B01.2119 Additional Resources

Supplemental Material:

Cisco white paper on Internet Commerce (pdf)

Example case writups (CISCO/ERP Case)
    Example 1
    Example 2
    Example 3

Additional Resources:

Price Waterhouse's Technology Forecast is available at the NYU Professional Bookstore. In addition to a concise technical introduction to the various topics covered, it provides excellent surveys of the marketplace, including pointers to leading vendors and products, as well as assessments of trends and directions. Students with no previous exposure in IT might find this a bit heavy. On the other hand, students who have had some previous IT exposure and especially MBA students who are interested in connecting the technological principles we will learn in the lectures with the marketplace will find this an excellent reference.

The PC Webopedia (http:// www. pcwebopedia. com) is a Web site that serves as an encyclopedia of Information Technology terms. It provides excellent explanations of Information Technology terms, together with links to additional web pages related to them. For each lecture, the course Web page contains pointers to the relevant category of the PC Webopedia. We strongly encourage you to use this valuable resource to clarify unanswered questions and to go beyond the material covered in class, according to your own personal interests.

The Tech Encyclopedia (http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/) is an on-line version of The Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. It has (sometimes in-depth) descriptions of many IT concepts and terms. Very useful.

The Software Technology Review (http://www.sei.cmu.edu/str) at the CMU Software Engineering Institute is a directed guide containing the latest information on approximately 63 software technologies. As with the PC Webopedia and Tech Encyclopedia, we strongly encourage you to use this resource for definitions and explanations of terms mentioned in course lectures and to go beyond the material covered in class if you wish.

Dictionary of PC hardware and Data Communication Terms is the online version of a very well-written, out of print book by Mitchell Shnier. It also provides excellent explanations of several hardware and communication-related terms, from the well-known (BIOS) to the obscure (Speedo). Explanations are often more low level than the PC Webopedia (compare TCP with TCP).

Further learning: breadth and depth:

Computer Concepts, 4th Edition, J.J. Parsons and D. Oja, (Course Technology/Thomson Learning, 2000) provides a comprehensive background in fundamental IT concepts, from "what is a computer" to database design and querying. Has an accompanying CD-rom for interactive learning.
Client/Server Survival Guide, 3rd Edition, Robert Orfali, Dan Harkey, and Jeri Edwards, John Wiley & Sons, 1999 is a in-depth treatment of modern, internet-based IT. It's difficult. Don't be fooled by the title: the authors take an all-encompassing view of "client/server," including most of modern, internetworked information systems.
Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing is the online version of a very well-written book on database-backed, collaborative web sites and services. Does it sound like a niche? It's not--almost all the sites and services of any value are database-backed. It can get technical, but the main ideas are excellent and you can always skip the code. Caveat: Philip does not care much for traditional businesses and for many of their executives (but his attitude is not worse than Dilbert's).

Books in the How things work series from MacMillan Computer Pub, especially the following:

How intranets work,

More useful links: