Page 324 - Using MIS

MyMISLab ™

Improve Your class. People who were in treatment following a heart attack or something like that.
Grade! Now you’re saying, ‘Let’s have a class of 10,000.’ Whoa. We’re not there with our
Over 10 million students systems.”
improved their results using Nicki’s heard this kind of talk in the past. “But we could support 10,000 in an
the Pearson MyLabs. event, no?”
Visit mymislab.com for “In theory, sure. But the devil’s in the details. In this case, the details are the
simulations, tutorials, and requirements. What kind of a user experience do you want? You can’t put 10,000 little
end-of-chapter problems. dots on a cell phone to show people where they are in the race. Well, let me correct
myself: Of course we can put 10,000 little dots in the middle of a cell phone screen;
we do it all the time, in fact. But what possible meaning would that have to anyone?
They would see only a blur.”
“Well, we can figure that out,” Nicki says. “Couldn’t we just show them the five or
so people in front of them?”
“Sure we could. We could do anything. It’s just bits. We can build anything you
want. How much money and time have you got?” James is
trying to sound positive.
He pauses to think, then continues, “And, like I said,
the devil’s in the details. Let’s say the person in front of
a particular user is 0.00000005 seconds ahead. How do
we display that? Scale it up so it appears the person is
“It’s all about way ahead? Or what if the person in front of this user is
eyeballs.” 10 minutes ahead, what then? And what if the user is the
leader? What do we show? A blank screen?”
“Ah, we can figure that out. That doesn’t seem so hard.”
“No, it’s not. It’s just bits. We can do it, just like we
could build a 20-story building to replace this old relic of
a warehouse we’re in. But we can’t do it tomorrow, and it
Source: Bizoo_n/iStock/Thinkstock/Getty Images
won’t be free.”
“So, what do you want to tell Zev, James?” Nicki is frustrated.
“I don’t want to tell him anything. But he bought a company that had software
that supported 10 people in an exercise class, and now he has you two telling me that
we should multiply that by 1,000. All doable. Nothing wrong with the idea. But we are
not there right now.”
“Well,” presses Nicki, “how long will it take? And what will it cost?”

Study QueStionS

Q1 What is a social media information system (SMIS)?
Q2 How do SMIS advance organizational strategy?

Q3 How do SMIS increase social capital?
Q4 How do (some) companies earn revenue from social media?
Q5 How do organizations develop an effective SMIS?
Q6 What is an enterprise social network (ESN)?

Q7 How can organizations address SMIS security concerns?
Q8 2025?
292