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D. Murali

The computer branch of study has not been constrained within national borders. Here's more on its growth.

LOCAL dadas once hounded out by the neighbourhood cops occasionally end up on a global trail like the proverbial Carmen Sandiego with the Interpol behind them. Regional parties often call the shots on the national political scene. Blue chips often don a global colour to tap the world's markets and universities woo foreign students for their courses. And disciplines outgrow geography. A new paper from Gordon B. Davis of the Carlson School of Management titled, "Building an International Academic Discipline in Information Systems" looks at how the computer branch of study has not been constrained within national borders like many other academic disciplines - such as accounting or law, industrial relations or taxation.

Like a fugitive on the run, its name has not been uniform, however. Thus, one comes across information systems, management information systems, information management, management of information systems, informatics and so on. The author notes how the word `informatics', originating from the French informatique, was not used in the US because it was a copyrighted term for a business; but that company went bankrupt. The trend is towards the simple term `information systems', though many use the phrase not so much for an academic discipline as for referring to management or administrative use of computers.

"The academic discipline of information systems became international very quickly," observes the paper, before proceeding to discuss "seven critical events or developments" that raised the study to international level, although after considerable delay. The first business use of computers was in 1954, in two countries: "In the UK, by the Lyons Tea Company, owner of a chain of teashops. They commissioned Manchester University to develop a business computer. It was named LEO for Lyons Electronic Office. In the US, General Electric began a business use of a UNIVAC I for payroll at its Louisville Appliance Park."

But it took four more years for Harvard Business Review to first speculate on the relevance of computers to business. While in 1960, the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) was formed, almost a decade had to go before the US universities could think of a formal MIS academic degree.

The beginnings were but small, and visible computing was only punched card data processing, with a heavy emphasis on transaction processing; nothing interesting for academic minds. Then came the possibility of improved analysis, reporting, and decision-making. "As business developed and implemented computer-based data processing systems, it became apparent that there were many interesting problems" - such as requirements determination, development methodologies, implementation, design of work systems, and evaluation. Realities of the computer age did not dawn upon some of the most prestigious universities that were conservative: "A safe way to maintain academic credibility was to fit within an existing management, accounting, marketing, or operations research discipline."

What worked to the advantage of the fledgling discipline were "informal networks of scholars that developed rather quickly" and "inputs from forward-looking practitioners who recognised the need for good research".

The first `critical development' in shaping the IS discipline, according to Davis, was the eagerness of universities around the world to design computing machinery. "The community of researchers shared designs and experiences, so the development of computing machinery can be considered an international effort," he writes.

The next major factor was the use of English as the common language for computing-related disciplines, ousting Greek, Latin, German, and French that had played a lead role as "common language for various communities at different times in history". Thus, programs were written in English-like language and English was adopted as the language for the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). In due course, "English became the common language of international commerce and of research and education in many fields".

After nearly half a century, there is `fairly a cohesive international field', but there are issues to resolve - such as whether IS research should look at `opportunities at the intersection of IT and other fields', or simply `pay attention to the core of the field that is not owned by any other discipline'.

In this context, the recent debate at the UN forum on who should control the Internet is a pointer to the fact that bodies that impact global IS are better owned globally.

itworks@thehindu.co.in

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