In business schools, my academic specialization is called Information Systems. Information systems researchers study the design and use of information technology in all kinds of organized human activity: businesses, government, schools, hospitals, even social movements.

Information technology offers us the possibility of changing the world for the better.  Humanity now possesses a mind-boggling ability to store information, process it, and send it around the world for almost no cost.   And the raw power of information technology is still doubling every couple of years.

Over the past few decades, we information systems academics have found that turning better information technology into better human activity is hard work.  The difficulties can come from many different sources–technological complexity, organizational confusion, human frailty–but all stem from a common truth: the absolutely central role that information plays in organized human activity. When you try to change the guts of anything, it can get messy.

A big part of what we information systems people do is try to figure out what works, and what doesn’t (through the use of examples, methods, applications, frameworks, theories, and the occasional display of exaggerated enthusiasm or despair).

At a deeper level, though, the whole idea of improving things through technology is a tricky one.   For one thing, what does improvement mean?  For whom?  Some applications of information technology have definite ‘winners and losers’.  The results for different groups can vary greatly, depending on specific decisions about how to store, process, and access information, and how that information is tied to human activity.  Whose needs are most important?

Second, it’s not obvious how much control people really have over the outcomes of any technology-based change.  The world of information technology is full of ‘unintended consequences’.  Perhaps this is inevitable, because we’re dealing with the most flexible of technologies, supporting the most flexible and open-ended of human activities (such as decision-making and communication). While we information systems experts might strive for the timeless bits of wisdom that will always translate better information technology into better human activity, our potential ‘silver bullets’ of advice will always have these fundamental limitations. Human activity, and human technology, is too ambiguous for it to be otherwise.

The joy of information systems, for me anyway, lies in this intoxicating mixture of awesome technological power and the mystery of social activity, combined with the possibility that things really can get much better if we use our knowledge to avoid the mistakes of the past.  Being involved with information systems gives me the chance to make a huge difference.  And it puts me right where the action is in the modern world–business, the global economy, politics, health care, the media, and modern warfare are all difficult to get a handle on without some understanding of how the information systems process works.  Though it sometimes makes my brain hurt, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.