Debates In Information Technology

The purpose of this book is to highlight major debates in Information Technology (“IT”) that might be of interest to fledgling MIS students to help them get a sense of the big ideas in their field. This book is intended for graduate and undergraduate audiences but is easily accessible to practitioners and students alike. Each big idea is presented as a resolution for discussion, one per chapter, and each chapter opens with a broad overview of the resolution, followed by pro and con discussions weighing the merits of the issue. These informative chapters should help students quickly get up to speed on the facts of the issue in order to stimulate more fruitful class discussion. Chapters were authored and reviewed entirely by graduate students as part of an online class project spanning two semesters from 2013 to 2014. Over 80 students contributed to writing it. Faculty editorship enhanced the chapters’ consistency and where necessary, smoothed the writing style. As a whole, this work embodies an important achievement for which these students should be commended. It shows (once again) just how capable students really are.