Principles of Information Systems and Data Management - Assignment Example

ICT107 Principles of Information Systems and Data Management [Supervisor Principles of Information Systems and Data Management A1. Use of informatics has been done in some or the other form in a variety of projects be it a blackberry, iPhone or a heavy database system of any organization. Few major examples of the projects using informatics all around the world are as follows: J-Gate is one of a very good example of application of Informatics in this time of the world. It was launched with a concept of electronic access that led to formation of a complete e-journal literature platform. A well renowned company in India - South Asia by the name Informatics India Limited launched it in 2001 considering the heavy need of thousands of people around the world to provide one single platform where they can have access to an electronic library. J-Gate can alternatively be called as an electronic library where users can have access to millions of journal articles being published by more than seven thousand publishers all around the world. It does not support those journals which are not available online so in short it is acting as a proper database for maximum of the journals that are available online. The application of informatics has been done in a very professional and useful way. It is one of the major examples of proper and correct application of Informatics. It is providing a vast database electronically that has access to around more than twenty million articles along with more than four thousand new ones being added on a daily basis. Not even this but it provides proper table of contents of more than thirty thousand e-journals. This availability of table of contents make it convenient for the user to search the journal as per his or her requirement that is either by title, the name of the author, any specific institution or any keyword. Information related to authors’ addresses and even the emails are also being stored in it. Another added advantage of it is that the indexing facility provided by it has been done subjects wise so the search for the user becomes more specific, convenient and as per the requirement (J-Gate, 2010). A very good application of Informatics can also be described by the project called Cell Preven Project for health informatics implemented at Peru - South America. It is basically a real time scrutiny system. Very well trained health care professionals travelled to three districts where the patients were provided on-site testing, infections that were sexually transmitted were treated there and also healthy medical support for female labor was also provided. The workers belonging to the health department who went there for the application of the project took records in real time about unfavorable happenings to metronidazole (a medicine which was used for the cure of treat bacterial vaginosis) and after receiving all the data it was sent through Cell Preven for compilation and examination. Even if there was some extra ordinarily a serious undesirable reactions, the team of health department were in a position to commune with doctors not present at the location through texting the message mentioning the urgency and so were able to provide instant medicinal support. The application of informatics is clearly understandable that the information was available instantly and was processed as per the requirements with urgency along with collection of data in real times by the health workers presented on the field about adverse events at one single point and compiling all this information at one central hub where all of it was saved in a protected web based database (Manne & Curioso, 2007) . Discussing about application of health informatics brings another good example from another part of the world that is Australia. A very informative data base system has been developed in Australia which is MIMS Australia. It is the leading provider of delivering high quality, independent and reliable medical information to medical professionals present in the country. The concept of informatics is widely applied in this project which provides information from new inventions in the medical world to a variety of modules that help making a decision of using the kind of treatment required for a certain case. This system alerts the medical professionals with all the latest inventions in medicine, there application and interaction with food, patients’ treatments, allergies and other relevant health conditions. Under MIMS there are a variety of products being offered in order to deliver the correct information available in an easy way to the correct user. For example MIMS Annual is a printed version of most comprehensive version of medicines reference. It includes information of more than three thousand medicines for prescription, their alternates, and color images of capsules in order to search the correct medicine more easily, and also covering different topics like medicines to be used while playing any sports, expecting a baby or while going to sleep. This all information is properly available in an indexed form making the search more convenient. Another good product of MIMS is MIMS Abbreviated which provides information regarding pros and cons of medicines, the extent of dosage to be taken of certain medicine, treatment to be taken for certain conditions and the like. Same like these there are other products too that help the medical professionals get access to information they required in some form or the other (MIMS Australia, 2010). In France as well there is a project launched by the name PASSPORT. Initially a high number of deaths were occurring because of not providing proper liver surgery to patients. Since liver surgery differs from one patient to another depending on the mechanical and biological properties of the patient so there was no proper mechanism where proper analysis of each patient’s liver could have been done and proper surgery could have been implemented. However, PASSPORT is one of the major examples of storing information in a very specific and required way. This project aims at providing successful liver surgeries to the patients. The main objective of this project is to provide more patient specific and precise modeling that includes “biological preoperative, appearance, anatomical and mechanical information in a synergized model of the sufferer” (PASSPORT, 2010). This project is divided into three models that are planning, education and simulation. This helps in providing the exact patient information in an educative way that helps the surgeons to predict the feasibility of the cure of it. This also helps the patients as well to know the risk intensity of the therapy proposed by the surgeons or doctors (PASSPORT, 2010). Q2 a. Following is the analysis of timetable of Murdoch University as per the thirteen principles that are required for any informatics product: Principle 1: The time table is not providing any information that is old. New information related to the current year timetable has been provided for the assistance of students. Principle 2: The University must not be publishing any information so openly if it is not reliable. Especially information related to classes being held and the exams similarly is very important for every student’s career. Principle 3: The word time table itself depicts itself as something that has to be accurate. Time management is of utmost priority for students and teachers that depend a lot on the information given in the timetable. This timetable is providing accurate and needed information. Principle 4: As far as relevance of the timetable is concerned, inserting specific unit codes gives the relevant information of schedule of class or exam related to that unit only. Principle 5: The information is timely as it is giving the schedules of 2010 and not of future or past years. Principle 6: The information is highly usable for the teachers and students as well. The timetable is not placed in some office where its usage would be of no sense. It is placed at the right location for the exact target audience. Principle 7: No data seems to be missing as times along with each day slot have been provided. Principle 8: The timetable seems to be simple and to the point. Entering specific unit code gives the time table of that code in a very simple and required way. Principle 9: The timetable is economical since publishing things online is one of the most economical methods so less cost is incurred by the university by doing so. Principle 10: The timetable is flexible enough as it could be changed as and when required. For example if there is a cancellation of any exam or the year has changed so changes could be done accordingly. Principle 11: The timetable could be verified by personally contacting the administration department rather than just depending on its publication online. Principle 12: Students are the primary target audience for the timetable and they have the access to it online and at the right time. So this principle is also used productively. Principle 13: The timetable does not possess any confidential information so its security is not of that much concerned over here. b. Principles that seem to be most important for the timetable and those which are least important for its application are as follows: Principle number three that talks about information being accurate, principle number five that emphasizes about timeliness and principle number seven that highlights about information being complete seem to be the most important principles. Considering timetable as a product for students has to be accurate in terms of classes or exam schedule, their location and so on. Moreover, if the timetable is not provided on the correct time then there is no use of such a timetable. For example if classes of 2011 are being updated rather than of 2010 then it can not be categorized as timely information. Also, it has to be complete that is if only time is mentioned and no day is mentioned then it would have been considered incomplete so a timetable needs to be complete with all perspectives (Gammack, Hobbs, & Pigott, 2007) On the other hand the principles which seem to be least important for this table are principle number eleven that is of verification, principle thirteen that is whether the information is secured and principle of flexibility. The reason why these principles seem to be of least importance is because the timetable does not possess any such information that should be kept as a secret. Even if some irrelevant person gets access to it there is no harm to anyone. Verification is also of no concerned since if a university is putting up its timetable then it must be correct and it’s not related to any facts and figures that must be verified before using. Similarly, flexibility is also of least consideration because one can not expect to use a timetable for different purposes (Gammack, Hobbs, & Pigott, 2007). c. As far as my background is concerned I am a new student with English as my first language and I am more of a visual thinker than being someone who prefers text. My background of being a student for so many years and exposure to different schools and their kind of administration that also includes providing convenient information to students have helped me a lot in evaluating this timetable. I am writing with a broad perspective taking into consideration the students category rather than just myself. Students usually feel helpless when they are not provided the correct information whether it is about scheduling of classes, delaying or postponing examinations and so all. Keeping in view these factors I have judged this timetable as a very accurate, complete and convenient one as it gives all the information what is required by a student, whether it is about getting information about the schedule of a certain unit, its time, date, location etcetera. Moreover, most of the preferred method today has become the internet which is usually on the palms of every student so keeping in view that as well the concept of giving online timetable is also of a lot of convenience to students. They just know where to rush by just clicking through their fingers (Teaching and Tutorial Timetables, 2006). Q3a. Considering the examples of musical instruments information provided in Wikipedia and relating them to the topic of Community Naming and Knowing, we can say that Wikipedia is following a very simple and a very adaptive method of providing knowledge. For example, the information given regarding Guitar, in it most of the words used are those which are commonly used and accepted by people around the world. In the information provided it says that Guitars are manufactured from wood. Now wood is that word which is commonly accepted by people (Wikipedia, 2010). Even if there is any word that needs more elaboration or is considered to be as one that needs explanation for few people then it is highlighted clearly so that it could be clicked and the related information and explanation can be accessed. b. Till now Wikipedia is the most acceptable encyclopedia all around the world with no such direct competitors or even if there are then they lack the capability of providing such a vast engine of information. Moreover, there is no such encyclopedia which provides the facility of translation into so many different languages. As per my perspective, it should remain what it is and make it services more customers oriented rather than becoming something that is of interest to specific local audience. The reason being Wikipedia has already become specialized in its service and provides information that could be of help to any person whether he or she belongs to any culture. If it specifies itself as per different cultures then the concept of universally acceptable encyclopedia might be lost somewhere from Wikipedia (Roberts, 2009). c. Yes, there are articles where general consensus can be reached for example if they are related to facts, figures, any invention or may be history. If there are different articles published about invention of any product and the construction of content or language is different in each but the knowledge provided by them is the same then they would be globally accepted. So, what matters is how knowledge is constructed. d. There are ifs and buts of everything provided. Automatic translation would be a solution in a way that one single dictionary or encyclopedia needs to be invented only and facility of automatic translation could be given for a wide range of audience. However, as discussed in the topic Language and Cultures, there are words which are accepted in a different way by different cultures (Gammack, Hobbs, & Pigott, 2007). So, automatic translation might give translation of a word that has different meaning in other language. References Gammack, J., Hobbs, V., & Pigott, D. (2007). The Book of Informatics. http://books.google.com/books?id=Chwg077PIlsC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false J-Gate. (2010). About J-Gate. Retrieved August 28, 2010, from J-Gate: http://j-gate.informindia.co.in/ Manne, J., & Curioso, W. (2007, December). Technology and health care in the developing world. Retrieved August 28, 2010, from Student BMJ Archive: http://archive.student.bmj.com/issues/07/12/life/436.php MIMS Australia. (2010). MIMS Australia. Retrieved August 29, 2010, from MIMS: http://www.mims.com.au/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 PASSPORT. (2010). About PASSPORT. Retrieved August 29, 2010, from Patient Specific Simulation and PreOperative Realistic Training for liver surgery: http://www.passport-liver.eu/Homepage.html Roberts, R. (2009, March 9). Wales on Wikipedia. Retrieved August 31, 2010, from Library of economics and liberty: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2009/03/wales_on_wikipe.html Teaching and Tutorial Timetables. (2006). About Teaching and Tutorial Timetables. Retrieved August 29, 2010, from Teaching and Tutorial Timetables: http://www.murdoch.edu.au/admin/timetables/teaching/enquiry.html Wikipedia. (2010, July 14). Regarding Guitars. Retrieved August 31, 2010, from Guitar: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar Read More