Defining ICT

In order to arrive at a working definition of ICT, it seemed easiest to make an assessment of the existing definitions, in what way they agree, and just where the big differences are. Here follows a list of definitions, each with a source reference:

• A convergence between computing and communications forming information and communication technologies (ICTs)ⁱ.

• Originally, that is to say a few years ago, one referred to IT (Information Technology). Now the Internet has infiltrated our daily lives and the transmitting of information via the digital highway has become very important. One can no longer refer merely to Information Technology, but also of Communicationⁱⁱ.

• Three major innovations gave impetus to an ongoing transformation of our economic and social environment. Those are: the swing of electronic industries to digital technology, the large-scale marketing of personal computers and the launching of the Internet. All three innovations still interact to produce ICT convergence and evolutions towards a "knowledge based economy" and an "information society".ⁱⁱⁱ

• Activities which contribute to the display, processing, storing and transmission of information through electronic means.^iv

• To understand the very notion of ICT, convergence is the word. Since that technical swing towards digital technologies, all electronic applications could be seen as different products of one unified technology i.e. "Information and Communication Technology". One early example of ICT convergence is the crossing of photocopy machine and telephone, leading to the creation of fax. But the most spectacular achievement in this area is convergence of computer and telephone that resulted in the upsurge of the Internet.^v

• Although the technology (in the form of computers) was pioneered in the Second World War, it's huge potential only became fully obvious with two events of the 1980s. The first of these was the miniaturization that was the result of a number of important innovations in the semiconductors industry (first the transistor, then the integrated circuit, and finally the microchip). This led to small and cheap computers that could be afforded by large amounts of users. The second event was the linking of computers in networks, and the linking of these networks by existing telecommunications technologies (telephones).^vi

• The greatest boundary breaking characteristic of ICT and its ensuing electronic networks is the possibility to efficiently store, process and disseminate information. It is upon the basis of these characteristics that a multitude of developments has been made.^vii