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enterprise-wide knowledge management systems General- formal control tools Project management technique that helps
purpose, firmwide systems that collect, store, distribute, and monitor the progress toward completion of a task and fulfillment
apply digital content and knowledge. of goals.
entity A person, place, thing, or event about which information formal planning tools Project management technique that
must be kept. structures and sequences tasks, budgeting time, money, and
entity-relationship diagram A methodology for documenting technical resources required to complete the tasks.
databases illustrating the relationship between various entities in forward chaining A strategy for searching the rule base in an
the database. expert system that begins with the information entered by the
ergonomics The interaction of people and machines in the work user and searches the rule base to arrive at a conclusion.
environment, including the design of jobs, health issues, and the fourth-generation language A programming language that can be
end-user interface of information systems. employed directly by end users or less-skilled programmers to
e-tailer Online retail stores from the giant Amazon to tiny local develop computer applications more rapidly than conventional
stores that have Web sites where retail goods are sold. programming languages.
ethical “no free lunch” rule Assumption that all tangible and franchiser Form of business organization in which a product is
intangible objects are owned by someone else, unless there is a created, designed, financed, and initially produced in the home
specific declaration otherwise, and that the creator wants country, but for product-specific reasons relies heavily on foreign
compensation for this work. personnel for further production, marketing, and human
ethics Principles of right and wrong that can be used by individuals resources.
acting as free moral agents to make choices to guide their free/fremium revenue model an e-commerce revenue model in
behavior. which a firm offers basic services or content for free, while
evil twins Wireless networks that pretend to be legitimate to entice charging a premium for advanced or high value features.
participants to log on and reveal passwords or credit card fuzzy logic Rule-based AI that tolerates imprecision by using
numbers. nonspecific terms called membership functions to solve
exchange Third-party Net marketplace that is primarily transaction problems.
oriented and that connects many buyers and suppliers for spot
purchasing. Gantt chart Visually representats the timing, duration, and
executive support systems (ESS) Information systems at the resource requirements of project tasks.
organization’s strategic level designed to address unstructured general controls Overall control environment governing the
decision making through advanced graphics and design, security, and use of computer programs and the security
communications. of data files in general throughout the organization's information
expert system Knowledge-intensive computer program that technology infrastructure.
captures the expertise of a human in limited domains of genetic algorithms Problem-solving methods that promote the
knowledge. evolution of solutions to specified problems using the model of
explicit knowledge Knowledge that has been documented. living organisms adapting to their environment.
Extensible Markup Language (XML) General purpose language geoadvertising Delivering ads to users based on their GPS location.
that describes the structure of a document and XML can geographic information system (GIS) System with software
perform presentation, communication, and storage of data, that can analyze and display data using digitized maps to enhance
allowing data to be manipulated by the computer. planning and decision-making.
external integration tools Project management technique that geoinformation services Information on local places and things
links the work of the implementation team to that of users at all based on the GPS position of the user.
organizational levels. geosocial services Social networking based on the GPS location of
extranet Private intranet that is accessible to authorized outsiders. users.
global culture The development of common expectations, shared
Fair Information Practices (FIP) A set of principles originally artifacts, and social norms among different cultures and peoples
set forth in 1973 that governs the collection and use of Golden Rule Putting oneself in the place of others as the object
information about individuals and forms the basis of most U.S. of a decision.
and European privacy laws. Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act Requires financial institutions to ensure
fault-tolerant computer systems Systems that contain extra the security and confidentiality of customer data.
hardware, software, and power supply components that can back green computing Refers to practices and technologies for
a system up and keep it running to prevent system failure. designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers,
feasibility study As part of the systems analysis process, the way servers, and associated devices such as monitors, printers, storage
to determine whether the solution is achievable, given the devices, and networking and communications systems to
organization’s resources and constraints. minimize impact on the environment.
feedback Output that is returned to the appropriate members of the grid computing Applying the resources of many computers in a
organization to help them evaluate or correct input. network to a single problem.
field A grouping of characters into a word, a group of words, or a group decision-support system (GDSS) An interactive
complete number, such as a person’s name or age. computer-based system to facilitate the solution to unstructured
file transfer protocol (FTP) Tool for retrieving and transferring problems by a set of decision makers working together as a
files from a remote computer. group.
file A group of records of the same type.
firewall Hardware and software placed between an organization’s hacker A person who gains unauthorized access to a computer
internal network and an external network to prevent outsiders network for profit, criminal mischief, or personal pleasure.
from invading private networks. Hadoop Open-source software framework that enables distributed
folksonomies User-created taxonomies for classifying and sharing parallel processing of huge amounts of data across many
information. inexpensive computers.
foreign key Field in a database table that enables users find related hertz Measure of frequency of electrical impulses per second, with 1
information in another database table. Hertz equivalent to 1 cycle per second.

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