Kenneth C. Laudon (November 4, 1944 – December 26, 2019) was an American professor of Information Systems at the
Stern School of Business
The Leonard N. Stern School of Business (also NYU Stern, Stern School of Business, or simply Stern) is the business schools, business school of New York University, a private university, private research university based in New York City. Founded ...
at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
.
Life and work
Kenneth Laudon graduated from Stanford University and has a Ph.D from Columbia University.
Laudon's first book, ''Computers and Bureaucratic Reform: The Political Functions of Urban Information Systems'' (John Wiley and Sons, 1974) was an early study of the use of computers in government.
Laudon's second book, ''Communications Technology and Democratic Participation'' (Praeger Publishing, 1978) has been cited as a "pioneering work" on the impact of information technology on the development of different types of democracies.
Laudon's third book was ''Dossier Society: Value Choices in the Design of National Information Systems'' (Columbia University Press, 1986). In ''Dossier Society'', Laudon argued that the design and uses of new computing and telecommunications systems, such as the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
National Computerized Criminal History System, were creating what he called a “dossier society” that would be increasingly based on a person’s data image.
Laudon subsequently authored an influential article, "Markets and Privacy" (Communications of the ACM, 1996). This article proposed that people should have a property right in their personal information, enabling them to sell that information, perhaps through a national information market. This article has been recognized as one of the first to suggest a propertization of information privacy as well as the institutional infrastructure that might be used to make such an information property rights system a reality. A follow-on paper published by the
U.S. Department of Commerce
The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business and governmental decision making, establishing industrial standards, catalyzing econo ...
National Telecommunications and Information Administration
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is a bureau of the United States Department of Commerce that serves as the president's principal adviser on telecommunications policies pertaining to the United States' ec ...
discusses how personal information might be priced. Laudon's work has recently been cited as a source for a proposal that Facebook create an information market and pay its users in exchange for their information or attitudes. Laudon is also the author a number of academic articles with respect to the impacts of information systems.
Professor Laudon is also well known as the co-author of a number of textbooks, including ''Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm'' and ''E-commerce. Business. Technology. Society.''
He died at his home in
Croton-on-Hudson
Croton-on-Hudson ( ) is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 8,327 at the 2020 United States census over 8,070 at the 2010 census. It is located in the town of Cortlandt as part of New York City's northern ...
on December 26, 2019.
Kenneth Laudon Obituary
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See also
* Information Systems
An information system (IS) is a formal, sociotechnical, organizational system designed to collect, process, store, and distribute information. From a sociotechnical perspective, information systems comprise four components: task, people, structu ...
* Management Information System (MIS)
* E-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...
* Privacy
Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively.
The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laudon, Kenneth C.
New York University faculty
Information systems researchers
1944 births
2019 deaths