What exactly is Info-Communications Technology?
In the years since the development of the Internet, an increasing
number of people have been using information communication
technology (ICT) to bring about change in their work methods
and environment and to speed up the development process in
their life styles. Different organizations, NGOs, media houses,
government agencies, schools and many individuals make use
of ICT in one way or another. Yet, many questions are to be
asked.
- What is exactly is this phenomenon ICT
- How is it different from Telecommunication?
- What impact has ICT on society?
What policies are required, especially in developing countries,
to facilitate the use and access to ICT?
- How global networking of like-minded people through the
web can make a difference in policy advocacy and social
equity and economic development?
The main objective of this column is to educate and help
the public answer this concept of info communications technology
and how best they will benefit from it. Many technology and
telecommunications companies are starting to reposition themselves
as ICT companies. But what is Info-communications technology?
Surrounded by numerous, nearly ubiquitous buzz words like
convergence, revolution, diversity, or universality, the new
tools of communication are easily hailed as utopian or inevitable.
Yet despite, or inspite of, these vague characterizations,
artists continue to extend the circumference and possibilities
of technology, nowhere more than in the area of telecommunications.
A fundamental.htmlect in the future of culture is a serious
and sustained investment in the imaginative use and development
of creative content in the networked world.
With the development of advanced technologies and the upgrading
of broadband networks, the ability and capacity of the broadcasting,
telecommunications and computing networks to transmit information
have been greatly expanded and enhanced. And Africa is beginning
to adapt the change. The most significant development in the
information and communications sectors in the past few years
is the phenomenon of "convergence". "Convergence"
is an on-going process and it is happening on many levels.
This convergence brought about the concept of Info-Communication
Technology.
At the technological level where convergence began, digitalization
has led to a convergence in the ability of different communications
networks (that is, broadcasting, telecommunications, networking
and computing) to transmit all types of information, that
is, voice, data and video in an indistinguishable technicality.
A telecommunications network now has the ability to transmit
broadcast services (and vice versa) and audio and visual products
can now be delivered electronically by a variety of transmission
channels (copper wires, coaxial cable, optical fibre and radio
spectrum).
Technological convergence has also made convergence at the
service and market levels possible and feasible. The telecommunications
sector Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa is witnessing a radical
shift from the monopoly provision of voice and data services
to open competition across a full range of telecommunications
services.
Technologies converge but convergence is not just about technologies.
Convergence is rapidly creating an interactive multimedia
market where new services and products which integrate voice,
data, video, graphics and animations are communicated to viewers
and customers and which empower users to interact through
various distribution media.
The next coming number of years will be touted as the "Information
age" when all things will become known to all people
as long as they have a phone and a computer; a time when our
monitors become the light at the end of the tunnel of ignorance
and electronic media is the highway leading to enlightenment.
When information flows and transcends geographical and national
boundaries, crosses time zones and is instantaneously available
at the press of a key; and the world reduces to a global village,
the question governments and individuals need to ask themselves
is not whether they should embrace this brave new world but
how?
For further comments email at chinamanoa@afri-com.com
By Albert Chinamano
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