MIS Exam 1 Review

Vocabulary flashcards for Exam 1 Review - Spring 2025. These flashcards cover topics from the lecture notes, focusing on key definitions and concepts.

Data

Disparate facts and unprocessed information that don't make sense by themselves because they lack context.

Information

Processed data in context; piecing together data so that the data makes sense, it can be facts or opinions, and moves us to engage our intelligence towards doing something.

Knowledge

Accumulated understanding of information; we can apply info to a decision or action; facts, info, or skills acquired and or learned by a person or org. through experience or education.

Wisdom

Experiential, relational discernment that calls on the mental function of judgment; use knowledge for the greater good.

Intelligence

Information acquisition and analysis, rational discernment, knowledge creation. It uses information to expand knowledge and utilizes existing knowledge as one basis to analyze information; the ability to think logically and abstract from reality.

Wisdom

Experiential, relational discernment, calls on the mental function of judgment. The ability to grasp human nature; “Is it the right thing to do?”

Fact

A thing that is indisputably the case within the appropriate context; a statement that is consistent with objective reality or can be proven with evidence.

Partial Fact

Part of a statement is verifiable (and true), and part is not verifiable (may or may not be true); a statement that is a fact in some contexts but not in others.

Triangulation

Looking at different sources of info about the same thing (expert, book, credible website, video, personal experience).

Corroboration

Checking one source's story against another source's story.

Information Literacy

The ability to know when information is needed and to be able to locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information.

Digital

Describes electronic technology that generates, stores, and processes DATA in terms of positive and non-positive states expressed as a series of the digits 0 and 1.

Digitization

Making a physical document an online asset.

Digitalization

Utilizing digital technologies to enhance processes and create value (AI automation).

System

A whole that is made of parts that can affect the behavior or properties of the system.

Process

A series of actions or steps taken to achieve a particular end.

Inputs

Resources consumed by a process or system.

Outcomes (Outputs)

The results or products of a process or system.

Controls

Elements that evaluate the process according to business rules.

Feedback

Information about the outputs that is used to adjust the inputs or process.

Adjustment

Changes made to a process based on feedback.

Purpose or Function

The guiding principle that directs the controls of a system.

Suprasystem (Supersystem)

A larger system that contains the system of interest.

Subsystem

A component that is part of a larger system.

Enterprise

Intentionally organized set of people, money, property, and abilities, to deliver some value to society.

Synergy

The cooperative effort of complementary parts is greater than the sum of those individual parts; “whole-ism”.

Entropy/Obsolescence

All systems fall apart over time if they don't adapt; constantly repair and upkeep parts; and maintain individual parts so that the whole works.

Sub-Optimization

Systems must sub-optimize to enable the system (or super system) to optimize, designed intentionally to work less than optimally but to perfectly serve a higher-order system.

Stakeholders

People interested in an enterprise.

Shareholder

Owns shares of stock, or equity, of a company.

Business Information System

Enables (and adds value to) business processes to help the enterprise achieve its goals through the collection, storage, processing, organization, and distribution of data.

Structured Data

A standardized format for efficient access by software and humans alike.

Unstructured Data

Information with no set model, or data that has not yet been ordered in a predefined way.

Fake News

Purposefully crafted, sensational, emotionally charged, misleading, or totally fabricated information that mimics mainstream news.

Misinformation

False information that is spread, regardless of whether there is intent to mislead (NO intent).

Disinformation

Deliberately misleading or biased information; manipulated narrative or facts; propaganda (has the intent to manipulate).

Deep Fakes

Realistic-looking videos, images, or audio that are manipulated using artificial intelligence (AI).

Heuristic

A mental shortcut commonly used to simplify problems and avoid cognitive overload, allowing us to quickly reach reasonable conclusions or solutions to complex problems.

Availability Heuristic

If something is easy to understand, we tend to overestimate the likelihood of it being true.

Representativeness Heuristic

If an idea fits well into an existing category, we attribute the characteristic of that category to that new idea.

Anchoring Heuristic

We evaluate new info based heavily on what we already know about the topic, even if what we know is wrong, obsolete, misguided, or irrelevant.

Affect Heuristic

We evaluate new info as good or bad on the strength and direction of emotion the info evokes in us (pleasant = good, scary = bad).

Cognitive Miser

Our tendency as humans is to think and solve problems in simpler and easier ways rather than in more sophisticated and more effortful ways.

Bias

Prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another.

Perspective

A particular attitude toward or way of regarding something, a point of view.

Agenda

A secret aim or reason for doing something.

Information Overload

Experiencing more information than one can process effectively.

Surface Web

Sites and pages that the search engines know about and index for users to find.

Deep Web (or Invisible Web)

Sites and pages behind firewalls or otherwise not indexed by the engines. The casual user can't see these or even know they exist.

Dark Web

Pages that are encrypted and aren't visible to anyone without special access. Activity is kept anonymous and requires Tor.

Search Engine

A coordinated set of programs that searches for and identifies items in a database that match specified criteria, used to access information on the World Wide Web.

Spiders/Crawlers/Bots

Computer applications whose purpose is to find and index content on the web.

General Purpose Search Engine

Search Engine like Google, Bing, Yahoo!

Vertical Search Engine

Search engine focused on a specific topic such as Etsy, Facebook, Houzz, Indeed, Zillow, YouTube, Yelp, Pinterest.

Meta Search Engine

Helps address emphases and “blind spots” that search engines may have.

Precision

% of the documents (pages) you found that are relevant to one's search.

Recall

% of the relevant documents (pages) that are “out there” and that one finds.

Forms of Life

The set of interpretations an individual has as a result of their profession or personal experience.

Language Games

The way people use words is based on the situation, and semantics change over time and without context.

CPU/Processor

Interprets and executes the program (software) instructions and coordinates how all the other hardware devices work together.

Clock Speed/GHz

The Processor clock speed, the system clock produces electronic pulses at a fixed rate, and each CPU instruction takes 1 pulse. The faster the clock speed, the faster the computer runs an application.

Primary Storage

The computer's main memory, Random Access Memory + cache + Read Only Memory, all are directly accessible to the central processing unit.

RAM

Memory where small pieces of data or parts of applications are stored while in use for processing.

Registers

Components of the CPU used to store data and instructions temporarily.

Cache

Used for storing data that is used more often (instead of leaving it in secondary storage) to improve computer performance.

Secondary Storage

Long-term storage (CD, DVD, cloud, external hard disk, hard drive like SSD (solid state drives) → flash memory).

ROM

Non-volatile memory where critical instructions are stored.

Input/Output Devices

Devices (e.g., mouse, keyboard, monitor, printer) that allow users to interact with the computer.

Client Computer

Device that a person uses.

Server Computer

Devices that let multiple people share resources.

Transistor

The primary component of modern computer hardware, a type of semiconductor that can be used to conduct and insulate electric current or voltage; it is a switch (on=1, off=0).

Bit

Binary digit (0 or 1), the smallest unit of DATA that a computer can process and store (memory).

Moore’s Law

The number of transistors on a microchip doubles approximately every two years, leading to an increase in computing power while keeping costs relatively the same.

Byte

Group of 8 bits, operates as a single unit.

Virtualization

The process of simulating hardware and software in a virtual (software) environment.

Cloud Computing

On-demand delivery of computing services such as servers, storage, databases, networking, software, and analytics over a network.

Infrastructure

A combination of compute (hardware), Network, and storage.

IaaS

A subtype of cloud computing service model that provides access to infrastructure capacity through automation and virtualization over a network.

CSP

Cloud Service Providers.

MAGs

Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud.

Public Cloud

Computing services offered by third-party providers over the public internet, making them available to anyone who wants to use or purchase them.

Private Cloud

Internal or corporate cloud, typically dedicated to the needs and goals of a single enterprise, and it may or may not be accessed via the internet.

Software

Instructions that tell the computer's hardware what to do. It comprises a set of programs, procedures, and routines associated with operating a computer system.

Source Code

The language that we use to write code in. Programming languages that let a human write instructions to operate a computer.

Object Code

Binary code; this is what the CPU can understand.

Open Source

Made freely available and may be redistributed and modified; flexibility is maximized.

COTS

Commercial-off-the-shelf: packaged, or canned (ready-made) hardware or software, which is adapted aftermarket to the needs of the purchasing organization.

Operating Systems

Control the operation of the computer's hardware and provide a platform on which application software operates.

Utilities

Small programs that perform tasks related to the management of a computer, do housekeeping chores.

Application Software

Lets you perform specific tasks on a computer, and several dimensions are used to classify them.

Relative Address

Changes based on the position of the cell where a formula is copied.

Absolute Address

Remains constant no matter where the formula is copied, indicated by a dollar sign ($) before the column letter and row number in the cell reference.

Facts

a thing that is indisputably the case within the appropriate context, is a statement that is consistent with objective reality or can be proven with evidence, and can be verified through methods such as critical thinking, observation, testing, and science. 

8 parts of process/system

Inputs, Processes, Outcomes, Controls, Feedback, Adjustment, Purpose ,Time

Interdependence

parts depend on each other

Synergy:

the cooperative effort of complementary parts is greater than the sum of those individual parts; “whole-ism”.

Entropy/obsolescence

all systems fall apart over time if they don't adapt; constantly repair and upkeep parts; and maintain individual parts so that the whole works.

Sub-optimization

systems must sub-optimize to enable the system (or super system) to optimize, designed intentionally to work less than optimally but to perfectly serve a higher-order system (like the human body); Ex: sub-optimize the sales system because the raw materials to make the goods could not be obtained