• Internet developments & its use

• Interactive communication applications

• communication Systems

• ICT Use in Everyday Life

Good communication is essential to every organisation:
Communication between individuals

Communication between parts of a single organisation

communication between organisations,

(e.g. between offices in different countries).

 Before Internet Era During Internet Era
most business Using technology,
communication was via  E-Mail
telephone, fax, telex (a  Instant Messaging (IM)
way of sending text  Video Conferencing
messages that printed  Mobile Telephones
out on a printer), or by  Internet Telephony / Voice
using mail (post)- the
Over IP (VOIP)
old-fashioned paper
 Social Networking Website
version!
 Fax is short for ‘facsimile’ which means ‘copy’.

 A fax machine is a device that can send a copy of a paper document over
the telephone network.

 The sending fax converts the light/dark areas of the printed document
into noises.

 These noises travel through the phone system and are received by
another fax machine.

 The receiving fax machine converts the noises into printed marks on a
piece of paper - making a copy of the original document.

 Faxes are:
◦ Low quality - images are especially poor
◦ Slow to send (compared to e-mail)
  E-mail is a system that allows messages
to be sent and received by computers. E-
mail is the most common form of
electronic communication.

E-mail messages are text-based, but

other types of file can also be sent as
‘attachments’.

An e-mail message usually has the following parts:

To The address(es) of the person who the message is for

Subject A short sentance describing what the message is about
Message The text of the message. This can be as long as you like

CC The address(es) of people to copy the e-mail to (Carbon

The address(es) of people to copy the e-mail to without

BCC
anyone else knowing (Blind Carbon Copy)
Attachme
Files linked to the message (images, documents, etc.)
nts
 Video-conferencing is a system that allows people to have conversations and
meetings with other people in different locations, but without leaving their
office.

A video-conference involves people sitting in front of a camera and a

microphone, whilst watching other people of a screen and listening to them
through loudspeakers.

Note: The camera is usually TV quality - must better than a standard webcam.
 The system uses the following hardware:
Video camera
 Monitor
 Microphone
 Loudspeakers
 High-speed network / Internet connection

 Video conferencing is very popular with businesses as it means:

No travel costs
 No time wasted travelling to other cities / countries
 Can organise meetings at short notice
 Mobile telephones allow people to be away from their workplace, yet still be
contactable. This means that people can still work, even when out of the
office.

Modern smart-phones can perform a wide variety of tasks:

Make and receive telephone calls just about anywhere
 Send a receive SMS (short message service) messages
 Send and receive e-mail
 Send and receive files such as images, text documents, etc.
 Edit documents
 Most people would be lost without their mobile phone!

 However there are some downsides to the use of mobiles:

Workers never get a chance to 'switch off' since they can always be contacted -
can be stressful
 Mobiles are easy to lose, and often contain a lot of personal and/or business
information. A lost mobile could be embarrassing / damaging if the wrong
people got hold of it
 Internet telephony, or 'VOIP', is becoming very popular both for personal use, and
within the workplace.

Instead of using the normal telephone network (designed to carry voices using
analogue signals), VOIP systems send voices through the Internet as digital data,
just like any other Internet data (e.g. e-mails, files, webpages, etc.)

In other words, VOIP systems use your Internet connection to send and receive
phone calls.

'Internet Telephony' means a telephone system

that uses the Internet

'VOIP' means Voice Over IP, where IP means

Internet Protocol - the system that the Internet
uses to transfer all data
 VOIP systems can work in several ways:
VOIP software can be installed on a computer. Calls are then made using a headset
(headphones / microphone) or by using a special USB handset (looks just like a normal
phone)
 Special VOIP telephones can be plugged directly into the network (or can connect
wirelessly using WiFi)
 VOIP systems have a number of advantages over a normal telephone system:
 No telephone line is required
 Call costs are very low, especially for long-distance calls
 Can include video
 They also have some disadvantages:
Require special hardware and an Internet connection
 Not as reliable as normal phones, so cannot be relied upon for emergency calls (911, or
999)
 Call quality depends on the speed of the Internet connection

The most well-known public VOIP service is

Skype, but there are others such as Google
Talk, Vbuzzer, Fring, ooVoo, and SightSpeed.
 In General, Social networking is the grouping
of individuals into specific groups, like small
rural communities or a neighborhood
subdivision, if you will.
 online social networking, websites are
commonly used. These websites are known as
social sites.
 Social networking websites function like an
online community of internet users.
 Depending on the website in question, many of
these online community members share
common interests in hobbies, religion, or
politics.
 Once you are granted access to a social
networking website you can begin to socialize.
This socialization may include reading the
profile pages of other members and possibly
even contacting them. 
 'Web 2.0' (pronounced "web two-point-oh") is the
(slightly annoying) name given to the the recent
development of interactive websites that are quite
different to the old, static websites.

• Many websites on the Web today allow users to:

share information (e.g. notes and photos on Facebook)

interact (add comments, chat, etc.)

collaborate on content (e.g. creating pages on Wikipedia)

create their own content (e.g. videos on YouTube)

• Web 2.0 is often called the 'Social Web' because of the

way that users can interact and share.
 A blog is a website where someone (usually a normal person - not
a professional writer) writes about a topic.

Blogs can be personal (someone writing about their own life, or

their personal views), based on an interest (e.g. football), or some
businesses also use blogs to write about new products, etc.
A blog allows someone to be a writer and publisher on the Web
with very little effort or cost. A blog can be setup with just a few
clicks, whereas a few years ago you'd need a lot of technical
knowledge to create your own website.

Many blogs have systems that allow readers to leave comments

and begin discussions connected with the blog posts.
Blogs allow people to publish their views and opinions very easily,
without anyone else checking what they are writing. For this
reason, it is very important that you do not take the viewpoints
expressed on blogs as facts - they are just one person's opinion and
maybe factually very wrong.
 A wiki is a website that allows users to collaborate (work together)
to create the content. The pages of a wiki can be edited by everyone
(or those who have the password) so that different people can add to
the page, edit things, fix errors, etc.

Wikis often automatically create automatic links between pages.

E.g. if a wiki page exists called 'Camels' and you write the word
'camel', the word will become a link to the Camel page. This feature
means that wikis are very useful for creating sites containing lots of
connected information.

Wikis are used for websites such as:

Encyclopaedia (e.g. Wikipedia)
Help sites (e.g. This site for Ubuntu Linux)
Because many people can edit pages on a wiki, you have to be aware
that the information you read may not be entirely accurate -
sometimes people edit pages and write things that are wrong. Usually
the errors are noticed and fixed by other wiki users, but not always.
 There are many websites that allow users to create, upload and share their own media such as
photos, music or video. Usually other users can rate or comment on the media that is uploaded
leading to these sites often being referred to as 'Social Media' sites.

All media upload sites have rules about the type of media that you can upload - you have to
either own the copyright to the image / music / video yourself, or have permission from the
copyright owner.
 Range of IT applications are being used in our everyday life and
the various impact of IT in terms of:
 communicating applications
 interactive communication applications
 data handling applications
 measurement applications
 control applications
 modelling applications
 communicating applications :
 newsletters
 websites
 multimedia presentations
 music scores
 cartoons
 flyers / posters
 Interactive communication applications
 blogs
 wikis
 social networking websites
 data handling applications
 surveys
 address lists
 tuck shop records
 clubs and society records
 school reports
 school libraries
 Measurement applications
 scientific experiments
 electronic timing
 environmental monitoring
 Control applications
 turtle graphics
 control of lights, buzzers and motors
 automatic washing machines
 automatic cookers
 central heating controllers
 burglar alarms
 video recorders / players
 microwave ovens
 computer controlled greenhouse
 Modelling applications
 3D modelling
 simulation (e.g. flight or driving)
 spreadsheets for personal finance
 spreadhseets for tuck shop finances