information system
(noun)
Any data processing system, either manual or computerized
Examples of information system in the following topics:
-
Informal economy
- An informal economy is economic activity that is neither taxed nor monitored by a government and is contrasted with the formal economy as described above.
- The informal economy is thus not included in a government's Gross National Product or GNP.
- Although the informal economy is often associated with developing countries, all economic systems contain an informal economy in some proportion.
- The term black market refers to a specific subset of the informal economy.
- Examples of informal economic activity include: the sale and distribution of illegal drugs and unreported payments for house cleaning or baby sitting.
-
The Economy
- Economies can be divided into formal economies and informal economies.
- Economies are fundamentally social systems.
- One cannot think of economies as discrete entities; economic systems necessarily interact with social and political systems.
- Although the informal economy is often associated with developing countries, all economic systems contain an informal economy in some proportion.
- By its nature, the informal economy is difficult to observe, study, define, and measure.
-
Preface
- Social network analysis is a continuously and rapidly evolving field, and is one branch of the broader study of networks and complex systems.
- The concepts and techniques of social network analysis are informed by, and inform the evolution of these broader fields.
-
Basic demographics
- Actors that receive information from many sources may be prestigious (other actors want to be known by the actor, so they send information).
- Looking at the means, we see that there is a lot of variation in information receiving -- more than for information sending.
- We see that actors #2, #5, and #7 are very high. #2 and #5 are also high in sending information -- so perhaps they act as "communicators" and "facilitators" in the system.
- Actor #7 receives a lot of information, but does not send a lot.
- Actor #6 also does not send much information -- so #6 appears to be something of an "isolate. " Numbers #8 and #10 send relatively more information than they receive.
-
Informal Structure
- For example, a college management class of 50 students may contain several informal groups that constitute the informal organization within the formal structure of the class.
- For example, a college management class of 50 students may contain several informal groups that constitute the informal organization within the formal structure of the class.
- Third, the informal group develops a communication channel to keep its members informed about what management actions will affect them in various ways.
- Many astute managers use the grapevine to "informally" convey certain information about company actions and rumors.
- Under the Learning Organization model, following a four-year study of the Toyota Production System, Steven J.
-
Lenski's Sociological Evolution Approach
- Unlike White, who defined technology as the ability to create and utilize energy, Lenski focuses on information, its amount and its uses.
- The more information and knowledge a given society has, especially where it allows humans to shape their environment, the more advanced it is.
- In the first stage, information is passed by genes.
- In the second state, with the development of agriculture, humans are able to pass information through individual experience .
- Advances in the technology of communication translate into advances in a society's economic system and political system, distribution of goods, social inequality and other spheres of social life.
-
Caste Systems
- Caste systems are closed social stratification systems in which people inherit their position and experience little mobility.
- Some sociologists suggest that caste systems come in two forms: racial caste systems and non-racial caste systems.
- Social systems identical to caste systems found elsewhere in the world have historically existed in Europe as well.
- These caste groups had distinctive privileges and unequal rights, which were not a product of informal advantages such as wealth and were not rights enjoyed as citizens of the state.
- Compare the caste system in ancient India with the estate system in feudal Europe
-
Social Control
- informal social control refers to elements of society that are designed to reinforce informal cultural norms; examples might include parental reminders to children not to pick their nose.
- Some researchers have outlined some of the motivations underlying the formal social control system.
-
Summary
- Usually, these structures contain slices that measure different relations (e.g. money, information).
- A compact way of storing information about multiple kinds of relations among actors in a single matrix, the multi-valued matrix, uses a number to reflect the qualitative type of relation that exists between two actors (e.g. none, money only, information only, information and money; or mutually exclusive "multiple choice" types like: kin, neighbor, co-worker).
- Usually the information about multiple kinds of relations among actors is indexed by reducing the multiple ties into a single quantitative value that represents a summary across the separate relations (e.g. average tie strength, maximum, minimum).
- Alternatively, the information about different kinds of ties may be combined into more complex typologies using logical relations and "role algebra."
- Our understanding of kinship structures, and our understanding of the positions of nation-states in the world system have been greatly enhanced by indexing actor's relational positions based on multiple and simultaneous ties.
-
Piaget
- Piaget believed that reality is a dynamic system of continuous change and as such, it is defined in reference to the two conditions that define dynamic systems.
- Assimilation describes how humans perceive and adapt to new information.
- It is the process of taking one's environment and new information and fitting it into pre-existing cognitive schemas.
- Accommodation, unlike assimilation, is the process of taking one's environment and new information and altering one's pre-existing schemas in order to fit in the new information.