Reflection

 

The opportunity to write about borders in the concept of information system in the midst of Brexit and Trump’s wall is a great experience. This blog has taught me that borders do not have to be physical to exist, but can do so in a social, technological sense. Exploring the topic borders with information systems, I came to a realization that information systems are almost everywhere. Initially, I misunderstood what an information system was, believing it was strictly a hardware device such as a computer. Now, I understand that information systems involve people and data, and are a key concept in any organisation.

To remove the bias element: my favourite blog was “The Great Firewall Of China”. This blog was not only my favourite because of the use of a Winnie the Pooh image, but the relevance and accuracy within. Huawei, the telecommunications and consumer electronics manufacturers came under scrutiny in recent months. The US-China trade war, along with the arrest of CFO Wanzhou Meng has caused outrage in China (Wingrove, Obiko Pearson and Gurman, 2018). With Huawei under speculation, all eyes are now on China. the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Germany have all blocked local telecommunication companies from using Huawei to provide the technology for their 5G networks (BBC News, 2019). As mentioned in the blog post, Russia and India are beginning to implement their own version of China’s firewall. “You can’t just blame one government, one social network or the human spirit” (Burners-Lee, 2019), but is it only a matter of time before every country implements one?

My personal favourite blog was “The Spacial Border- Beyond the Border of the Earth”. Without information systems and particularly the advances in IS, we would not know the realm of space. The past few years have been a breakthrough for space exploration, with Musk and Branson’s plans to take people beyond the border of Earth. In 50 years time, thanks to advances in IS, my pension will be spent on a holiday in space rather than the Gran Canaria Islands.

References

BBC News. (2019). Should we worry about Huawei?. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46465438 [Accessed 27 Mar. 2019].

Burners-Lee, T. (2019). The web is 30 years old. What better time to fight for its future?. [online] World Economic Forum. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/03/world-wide-web-30-tim-berners-lee-message/ [Accessed 27 Mar. 2019].

Wingrove, J., Obiko Pearson, N. and Gurman, M. (2018). Bloomberg – Huawei’s CFO Arrested at U.S. Request, Sparking Outrage in China. [online] Bloomberg.com. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-05/huawei-cfo-arrested-in-canada-as-u-s-seeks-her-extradition [Accessed 27 Mar. 2019].