THE FUTURE OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AS AN ACADEMIC FIELD: YOUR FATE IN 1998

The academic study of information systems is dynamic and exciting. It tends to have very fluid boundaries. Researchers in information systems venture into problem areas associated with such diverse fields as computer science, communications, cognitive psychology, and sociology. Information systems are studied in the context of innovation, organizational change, and competitive advantage. The changing technology provides new and revisited opportunities for investigation and problem solving. Until quite recently, the information systems faculty were the custodians in schools of management of most of the technical knowledge of organizational computing. That technical knowledge is being rapidly diffused to the entire faculty. Faculty in accounting at one time fled from computers; they now embrace them. The same is true of other functional areas in schools of management. What will happen to the academic field of information systems when the computer expertise is shared by most faculty members