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Information and communications technology

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Spending on information and communications technology in 2005

Information and communications technology or information and communication technology,[1] usually called ICT, is often used as an extended synonym for information technology (IT) but is usually a more general term that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals), intelligent building management systems and audio-visual systems in modern information technology. ICT consists of all technical means used to handle information and aid communication, including computer and network hardware, communication middleware as well as necessary software. In other words, ICT consists of IT as well as telephony, broadcast media, all types of audio and video processing and transmission and network based control and monitoring functions.[2] The expression was first used in 1997[3] in a report by Dennis Stevenson to the UK government[4] and promoted by the new National Curriculum documents for the UK in 2000.

ICT is often used in the context of "ICT roadmap" to indicate the path that an organization will take with their ICT needs.[5][6]

The term ICT is now also used to refer to the merging (convergence) of audio-visual and telephone networks with computer networks through a single cabling or link system. There are large economic incentives (huge cost savings due to elimination of the telephone network) to merge the audio-visual, building management and telephone network with the computer network system using a single unified system of cabling, signal distribution and management. See VOIP and Intelligent Infrastructure Management (IIM). This in turn has spurred the growth of organizations with the term ICT in their names to indicate their specialization in the process of merging the different network systems.

"ICT" is used as a general term for all kinds of technologies which enable users to create, access and manipulate information. ICT is a combination of information technology and communications technology.

See also

References

  1. ^ Sometimes used with technologies in the plural. Originally, only information and communications technology (with communications in the plural) was considered correct since ICT refers to communications (in the sense of a method, technology, or system of sending and receiving information, specifically telephone lines, computers, and networks), not communication (the act of sending or receiving information by speaking, writing, phoning, emailing, etc. or a message containing such information), and the older form (information and communications technology) is still the only one recorded in professionally edited reference works (e.g. Oxford Dictionaries Online, Computer Desktop Encyclopedia, Webopedia, and Encarta® World English Dictionary) and preferred by many style guides (e.g. Editorial Style Guide of the Republic of South Africa. Nevertheless, the form information and communication technology is becoming increasingly common and is now used in about half the books that can be searched using Google Books and is for example also used by the International Telecommunication Union.
  2. ^ http://foldoc.org/Information+and+Communication+Technology
  3. ^ http://specials.ft.com/lifeonthenet/FT3NXTH03DC.html
  4. ^ The Independent ICT in Schools Commission (1997) Information and Communications Technology in UK Schools, an independent inquiry. London, UK. Author: chair Dennis Stevenson
  5. ^ http://www.microsoft.com/education/MSITAcademy/curriculum/roadmap/default.mspx
  6. ^ http://www.microsoft.com/education/MSITAcademy/curriculum/roadmap/default.mspx

Further reading

  • Grossman, G. and E. Helpman (2005), "Outsourcing in a global economy", Review of Economic Studies 72: 135-159.
  • Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (London, UK: Routledge, 1988), in particular Chapter 4
  • Measuring the Information Society: The ICT Development Index (PDF). International Telecommunication Union. 2009. p. 108. ISBN 9261128319.
  • Caperna A., Integrating ICT into Sustainable Local Policies. ISBN13:9781615209293
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