Digital nervous system
A digital nervous system refers to an information system with which an organization can react to external events through the accumulation, management and distribution of knowledge. The term, which is particularly popular in the USA, was spread by Bill Gates from Microsoft , who uses it to describe the ideal functioning of an IT infrastructure. Similar to the biological nervous system , the point here is to have all the necessary information available at the right time in the right place. The term was not invented by Bill Gates, but goes back to Judith Dayhoff.
Definitions
Steve Ballmer defines the term as follows:
- If you think of the human body, what does our nervous system let us do? It lets us hear, see, take input. It lets us think and analyze and plan. It lets us make decisions and communicate and take action. Every company essentially has a nervous system: Companies take inputs, they think, they plan, they communicate, they take action. The question is how does the nervous system in your company operate? Is the IT infrastructure really adding value?
Bill Gates himself explains the term in his 1998 speech:
- The term 'digital nervous system' is kind of an interesting one. The analogy, of course, is to the biological nervous system where you always have the information you need. You always are alert to the most important things, and you block out the information that's not important. And companies really need to have that same kind of thing: the information that's valuable getting to the people who need to know about it.
reception
The term is not widely used in German.
Web links
- Bill Gates promotes its digital nervous system . In: Computerwoche
- Digital Nervous Systems: Making Sense of Shared Information (PDF; 39 kB)