Individual Informatin Systems - Boris DIMOV

DEPARTMENT of E-BUSINESS @ ECCF UKIM

INDIVIDUAL

INFORMATION

SYSTEMS GRADUATION THESIS

Individual Information Systems

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INDIVIDUAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS Boris DIMOV under mentorship and inspiration of Mijalche SANTA, Ph.D.

June 2016; Skopje, MK; [email protected]

ABSTRACT As a field, Individual Information System (IIS) is an exciting one and it is still quite unexplored by the

scientist. It is a topic that is becoming ever more important because of the rise and success of

personal networked devices, such as PCs, laptops, tablets, smartphones and wearable devices.

Given the 3.17 billion Internet users, the Individual Information Systems are likely to become

a significant aspect of the information system world. Even if a tiny part of these users have complex

systems, then millions of such systems could already exist with an incredible growth potential.

And because these individual information systems are growing and used in ways that are (most

likely) not covered by the knowledge of information systems, I find a reason, a gap, that needs to be

studied more extensively.

Keywords:

Individual information systems, science, systems, technology, students.

[email protected]


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CONTENTS Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 1

Contents .................................................................................................................................................. 2

1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 3

2 Information System......................................................................................................................... 4

2.1 Components of Information Systems ..................................................................................... 5

3 Individual Information Systems ...................................................................................................... 6

3.1 Definition of IIS ....................................................................................................................... 6

3.2 Structure of IIS ........................................................................................................................ 7

3.3 Discussion on IIS ...................................................................................................................... 7

4 Research methods ........................................................................................................................ 10

4.1 Survey as a research method ................................................................................................ 11

4.2 Survey Analysis ...................................................................................................................... 12

4.2.1 Devices .......................................................................................................................... 12

4.2.2 Applications ................................................................................................................... 14

4.2.3 Internet usage ............................................................................................................... 15

4.2.4 Information technology literacy ................................................................................... 15

4.2.5 Transferring data ........................................................................................................... 16

4.2.6 Usage of Cloud Technology ........................................................................................... 16

4.2.7 Activities and content ................................................................................................... 16

4.3 Discussion .............................................................................................................................. 18

5 Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 20

Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................. 21

List of appendices ................................................................................................................................. 21

6 References .................................................................................................................................... 22


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1 INTRODUCTION I am going to focus the attention of this paper on students. It interests me how students build and

use an IIS and what are the components of their IIS. Furthermore, it interests me how individuals

integrate applications with other applications. Are students aware that there are tools for

automation like IFTTT, Zippier etc. that automate tasks? How do students compose an Individual

Information System that satisfies their everyday life use?

As a field, Individual Information System (IIS) is an interesting field and it is still quite unexplored. It is

a topic that is becoming ever more important because of the rise and success of personal networked

devices, such as PCs, laptops, tablets, smartphones and wearable devices.

Given the 3.17 billion Internet users, the Individual Information Systems are likely to become a

significant aspect of the information system world. Even if a tiny part of these users have complex

systems, then millions of such systems could already exist with an incredible growth potential.

And because these individual information systems are growing and used in ways that are (most

likely) not covered by the knowledge of information systems, I find a reason, a gap, that needs to be

studied more extensively. What I am going to strive to accomplish in this paper is:

● Explore the definition of Individual Information Systems.

● Explore the components of IIS.

● Research the As-Is IIS of students.

● Give insight for the To-Be IIS of students.

I am going to use the terms Individual Information Systems (IIS), and the term Personal Information

System (PIS), as synonyms and I am going to use them interchangeably.

Figure 1: Screenshot from Google Trends on search terms “individual

information systems” and “personal information systems”.


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2 INFORMATION SYSTEM An Information System (IS) is any organized system for the collection, organization, storage and

communication of information. In this aspect, an IS might be the documents cabinet in our office.

However, at least in the past 20 years, information systems tend to shift from an old office cabinet

to much advanced computer systems. On the other side, the science of ISs views it as the study of

complementary networks that people and organizations use to collect, filter, process, create and

distribute data.

There are many other views on the definition of information systems:

1. A computer Information System (IS) is a system composed of people and

information and communication technology (ITC) that processes or interprets information.

2. Information system is an academic study of systems with a specific reference to

information and the complementary networks of hardware and software that people and

organizations use to collect, filter, process, create and distribute data.

3. Any combination of people and machines that deal only with symbolic objects

(information) can be viewed as IS if that combination exists to produce specific products and

services for specific customers.

Figure 2: System view of an Information System, Boris Dimov, June 2016

It used to be true that ISs are made to serve the needs of managers (executives) but today's reality

differs from this outdated statement. Information systems can be used by many or as little as one

individual. Indeed, there are Enterprise Information Systems which serve the needs of entire

businesses and they have arguably hold the focus of researches for great period of time. We can also

mention Inter-Enterprise Systems which are systems that link multiple enterprises, such as a

business and its suppliers.


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Other specific examples of Information Systems are: transaction processing systems, learning

management systems, knowledge management systems, decision support systems, database

management systems, and office information systems, and others.

2.1 Components of Information Systems The 5 basic components of IS are: hardware, software, people, data and procedures.i The hardware,

software, and telecommunications constitute the essentials of information technology (IT) which

implies that IS is IT plus people and procedures.

Figure 3: Information Technology v. Information Systems, Boris DIMOV, June

2016

Information systems, particularly since the arrival of the Web and mobile computing, have had a

profound effect on organizations, economies, and societies, as well as on individuals whose lives and

activities are conducted in these social aggregates.ii They have raised the productivity of

organizations and governments up to a level never imagined before; a level in which many job places

have been replaced completely or partially by a networked device. Many businesses would have not

existed if there wasn’t the effect of productivity since those would not be feasible to exist. But even

if we take this idea on a level of a single person, the IS helped us in saving valuable resources,

including time, as the ultimate resource.

The Internet have further more improved the productivity of companies through raised efficiency of

information systems. It has enabled the information systems to have a global medium through which

they can network and communicate.

The report from McKinsey Global Institute in October 2011 called the internet “The Great

Transformer” since it has changed continues to change the way we work, socialize, create and share

information, and organize the flow of people, ideas, and things around the globe. Yet the magnitude

of this transformation is still underappreciated. The Internet accounted for 21 percent of the GDP

growth in mature economies over the past 5 years. Individual consumers and small, upstart

entrepreneurs have been some of the greatest beneficiaries from the Internet’s empowering

influence. If Internet were a sector, it would have a greater weight in GDP than agriculture or

utilities.iii


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3 INDIVIDUAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS

3.1 Definition of IIS As with the case of IS, there are numerous opinions and views on the definition of IIS as well. I am

not going to strive to discuss the validity of these differences in views on the definition of IIS. I will

include some of the definitions only to picture what IIS is. Individual Information Systems may be

also found as Personal Information Systems. In this paper, I am going to use these terms

interchangeably.

To me, Individual Information System (IIS) is a system which allows an individual to gather, organize,

store and retrieve ideas and information found of personal value including his thought process.

A big influence to me was the work of Professor Richard Baskervilleiv. His research specializes in

security of information systems, methods of information systems design and development, and the

interaction of information systems and organizations.

Another definition of IIS that I find very appropriate is:

An individual information system is an activity system in which individual persons,

according to idiosyncratic needs and preferences, perform processes and activities using

information, technology, and other resources to produce informational products and/or

services for use by themselves or others.v

Let's break down this definition on its components:

An activity system is an assembly of people and other resources organized into a whole in order to

accomplish a purpose. The people in the system are affected by being in the system, and by their

participation in the system they affect the system.vi

Idiosyncratic need and preferences refers to the personal needs or needs and preferences peculiar to

an individual or group.

The processes and activities that they perform may be storing a video or making a note or maybe

reading a document or activities related to personal banking.

The information technology that an individual may use is quite diverse as well. They might choose to

use a smartphone, computer, internet, cloud technology, external hard disk, tablet, office

productivity system and so on. To be even more specific, they might choose, or they might be made

in position to use or not, a smartphone that runs on Android or iOS or Symbian. They might choose

to use a PC that runs on Windows 7 or 10, or use laptop instead of PS that runs on MacOS, or maybe

use both PC and laptop.

The outcome of these systems is informational products and/or services. Such products might be

information about the weather or account balance or reading news or learning a new subject online.

Example of services can be making an online transaction or buying products or sending email or chat

with friends.

These informational products and services may be for personal use or others. For example, the

above mentioned informational products and services can be of our use or they might be of use to

our friends or family. For example, we might download a game app on our personal smartphone and

then give one child to play it or use your parent’s PC and office productivity system installed on it to

write your research paper.


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All in all, just because there information systems are named individual or personal, does not mean

that they are only and solely used by one person. What it means is that they are different from the

information systems used by enterprises and governments or organizations in terms of their

components, functionalities and outputs.

3.2 Structure of IIS An individual information system employs means of organization as in folders and subfolders, which

correspond to directories and subdirectories on disks or network drives. Each of the folders and

subfolders also contain many documents. This is referred as a File/Folder Organization System.

However, this organizational system should be used only in its limits. In order to satisfy the

idiosyncratic use (and other reasons), arbitrarily linking of info to other info in the system, regardless

of location or hierarchy, should be enabled and included.

Given the 3.17vii billion Internet users, the IIS are likely to become an increasingly significant aspect

of the overall information system world. There are two aspects of this emerging type of IS that are

useful for the discussion developed in this chapter:

(1) There is a myriad of hardware and of software packages plus the access to services

via the Internet that are employed by the individual to respond to his/her individual

requirements concerning leisure and business activities;

(2) Individual IS are also present at the workplace and they differ from the IS designed

to respond to organizational needs because they satisfy the individual specific work related

information necessities.

Prof. Richard Baskerville in its paper “Individual information systems as a research arena” wrote:

“Evolution is what happens when you are not watching. An example is the personal

computer. Computing for many individual persons has evolved from the ‘standalone desktop

PC’ to a ‘networked PC’ to a ‘network of a PC and a laptop’ to a ‘network of PCs, laptops,

printers, smartphones, etc.”viii

This transformation has happened just beneath the noses of information systems (IS) researches.

Enabled by the falling costs of information and communications technology (ICT), individual persons

and their families are contriving increasingly complex information systems. These systems often

involve multiple networked devices that help perform myriad individual information processing

tasks. At the same time, the research into personal usage of ICT has been very active, but it fails to

recognize that individual persons are operating more than just singular, isolated technologies. These

individuals are designing complex systems in which these technologies help process, create, and

store individual information.

3.3 Discussion on IIS There may have been, and continue to be, dramatic growth in the populations of individual

information systems.ix For example, current estimates of the population of Internet users is around

3.17 billion usersx with an estimation of 3.6 billion users by the end of 2018xi. Even if a tiny portion

of these users have complex systems, then millions of such systems could already exist with an

incredible growth potential.

These individual information systems are mostly growing and succeeding in ways that are most likely

not covered by the knowledge of information systems. Here I find the reason, the gap that needs to

be studied more extensively.


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We are witnessing a transition from a goods-based economy to a services-based economy. Services

now account for 75% of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP)xii and 80% of private sector

employment in the United Statesxiii. This leads us to the conclusion that in the future we will spare

greater percentage of our spending towards service providers of any kind. This will lead to making

even more complex IIS which again, addresses the importance of research of IIS.

Jones and Thomas surveyed people’s use of new personal information management technologies

and found low adoption rates. They speculated that the limited applicability of new technologies,

each focusing on a limited conception of personal information, was the main reason for slow

adoption.xiv This gives us insight on where should we apply our near and later efforts in research.

Since the adoption rates for new technologies, like wearable devices, are low, we should focus

attention on the wide spread technologies first.

Jones et al.xv conducted detailed observations of the methods that people use to organize web pages

for reuse and developed a functional analysis to show how the techniques people use depend on

anticipated re-access needs.

One ideal of IIS is that people should always have the right information in the right place, in the right

form, and of sufficient completeness and quality to meet their current need. Technologies and tools

such as personal information managers help people spend less time with time-consuming and error-

prone activities of PIM (such as looking for and organizing information). They then have more and

better insight in making creative, intelligent use of their time, or to simply enjoy the information

itself.xvi

Figure 4: Software integration in single and multiple hardware, Boris Dimov,

June 2016, inspired and adapted from Mijalce Santa.

Integrating applications for personal use is quite challenging and it certainly takes advanced IT

knowledge. However, integration between applications on various OSs and devices has been

enabled by the producers of the aps themselves, like Facebook with Instagram and GMail, or GMail

with Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Contacts and Google Plus.


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The fact is that this integration wasn’t always there. It might be useful to study how this integration

has happened. In my opinion, IS emphasizes functionality over design. This implies that students,

but people in general as well, are most likely to create an IIS that doesn’t have the best design, in

terms of graphic or interaction design, but it will satisfy their needs sufficiently well.

Figure 4 represents two situations. One, is when a single software is used on different hardware.

This is a situation with many software packages, like Microsoft Office for example. Office is available

on Windows, Windows for phone, MacOS and iOS. There are numerous other examples and I am

sure that you can think of one right now.

However, there is not much to change here by a single user. Software integration between different

hardware is taken care by the software producers themselves.

The interest of this paper is how individuals integrate data from multiple software on a single or

multiple hardware. This would be the occurrences circled on the right half of the Figure 4. There, we

can see that multiple software, represented by squares in different tints, is integrated (represented

by circling them) on both levels, single hardware and multiple hardware.

Many software producers deal with this situation as well. An excellent example is Google

represented by Gmail. Gmail is available on all devices: PC, laptop, smartphone; on Windows, iOS,

MacOS, Linux. The interesting part is that Gmail can be integrated with many other software like

Google Calendar, Inbox by Google, Google Drive and others.


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4 RESEARCH METHODS Two main research methods were used when writing this paper:

Literature review.

Survey.

When I started researching this subject, I looked for proper literature. The literature used in this

paper was selected and identified through a three level process: (1) First, a pull of research papers

was made by search on several online databases. The main search keywords were: Information

systems, Individual information systems, individual information systems definition, and individual

information systems characteristics. A pool of 20 articles and research papers was generated. (2) I

red and reviewed all the articles generating notes. (3) Definitions, characteristics and models were

identified and noted.

Then I come up with a few hypotheses and I decided I should test them with surveying students. I

come up with 50 questions and packed them in 16 multiple choice questions, checkboxes questions

and multiple choice grid questions.

The survey was conducted online from 02 to 07 of June. It was sent to students by mail and social

media groups. Only answers from students are taken into account and answers from respondents

who stated that they are not students were discarded. Later, the results from this survey were run

through data analysis programs.

Finally, I have analyzed all the previous work and composed the summary which can be found at

the end of this paper.

I chose to go with Google Forms for conducting this survey. The survey run exclusively online. A link

from the survey sheet was shared on Facebook groups where college students could be found and a

personal link was sent to my friends and family. The survey included 16 questions in total, out of

which:

● 5 multiple choice questions.

● 8 multiple choice grid questions.

● 3 checkboxes

There were 75 responses to the survey in total. Since the target group of this survey were students, I

disregarded the responses from the respondents who answered no to the question “Are you a

student”. That gives us 67 valuable responses.

For examining the results from this survey I used the Google Forms Responses Summary, Google

Sheets and Microsoft Excel. A copy from the survey can be found in Appendix 1. A summary from the

responses of the survey can be found in Appendix 2. Excel file with the responses can be found in

Appendix 3.


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4.1 Survey as a research method Survey research is one of the most important and most widely used way of measurement in applied

social research. The broad area of survey research encompasses any measurement procedures that

involve asking questions of respondents. A "survey" can be anything form a short paper-and-pencil

feedback form to an intensive one-on-one in-depth interview.

Surveys can be divided into two broad categories: the questionnaire and the interview.

Questionnaires are usually paper-and-pencil instruments that the respondent completes. Interviews

are completed by the interviewer based on the respondent says. Sometimes, it's hard to tell the

difference between a questionnaire and an interview. For instance, some people think that

questionnaires always ask short closed-ended questions while interviews always ask broad open-

ended ones. But you will see questionnaires with open-ended questions (although they do tend to

be shorter than in interviews) and there will often be a series of closed-ended questions asked in an

interview.

Survey research has changed dramatically in the last ten years. We have automated telephone

surveys that use random dialing methods. There are computerized kiosks in public places that allows

people to ask for input. A whole new variation of group interview has evolved as focus group

methodology. Increasingly, survey research is tightly integrated with the delivery of service. Your

hotel room has a survey on the desk. Your waiter presents a short customer satisfaction survey with

your check. You get a call for an interview several days after your last call to a computer company for

technical assistance. You're asked to complete a short survey when you visit a web site.

Selecting the type of survey I am going to use is one of the most critical decisions in many social

research contexts. There are very few simple rules that will make the decision obvious, but, I have to

use my judgment to balance the advantages and disadvantages of different survey types.

The three main reasons why survey is a compelling choice, in my opinion are:

Cost, extensiveness and flexibility

Uncover answers from students.

Base statements on objective information.

Comparable results with foreign research.

Reach to more students than interviews or focus groups.

With this survey, I learned about what motivates students when building their IIS and what is

important to them, and gather meaningful opinions and feedback. A non-intimidating survey

environment is one that best suits the privacy needs of the survey respondent. Respondents

(students) are more likely to provide open and honest feedback in a more private survey method.

Methods such as online surveys, are more private and less intimidating than face-to-face survey

interviews or telephone surveys or paper surveys, especially if it is clearly stated that survey answers

will remain completely confidential.

Surveys can be administered in many modes, including: online surveys, email surveys, social media

surveys, paper surveys, mobile surveys, telephone surveys, and face-to-face interview surveys. For

remote or hard-to-reach respondents, using a mixed mode of survey research may be necessary (e.g.

I choose internet survey that can be accessed from their most convenient device and place, and at

their own pace. Surveys are relatively inexpensive). Online surveys and mobile surveys, in particular,

have a very small cost per respondent.


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Surveys are useful when describing the characteristics of a large population. No other research

method can provide this broad capability, which ensures a more accurate sample to gather targeted

results in which to draw conclusions and make important decisions.

Another reason why I specifically choose Google Forms is that it can be used from all platforms,

regardless of which operating system or what kind of device they use. This enabled me to reach

students not only present at a specific place and time if I would have go with paper survey. Also,

giving them the option to answer at their pace and convenience gave me better and more accurate

intel. Google Forms also offer comprehensive analysis reports and tools.

Conducting surveys is an unbiased approach to decision-making. I chose not to rely on “gut

feelings” when making statements. I succeeded in collecting unbiased survey data and gather

sensible intel based on analyzed results. By analyzing results, once can immediately find the focus of

student’s attention.

Surveys results provide a snapshot of the attitudes and behaviors – including thoughts, opinions, and

comments – about the survey target population. This valuable feedback is a baseline to measure and

establish a benchmark from which to compare results over time.

4.2 Survey Analysis

4.2.1 Devices The As-Is situation tells us that the smartphone is the most often used device. Personal computers

and laptops are second and tablets are the least used devices. Smartphones play an important role

in bringing people online. In many cases, smartphones are used at least as often as computers for

accessing the Internet. An international research conducted by Consumer Barometer found out that

the country that uses smartphones the most to connect to internet is Malaysia. Then comes Turkey,

United Kingdom, Mexico, Croatia, Australia and Canada.

Figure 5: Devices usage comparison between MK students and USA in

general.

About 95% of the students said that they use smartphone every day. 75% of students said that they

use computer or laptop every day. However, only 6% of them said that they use tablet every day

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Smartphone PC Tablet TV

USA general MK students


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with 67% of them saying that they never use tablet. Similar, only 3% said that they use computer at

college with 67% reporting that they never use computer at college.

However, in Macedonia, students use TV less used than computers and smartphones but still, much

more used than tablets, wearable devices and computers at college and work. 85% of them reported

that they watch TV at least once a week with more than 50% watching TV every day. It seems that

Macedonian students, unlike Macedonians in general, no longer keep the first place in the world in

watching TV.

Not only in Macedonia are tablets the least used devices to connect to internet. In the USA, tablets

use only 35% of the population compared with 57% of the population that uses smartphone. If we

take into account the amount of occurrences or time spent on tablet, we would get even lesser

usage of tablets. The most used electronic device is USA is a TV.xvii

Overall, significant difference was evident between the frequency of usage of smartphones, PCs

and tablets for the same activities. Greater part of the students said that use smartphone every day

or many times a week as opposed to PCs and tablets, especially less for tablets.

In figure 5 we can compare the usage frequency of Macedonian students and the population of USA

in general. The data for MK students is taken from my survey and the data for US is borrowed from

Consumer Barometer by Google.xviii


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4.2.2 Applications

Figure 6: How many applications have students installed ond their devices.

Greater part of the students answered that they have installed up to 5 applications on their

computer. On the other hand, even greater percentage of them answered that they have installed

up to 9 applications on their smartphone.

The survey shows that people prefer applications that they can run on a browser and applications

installed on their smartphone or tablet. Other options included applications installed on their

computer and extensions for browsers which weren’t their choice of preference.

Excluding 6 respondents, all of them said that they have at least one same applications installed on

their computer and on their smartphone. About 60% of them answered that they have from 1 to 3

same applications, and 20% said that they have from 4 to 7 same applications installed.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

1 to 5

6 to 9

10 to 15

More than 15

I do know at the moment

How many applications have you installed on your COMPUTER and/or LAPTOP

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

1 to 5

6 to 9

10 to 15

More than 15


How many applications have you installed on your SMARTPHONE?

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

1 to 5

6 to 9

10 to 15

More than 15


How many applications have you installed on your TABLET?


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4.2.3 Internet usage All of the respondents answered that they have internet at home. Out of the 67 respondents, 56

answered that they use mobile internet on their smartphone. Most of them, sometimes use public

Wi-Fi, when at college and at cafes and restaurants.

4.2.4 Information technology literacy All except one of the respondents evaluated themselves as they have at least average computer

skills. About 40% of the respondents said that they have excellent computer skills and 20% of them

said that they have above average computer skills. If I take their self-evaluation for granted, it tells

us that we are dealing with the better half of the population regarding computer literacy.

However, I performed ANOVA statistical analysis on the outputs from student’s self-evaluation and

the answers from the multiple choice checkbox question for computer literacy. The ANOVA test

rejected the null hypothesis that the means of these (6) variables are equal, so I run t-tests. It gave

me no choice but to run t-tests. Five t-tests were conducted comparing the self-evaluation question

with each of the sub-questions for computer literacy.

Four out of five null hypotheses were rejected, only one was accepted. The results were as follows:

● The comparison on whether or not they agree with the statement “I often post

things online” has rejected the null hypothesis. This indicates that, if we take the results

from the self-evaluation as granted, that students with higher level of computer literacy post

less often and students with lesser level of computer literacy post more often.

● The comparison on whether or not they agree with the statement “I often help

other people with internet related problems” confirmed the null hypothesis.

● The comparison on whether or not they agree with the statement “When in need

for info, I first check on internet” has rejected the null hypothesis which indicates that

students with lower level of computer skill check for info on internet more often than

students with better computer skills.

● The fourth statement was “Using internet is fun to me” and the t-test rejected the

null hypothesis.

● The fifth statement was “If it is possible to do it online, I prefer to do it that way”

and the t-test also rejected the null hypothesis.


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4.2.5 Transferring data The As-Is situation regarding the way students transfer data between computer and smartphone is

as follows:

● 43% of them use USB cable for transferring data.

● 11% use the cloud technology

● 10% use Bluetooth technology.

● 5% of them use USB stick or external hard drive.

Documents are the type of data most often transferred between computer and smartphone, in

comparison with music, photos and videos and contacts. It is expected that contacts would be the

least transferred type of data since if ever need to transfer contacts between smartphone and

computer is either when replacing a phone or making populating a contacts database on computer.

Out of all, 60% of the people reported that they need to transfer documents at least once a week.

If we combine the knowledge from the previous two questions, we are left with 60% percent of

students who have the need to transfer documents between a smartphone and computer at least

once a week and 87% of the students use USB cable as a method for transfer. This leaves room for

possible discomfort since at most of the occurrences they have to have a working USB cable with

them in order to be able to transfer data.

But, since a reliable technology is already present (cloud technology) and all of the students said that

they have internet at home and most of them having mobile internet, the problem that I am seeing

in not replacing the USB cable with cloud technology lays in either poor awareness of cloud

technology or not knowing how to use it. The solution of this problem might be in professors

suggesting students to get now with this technology. There are already educational and how to

videos online about what is cloud technology and how to use it.

And since many cloud platforms, including Google Drive, OneDrive and DropBox, already have

applications available for use in browser, apps for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices and

extensions for Chrome, it leaves no space for arguing why students shouldn’t replace the USB cable

with cloud technology.

4.2.6 Usage of Cloud Technology Only 26% of the respondents in the survey said that they use cloud technology for personal

purposes. However, only 17% of the respondents admitted that they do not use cloud technology

for personal usage. This leaves a lot of room for speculations weather only 26% of Macedonian

students use cloud technology.

Since 44% of the respondents declared that they use GoogleDrive, GoogleDocs, GoogleSlides and

GoogleSheets, I am going to presume that the part of students that use cloud technology is greater

than only 26% since GoogleDrive and their office productivity system is certainly run on cloud.

The reason why only a part of those students checked that they use cloud technology might be a

statistical error or many students miss knowledge on cloud technology.

4.2.7 Activities and content Many people around the world watch online videos at least once a week. Number one place in the

world is reserved by the Israelis. Seventy-six percent of the Israelis watch videos at least once a

week. They also tend to be most focused when watching videos. Viewers of online videos tend to be

highly focused on video content. While there are many reasons to watch online videos, the desire to


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be entertained and inspired is important to viewers around the world. Video watching is intrinsically

motivated. People generally watch online videos that are unrelated to their surroundings.xix

In comparison, the results from the survey for students in Macedonia, they use their computer

and/or laptop, smartphone, and tablet to watch videos or movies 89%, 71% and 20% respectively, at

least once a week. At least 70% of the students stated that they never use any of their devices for

reading news.

Macedonian students use maps at least once a week on their smartphone, computer and tablet

34%, 35%, 14% respectively. They inform themselves about the weather forecast at least once a

week on their smartphone, computer and tablet 82%, 51 and 17% respectively.

Macedonian students stated that they do their diary and calendaring at least once a week on their

smartphone, computer and tablet 95%, 47% and 20%, respectively. They stated that they play games

at least once a week on their smartphone, computer and tablet 53%, 50% and 30%, respectively.

At least once a week, for the purpose of reading books or magazines, Macedonian students stated

that they use that smartphone, laptop and tablet 60%, 65% and 23% respectively. For the purposes

of tracking health, diet and/or activity level, Macedonian students stated that they use their

smartphone, computer and tablet with 52%, 31% and 17%, respectively at least once a week.


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4.3 Discussion Through this research I have gathered the insights and expertise needed to construct a diagram of

an Individual Information System of an average Macedonian student. Here is a representation of

an individual information systems of student named Jana Doe (a pseudonym, average persona). Jana

is a student of the Faculty of Economics, one of the 3 000 students that study there. Jana has a

dedicated laptop and a dedicated smartphone. By dedicated, I mean used by Jane and no others.

Aside from her dedicated laptop and smartphone, she uses use a desktop computer and a tablet

with her family. Jana routinely uses two internet providers, one provided at her apartment that she

shares with roommate and an internet link to her smartphone via her mobile services provider. She

often connects her smartphone on a public Wi-Fi on college campus and public Wi-Fi at cafes. Jana

manages a LAN at her home that includes the DSL modem, a firewall, an Ethernet router, and a

wireless access point. The home network also includes a printer and scanner.

While there are more than 50 separate software packages installed on Jana’s computers, her main

activities involve relatively few of these. The office productivity package is perhaps the mainstay of

her student life, especially the word processing tool. The package is used to generate documents for

her homework and assignments. She also uses an email package and diary/calendar application

(both synchronized with the smartphone) as communications, planning, and record-keeping tools.

She frequently uses a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) package for low cost teleconferencing

across the Internet like Viber and Skype.

Figure 7: Student individual information system (representation), based on

research and survey, Boris Dimov, May 2016; inspiration from Richard

Baskerville

From an individual perspective, she obtains many services from a free ‘cloud’ provided by herself,

like GoogleDrive, OneDrive or DropBox. This cloud includes many of her documents which she shares


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with her classmates in order to collaborate, all the photos that she takes with her smartphone and

some compressed files.

Jana’s personal finance operates with links into her banking, insurance, and financial services cloud

available to Jana on an individual customer basis. Jana also uses a personal finance package to

manage bank accounts and credit cards. She routinely uses this package to synchronize transactions

for her banking accounts for review and reconciliation.

When she travels, even for professional purposes, Jana does most of her travel planning through

airline and hotel booking web sites via the Internet. When she shops, most of her research is made

online but she still mostly makes purchases offline.

Jana's family also uses social networking service. The family has recently gained access to a web

based service from the local cable television provider, enabling Internet-based, on demand, high-

definition access to the films, videos and television programs provided under Jana's personal cable

subscription fees.

Figure 7 delineates the information system architecture of Jana Doe. Such individual IS architectures

are unique at this time; many other examples would be more complex, and others simpler. This is a

single example. There are two elements in the architecture that might require slight elaboration. We

note with vertical arrow two ‘work systems’ within this IS architecture. One is Jana’s ‘student’ work

system as a student. The other is the work system that serves Jana as a person.

While Jana and her family might not regard their involvement with entertainment and personal

communications systems as work, it is nevertheless work for the information system that Jana is

operating.xx The other element is the representation of information services consumed and

produced as arising from, and sinking into, clouds. The term cloud is used here in its loose, IS

perspective because the ‘network’ is evolving to the ‘cloud’. This evolution is because of the

increasing availability of not just low-level data services, but cloud-based business processes.xxi


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5 SUMMARY Technology is more important than ever before and is becoming even more important with every

quarter passed. The reason this is happening is because of its profound effect both on people life’s

and companies’ performance. The focus of the IT industry is shifting from enterprise to individual

consumers followed with new technologies emerging every day. These new technologies are

emerging and being used by individuals in ways that are rarely covered by scientific research. This

means that people might be building individual information systems that are not efficient or user

friendly, leaving room for improvement.

This paper can introduce you with the definition and components of individual information

systems. It can give you reference to the best scientific papers, books and online references for the

topic. It also grasps the surface of students’ individual information systems, giving you insights on

devices, applications and habits in the way students build one and use their own.

We are blessed to live in an era with technologies like smart cars, drones, smart security systems,

and tones of more technology enabled devices gaining momentum. All of these devices will require

integration with our current individual information system. Let’s not leave this exciting field in the

darkness of randomness and enlighten it with science.


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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many thanks to all the lecturers and staff at the Faculty of Economics in Skopje. It has been a life

changing experience.

This paper would have not been made without the mentorship and inspiration of professor Santa.

He generously shared his valuable time and expertise with me and enlightened me with research

techniques, methods and tools.

My studies, here at the ECCF, would have not happen without the support of my parents. I cannot

thank them enough for the support they have been giving me all my life.

LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1: Survey

Appendix 2: A summary of responses of the survey

Appendix 3: Excel file with responses


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