Definition

There is a variety of definitions and understandings of a Global Information System and tea (GIS, GLIS), such as

• A global information system (GLIS) is an information system which is developed and / or used in a global context.
• A global information system (GLIS) is any information system
  Information system
  An information system - or application landscape - is any combination of information technology and people's activities that support operations, management, and decision making. In a very broad sense, the term information system is frequently used to refer to the interaction between people,...
  
   which attempts to deliver the totality of measurable data worldwide within a defined context.

The term Global Information System has the same acronym, but the meaning is different from the term Geographic Information Systems.

Common to this class of information systems

Information systems

Information Systems is an academic/professional discipline bridging the business field and the well-defined computer science field that is evolving toward a new scientific area of study...

 is that the context is a global setting, either for its use or development process. This means that it highly relates to distributed systems / distributed computing

Distributed computing

Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system consists of multiple autonomous computers that communicate through a computer network. The computers interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal...

 where the distribution is global. The term also incorporates aspects of global software development and there outsourcing

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...

 (when the outsourcing locations are globally distributed) and offshoring

Offshoring

Offshoring describes the relocation by a company of a business process from one country to another—typically an operational process, such as manufacturing, or supporting processes, such as accounting. Even state governments employ offshoring...

 aspects. A specific aspect of global information systems is the case (domain) of global software development. A main research aspect in this field concerns the coordination of and collaboration between virtual teams. Further important aspects are the internationalization

Internationalization

In economics, internationalization has been viewed as a process of increasing involvement of enterprises in international markets, although there is no agreed definition of internationalization or international entrepreneurship...

 and language localization of system components.

Tasks in Global Information Systems Design

Critical tasks in the design of Global Information Systems are

• Process and System Design: How are the processes between distributed actors organized, how are the systems distributed / integrated.
• Technical architecture: What is the technical infrastructure enabling actors to collaborate?
• Support mechanisms: How are actors in the process of communication, collaboration, cooperation supported?

A variety of examples can be found - basically, every multi-lingual website can be seen as a global information system. However, mostly a GLIS is referred as a specific system developed or used in the global context.

Examples

Specific examples are

• Systems developed for multinational users, e.g., SAP as a global ERP system
• Global Information Systems for Education: The Global Learning Objects Brokered Exchange
• Support systems for global cooperation: Systems, e.g. Palantir
• For the specific case of data integration : http://data.un.org, http://www.internettrafficreport.com, http://www.unhcr.org/statistics.html, http://www.globalhealthfacts.org/ etc.

More information / courses

• Global Information Systems at the University of Jyväskylä
• MSIS 647 - Global Information Systems course at the University of San Francisco http://www.cps.usfca.edu/prospective/MSIS_courses.html
• Resources on Global Information Technology at AIS World