Information systems in the news

It's Halloween, and our campus has taken a slightly creepy turn today. Last night, the ghouls from our DISC club haunted the bowling alley at the student union. Our students are working hard to prepare for careers in an ever-evolving profession, but they still have time for fun. Speaking of change, department Chairman Michael Goul's remarks at a recent Society for Information Management Conference showed up in the media last month.

News clippings from the Wild West

“We now face a new organizational Wild West, brought on by the promise of big data and increasingly sophisticated predictive analytics,” write Madeline Weiss and June Drewry in CIO Magazine’s September issue. With virtually every department in the company launching data projects to answer pressing questions, the potential for mistakes and unintended consequences exists alongside the potential for strategic gains.

This opens up a new role for CIO’s, according to Information Systems Department Chairman Michael Goul. Weiss and Drewry report on Goul’s presentation to the Society for Information Management, where he said that CIOs should guide their companies to align business objectives with IT in deploying predictive analytics. Read more on that presentation here. Assistant Professor Gregory Dawson says governmental CIOs are facing a new mandate: innovate or else. InformationWeek recently ran an article Dawson co-authored about his research on CIOs in the public sector.

Though some may pine for government that operates like business, the desire is unrealistic, Dawson says. Government is not like business on many levels, and the corporate star who expects to fast track change is likely to get caught in bureaucracy — where relationships really matter. Read more about Dawson’s work in this month’s featured research article.

Face Time with Faculty

Starting with Camp Carey during the summer before students' first year, the W. P. Carey School of Business works hard to create a small college community within the ASU campus. “Face Time with Faculty” is an opportunity for students to interact with faculty members directly in a casual environment.

Coordinated by the undergraduate programs staff, these monthly lunches are open to any student within the featured major, and participants are chosen on a first come, first served basis. In November, Clinical Assistant Professors Joe Clark and Kathleen Moser will dine with computer information systems students. Bon appetite!