Book excerpt: This unique new textbook on Information Systems (IS) provides an answer to a few basic questions in the field: What is the scientific nature of IS? How do we design IS in today's connected world? What is the relationship between IS and innovation in knowledge economies? Whereas mainframe corporate computers tended to dominate the thinking in the 1980s, the dominating factor today is personal digital devices that connect the world as one whole IS. Network science is emerging to describe these digital connections (e.g., social networking), and service science is similarly emerging to describe service value networks.This book therefore synthesizes the emerging network science and service science with the classic IS theory, resulting in a new set of principles for IS strategic planning. It also reviews the standard IS topics of system analysis and database design, covering the whole spectrum of databases and all the major methods and techniques of database design. The role of IS as a technological innovation in the knowledge economy is also analyzed. In doing so, new concepts such as basic values of IS, systems of IS, sustainability of IS, IS as a service system, IS as a human value network, and the hyper-network model for innovation by IS, are developed.