I must admit that when I started this class I was skeptical about the blog part of the homework. This may have been a leading cause as to why I got so far behind with it.
I have used this part of the class for a great benefit. I didn't know much about blogs. I had the basics, but didn't see much personal gain from using them. I still don't know about posting my own. I probably won't keep doing it. It is an interesting thing though. I can imagine it is similar to feelings one has in radio broadcasting. I am talking/typing with the assumption that someone is reading but really not any proof. There are comments and other forms of feedback, but at the time of typing you never really know.
This class did get me though to start using blogs as a great source of information. I use Google Reader to follow a handful of blogs on issues that are important to me. I can log in to one place and see the information easily and access as much or as little as I want. It has topics that are part of my professional life, my personal hobbies and interests, and my church life all placed together. I have this class to thank for getting me to this point.
I wish all of you the very best in the rest of the classes you are taking. Perhaps we will run into one another again.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Week 10 - Chapter 9
The changes that we are experiencing are tremendous. I can say that I learned to type on a typewriter. My first computer was a Commodore 64. I loved visiting my friend's house to play Atari because all I had was the Pong console. Now I can go to Wal-Mart and buy a computer for a few hundred dollars. I can go on-line and buy anything I want from virtually anywhere in the world at anytime of the day. Ten years ago when I started working here, we had one computer in the office. We now have seven and each of the four ambulances have Panasonic Toughbooks mounted in them. Our cardiac monitor has a dedicated wireless modem. We can view a patient's heart rhythm then transmit it to Redmond, WA who then posts it to a website that allows the physician in our ER to view it. That all happens in less than 15 seconds.
There are problems with what we have. The great digital divide was mentioned in this class. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is in charge of over one billion dollars in stimulus money to expand the reach of high-speed internet. I for one would love to see this happen. My parents live in southwest Iowa. They are farmers and high-speed internet is something that isn't necessary for them, but would be a great thing for them to have. The benefits of communication through e-mail and video calling along with access to information and shopping for goods are missed by them. Now, this is my parents, their in their 70s. There are school aged kids that are also missing out on these benefits and the impact felt by that could be even greater and longer lasting.
As great as I think it is to continue to grow and expand our current capabilities, we must not leave so many people behind.
There are problems with what we have. The great digital divide was mentioned in this class. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is in charge of over one billion dollars in stimulus money to expand the reach of high-speed internet. I for one would love to see this happen. My parents live in southwest Iowa. They are farmers and high-speed internet is something that isn't necessary for them, but would be a great thing for them to have. The benefits of communication through e-mail and video calling along with access to information and shopping for goods are missed by them. Now, this is my parents, their in their 70s. There are school aged kids that are also missing out on these benefits and the impact felt by that could be even greater and longer lasting.
As great as I think it is to continue to grow and expand our current capabilities, we must not leave so many people behind.
Week 9 - Chapter 8
Chapter 8 was a discussion of protecting people and information. As I discussed earlier in the blog the advances made in e-commerce and our growing reliance on computers and information systems has opened us up to new forms of crime and new threats of abuse.
Working in healthcare for the past 10+ years, I have been involved many changes in how computers are used and what information is sent over them. Since I have started, we now employ information security officers and privacy officers. I have easier access to patient information but I leave a trail of everywhere I go and everything I do on a computer at work. And I am for all of this. The benefits in healthcare of fast and easy access to information are unbelievable. As workers in the arena though, we must take our responsibility very seriously.
Just in the past weeks, news headlines mentioned 3 employees fired and 2 suspended from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for unauthorized access of patient information. The temptation to know things that we aren't' supposed to know can be too much for many people. When they have as easy access as we now experience, the temptation can take over their thoughts.
Working in healthcare for the past 10+ years, I have been involved many changes in how computers are used and what information is sent over them. Since I have started, we now employ information security officers and privacy officers. I have easier access to patient information but I leave a trail of everywhere I go and everything I do on a computer at work. And I am for all of this. The benefits in healthcare of fast and easy access to information are unbelievable. As workers in the arena though, we must take our responsibility very seriously.
Just in the past weeks, news headlines mentioned 3 employees fired and 2 suspended from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for unauthorized access of patient information. The temptation to know things that we aren't' supposed to know can be too much for many people. When they have as easy access as we now experience, the temptation can take over their thoughts.
Week 8 - Chapter 7
Chapter 7 had a lot of interesting information in it. Business continuity planning, enterprise infrastructure, and metrics cover a lot of ground. Metrics are one of the more important things that jumped out at me. I believe in the value of numbers and measuring our level of success. W. Edwards Deming (from Sioux City, IA) was a pioneer in the arena of efficiency in manufacturing. He admitted that some of the most valuable information you need is often unknown. With advanced computer systems though I believe that the unknown information can be limited and when still not possible to grasp can be estimated very accurately. There are a great deal of tools out there to help us see where our business is and where it can grow.
I was also intrigued in this chapter by its brief discussion of cloud computing. My organization has began to use many thin-client computers that rely on our servers for applications and storage. I can see through using these the future of cloud computing outside of our little organization. Pay-for-use systems and no more purchasing full, expensive licenses for software that is rarely used. Everyone having the amount of storage that they need, not limited by the size of their own hard-drive, and its available from wherever they are. Could computing to me is hitting on the real essence of effectiveness versus efficiency. Not just doing things right, but doing the right things.
I was also intrigued in this chapter by its brief discussion of cloud computing. My organization has began to use many thin-client computers that rely on our servers for applications and storage. I can see through using these the future of cloud computing outside of our little organization. Pay-for-use systems and no more purchasing full, expensive licenses for software that is rarely used. Everyone having the amount of storage that they need, not limited by the size of their own hard-drive, and its available from wherever they are. Could computing to me is hitting on the real essence of effectiveness versus efficiency. Not just doing things right, but doing the right things.
Week 7 - Chapter 6
This chapter was about system development. As I said earlier in this blog, I love computers. I love working with computers on a daily basis. I do not care much for the networking and system side of things. This chapter did provide a good overview of what it takes to develop a computer system that even I could see the benefit of. Every good manager or leader in an organization needs to have a solid foundation in system development in order to use computer and business information systems to their full advantage.
I enjoyed the discussion on out-sourcing, versus in-sourcing, versus self-sourcing. Given my preference for the workstation side of computers, it shouldn't be surprising that I really see the benefits of self-sourcing.
The one thing that really stood out to me in this chapter was the checklist type of approach used in the SDLC. I have been reading a lot of article by Atul Gawande, a physician that has a real gift for pointing out the errors in our healthcare system and how we can do better. He recently wrote a book called the Checklist Manifesto that shows how a simple checklist can prevent errors, make systems and procedures more efficient, and reduce wasted time and money.
Beyond this book, he has written many article on healthcare economics and the general practice of medicine. I highly recommend any of his work.
I enjoyed the discussion on out-sourcing, versus in-sourcing, versus self-sourcing. Given my preference for the workstation side of computers, it shouldn't be surprising that I really see the benefits of self-sourcing.
The one thing that really stood out to me in this chapter was the checklist type of approach used in the SDLC. I have been reading a lot of article by Atul Gawande, a physician that has a real gift for pointing out the errors in our healthcare system and how we can do better. He recently wrote a book called the Checklist Manifesto that shows how a simple checklist can prevent errors, make systems and procedures more efficient, and reduce wasted time and money.
Beyond this book, he has written many article on healthcare economics and the general practice of medicine. I highly recommend any of his work.
Week 5 - Chapter 5
Several years ago a magazine publisher came to where I worked at and wrote an article on the service that I worked for. It was a great experience, but I was caught by the term that the person conducting the interviews used to describe the magazine, B2B.
Chapter 5 was about e-commerce and the various models of it: B2C, B2B, B2G, etc... Before that time a few years ago I had never thought about the different types of businesses and the different types of transactions that happen between each. This text, in the context of e-commerce, gave a really good explanation of the differences in the delivery models.
Of all business transactions, e-commerce is certainly unique in the risk of security problems that could arise. Whereas most people would never think of using a knife or gun to hold somebody up and steal their wallet, many do not feel the same reservations when it comes to setting up a wireless sniffer to steal someone's bank information. Or a waiter or waitress to copy down the numbers off of a customer's credit card.
I believe in the inherent good of people and trust that most will do the right thing. But the convenience of e-commerce is proving to be very tempting to some.
Chapter 5 was about e-commerce and the various models of it: B2C, B2B, B2G, etc... Before that time a few years ago I had never thought about the different types of businesses and the different types of transactions that happen between each. This text, in the context of e-commerce, gave a really good explanation of the differences in the delivery models.
Of all business transactions, e-commerce is certainly unique in the risk of security problems that could arise. Whereas most people would never think of using a knife or gun to hold somebody up and steal their wallet, many do not feel the same reservations when it comes to setting up a wireless sniffer to steal someone's bank information. Or a waiter or waitress to copy down the numbers off of a customer's credit card.
I believe in the inherent good of people and trust that most will do the right thing. But the convenience of e-commerce is proving to be very tempting to some.
Week 4 - Chapter 4
The text in Chapter 4 talked about Artificial Intelligence. I did learn in this class that although what I imagined as artificial intelligence was accurate, there is a lot more to it than I ever though of.
The act of a computer system actually learning is an interesting concept. Computer systems are becoming more and more powerful so the speed at which they are able to recognize patterns allows them to "learn" at an unbelievable rate.
Although I think we are still in the infancy of AI, it is amazing how some of the more basic aspects of it are being utilized today. Whether it is handwriting or speech recognition or something else, people are using AI everyday even if they don't recognize it.
I do think we are a long way from the world being taken over by robots as some of the AI fiction stories would lead us to believe, but our use and maybe even dependence on AI will continue to grow.
The act of a computer system actually learning is an interesting concept. Computer systems are becoming more and more powerful so the speed at which they are able to recognize patterns allows them to "learn" at an unbelievable rate.
Although I think we are still in the infancy of AI, it is amazing how some of the more basic aspects of it are being utilized today. Whether it is handwriting or speech recognition or something else, people are using AI everyday even if they don't recognize it.
I do think we are a long way from the world being taken over by robots as some of the AI fiction stories would lead us to believe, but our use and maybe even dependence on AI will continue to grow.
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