The Information System

An information system is a very complex and sophisticated communication system, but, unlike a telephone system, its major complexity lies not in the switching of lines among various users, but rather in the provision of file structures as a central medium of communication through which relatively complicated data processing takes place. Another difference is that in a telephone system, the several users approach and use the system in essentially the same mode of operation. That is, they are usually transmitters as well as receptors of information. Furthermore, processing of the information that they transmit or receive is usually considered to be a detractive or undesirable property of the communication system, if it in any way modifies the information per se, its meaning or content. The information system, on the other hand, generally has two different classes of users, each of which approaches the system in a different way and for a different purpose, although certain individuals may belong to both classes. Figure 1 presents the model of an information system, and these two classes of people are there labeled Generator and User. The medium of communication, as indicated within the ovals in the center of the diagram are the files. The Generators of information transmit to the files via depositions of various types that may generically be called Documents.