How IT can contribute to Human Affairs

Weiss, Kurt (2012): How IT can contribute to Human Affairs. Published in: SBS Journal of Applied Business Research , Vol. 1, No. 1 (September 2012): pp. 7-22.

Abstract

The document is structured in a way that 3 Sections discuss on a rather general level the interplay of IT with people, change, and the state. After an interlude about IT as a global commodity a more specified Section addresses the interaction of IT with business (the engine powering human affairs). Future work will cover the interaction of IT with society, and learning (the driver of everything). A summary and an outlook conclude the essay not without soliciting further work.Concluding this introduction a disclaimer is in order. This is a positive, overoptimistic view.(Quoting David Ben Gurion: One must try the impossible to reach the possible.)

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: information technology, human affairs, business administration
• Subjects: A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics

References

[1] Adrian Cho, Science July 24, 2009 p 406-408

[2] Scientific American Vol. 300, January 2008 (Special Issue)

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[8] Walter Heitler: Der Mensch und die aturwissenschaftliche Erkenntnis, Viehweg & Sohn Braunschweig, 1961 [9] http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/ species/homo-erectus

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[13] Misner Charles W., Thorne Kip S., Wheeler John Archibald: Gravitation. Freeman and Company San Francisco ISBN 0-7167-0334-3 p (v)

[14] e.g. Konrad Zuse, Friedrich L. Bauer und H. Zemanek: Der Computer – Mein Lebenswerk: 100 Jahre Zuse, Springer Berlin (2010) ISBN 978-2-642- 1295-4

[15] Real Time; A Tribute to Hasso Plattner Wiley Publishing Inc. 2004 ISBN 0-7645-7108-7

[16] Tim Berners-Lee with Mark Fischetti; Weaving the Web. The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web, HarperCollins NY (2000), ISBN 0-06-251587-X

[17] Jonny Ryan; A History of the Internet and the Digital Future, Reaction Books (2010) ISBN 978-1- 861-8977-0

[18] Standard Business Software from companies like Oracle, SAP, and others which can be customized.

[19] Charles Darwin: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change”

20] Michael H. Hugos: Essentials of Supply Chain Management, John Wiley & Sons (2011) ISBN 978-1- 118-10060-8

[21] It is very instructive to refer here to the strong connection between thermodynamics and information as pioneered by Claude Shannon. See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Entropy_in_thermodynamics_and_information_theory

[22] Facebook, Time Magazine February 11, 2011

[23] Examples are XING, Linkedin, or Doodle

[24] George Orwell: Nineteen eighty-four, Sacker and Warburg London 1949

[25] Fred Hoyle: The Black Cloud, Pinguin Books 1957, ISBN 0-4511-1432-9

[26] Hans-Adam II The Reigning Prince of Liechtenstein: The State in the Third Millennium, van Eck Publishers 2009, ISBN 978 3 905881-04-2

[27] Examples are Switzerland or Liechtenstein. Counterexamples, unfortunately, exist too. Some of the worst kind and most pervasive form of corruption and mismanagement is precisely perpetrated by local governments and authorities, pseudo democratically elected, rendering people totally powerless.

[28] Prospective examples are the European Union or the United Nations

[29] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law

[30] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe's_law

[31] Stuart Chase: The Club of Rome and Its Computer, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March 1973[

[32] Time February 21, 2011 p. 18-27

[33] http://www.singularitysummit.com/ How IT can contribute to human affairs - Dr.Kurt Weiss

[34] Nicholas Eberstadt and Hans Groth: Demography and Public Dept: Time for a „Demographic Stress Test“ for Western Economies. What does is mean for Switzerland? The WDA-HSG letters No. 2010/1

[35] Susan Greenhalgh: Just One Child – Science and Policy in Deng’s China, Berkeley University California Press (2008)

[36] http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp? file=/2008/6/18/business/21577668&sec=business

[37] Mark G. Raizen: Demons, Entropy and the Quest for Absolute Zero, Scientific American Vol. 304 March 2011, p 47-51

[38] John L. Mariotti: The Complexity Crisis, Platinum Press 2008 ISBN 10: 1-59869 -214-3

[39] This idea was developed in collaboration with my former colleague at SAP Dr. Andreas Spiess

[40] “Silent Processes” is a concept I learned from Dr. Hubert Oesterle, Professor at the University of St. Gallen Switzerland

[41] R.H. Coase: The Problem of Social Cost, Jour. Of Law and Economics, Vol. 3 (1960) pp 1- 44

[42] Kurt Weiss: Ruling the Cost of Operative Expenses: A Key to Improving Business. To be published

[43] Martin Hilti, 80ter Geburtstag, printed by Schwabe AG Switzerland 1995 ISBN 3-7965-9900-1, page 34

[44] George Eckes:, Making Six Sigma Last, John Wiley & Sons 2001, ISBN 0-471-41584-0

[45] Kurt Weiss, The Innovation Dynamo – A New Concept, to be published

[46] This example was provided to me by my colleague Hanspeter Groth at SAP

[47] http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/ read/612375_p.htm

[48] http://arxiv.org/pdf/0808.3558

[49] http://www.invest.is/news/339/default.aspx (à Iceland’s clean energy and natural cooling)

[50] Jim Collins: Good to Great, Harper Business 2001, ISBN 0-06-662099-6 (hc)

[51] Jack Welsh and Suzy Welch: Winning, HarperCollins Publ. 2005, ISBN 0-06-075394-3

[52] Lewis Carroll: The Annotated Alice Ed. by Martin Gardner, Penguin Books 1976, p 210

[53] Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat, Ferrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007 ISBN 3-374-29278-7

[54] Alison Gopnik: How Babies Think Scientific American Vol. 303 July 2010, p 56-71

[55] Max Planck: Wissenschaftliche Selbstbiographie, Leipzig 1948

[56] C. Northcote Parkinson: Parkinson’s Law or the Pursuit of Progress, John Murray London for a pre IT classic always worth to be enjoyed again.

[57] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade ————————————