Video transcription

REPRESENTATION
In this video, we are interested in the notion of representation. It’s at the heart of digitization
and the role of managers in relation to digital technologies.

A detour through art

You probably recognize this work by Magritte, here
reproduced on a stamp. It is definitely a pipe... and yet the
artist makes it explicit: this is not a pipe. Indeed, as realistic
as this painting is, it’s only a painting - whose subject is a
pipe. We cannot smoke the painting. I mean, I guess
technically we would be able to, but it won't have the same
effect as smoking a pipe.

This is a representation of a pipe, not the pipe itself!

Computer science deals with representations

Why are we talking about this?

Because information technologies only deal with representations of the world.

A computer only has access to a representation of reality. A computer does not process reality
itself. The computer will grasp syntax - that is, the elements of representation in the
information world. The computer will in no way grasp the meaning of the representation.

The same reality has several representations

However, the same reality can have several representations. The computer will have to make
do with the representation transmitted to it.

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 This is an image of the Andromeda galaxy. This picture corresponds to
what a human eye can see (obviously using a very powerful telescope).

This is the same galaxy as Andromeda. But this time, instead of showing
radiation in the visible range, this picture captured infrared radiation.
For example, it can be noticed that there is an outer ring of objects
emitting a lot of infrared that does not correspond to an area of high
visible light emission. Depending on the type of objects the astronomer
wants to study, one or the other of these pictures will be more useful.

It’s important to understand that these two images - different from each other - correspond to
the same reality, the same Andromeda galaxy, seen in different wavelengths.

There's no mistake here. There are only representation choices.

Representation and abstraction

Representing is abstracting certain details. If all the details of reality were in the representation,
the representation would be the actual reality.

● What should be kept in the representation and what can be omitted? What do we
need? To make decisions, for example.
● What distance between representation and reality is tolerable? If you prefer, what level
of approximation is acceptable?
● How often is it necessary to update?
● In a word, what are the details that can be abstracted?

Building a representation
Here are several examples.

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Suppose I'm in charge of a chemical production facility. For example, there is a tank containing
a product that can explode if its temperature exceeds 63°C. I need to know the temperature of
that tank to an accuracy of a tenth of a degree. And to have this temperature reading every
second. These measurements will allow me to detect very quickly if an upward trend is taking
shape.

If now I'm interested in the cash flow of a very large group. I can probably make do with a
weekly assessment within a few million dollars. If I'm still interested in cash flow, but this time
from a very small business, I probably have to follow it to the nearest thousand euros,
sometimes even to the nearest hundred euros, every day. Indeed, sometimes I have to choose
not to pay some bills depending on the incoming cash flow.

Business information: abstraction

Let us now review the flow of information in the company. Here, we also find the concept of
abstraction.

This is the classic hierarchical pyramid. Each color represents different departments (HR,
marketing, operations, etc.).

There are several levels of action.

● The operational level,

● The management level,
● And the strategic level.

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In Parallel, we have different levels of information abstraction.

For operations, field information.

● For example, in supermarkets, it would be, for each barcode, to have a price, which
allows the customer to be charged when he goes to checkout.
● At the management level, information for decision making and monitoring. In our
example, this could be data on the average cart and its comparison with the average
cart a year earlier.
● And finally dashboards for strategic decisions.

Role of the manager

All these representation questions are not technical questions, but questions of management
and business expertise.

● It's up to the manager to define the representation he or she needs.

● It is up to the manager to set the abstraction level, namely, to decide what to keep and
what to omit in a representation.
● In fact, it’s up to the manager to know how he or she makes his or her decisions and
therefore what information, with what degree of precision, is necessary for this decision
making.

Conclusion
We have seen in this video that representations are at the heart of digitization and that the
managers are in the best position to define these representations.