Information and communication technologies
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Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is an umbrella term that covers all advanced technologies in manipulating and communicating information. The term is sometimes used in preference to Information Technology (IT), particularly on these two communities: education and government. The common usage ICT is synonymous assumed the fact that IT or ICT encompasses all mediums, to record information (magnetic disk/tape, optical disks (CD/DVD), flash memory etc. and arguably also paper records); technology for broadcasting information - radio, television; and technology for communicating through voice and sound or images - microphone, camera, loudspeaker, telephone to cellular phones. It includes the wide varieties of computing hardware (PCs, servers, mainframes, networked storage). Rapidly it develops personal hardware market the comprises mobile phones, personal devices, (MP3, MP4, MP5 and MP6) players, and so much more. The full gamut of this application software, from the smallest home-developed spreadsheet to the largest enterprise packages and online software services; and the hardware and software needed to operate networks for transmission of information, again ranging from a home network to the largest global private networks operated by major commercial enterprises and, of course, the Internet. Thus, "ICT" makes more explicit that technologies such as broadcasting and wireless mobile telecommunications are included.
It should be noted that "ICT" with this English definition is different in nuance and scope compare to the "ICT" in Japanese term, which is more technical and narrow in scope.
ICT capabilities vary widely from the sophistication of major western economies to lesser provision in the developing world. But the latter are catching up fast, often leapfrogging older generations of technology and developing new solutions that match their specific needs.
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[edit] Coherence Problems
The expression "information and communication technologies" cannot only be referred to contemporary automated technological artifacts, but also to paper-based writing, being itself a technology (Ong, 1988: Chapter 4), ontologically, it can also be included as pre-digital means of generating information (or communication).It is also one of tje most useless things in our life
[edit] Future
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The ICT may not survive in its present form for long. Sooner than later developing countries would get over the PC mania prevalent now in the developed world, unless there is a remarkable change in the economy of having a desktop PC. Any technology that requires the masses to own a PC, in its present form, to access information is unlikely to be successful in the foreseeable future. Possibilities appear to exist, however, in the mobile phone technology, which is fast becoming very affordable by the masses, is voice based and can be integrated with the Information Technology at the server end of a computer network. For example, in the field of education [1] people can ask question through a mobile phone, a database of answers to such questions can be generated using these technologies. Currently what is in Wikipedia and call centers and the text in these databases could be converted into voice, by developing text to voice technologies in the various languages. The person seeking information can be informed when answers is available and better answers sought based on his/her feedback. The emerging 3G and 4G mobile phone technologies can indeed facilitate such developments. An alternative technology could be to integrate the mobile phone with the television screen, so that visual information can be viewed easily. Similarly, there is a possibility for developing interactive radio, on the lines of interactive TV.
[edit] References
- ^ Mobile technologies and learning, http://www.lsda.org.uk/files/pdf/041923RS.pdf, retrieved on 2008-06-08
- Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (London, UK: Routledge, 1988), in particular Chapter 4
[edit] Further reading
- Measuring the Information Society: The ICT Development Index. International Telecommunication Union. 2009. pp. 108. ISBN 9261128319. http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/idi/2009/material/IDI2009_w5.pdf.
[edit] See also
- Communications-enabled application (CEA)
- Information technology
- Information and communication technologies for development
- Information and communication technologies in education
- Internet access worldwide
- List of basic communication topics
- Mobile Internet
[edit] External links
- Information and Communication Technologies for Development and Poverty Reduction: The Potential of Telecommunications Edited by Maximo Torero and Joachim von Braun (2006), Johns Hopkins University Press
- ICT in Education - UNESCO
- Supreme Council of Communication and Information Technology, Qatar
- Radio and Television, the ICT of yester years
- Web 2.0An article about Web 2.0 by Tim O'Reilly, the originator of the idea
- History of Information Communication technology A brief account of the history of ICT
- What is information? an e-forum discussion
- Analysing telecom companies using the Toyota NPD model
- ICT for school libraries
- Technology for communicating information Answers to several questions related to ICT
- ICT in African countries
- Information Technology and the Dream of Democratic Renewal
