Introduction to Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
Information and communications technology (ICT) refers to all the technology used to handle telecommunications, broadcast media, intelligent building management systems, audiovisual processing and transmission systems, and network-based control and monitoring functions.
Although ICT is often considered an extended synonym for information technology (IT), its scope is broader. ICT has more recently been used to describe the convergence of several technologies and the use of common transmission lines carrying very diverse data and communication types and formats.
Knowledge (Information) Society
- A new society formed as a result of the contemporary societal change pushed by technological innovation and institutional transformation, which is not only about technological innovations, but also about human beings, their personal growth and their individual creativity, experience and participation in the generation of knowledge. The primary role of cities in a knowledge society is to ensure that their knowledge sources are passed on and advanced by each generation.
- In the knowledge society, knowledge, and not mere information, is the most valuable asset. It is what is in the head of people (tacit knowledge) and what can materialize tangibly in the physical world, as print, or human exchanges (explicit knowledge). It is what drives the economy in the new millennium.
- An association of people that have similar interests, be they social, economic, political, cultural and so on and by making effective use of their collective knowledge in their areas of interest thereby contributing to further knowledge that will lead to national progress and global development.
- Knowledge Society is understood as the ability that people have in the face of information, to develop a reflective competence, relating its multiple aspects, according to a particular time and space, with the ability to establish connections with other knowledge and use it in their everyday lives (Pelizzari et al., 2002).
- A society where main of the prosperity and well-being of its people came from the creation, sharing and use of knowledge.
- Developed society based on the access to knowledge.
Also read:
ETHICAL AND SOCIETAL CHALLENGES OF THE INFORMATION SOCIETY – (Chapter 1 – Reassessing the last 5 years of the “Technologies Story” and Chapter 2 – Information Ethics and Social Transformation: The Public Sphere) http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002209/220998e.pdf