Course Schedule: Spring 2006

Note: 207 will be taught during the first half of the semester.

Three hours of lecture per week for seven and one-half weeks. Systems and project management, focusing on the process of information systems analysis and design. Includes such topics as systems analysis, process analysis, cost and statistical analysis, accounting and budgeting, and planning. (Formerly 208A. Students will receive no credit for 207 after taking 208A.)

The course provides a general introduction to information and knowledge management in organizations, including:

1. An introduction to tools and methods for the analysis and design of information systems.
2. The management of the process of information system analysis and design, that is, project management.

One primary objective of the course is for the student to conduct an analysis of an information system and, if appropriate, design an alternate system. This system may be a manual procedure in need of improvement, a manual system that needs automation, automated procedures that need improvement, or an analytic study of an existing system. This analysis will be accompanied by a class presentation of its results. Projects are to be done on an individual or group basis. The course provides the student with the tools to conduct the study.

Among the topics covered in the lectures and readings are the process of identifying and selecting projects, project initiation, systems requirements determination, system data collection, interviewing and questionnaire development, workflow analysis and design, data flow diagramming, statistical and cost analysis, and the implementation and evaluation of systems. It is up to the student to find a project for the course. The instructor will provide guidance. The break between semesters is a good time to begin looking for organizations and/or systems that need analysis and/or improvement.

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.)

Three hours of lecture per week. Theories and methods for searching and retrieval of text and bibliographic information. Analysis of relevance and utility. Statistical and linguistic methods for automatic indexing and classification. Boolean and probabilistic approaches to indexing, query formulation, and output ranking. Filtering methods. Measures of retrieval effectiveness and retrieval experimentation methodology.

This course is intended to prepare you to understand the underlying theories and algorithms of advanced information retrieval systems and to introduce the methodology for the design and evaluation of information retrieval systems. The course will introduce you to the major types of information retrieval systems, the different theoretical foundations underlying these systems, and the methods and measures that can be used to evaluate them. The course will focus on the both the theoretical aspects of information retrieval design and evaluation, and will also consider the practical aspects of how these theories have been implemented in actual systems. These topics will be examined through readings, discussion, hands-on experience using various information retrieval systems, and through participation in evaluation of different retrieval algorithms on various test collections. The prerequisite for the course is INFOSYS 202, though this may be waived with the consent of instructor. A good familiarity with computers and programming is highly desirable.

An introduction to services science - a new, interdisciplinary field that combines social science, business, and engineering knowledge needed for organizations (private, public, or nonprofit) to succeed in the shift to the service and information-based economy.

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. 

This is a new course, not only within Haas and the MOT Program, but within academic campuses around the world. This course is an experiment to address a burning issue in business today: most of the economic activity in developed economies is services-based. Yet most of our knowledge about innovation is based upon products, not services. A recent survey by the National Academies of Engineering found that “the academic research enterprise has not focused on or been organized to meet the needs of service businesses”.

This is not an abstract concern for Berkeley students. More than 70% of the graduating 2004 class from Haas took jobs in knowledge-intensive, service businesses. Looking further on in one’s career, more than 63% of the INC. 500 companies in are services companies. Service businesses represent the future for the vast majority of Haas and MOT students. The course should be risky (it’s brand new), exciting, and useful.

Our course will examine services innovation, and focus upon the business model in creating and managing innovation in services businesses. We will also consider how product-based businesses can — or cannot — transition to service-based businesses. During the course, we will have outside visitors from companies like IBM and SAP, and Berkeley faculty from I-Scool and Economics.

However, I am also experienced. Prior to embarking on an academic career, I spent ten years in various product planning and strategic marketing positions in Silicon Valley companies. I worked for seven of those years at Quantum Corporation, a leading hard disk drive manufacturer and a Fortune 500 company. Previously, I worked at Bain and Company.

My research focuses on managing technology and innovation. My new book, Open Innovation (Harvard Business School Press, 2003), articulates a new paradigm for organizing and managing R&D. This book was named a “Best Business Book of 2003” by Strategy & Business magazine, and the best book on innovation in 2003 on NPR’s All Things Considered. Scientific American magazine named me one of the top 50 technology and business leaders for 2003 in recognition of my research on industrial innovation.

See the MOT site for details. 

Two hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week. Discussion section will be held Thursday 5-6 pm in room 107 South Hall.

What role can information and communications technologies play in transforming lives in developing economies? Some view ICT as a new tool for poverty alleviation while others see technology draining resources from more pressing social needs. Nevertheless a proliferation of initiatives from governments, non-profit and multilateral agencies, and corporations seek to develop and apply technology to meet the challenges facing poor economies. The course positions these efforts in the context of development theory and surveys both the strategies and methods of assessing contemporary projects that develop new technologies such as wireless communications or low-cost computing or applying ICT to areas such as healthcare, e-government, microfinance, and literacy.

The class will provide a conceptual framework as well as analytical tools for engineers developing technology for use in underserved regions, social scientists studying the impacts of these projects, and business students assessing the sustainability of development-oriented technology enterprises.

The goal of this seminar is to provide students with an introduction to many different types of quantitative research methods. We begin with a focus on defining research problems, theory testing, causal inference, and basic statistics. Then, we will explore a range of research designs and methodological techniques that are available for empirical research. Topics in research methods include: Primary and Secondary Data Analysis, Sampling, Survey Design, and Experimental Designs. Topics in quantitative techniques include: Descriptive and Inferential statistics, General Linear Models, and Non-Linear Models. The course will conclude with an introduction to special topics in quantitative research methods, including Factor Analysis, Structural Equation Models, and Social Network Analysis. This course is intended as an introduction to many quantitative methods and research techniques, and not as a replacement for focused statistics courses.