Course Schedule: Spring 2003

This course explores the relationship between organizations and the development and use of information technology and systems. It presumes that organizational models reflect the opportunities created by information technology and the changing institutional context. We will compare the implications of different organizational models for knowledge and information flows, learning within and between organizations, and learning between organizations and their environment. Case materials will draw from private and public sector organizations as well as professional, educational and other non-profit organizations. We will devote special attention to organizational transformations associated with new models of innovation and the “network” or knowledge economy.

The course is recommended for MIMS students, SIMS Ph.D. students, and graduate students in other departments with an interest in the relationship between information technology and the transformation of organizations.

Three hours of lecture per week. User interface design and human-computer interaction. Examination of alternative design. Tools and methods for design and development. Human- computer interaction. Methods for measuring and evaluating interface quality.

This course covers the design, prototyping, and evaluation of user interfaces to computers which is often called Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). It is loosely based on course CS1 described in the ACM SIGCHI Curricula for Human-Computer Interaction (Association for Computing Machinery, 1992).

HCI covers many topics including:

1. Human capabilities (e.g., visual and auditory perception, memory, mental models, and interface metaphors);
2. Interface technology (e.g., input and output devices, interaction styles, and common interface paradigms); and,
3. Interface design methods (e.g., user-centered design, prototyping, and design principles and rules), and interface evaluation (e.g., software logging, user observation, benchmarks and experiments).

This material is covered through lectures, reading, discussions, homework assignments, and a course project. This course differs from CS 160 primarily in two ways:

1. There is an emphasis on interfaces for information technology applications; and,
2. There is less emphasis on programming and system development, although some simple prototyping (for example, in visual basic or using JAVA GUI development tools) may be required. (CS 160 has a big programming project.)

Standards and practices for organization and description of bibliographic, textual, and non-textual collections. Design, selection, maintenance and evaluation of cataloging, classification, indexing and thesaurus systems for specific settings. Codes, formats, and standards for representation and transfer of data.

A continuation and expansion of the introductory core course 202. Organization of Information with emphasis on organization of and access to textual and non-textual materials in paper-based and digital collections. A project-oriented course designed to provide theoretical foundations for current practices and for exploration of new methodologies for effective retrieval of information content. Emphasis on implementation and evaluation of organization and retrieval systems. Designed for Master's students expecting to manage paper-based and digital collections of information resources. Includes application of standard cataloging rules and indexing methods.

Outline of Topics

1. Systems for organization of paper-based and digital bibliographic and textual collections of information.
   • Use and evaluation of classification systems, including those employed in the organization of bibliographic collections; organization of abstracting and indexing services.
   • Use and evaluation of standardized codes and formats for the organization and cataloging of textual and bibliographic collections.
2. Systems for organization of non-textual collections of information (objects, images, sound, numerical and digital formats).
   • Use and evaluation of systems.
   • Use and evaluation of standards.
3. Design and evaluation of collections management systems, including criteria for systems design.

Course requirements will include: readings on theoretical framework and evaluation criteria for development of collections management systems; assignments in the form of projects that require use and evaluation of a variety of organizational schemes and systems; evaluative papers that require analysis of the readings, combined with evaluation of existing systems; a final project that replaces a final examination and requires design, implementation and evaluation of an organizational system for a given setting.

Note: this course is now 243: Document Engineering and Information Architecture.

This three-unit course introduces a new discipline of 'Document Engineering' for specifying, designing, and deploying the electronic documents that serve as the interfaces to e-business applications and web-based services. It is natural to conceptualize the business relationships between companies as document exchanges, and XML, with its ability to define formal structural and semantic definitions for electronic documents, has rapidly emerged as a key enabling technology as e-business takes hold on the Internet. After introducing XML syntax, styles and transformations, and schema languages, a substantial part of the course is devoted to teaching students practical skills for designing and implementing the documents that enable e-business transactions and applications. These skills include: developing information requirements, analyzing existing documents, identifying and organizing document components, implementing XML schemas, modeling business processes, specifying business processes and service interfaces using XML schemas, and'choreographing' complex chains of document exchanges for multi-company business activities.

The course also introduces and evaluates the relevant XML standards, specifications, and software architectures for the design, development, and deployment of document-centric e-business applications, e-marketplaces, and web services. It explains the co-evolution of document-centric e-business models and their enabling architectures and computational environments (it has been said that 'XML gives Java something to do'). It interleaves technology issues with management and business concerns, such as selecting a standards strategy, assessing an organization's readiness for document engineering, and meeting the legal, policy, and interoperability challenges within and between electronic trading communities.

About the Instructor

Bob Glushko is an Engineering Fellow at Commerce One, which provides software and services for electronic marketplaces. Before becoming an Engineering Fellow in November 2000, Glushko was Director, Document Engineering and Director, Advanced Technology, responsible for Commerce One's XML architecture and technical standards efforts. He joined Commerce One in January 1999 when it acquired Veo Systems, which pioneered the use of XML for e-commerce and which he co-founded in 1997. Prior to Veo Systems, Glushko co-founded two companies specializing in SGML-based electronic publishing. He has worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories and the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie-Mellon University. He has an undergraduate degree from Stanford, an MS (Software Engineering) from the Wang Institute, and a Ph.D. (cognitive psychology) from UC San Diego.

This course is intended to provide the core skills needed for the identification of opportunities that can lead to successful, entrepreneurial high technology ventures, regardless of the individual's "home" skill set, whether technical or managerial. We examine in depth the approaches most likely to succeed for entrepreneurial companies as a function of markets and technologies. Emphasis is placed on the special requirements for creating and executing strategy in a setting of rapid technological change and limited resources. This course is open to both MBA and Engineering students (who enroll through the College of Engineering), and is particularly suited for those who anticipate founding or operating technology companies.

This course complements IS 243 (Document Engineering) with more extensive coverage of XML technologies and the use of those technologies to build applications. The course will cover in depth XML syntax and processing, Unicode, XPath and XSLT, XML Schema, and processing models for XML. It will also cover using XML technologies to build web-based applications. Some experience using Java (e.g. IS 255) will be helpful but is not required.

There is a one credit option of this course. For that 1 credit, no final project will be required and subset of the assignments will be requried.

Required Texts:

1. Definitive XML Schema, Priscilla Walmsley, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-065567-8
2. Beginning XSLT, Jeni Tennison, APress Books, ISBN 1-59059-260-3 (see http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=332)

Recommended Text:

1. Java & XML, Brett McLughlin, O'Reilly, ISBN 0-596-00197-5

The rise and fall of the high-technology industries of the 1990s reflect broader changes in markets, production organization, and business models, as well as the operation of government policies. These broader changes, which include but go well beyond the Internet revolution itself, suggest that the industrial economy is being fundamentally transformed by the diffusion of innovations in technology and business models across the industrial and industrializing economies. At the same time, these changes cannot be understood without a deeper examination of the factors that created competitive advantage at the national level in many of these industries during the previous three decades. This course explores the broad changes in “who is winning, who is losing, and why” in global markets for high-technology goods ranging from semiconductors to commercial aircraft.

This course seeks to make sense of, inter alia, the decline and prospective recovery of U.S. high-technology industries, the evolution of innovation and technology strategies and policies in Western Europe and Asia, the historic and current roles of governments in shaping markets for high-technology goods, and the impact on business strategies of recent developments in early-stage capital markets. Our general approach views technological innovation and competition as dynamic processes that reflect previous choices made by firms and governments. Modern technologies develop in markets that are international in scope, often imperfectly competitive, and subject to influence by a variety of economic and political stakeholders. We will use an eclectic mix of theoretical, historical, and practical perspectives throughout the course in examining these issues, although no special familiarity with any of these is assumed. From time to time, we will be joined by venture capitalists, corporate executives, and technologists engaged in global high-technology markets for discussion of these issues.

CLASS FORMAT: Seminar with cases, discussions, lectures and guest speakers.

REQUIRED READINGS: All students should purchase the Class Reader which will include the required HBS case studies and other articles.

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Students will be expected to undertake one substantial research project, in cross-disciplinary teams, requiring both traditional and on-line research skills. Each team will present briefly to the class as a whole. The grade will be based on the general in-class participation and the final research report.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Charles C. Wu is currently a Lecturer in the Management of Technology Program with over 20 years of pragmatic experience in High Technology and 14 years representing foreign organizations. He is currently Managing Director and Founder of the Panasonic Digital Concepts Center, Matsushita's Technology Alliances, Venture Capital and Incubator Organization. Prior to Panasonic, Charles was the first US professional at Vertex Venture Holdings, the Venture Capital arm of Singapore Technologies. Charles has served on boards of 11 public and private companies assisting them with their international business relationships and strategy. Charles has a MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and an BS in Computer Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

See the MOT site for details.