response

The third technology defense area where MIS focuses on identifying and responding to attacks, often using tools such as network behavior analysis and intrusion detection software

The 2 Lines of Defense

People & Technology

Disruptive vs Sustaining Technologies

Disruptive technologies are new ways of doing things that initially do not meet the needs of existing customers, often opening new markets and destroying old ones by entering the low end of the marketplace and eventually displacing high-end competitors and their reigning technologies, while Sustaining technologies produce improved products (like a faster car or larger hard drive) that customers are eager to buy in established markets, usually led by incumbent companies.

Clayton M. Christensen

The author of The Innovator's Dilemma, a book discussing how established companies can use disruptive technologies without harming existing relationships with customers, partners, and stakeholders.

Web 1.0

A term used to refer to the World Wide Web during its first few years of operation (~1991 - 2003) It was characterized by static, text-based information websites and marked the beginnings of eBusiness.

Democratization

The action of making something accessible to everyone.

Democratization of Business (Context of Web 1.0)

The advent of the Internet removed entry barriers, allowing almost anyone with a computer to compete, thereby democratizing business.

Long tail Marketing

Refers to the tail of a typical sales curve and illustrates how niche products can have viable and profitable business models when selling via ebusiness, enabling companies like Amazon and Netflix to offer infinite products without physical shelf limitations, thus increasing sales.

Disintermediation to reduce costs

Occurs when a business sells directly to the customer online and cuts out the intermediary, allowing the company to shorten the order process and reduce costs or provide a more responsive and efficient service.

Business-to-Business (B2B)

Applies to businesses buying from and selling to each other over the Internet.

Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

Applies to any business that sells its products or services directly to consumers over the Internet.

Consumer-to-Business (C2B)

Applies to any consumer that sells a product or service to a business over the Internet.

Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)

Applies to sites primarily offering goods and services to assist consumers interacting with each other over the Internet.

B2C Operations

Businesses operating in the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) model typically operate in one of three ways:

• Brick-and-Mortar Business (physical store without Internet presence)

• Pure-Play (Virtual) Business (Internet only without a physical store)

• Click-and-Mortar Business (operates in both a physical store and on the Internet)

Revenue Generation Strategies

Include:

• Pay-per-click (revenue each time a user clicks a link)

• Pay-per-call (revenue each time a user clicks a link to an online agent)

• Pay-per-conversion (revenue each time a website visitor converts to a customer).

• Other models include Advertising fees, Subscription fees, and Transaction fees.

Web 2.0 - Open sourcing, content sharing, user content

the middle generation of Internet use - a more mature communications platform characterized by collaboration and sharing, and operating essentially for free.

Content Sharing through Open Sourcing (Web 2.0

Consists of nonproprietary hardware and software based on publicly known standards, where the source code is often made available free for any third party to review and modify.

User-Contributed Content (or user-generated content) (Web 2.0)

Content that is created and updated by many users for many users (e.g., Wikipedia, YouTube).

Collaboration inside the Organization and Collaboration outside the Organization (Web 2.0)

The shift toward collaboration and a sharing mindset, enabled by systems that support the flow of information among employees, partners, and customers.

Web 3.0 - AI & ML

The next generation of online business based on intelligent web applications using natural language processing, machine-based learning and reasoning, and intelligent applications.

A key focus is tailoring online searches and requests specifically to users’ preferences and needs using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to make the business smarter, quicker, and more agile

Digital Ecosystems

A complex network of interconnected entities, including organizations, individuals, digital platforms, technologies, and data, that interact and collaborate within a digital environment, encompassing the interdependent relationships between various stakeholders.

Components of a digital network

At the heart of every digital ecosystem is a digital network connecting hardware, software, apps, and data.

• Hardware consists of the physical devices

• software is the set of instructions the hardware executes

• applications (apps) are software programs designed to perform specific tasks on devices.

Measuring (wireless) network performance

Directly related to the network’s speed of data transfer and capacity to handle transmission.

Measured in terms of bandwidth, the maximum amount of data that can pass from one point to another in a unit of time.

Bandwidth is measured in terms of bit rate, which is the number of bits transferred or received per unit of time.

Network performance metrics

Measurements used to assess and evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of a computer network. Key metrics include:

• Bandwidth, where a higher value allows faster data transfer

• Latency, where a lower value indicates faster response times
  Packet Loss, which occurs when data packets fail to reach their destination

• Network Availability, indicating system reliability
  Throughput, reflecting the data transfer rate achieved.

Wireless networks

Refers to any type of operation accomplished without the use of a hard-wired connection. This network is characterized by connectivity, the ability of devices to connect and communicate using signals like Wi-Fi, and operates based on radio waves.

5G & Wifi 6

Current fifth-generation wireless broadband technology that greatly increases the speed and responsiveness of wireless networks, operating with high speed and low latency, and is the designated choice for outdoor networks and wide-area coverage.

The next generation of Wi-Fi expected to operate at 9.6 Gbps, providing enhanced speed and capacity for indoor networks and high-density connectivity.

Augmented Reality

Allows businesses to overlay digital content, such as 3D models, information, or interactive interfaces, onto the physical world, providing users with real-time, context-aware information and interactions.

Virtual Reality

A computer-generated simulation that immerses users in a three-dimensional, interactive environment. It uses a combination of hardware (like Head-Mounted Displays and specialized controllers) and software to create a realistic, artificial world.

Immersive Reality

An overarching term that encompasses various technologies and experiences (including Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality) that aim to create a sense of immersion and presence for users in a virtual environment, blurring the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds.

WiFi Apps - RFID, GPS, GIS

Three primary business applications taking advantage of wireless technologies are

• Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID), which uses electronic tags to identify objects

• Global Positioning System (GPS), a satellite-based navigation system for accurate locations

• Geographic Information System (GIS), which stores, views, and analyzes geographic data, creating maps.

Mobile Device Management

A security strategy comprised of products and services that offer remote support for mobile devices, such as smart phones, laptops, and tablets. It is used to enforce basic security measures like passcodes and to remotely delete all data on a lost device.

Mobile Application Management

A security strategy that administers and enforces corporate epolicies for applications on mobile devices, assisting with software delivery, licensing, and maintenance, and limiting how sensitive data can be shared among applications to prevent corporate data leakage.

Information Mobility Management

A security strategy that involves keeping sensitive data encrypted and allowing only approved applications to access or transmit it, focusing on locking the information itself, regardless of the device. It governs data across three states:

• data at rest (in storage)

• data in motion (being transported)

• data in use (being processed)

Digital Device

Refers to devices that connect and interact within the Digital Ecosystem and are essential for engaging in a Digital Life.

Network

A communications system created by linking two or more devices and establishing a standard methodology in which they can communicate.

Architecture - peer to peer, client server

The two primary types of network architectures.

The two primary types of network architectures:

• Peer-to-peer (P2P) relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants rather than a centralized server

• Client/server network involves clients requesting information from a dedicated server that handles back-end processing

Topology - bus, ring, star, hybrid, wireless

The geometric arrangement of the actual physical organization of the computers in a network.

Common types include:

• Bus (all devices connected to a central cable/backbone)

• Star (all devices connected to a central hub)

• Ring (devices connected in a closed loop)

• Hybrid (combining characteristics like star configurations connected to a bus backbone)

• Wireless (devices connected by signals between access points).