Information Technologies
Spring 2006 Take Home Final Exam
Directions:
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Provide typewritten answers to questions 1 and 2. (45 points apiece)
Refer to your Project Diary sheets to answer question 3. Be sure to attach your
Project Diary sheets. (10 pts)
Return your test answers to MAC C-wing by Tuesday May 9 at noon. There will be a box in the
office where you can return your exam.
1. This questions asks you to synthesize and “make sense of” a lot of material you have been exposed to
throughout the semester in this course. The focus is on home entertainment technologies (for example, Digital
Video Recorders) and delivery systems (for example, cable).
Describe two major scenarios of what you think the future holds for home entertainment technologies and
delivery systems: (1) Where will we be two years from now? (2) Where will we be ten years from now? Your
response to the “10 year prediction” should be based on where you see the situation two years from now. In
other words, you lay out the 2-year predictions and then based on where we’ll be then, you project eight more
years into the future for where we’ll be then.
Predicting the future is a very difficult and challenging task. Therefore, you get to “soften” your predictions
with conditional statements. This means you can write statements like “If the trend in DVR adoption and use
continues to make headway with one in four households or more, then what will occur is…..”
Topics or concepts that you need to bring into your answer: VOD, high speed Internet access, the Internet as a
competing video delivery system, VoIP, cell/mobile phones, WiFi, cable, home satellite systems, the phone
companies (wired delivery of high speed Internet access, video, phone, e-mail, etc.), HDTV, high definition
recording, playback and archiving, and others. Discussion of one technology or distribution system can and
usually does have implications for other technologies or delivery systems. For example, if cable companies
continue to have success with high speed Internet access, VOD, and DVRs, how will existing cable channels be
affected and why? How about competing Internet Service Providers like AOL?
2. We have talked in some depth about the Information Politics Continuum.
 Describe four organizations and/or households that best represent each point on the continuum. Provide
your rationale.
 For each organization or household describe how the “political system” impacts information technology
choice and use. Provide examples and your rationale. (Hint: the use of material about Diffusion of
Innovation and Innovation Use could be helpful.)
 For each organization/household discuss how the “political system” influences a) the goals of the
information system and b) the information tasks emphasized. Provide examples and your rationale.
 For each organization/household discuss how the political system and related information management
impacts sensemaking.
 Based on your answers above, develop a list 5 ROTs for properly aligning technology and information
practices with the “political system”. Provide your rationale. (Hint: charts or diagrams might be helpful
with your answers.)
3. You have listened to many cases regarding the use of information technologies (refer to your Project Diary).
 Based on these cases describe 10 common misconceptions that the typical business and household have
regarding the use of information technologies. Provide specific examples of these misconceptions from the
class presentations.
 Remember to attach a copy of your Project Diary