I have just submitted the final paper to Dr. Gayol to complete the contract for Information Systems and Change. I was reading over the syllabus to be sure that I had covered off the main points and addressed the Doctoral competencies listed for this KA. I am linking here to the Course outline and I will high light some of the main objectives and how I believe I have addressed them.
The first paragraph of the course outline discuss the major focus of this KA.
The focus of this knowledge area is to allow the learner to actively engage in the interrelationships between information systems and change. However, since corporate culture, diversity, and knowledge management influence these relationships, ELC 772 will also provide suggested readings and learning goals that include these issues. Thus, your study in this area will be holistic in that it will demonstrate an understanding of the complex interrelationships among these topics.
The focus of my effort in this KA was a holistic discovery of the process known as project management. Any change in human systems, corporate, educational or public sector involves a project of some sort. The more systematic the change process, the greater the likelihood of success. Changes in most social institutions involve complex interactions between people and systems that requires careful planning and interventions.
Project management is becoming a formal social discipline and is becoming organized and codified with recognized epistemology, body of knowledge, body of research. Recognized practices and certifications are being developed and professional credentials are being issued.
I feel that my learning satisfied this goal.
The second paragraph of the course outline articulated a second goal for the KA as;
The importance of knowledge workers to corporate success has led institutions to provide online educational experiences for employees that have the goals of continuous learning and increasing adaptability to change. Yet these programs are often ineffective, and organizations are looking for answers. You will have the opportunity in this knowledge area to seek these answers through your assessments.
Within the framework of the project management discipline a new approach to knowledge management is evolving. Systems are increasingly complex and no one person can grasp the totality of a given problem. Many individuals have pieces of the puzzle but the process of bringing the pieces together requires the use of information management systems that reflect patterns of human social interaction. Recent developments in understandings of networked intelligence and web-based social networks are offering a means to accomplishing tasks of increasing complexity and scope. The task of information age workers is not so much to develop a personal body of knowledge as it is to establish and maintain information and problem solving networks that my involve personal acquaintances but more often involve connections that are purely virtual. Advances in technology have made this possible and barriers to face to face communication have made it necessary. Some of the barriers are time, geography and cost. The current state of unrest within the world wide travel industry has increases the cost and effort of travel making increasingly prohibitive. Information systems that increase the viability of virtual activities are in demand.
I was able to tailor my investigations to support my interest in the use of interactive and collaborative web-based tools and what has come to be know as Web 2.0 or the read write web. The distinction is being developed between the web as it existed previously where people mostly used the internet as a source of data or information. There were comparatively few contributors. As the internet has been reconstituted there is more of a tendency to expect an interaction and participatory element to any web interaction. Small pieces, loosely connected it the motto of the new collaborative internet. The proliferation of information has made it necessary for people and systems to develop advanced methods to search, arrange and display information. Features of Web 2.0 make it possible to arrange a vast array of information, data and resources in directories, and taxonomies that are of personal and individual use, preference and appeal. The use of these strategies in information systems such as those that support project management and many other human endeavors is increasing exponentially.
