The first illustration, the tabular format, represents the simplest form of an online CIS presentation. The data sources for the table immediately below included Wikipedia.org, the United Nations, the Library of Congress, and Geonames.org. The largest cities by country are presented and ranked in the following flat table.

Table: Largest City Each Country

Table Credit: wikipedia.org (for city and country profiles), The Library of Congress (for regional alignments), GeoNames Country Statistic (for city and country population counts and also geolocation data), and Time and Date AS (for city weather conditions)

A couple of popular online tool for presenting tabular data on the World Wide Web include:

1. Data Tables
2. Tablesaw

CIS Illustration 1b: Chart Tool (Largest Cities by Country)

Charts emerged to complement tables. Charts as complements to tables have their roots in Lotus 1-2-3, which was a pioneering software application that combined (1) spreadsheet, (2) charting, and (3) database functionality in a single package. During the early 1980's, Lotus 1-2-3 was the preeminent all-in-one software application for crunching numbers.

It is said that a picture is worth more than a thousand words. Charts provide visual summaries of underlying tabular data. The chart below graphically depicts the largest cities by country. Notice that, relative to number one ranked Shanghai (in terms of its population size), cities ranking from 164 to 250 are so small until they do not register on the chart (as represented by blue shading). Cities with populations of 137,195 residents and less do not register any visible shading on the chart immediately below.

Bar Chart: Largest City Each Country

Chart Credit: cssplot

Several popular online charting tools include:

1. Google Charts
2. jqPlot
3. Chart.js
4. Highcharts
5. Raphael
6. ccchart

CIS Illustration 2: Mapping Tool (Largest Cities by Country)

This illustration uses Google Maps to illustrate how a map-based computerized information system looks. This particular map touts three features. The first feature is a search box. You can use the search box to search for most cities on Earth. Once a city is found, the map also lists some of the more popular lodging places in the immediate vicinity of the location on the map, that is, if lodging data is available for a given map location.

The second feature of the Google Map immediately below is a drop-down list. The drop-down lists consists of the largest city in each country or area on Earth. By selecting a city from the list, the map will zoom to that city and country. You can select Earth at the bottom of the drop-down list to re-draw the map.

The third feature is Google's Pegman. After you have zoomed to a city, you can drag and drop Pegman onto the map to catch a street-level views of places in the city, that is, if street-level data is available for a given map location.

Alternatives to Google Maps do exist in the marketplace. Some additional online mapping tools include:

1. Bing Maps
2. Yandex Maps
3. ViaMichelin Maps
4. OpenStreetMaps
5. Wikimapia
6. Mapquest

Other notable application programming interfaces (API) to create and publish online maps include:

1. Leaflet
2. OpenLayers
3. jQuery Mapael

Full-blown computerized mapping systems also exist in the marketplace. These full-blown mapping systems are known as geographic information systems (GIS). The utility of a full-blown geographic information system resides in its ability to layer and manipulate all kinds of information on a map.

There are numerous desktop and online GIS applications in the marketplace. Some are free while others are commercially sold. With each passing year, these GIS applications continue to evolve in their sophistication, depth, and scope of coverage. Esri is considered by many to be a leading provider of GIS applications. See, for instance, Esri's ArcGIS suite of GIS applications.

1. ArcGIS Online
2. Mapbox

CIS Illustration 3: All-in-One Tools

Illustration 3 is dhtmlx.com's Geo Explorer widget. Simile's Exhibit widget is an alternate all-in-one tool. The Exhibit widget contains similar functionality to dhtmlx's Geo Explorer. The all-in-one approach represents an attempt to present the computer user with a lot of concise information on one page without the computer user having to switch back and forth between web pages—and to do so in an aesthetically appealing manner.

More advanced or more sophisticated all-in-one CIS tools also exist in the marketplace. The more powerful all-in-one CIS tools generally are referred to as Business Intelligence (BI) tools. The primary focus of BI tools is on harvesting, mining, and transforming Big Data into useful information. In turn, this information is leveraged with the objective being to become better informed and to make wiser decisions. Several popular BI tools include:

1. Tableau
2. Power BI
3. Zoho Reports
4. dc.js - Dimensional Charting

Using the pyramid analogy as depicted in the image at the top of this page, moving down the pyramid leads to more sophisticated and more complex computerized information systems. The top of the pyramid represents the most basic and the simplest types of information. As you move down the pyramid, these CIS tools can become very complicated and cumbersome to operate in terms of rendering comprehensive output. The expertise required to master these advanced BI tools is one reason why computer engineers are in high demand in labor markets, and it explains why computer engineers typically command higher than average salaries.

A Romance-Style Taste of EDM (Electronic Dance Music): A Music Tribute to the Millennials

I wish to conclude this discussion of computerized information systems by throwing a dab of EDM music into the mix—but with a romantic twist to it. At first, there were the Baby Boomers whose members were born during the late 1940's and the early 1960's (that is, those who are at least 60 years old and older as of 2016). The Baby Boomers mainly were influenced by rock & roll, country, blues, and R&B/soul music.

Then along came Generation X whose members were born between the late 1960's and the early 1980's (that is, those who are between the ages of 31 and 60 as of 2016). Members of Generation X mainly were influenced by disco, hard rock, pop, and hip hop/rap music.

The Millennials or Generation Y was the next generation to burst onto the scene (that is, those who were born during the late 1980's and the early 2000's (that is, those who are between the ages of 11 and 30 as of 2016). Electronic dance music (EDM) has emerged as the definitive and preeminent sound of the Millennials. As such, here is a small taste of EDM—but with a romantic twist to it—as a nod or tribute to the current generation of Millennials (as of 2016). Enjoy.

Poised next to emerge in prominence will be the iGeneration or Generation Z whose members were born during the late 2000's and early 2010's (that is, those who are no more than 20 years old as of 2016). When it comes to their tastes in popular music, members of Generation Z remain in the exploratory stage of development. Although Generation Z's starting point has been EDM, it remains to be seen what types of musical sounds that Generation Z ultimately will devise or adopt. It remains to be seen which, among many, will be the most popular music genres for which most members of Generation Z will gravitate to and coalesce around. Members of Generation Z continue to search for their voice and for their place in the world.

Before looking beyond Generation Z or delving into the future of human life on Earth, it is important to note that the Baby Boomers are still around. As of 2016, the Baby Boomers are continuing to leave their collective mark on contemporary society and on the shape of the future. To be sure, the Baby Boomers, in conjunction with Generation X, are principally in charge of running the world as of 2016. As members of both the Baby Boomers and Generation X grow older and edge closer to retirement age, gradually, they will be succeeded by the Millennials. In the not too distant future, the Millennials principally will be the generation in charge of running the world. A good analogy would be IBM and Google. Although IBM has been around since 1911, it rose to public prominence beginning in the 1960's with its mainframe and later its personal computer lines. IBM and its corporate culture came to be more reflective of the Baby Boomer generation. In contrast, Google began in 1998, and its corporate culture came to be more reflective of the Millennial generation.

Certain musical genres seem to be timeless such as, say, certain branches of the classical and jazz musical genres. Certain romantic love songs also seem to be timeless. Some consider Diana Ross/Lionel Ritchie's duet titled "Endless Love" to be one of those classic romantic love songs.

A good love ballad is destined to withstand the test of time in terms of popular embrace regardless of its music genre or generational influence. Literally, there are millions of love songs out there in the marketplace. I think that Vangelis and Jon Anderson's love ballad titled "So Long Ago, So Clear;" Sade's love ballads titled "Bullet Proof Soul" and "Somebody Already Broke My Heart;" and Stevie Wonder's love ballad titled "Moon Blue" represent four such love ballads that are destined to withstand the test of time. These particular four love ballads are products of the Baby Boomers and Generation X, and they represent a passing of the music baton to the Millennials (or Generation Y).

Did you know that the Beatles song titled "Yesterday" is said to be the most covered song in history? To paraphrase a popular saying, musical genres never seem to die. Older music genres simply tend to fade into the background while newer music genres emerge and rise to the forefront of popularity and popular culture.