Expert System

An expert system is an artificial intelligence based system that converts the knowledge of an expert in a specific subject into a software code. This code can be merged with other such codes (based on the knowledge of other experts) and used for answering questions or queries submitted through a computer. In other words, it is a system that trys to copy the knowledge and decisions that human makes. In today's society there are many types of expert systems that attempt to solve problems.

There are three different parts that an expert systems typically consists of. First, a knowledge base which contains the information acquired by interviewing experts, and logic rules that govern how that information is applied. Second, an interference engine that interprets the submitted problem against the rules and logic of information stored in the knowledge base. Third, interface that allows the user to express the problem in a human language such as English.

The design of an expert system is built like human beings. The system must be a specialist and able to use heuristics, justify its conclusions, be able to learn, and estimate the reliability of its answer. Being a specialist means it must be able to know facts and know procedural rules. The system has to give an answer and be able to justify its answer with facts. A good expert system will be able to absorb tons of knowledge and the use the knowledge it absorbs. All of this knowledge to make this expert system be able to  function correctly is domain specific. In other words, it takes all of the knowledge of a human expert to create this advanced type of  expert system.

The expert system works off of a rule base or knowledge base. In expert system technology, the knowledge base is expressed with natural language rules IF ... THEN ... For examples 

"IF it is living THEN it is mortal"
"IF his age = known THEN his year of birth = date of today - his age in years"

IF is called the set of conditions and the set THEN is what happens as a result. Each result can be used as a new fact for the system or just as an action the system must take.

Expert systems can also use forward-chaining and backward-chaining to determine results. Forward-chaining is the questioning of an expert who has no idea of the solution and investigates progressively and is data driven. There is a supply of facts and it repeatedly applies rules to create new facts to get to a certain goal. Backward chaining is goal driven. The engine has an idea of the target. It starts from the goal in hopes of finding the solution as soon as possible by creating sub goals.

There are many benefits to having an expert system. Expert systems offer many advantages for users when compared to traditional programs because they operate like a human brain. Human expertise may not always be readily available when needed so an expert system would take over. Also, when traditional computer methods fail a company may want to implement an expert system. The expert system has a quick availability and it is able to program itself. As the rule base is in everyday language, expert systems can be written much faster than a conventional program, by users or experts, bypassing professional developers and avoiding the need to explain the subject. Expert systems have the ability to exploit a considerable amount of knowledge, the expert system uses a rule base unlike conventional programs which means that the volume of knowledge to program is not a major concern. Whether the rule base has 10 rules or 10 000, the engine operation is the same. The reliability of an expert system is the same as that of a database. For example, it is good or higher than that of a classical program. Also,  human experts can resign, retire, or even die which means valuable knowledge can disappear. But if it is recorded in an expert system, it becomes eternal.

There are also some challenges to designing an expert system.  The flaw is knowledge collection and its interpretation into rules. Most developers have no automated method to perform this task. Instead they work manually, increasing the likelihood of errors. Expert knowledge is generally not well understood either. For example, rules may not exist, be contradictory, or be poorly written and unusable. Also, most expert systems use an engine incapable of reasoning. As a result, an expert system will often work poorly, and the project abandoned.

An example of expert system application in business is in the financial field  which uses expert systems for mortgages. Loan departments are interested in expert systems for mortgages because of the growing cost of labor, which makes the handling and acceptance of relatively small loans less profitable. They also see a possibility for standardized efficient handling of mortgage loans by applying expert systems, appreciating that for the acceptance of mortgages there are hard and fast rules which do not always exist with other types of loans. 

The World is Flat

The world is flat idea comes from Thomas Friedman. The world meaning, the world as a level playing field in terms of commerce, where all competitors have an equal opportunity. Back in 1995 is when the flat world theory began and we didn't even realize it. People were able to collaborate and connect with people in the cheaper ways than ever before. Friedman wrote a book on the world is flat and explained all of his ideas. The idea he intended to make was very simplistic. It is the concept that since everyone is now able to be connected to the Internet in some way, we can all be tied together. In 1995, the first Netscape browser was created. This was the first ways in which a browser tied the world together globally. The browser was a took that could be used across the world! Before Netscape was created, everyone still relied on communication through phones and writing letters. But when Netscape came along, it created a whole new revolution that is now referred to as the Internet.

Friedman likes to use the term, "what can be done, will be done" in the video many times. What he means by this is that being connected to all of this IT and knowledge management, anything you want to be done, can be done! You have all the tools at your fingertips, it is how you use those tools to your advantage that will make you successful. If you are trying to manufacture or sell goods at cheaper prices, then all you have to do is jump on the Internet and search for new ways. Before the Internet, countries were not able to connect easily. When the Internet came along, these countries were able to connect instantly. People in different countries were able to manage, share, collect, and use data with each other. Anyone who wanted to take advantage of this, could jump on the Internet and have their way with this knowledge! Friedman suggested that everyone was neighbors with this new revolution, because there were no boundaries when it came to sharing knowledge and everyone had access!

In today's world, we no long rely on TVs or newspapers to get our information. Almost everyone you know is connected to the Internet and this is how they stay up to date with news and information. This is also how the majority of the world shares and acquires knowledge. Technology and advancements in communications have made it to where people on the other side of the world are more accessible and a flat world seems more accessible than a round one. Sustaining a competitive edge is becoming hard and harder in today's society because everyone is connected to the Internet. Any access that one business has to information via Internet, another business has the same opportunity.

Google and other search engines are the prime example of being able to get information instantly. Friedman quotes, "Never before in the history of the planet have so many people, on their own, had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people." The growth of search engines is tremendous and constantly growing.  Google is now processing roughly one billion searches per day which is up from 150 million just three years ago. Since everyone has access to all of this changing technology and evolving data and knowledge, Friedman states it is important for the United States to keep updating its work skills. Friedman argues if we continue to make the work force more adaptable, then it will become more employable. He also suggests that the government should make it easier to switch jobs by making retirement benefits and health insurance less dependent on one's employer. For example, provide insurance that would partly cover a possible drop in income when changing jobs. Friedman also believes there should be more inspiration for youth to be scientists, engineers, and mathematicians due to a decrease in the percentage of these professionals being American. If we as Americans take advantage of this, we do not have to look at the corporate world for the next big idea or accomplishment. At any time, present or future, any one individual could be leading the innovation of the world. This platform gives more equal opportunities for individuals to compete globally and be successful as a whole nation or individually.

Managing Knowledge Different

There are three different cases i am going to talk about where three different companies all have one thing in common which is the ability to share knowledge. Partners Health care, Nucor Steel, and Buckman labs all have something in common, but the way they share and manage knowledge is completely different. Below i will discuss the ways in which each company shares and manages knowledge. 

Partners health care has a unique way of sharing and managing knowledge. Although, they had one goal in mind when they created their different ways of sharing and managing knowledge and that was to eliminate wrong diagnoses and prescriptions. Partners developed a system that would be tied together that consisted of order prescription entry, drug database, patient database, and lab test database. This is online access to different medical publications. Being in the medical field, doctors need to be able to get information fast. It they are not able to get this information quick, it can be a matter of life and death for their clients. The reason they created this is because the doctors were having a hard time trying to remember lots of information as fast as they needed it. They want to be able to diagnose patients, prescribe medicine, and remember the history of the patient they are dealing with.  The first thing they developed was the Physician order entry.

They created the system so accurately that it will detect any prescriptions that may have a negative reaction to their patients. The doctor can enter the prescription information, and the system will either offer suggestive prescriptions or show that something may interfere with the patients medical history. With this information, the doctor can then use their knowledge to prescribe the right medication. When the doctor detects something is wrong, they can change or override a suggestion that the system provided. The only kick back to this system is that it only recommends information based on what has been previously entered. The idea Partners had was to make the knowledge so readily accessible that there was little room for error. The other thing they developed was an event-detection system for times when the doctor is not treating the patient directly but still needs to know something that has happened. The doctor is alerted when hospitalized patients monitored health changes and they need to be helped. When the doctor is notified, he can visit the patient directly or call in a new treatment.  



Nucor steel is a steel manufacturing company that has a highly developed knowledge management system that steers away from using IT to gain competitive advantage like other organizations. This company has developed a perfect social ecology for gathering and maintaining knowledge. In other words, Nucor Steel has created a very effective social system in which people operate. It has certain expectations of individuals, defines certain type of individuals who will fit nicely into the organization, lets individuals be free in perusing actions without prior approval, and affects how the workers interact with people inside and outside of their organization. There are two important factors that Nucor steel focuses on within its organization and knowledge. The first is creating knowledge. Unless they keep generating new knowledge, they will be behind everyone else because knowledge increases every day. The second factor is sharing and mobilizing the knowledge you have acquired through the whole corporate network. Nucor steels system is based on incentives that they offer and the value of the knowledge that each of their workers have to offer the company. Nucor steel encourages their workers to think outside of the box and create unique processes that will be more effective to the company. When an employee thinks outside of the box and the knowledge they share with the company is considered excellent and boosts productivity, they receive bonuses. If you do not pump all the knowledge you are gaining through the whole organization then they will become at risk to their competitors who are able to replicate ideas fast.  Nucor allowed their company to identify opportunities to share knowledge, encouraged their workers to share their knowledge, and built effective ways to encourage their workers to use the knowledge they receive. In order to share the knowledge, they made performance data visible to the whole company. In order to encourage workers to accept and use the knowledge they received, they gave incentives and rewarded the ones with strong performance and the ones with weak performances were exposed to peer pressure.

Buckman labs is a company that utilizes all technology in the way they share and manage knowledge. The way Buckman works is all the information in the databases is accessible to everyone, at any given time they need it. There are many advantages to their system because it is easy to navigate, multilingual, searchable, and also available offline. Also, it steadily streams out information so there is a constant flow for the employees. Buckman allows everyone to access the knowledge base and allows each individual to enter knowledge into the system which is a plus. The system functions 24/7 and it’s updated automatically. Buckman is always using the features of email, groupware, and video conferencing. The system is big on collaborating and teamwork. With the knowledge always being available to be communicated, it is easy for them to be successful. Another good thing about their system is the language is easy to understand. Some people may not be as technologically advances but they can still interpret the system. Buckman also created the new system CompuServe. This system allowed them to monitor discussion, track individual requests, and answer questions within 24 hours. If they could not answer the questions they would find someone who could.

 
These three companies have created systems which they are able to use to their advantage and sustain a competitive edge over their competitors.  Although, the various ways in which they share, manage,update, and store data are significantly different as you can see. Partners focuses on one person making the decision but their system has made lots of information easily accessible to them. Nucor steel focuses on their employees and puts a lot of trust in them to boost their productivity and knowledge stock. Buckman labs makes all of their data and knowledge available to everyone and allows everyone to access it and add to the bulk. Each of these companies have found their own unique way to benefit from managing knowledge different and have had tremendous success in doing so. 

HealthCare Provider and IT

IT is very important to health care in today's society. IT improves the quality, safety, and efficiency of health care. The important thing to note is not all health cares have adopted IT into their investments. Although, it is very important for more and more health care companies to adapt to using IT because it will help them in the long run to be able to run a more efficient company. The healthcare provider i chose to research is MedPac. They use IT in various different ways to be more efficient to their customers and employees.

Medpac allows the company to collect, store, retrieve, and transfer information electronically. Medpac uses computerized provider order entry aka CPOE which can minimize handwriting or other communication
errors by having physicians or other providers enter orders into a computer system. This can also apply only to prescription drugs, or may also include additional physician orders such as x-rays, images, consultations, and transfers. Also Medpac uses electronic health records  aka EHR and most commonly known
as electronic medical records, automated medical records, and computer-based patient records. Multiple definitions exist depending on the constellation of functions that are included. They can be used simply as a passive tool to store patient information or can include multiple decision support functions such as individualized patient reminders and prescribing alerts.

Another type of IT that Medpac uses is Bar coding. Bar coding in a health care
environment is similar to bar-code scanning in other environments. They use an optical scanner to
electronically capture information encoded on a product. Initially, it will be used for medication. For example it can match drugs to certain patients by using bar codes on the medication and the patients arm bands they are given in hospitals or clinics.

Another cool type of IT that Medpac uses that i found very interesting was Radio frequency identification aka RFID. This technology tracks patients throughout the hospital and links lab and medication tracking through a wireless communications system. It is not fully developed yet and use less frequent but i can be an alternative to bar coding. Medpac also uses automated dispensing machines which dispenses the correct dose of medicine for whatever patient so they do not accidentally give them a wrong medication or wrong dose. Medpac also uses Clinical decision support system aka CDSS. CDSS
provides physicians and nurses with real-time diagnostic and treatment recommendations in an instant. This can be things like simple alerts and prescription drug interaction warnings to full clinical pathways and protocols. This is very important IT to doctors and is becoming more and more popular.

As you can see, Medpac uses IT to their advantage and has tons more IT that i have not even mentioned. IT is very important to adopting many clinical health IT applications because it is the belief that they improve the quality of patient care. Also it provides doctors and nurses and patients with instant information and also allows them to stay organized and run more cleanly and efficiently as a business. It is very important because  quality health care relies on physicians, nurses, patients and their families, and others having the right information at the right time and using it to make the right decisions that do not cause problems.

Increasing Returns

Increasing returns is the economic law that governs modern knowledge based businesses such as software. The user has to invest a large amount of effort to learn to use a technology and then does not want to change when change might be needed or at the request of the users. For example, take the manufacturing of automobiles. They are usually standard made with three pedals from left to right that include the accelerator, brake and clutch. When you learn to drive one car, essentially you can now learn to drive all cars. Now suppose that someone figures out a more efficient arrangement of the three pedals and changes the order they are aligned in the car. Would you want to drive such a car or go back to the standard made car? It is highly likely that you will crash in your first emergency situation because your brain will be used to the standard alignment of the pedals. 

Most simply put, increasing returns refers to the notion that the greater the size of the network, the greater the advantage of each participant in the network. Each participant brings their own value to the overall network. The more variables you have for your product, the better profit you will make off of your product. Take Fax Machines for example, adding one fax machine will create x in return, however adding 2 fax machines means that they can communicate and therefore increase return higher than would be possible by just 1 fax machine, and marginal returns would be even higher for adding even more fax machines.  

Increasing returns are most commonly seen in the technological market. A company may have software already developed and by adding a couple new things can greatly enhance the value of that software. The latest example of this is the new I-Phone 5 that just came out. The IP-5 is lighter in weight compared to the IP-4S by an ounce. The screen size is taller at 4 inches instead of 3.5. The reviewers agreed that the bigger screen is better for viewing documents and movies and Web surfing. Apple boasted that the new IP-5 can now shoot pictures in low light unlike the IP-4S. The rear-facing camera also got an upgrade to 1.2 megapixels.The battery life has improved to 14 hours in a day with heavy usage of LTE, GPS and WiFi. The shocker is that the new phone is the same price as the IP-4S, but where they make their money and increase returns is, the new IP-5 will now require the user to buy a new adapter that costs 29 dollars. The old adapters that work on the IP-4S, IPads, mac books, iPods, etc will not work on the new IP-5. If you have a few accessories, you could easily pay $150 extra just in adapters for a $200 phone.

The bottom line to this example is Apple has taken an already great product and made it better, overall. By adding these new features, you have now attracted new users to buy the phone, as well as your previous customers but at the same time all users will have to fork out more money for the adapters. The company is a dominant force in the consumer electronics industry and continues to get further and further ahead with increasing returns, but it still hasn't established a firm grip in global mobile market share. 

IT and Strategic Value

Having IT that is up-to-date with the rest of the world we are constantly competing with is very important. Understanding the role IT plays in the business will be important in establishing proper scope, obtaining support for initiatives and delivering the greatest value to the organization at hand.  IT is very important in all countries weather it is in the very intermediate stages, or the more advanced stages. If companies are not up to date with current IT, then they will be at a very big disadvantage in business competition. Having more powerful, up-to-date information systems allow for better economic competition among the market. There are many advantages to having these information systems that run efficiently for your business. You can store, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data more efficiently.

Strategic value is about competitive, pricing, cost, product, or market differentiation. Strategic value is not the same as a fair market value, where a hypothetical buyer and seller have access to all relevant data. Most importantly, strategic value have special hidden features that give buyers a quicker, less costly, and lower risk way to achieve their business goals. For example, entering a new market is a way to capitalize on strategic value. If you have a good understanding of your clients business and product line, you can analyze the market for competitors who could beneficially expand by acquiring the client. An easy example to see this put into action would be, a Midwestern company looking to expand to the East Coast could buy a competitor already established there, or a company hoping to expand its sales of machine parts to a new set of customers could acquire a company that sells an unrelated part to the same customers.

When IT "is the value chain", a good example to analyze is Amazon and Google. The closer IT is to the product or service, the more strategic its value will be to the organization. If there was no information technology, what exactly would their product consist of? Amazon is very efficient with the capabilities they have around fulfilling customers wants, needs, and orders. They have developed a lot of manual picking and packing and are very efficient with this process. The most important aspect of this to note is, if they were not able to reach their customers through IT, they would have no advantage over these other companies.  

When IT "is part of the value chain", a good example to analyze would be Target. The company has developed a new way to target their customers with marketing strategic values. They use a technique called predictive analytic aimed at their customers to predict their buying habits in the future based off of what they have bought in the past. Using this information, they will send out coupons to their current customers, as well as try and attract new customers. This technique is very good for capturing customers attention and retaining their business over a long span of time. 

Data mining companies have also seen a huge increase in demand for their services. They use certain information gathering technologies which allows other companies to access their data. The type of information these companies want are shopping trends, age, income, etc. An example of using data mining would be to analyze that when men bought diapers on Thursdays and Saturdays, they also tended to buy beer. On the other hand, they only bought a few items on these Thursdays. The retailer concluded that they purchased the beer, which meant to have it available for the upcoming weekend. The grocery chain could also use this newly discovered information in various ways to increase revenue for their chain. For example, they could move the beer display closer to the diaper display. And they could make sure beer and diapers were sold at full price on Thursdays because they would be expecting this business.

Knowledge Economy V. Physical Economy

Knowledge economy is an economy where growth is dependent on the quality, quantity, and accessibility of information available instead of actual production. It focuses on the production of knowledge in economic straints.With knowledge economy, knowledge is the main driver of growth and wealth, as well as creation of employment. For example, this economy is one that focus shifts from being based on manufacturing services to actual mental skills of information and knowledge people retain. There is no way to actually see the value of this economy because it is knowledge and not physical production.

On the other hand, a physical economy is one that deals with things that are actually touchable and can be physically seen. Physical economy deals with goods, services, and resources that you can see exist in a tangible location. People have to actually work with their hands to see production and the value in a physical economy is seen mush easier.When you sell a product, it changes hands from the seller to the buyer. Although, in a knowledge economy, you may buy some software from Microsoft and now you own the rights to the software, the company Microsoft still primarily owns the software.

Examples of knowledge economy can be people having acquired certain skill sets over time that they are able to apply to products or services.This can include things like the research behind the products being made, technical support, and consultation. Examples of a physical economy are machines used by people created with knowledge economy, or computers used and the software which was created by knowledge economy. With a physical economy, machines and computers will eventually break down or need to be replaced, but with knowledge economy you will always have the knowledge and skill sets needed and the only thing that can happen is the knowledge can become outdated. 

There is a rise in the knowledge economy that is becoming more intense and it is being driven by the new and ever so increasing pace of the information technology revolution, and the increasing pace of technological change we see everyday. The increasing knowledge intensity that we are seeing involves both the individual goods and services produced, as well as the growing importance of those good and services in our economy today. To some companies, a knowledge based economy is the secret to their success and many wish to keep it secret because they will have an advantage other companies and by sharing the information, they would lose this competitive edge. A knowledge economy is becoming more important because in some aspects it is different then the physical industrial economy we have known for over 200 years now.We are able to have a more competitive economy full of products, and constantly see evolving products becoming better and better.

Most of the time, the knowledge economy and the physical economy cross over each other because it takes the knowledge to be able to create the software for these computers, knowledge to create these databases we use today, knowledge to design buildings and programs we use, but it takes the physcial economy to actually see these things being made and produced, and to have the hands on man power to create the goods. Although, it takes both the knowledge economy and the physical economy for things to be produced and made. Without the knowledge, you wont know how to  use the machines or computers to create products, and without the physical economy, you wont be able to use the devices to create the products. For example, it is like building a house. You need the knowledge to create the blue prints and choose the right tools to use, and you need the physical ability to work with the tools to build the house. Without the proper knowledge of how to build the house, you will have no foundation to start building. Without the knowledge that has been possessed by people of our world today, there would be no way to create all the products and innovations that have been created.