Download or read book Smart Enough Systems written by James Taylor and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2007-06-29 with total page 710 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Automated decisions systems are probably already being used in your industry, and they will undoubtedly grow in importance. If your business needs to make quick, accurate decisions on an industrialized scale, you need to read this book.” Thomas H. Davenport, Professor, Babson College, Author of Competing on Analytics The computer-based systems most organizations rely on to support their businesses are not very smart. Many of the business decisions these companies make tend to be hidden in systems that make poor decisions, or don’t make them at all. Further, most systems struggle to keep up with the pace of change. The answer is not to implement newer, “intelligent” systems. The fact is that much of today’s existing technology has the potential to be “smart enough” to make a big difference to an organization’s business. This book tells you how. Although the business context and underlying principles are explained in a nontechnical manner, the book also contains how-to guidance for more technical readers. The book’s companion site, www.smartenoughsystems.com, has additional information and references for practitioners as well as news and updates. Additional Praise for Smart (Enough) Systems “James Taylor and Neil Raden are on to something important in this book–the tremendous value of improving the large number of routine decisions that are made in organizations every day.” Dr. Hugh J. Watson, Chair of Business Administration, University of Georgia “This is a very important book. It lays out the agenda for business technology in the new century–nothing less than how to reorganize every aspect of how a company treats its customers.” David Raab, President, ClientXClient “This book is an important contribution to business productivity because it covers the opportunity from both the business executive’s and technologist’s perspective. This should be on every operational executive’s and every CIO’s list of essential reading.” John Parkinson, Former CTO, Capgemini, North American Region “This book shows how to use proven technology to make business processes smarter. It clearly makes the case that organizations need to optimize their operational decisions. It is a must-have reference for process professionals throughout your organization.” Jim Sinur, Chief Strategy Officer, Global 360, Inc.
Download or read book The Smart Enough City written by Ben Green and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why technology is not an end in itself, and how cities can be “smart enough,” using technology to promote democracy and equity. Smart cities, where technology is used to solve every problem, are hailed as futuristic urban utopias. We are promised that apps, algorithms, and artificial intelligence will relieve congestion, restore democracy, prevent crime, and improve public services. In The Smart Enough City, Ben Green warns against seeing the city only through the lens of technology; taking an exclusively technical view of urban life will lead to cities that appear smart but under the surface are rife with injustice and inequality. He proposes instead that cities strive to be “smart enough”: to embrace technology as a powerful tool when used in conjunction with other forms of social change—but not to value technology as an end in itself. In a technology-centric smart city, self-driving cars have the run of downtown and force out pedestrians, civic engagement is limited to requesting services through an app, police use algorithms to justify and perpetuate racist practices, and governments and private companies surveil public space to control behavior. Green describes smart city efforts gone wrong but also smart enough alternatives, attainable with the help of technology but not reducible to technology: a livable city, a democratic city, a just city, a responsible city, and an innovative city. By recognizing the complexity of urban life rather than merely seeing the city as something to optimize, these Smart Enough Cities successfully incorporate technology into a holistic vision of justice and equity.
Download or read book Why You Need Smart Enough Systems Digital Short Cut written by James Taylor and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2007-05-29 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the eBook version of the printed book. It is commonly believed that the computer-based systems most organizations rely on to support their businesses are not very smart. Many of the business decisions these companies make tend to be hidden in systems that make poor decisions, or don't make them at all. Further, most systems aren't configured to learn from the past and therefore struggle to keep up with the pace of change. While many organizations believe the answer is to implement newer, "intelligent" systems, the fact is that much of today's existing technology has the potential to be "smart enough" to make a big difference to an organization's business. This digital Short Cut lays out a cry for systems that are smart enough to help companies survive and thrive in the world as it is today. Showing how the neglect of operational decisions prevents effective implementation of strategy and describing the characteristics of effective operational decision-making, the Short Cut establishes the role of operational decisions. The characteristics of the smart enough systems modern business needs are explained, and the absolute requirement for a new approach is outlined. This Short Cut is a reproduction of the “Smart Enough Systems Manifesto” and “Why You Need Smart Enough Systems” chapters from the book. This Short Cut should be of interest to software and business professionals. In particular, it will be of value to those managing information systems and application development projects in defining the goals they should have in building better systems, and to business owners who are frustrated by their current systems but cannot articulate how or why to change things. Contents The “Smart Enough Systems” Manifesto Operational Decisions Are Important Operational Decisions Can and Should Be Automated Taking Control of Decisions is Increasingly a Source of Competitive Advantage The Need for Smart Enough Systems The Importance of Operational Decisions Strategy Drives Decision-making Strategy Is Not Static Operational Decisions Matter Operational Decisions Are Under Pressure Operational Decision-Making as a Corporate Asset Characteristics of Operational Decisions Characteristics of Corporate Assets Introducing Smart Enough Systems Characteristics of Smart Enough Systems Current Approaches Fail Decision Management Is Required Introducing Smart Enough Logistics
Download or read book Decision Management Systems written by James Taylor and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2011-10-13 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A very rich book sprinkled with real-life examples as well as battle-tested advice.” —Pierre Haren, VP ILOG, IBM "James does a thorough job of explaining Decision Management Systems as enablers of a formidable business transformation.” —Deepak Advani, Vice President, Business Analytics Products and SPSS, IBM Build Systems That Work Actively to Help You Maximize Growth and Profits Most companies rely on operational systems that are largely passive. But what if you could make your systems active participants in optimizing your business? What if your systems could act intelligently on their own? Learn, not just report? Empower users to take action instead of simply escalating their problems? Evolve without massive IT investments? Decision Management Systems can do all that and more. In this book, the field’s leading expert demonstrates how to use them to drive unprecedented levels of business value. James Taylor shows how to integrate operational and analytic technologies to create systems that are more agile, more analytic, and more adaptive. Through actual case studies, you’ll learn how to combine technologies such as predictive analytics, optimization, and business rules—improving customer service, reducing fraud, managing risk, increasing agility, and driving growth. Both a practical how-to guide and a framework for planning, Decision Management Systems focuses on mainstream business challenges. Coverage includes Understanding how Decision Management Systems can transform your business Planning your systems “with the decision in mind” Identifying, modeling, and prioritizing the decisions you need to optimize Designing and implementing robust decision services Monitoring your ongoing decision-making and learning how to improve it Proven enablers of effective Decision Management Systems: people, process, and technology Identifying and overcoming obstacles that can derail your Decision Management Systems initiative
Download or read book Smart Enough Systems written by James Taylor and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Will We Be Smart Enough written by Earl Hunt and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 1995-07-20 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American workforce and the American workplace are rapidly changing—in ways that make them increasingly incompatible. Advances in automation and telecommunications have eliminated many jobs based on routine tasks and muscle power and fueled the demand for employees who can understand and apply new technologies. But, as Earl Hunt convincingly demonstrates in Will We Be Smart Enough?, such "smart" employees will be in dangerously short supply unless fundamental changes are made to our educational and vocational systems. Will We Be Smart Enough? combines cognitive theory, demographic projections, and psychometric research to measure the capabilities of tomorrow's workforce against the needs of tomorrow's workplace. Characterized by sophisticated machinery, instant global communication, and continuous reorganization, the workplace will call for people to fuse multiple responsibilities, adapt quickly to new trends, and take a creative approach to problem solving. Will Americans be able to meet the difficult and unprecedented challenges brought about by these innovations? Hunt examines data from demographic sources and a broad array of intelligence tests, whose fairness and validity he judiciously assesses. He shows that the U.S. labor force will be increasingly populated by older workers, who frequently lack the cognitive flexibility required by rapid change, and by racial and ethnic minorities, who have so far not fully benefitted from the nation's schools to develop the cognitive skills necessary in a technologically advanced workplace. At the heart of Will We Be Smart Enough? lies the premise that this forecast can be altered, and that cognitive skills can be widely and successfully taught. Hunt applies psychological principles of learning and cognitive science to a variety of experimental teaching programs, and shows how the information revolution, which has created such rapid change in the workplace, can also be used to transform the educational process and nurture the skills that the workplace of the future will require. Will We Be Smart Enough? answers naysayers who pronounce so many people "cognitively disadvantaged" by suggesting that new forms of education can provide workers with enhanced skills and productive employment in the twenty-first century. "Hunt's book provides succinct, lucid presentations of our best scientific understandings of thinking, intelligence, job performance, and how to measure them. Only by comprehending and applying these understandings to develop sound educational and instructional strategies can we create a capable workforce for the digital age." —John T. Bruer, President, James S. McDonnell Foundation
Download or read book Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are written by Frans de Waal and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2016-04-25 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times bestseller: "A passionate and convincing case for the sophistication of nonhuman minds." —Alison Gopnik, The Atlantic Hailed as a classic, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? explores the oddities and complexities of animal cognition—in crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, chimpanzees, and bonobos—to reveal how smart animals really are, and how we’ve underestimated their abilities for too long. Did you know that octopuses use coconut shells as tools, that elephants classify humans by gender and language, and that there is a young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame? Fascinating, entertaining, and deeply informed, de Waal’s landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal—and human—intelligence.
Download or read book Simple Heuristics that Make Us Smart written by Gerd Gigerenzer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2000-10-12 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart invites readers to embark on a new journey into a land of rationality that differs from the familiar territory of cognitive science and economics. Traditional views of rationality tend to see decision makers as possessing superhuman powers of reason, limitless knowledge, and all of eternity in which to ponder choices. To understand decisions in the real world, we need a different, more psychologically plausible notion of rationality, and this book provides it. It is about fast and frugal heuristics--simple rules for making decisions when time is pressing and deep thought an unaffordable luxury. These heuristics can enable both living organisms and artificial systems to make smart choices, classifications, and predictions by employing bounded rationality. But when and how can such fast and frugal heuristics work? Can judgments based simply on one good reason be as accurate as those based on many reasons? Could less knowledge even lead to systematically better predictions than more knowledge? Simple Heuristics explores these questions, developing computational models of heuristics and testing them through experiments and analyses. It shows how fast and frugal heuristics can produce adaptive decisions in situations as varied as choosing a mate, dividing resources among offspring, predicting high school drop out rates, and playing the stock market. As an interdisciplinary work that is both useful and engaging, this book will appeal to a wide audience. It is ideal for researchers in cognitive psychology, evolutionary psychology, and cognitive science, as well as in economics and artificial intelligence. It will also inspire anyone interested in simply making good decisions.
Download or read book Atomic Habits written by James Clear and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-10-16 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The #1 New York Times bestseller. Over 20 million copies sold! Translated into 60+ languages! Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights. Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field. Learn how to: make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy); overcome a lack of motivation and willpower; design your environment to make success easier; get back on track when you fall off course; ...and much more. Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.
Download or read book Time Management for System Administrators written by Tom Limoncelli and published by "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". This book was released on 2006 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides advice for system administrators on time management, covering such topics as keeping an effective calendar, eliminating time wasters, setting priorities, automating processes, and managing interruptions.
Download or read book You Are Not So Smart written by David McRaney and published by Avery. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explains how self-delusion is part of a person's psychological defense system, identifying common misconceptions people have on topics such as caffeine withdrawal, hindsight, and brand loyalty.
Download or read book Enough written by Bill McKibben and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2004-02 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling author of "The End of Nature" now looks into the not-so-distant future, when genetic science, robotics, and nanotechnology will push against the very door of humankind's immortality, and he challenges readers to confront this most profound question of their existence with care, intelligence, and ultimately, humility.
Download or read book Building Intelligent Interactive Tutors written by Beverly Park Woolf and published by Morgan Kaufmann. This book was released on 2010-07-28 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Building Intelligent Interactive Tutors discusses educational systems that assess a student's knowledge and are adaptive to a student's learning needs. The impact of computers has not been generally felt in education due to lack of hardware, teacher training, and sophisticated software. and because current instructional software is neither truly responsive to student needs nor flexible enough to emulate teaching. Dr. Woolf taps into 20 years of research on intelligent tutors to bring designers and developers a broad range of issues and methods that produce the best intelligent learning environments possible, whether for classroom or life-long learning. The book describes multidisciplinary approaches to using computers for teaching, reports on research, development, and real-world experiences, and discusses intelligent tutors, web-based learning systems, adaptive learning systems, intelligent agents and intelligent multimedia. It is recommended for professionals, graduate students, and others in computer science and educational technology who are developing online tutoring systems to support e-learning, and who want to build intelligence into the system. - Combines both theory and practice to offer most in-depth and up-to-date treatment of intelligent tutoring systems available - Presents powerful drivers of virtual teaching systems, including cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and the Internet - Features algorithmic material that enables programmers and researchers to design building components and intelligent systems
Download or read book The Cult of Smart written by Fredrik deBoer and published by All Points Books. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named one of Vulture’s Top 10 Best Books of 2020! Leftist firebrand Fredrik deBoer exposes the lie at the heart of our educational system and demands top-to-bottom reform. Everyone agrees that education is the key to creating a more just and equal world, and that our schools are broken and failing. Proposed reforms variously target incompetent teachers, corrupt union practices, or outdated curricula, but no one acknowledges a scientifically-proven fact that we all understand intuitively: Academic potential varies between individuals, and cannot be dramatically improved. In The Cult of Smart, educator and outspoken leftist Fredrik deBoer exposes this omission as the central flaw of our entire society, which has created and perpetuated an unjust class structure based on intellectual ability. Since cognitive talent varies from person to person, our education system can never create equal opportunity for all. Instead, it teaches our children that hierarchy and competition are natural, and that human value should be based on intelligence. These ideas are counter to everything that the left believes, but until they acknowledge the existence of individual cognitive differences, progressives remain complicit in keeping the status quo in place. This passionate, voice-driven manifesto demands that we embrace a new goal for education: equality of outcomes. We must create a world that has a place for everyone, not just the academically talented. But we’ll never achieve this dream until the Cult of Smart is destroyed.
Download or read book Cities and the Digital Revolution written by Zaheer Allam and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-10-16 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the emergence and development of data in cities. It exposes how Information Communication Technology (ICT) corporations seeking to capitalize on cities developing needs for urban technologies have contributed to many of the issues we are faced with today, including urbanization, centralization of wealth and climate change. Using several case studies, the book provides examples of the, in part, detrimental effects ICT driven ‘Smart City’ solutions have had and will have on the human characteristics that contribute to the identity and sense of belonging innate to many of our cities. The rise in Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and technologies like social media, has changed how people interact with and in cities, and Allam discusses of how these changes require planners, engineers and other urban professionals to adjust their approach. The main question the book seeks to address is ‘how can we use emerging technologies to recalibrate our cities and ensure increased livability, whilst also effectively dealing with their associate challenges?’ This is an ongoing conversation, but one that requires extensive thought as it has extensive consequences. This book will be of interest to students, academics, professionals and policy makers across a broad range of subjects including urban studies, architecture and STS, geography and social policy.
Download or read book Smart Business Systems for the Optimized Organization written by Robert J. Thierauf and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2002-12-30 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the first books to probe the latest direction in computing technology, Thierauf's and Hoctor's innovative text explores ways in which smart business systems can help pick the best, most optimal or near-optimal solutions from among hundreds, even thousands of possibilities that threaten to swamp organizational decision makers daily. Authors make clear that while past information systems have focused on generating information that is helpful in the production of knowledge over time, smart business systems, utilizing optimizing techniques, can do it quickly, more efficiently, and in ways that can raise organizations to higher levels of competitiveness. Well-illustrated with examples and discussions of typical applications in such areas as strategic planning, marketing, manufacturing, and accounting, the book will help managers at all levels tie their organization's critical success factors into its key performance indicators and financial ratios. The result is a win-win situation within your company's complex of competing needs and goals, and a way to produce directly and immediately measurable benefits on the bottom line. The book is designed for company managers and other decision makers and for information systems professionals. It provides understanding of one of the most important developments in systems-decision making, and how these smart business systems are constructed. It is also suitable in an academic environment, specifically in undergraduate and graduate courses that cover the fundamentals of smart business systems, and which give special emphasis to optimization models. The authors explain that enterprise resource planning and supply-chain management vendors include optimization algorithms in their products and that their book will make software optimization more accessible to developers of business systems. Although optimization is undoubtedly a complicated subject, Thierauf and Hoctor go a long way toward simplifying it. In doing so, they enhance its value as an important tool for decision makers in almost all organizational capacities.
Download or read book The Smart Nonprofit written by Beth Kanter and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2022-03-03 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A pragmatic framework for nonprofit digital transformation that embraces the human-centered nature of your organization The Smart Nonprofit turns the page on an era of frantic busyness and scarcity mindsets to one in which nonprofit organizations have the time to think and plan — and even dream. The Smart Nonprofit offers a roadmap for the once-in-a-generation opportunity to remake work and accelerate positive social change. It comes from understanding how to use smart tech strategically, ethically and well. Smart tech does rote tasks like filling out expense reports and identifying prospective donors. However, it is also beginning to do very human things like screening applicants for jobs and social services, while paying forward historic biases. Beth Kanter and Allison Fine elegantly outline the ways smart nonprofits must stay human-centered and root out embedded bias in order to success at the compassionate and creative work that only humans can and should do.
