IS Vocabulary

Developing systems bring about changes in the way we use language. New language constructs like "microchip" are part of that vocabulary. In addition, old language elements are getting used in new ways, for example a "wrapper" is now a software component that allows "software agents" to retrieve information and control other systems using a "high level language" instead of low level switch managment and control protocols.

Part of the growth of information systems vocabulary that reflects the creation of novelty, learning and a creative aspect. This aspect has been called autopoiesis by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela (1975) "Autopoietic Systems".

A part of the growth in the vocabulary of IS relates to the old concepts in new clothes. In these cases, it seems that much of the debate about refactoring contains nothing new, but simply a unique name has been applied to the old task.

For example, the use of the word "refactoring", which is the title of Martin Fowler's book, this is really a rehash of old terms to do with the correcting, editing, testing, white-box testing, rewriting, revamping, reworking and redoing. What the book does is give some good simple clear examples of the difference between good java code and bad java code.

The frame problem of McCarthy and AI illustrates nicely the problems that face systems designers: as events happen, how do we define the difference between the constants and the variables. Some things will change, other things - pieces of knowledge - will not.

In the same way we can ask, what are the common unchanging features of our information systems, and what are the features that will change. At the exteme, we can say that the only constant is the interaction with users.

From a pedagogical point of view, we need to consider structuring IS vocabulary into sensible levels, in order to allow maximum appreciation of issues. These levels should include algorithms that illustrate the basic points of learning - the "learnings". Books need to be improved, in quality and readability. It has been noted that errors frequently occur in the source code of books.

A good example of an algorithm that can be used to illustrate problems is the lift problem: how to design a computer program to handle lifts. This apparantly simple problem is in fact very complex.

The internet has brought its own vocabulary, some examples are:

eyeball collecting
e-commerce
e-collaboration

References:

Goonatilake, Susantha (1991) "The Evolution of Information - Lineages in Gene, Culture and Artifact", Pinter Publishers

William F. Opdyke and Ralph E. Johnson. Refactoring: An Aid in Designing Application Frameworks and Evolving Object-Oriented Systems. In Proceedings of 1990 Symposium on Object-Oriented Programming Emphasizing Practical Applications (SOOPPA '90), Poughkeepsie, New York, September 1990.