Information System? Which One Do You Mean?

Information systems and technology is an emerging area of human knowledge that experiences some difficulties related to a lack of consensus about its more basic concepts and terminology. Instances of problematic terms are information and information system. Any person attending conferences or reading books and papers related to information systems will soon discover that there is more than one possible meaning for the term information system. In other words, people that talk or write about information systems aren’t always referring to the same object. The distinctions among the different objects that can be viewed as information systems are not always clear because they have many aspects in common: they all deal with information; they all are somewhat related to organisations or to the work carried out in organisations; and they all are related to information technology, either because they can benefit from its use or because they are made with computers or computer-based devices.In this paper it is claimed that a more elaborated view of the system concept might bring some light to this problem. Using a specific definition of system, it will be argued that: there are four different objects that, legitimately, can be considered information systems; all of these objects are interesting objects in the area of IST; each of them is useful for different professional activities. The four objects will also be associated with several definitions of information systems proposed in different works, including the definition proposed in the FRISCO Report.