ICT: An Introduction

 
You wake up in the morning and search for your smartphone to read messages and check for
Facebook updates. As you go out of your room, you see your father watching news from your flat-
screen television. You also see your younger sister watching a video she downloaded into her tablet.
Your mother, meanwhile, is preparing a meal using a recipe she just saw in Youtube. When you
arrive in school, you see almost everyone busy with their smartphones, either playing a newly
downloaded online game or updating their blogs. You, along with almost everyone around you, are
drawn towards a thing or two in today's technological trends.
 
It is important to stay updated with knowledge of the trends we are going along with, especially given
that we are dealing with gadgets and electronic tools throughout our lives. To be able to do that, we
must know which specific tool to use to assist us in gathering this information. These tools may come
as a hardware device or simply an application sitting in your desktop or laptop computers. As for
software, we also need to know how to use some of the advanced applications since we are dealing
with them most of the time either as a student or as a professional. For example, you need to
finish your homework using your spreadsheet (e.g., Microsoft Excel), but you are having a hard time
determining the formula to use to obtain the correct result. One more instance is when you do your
research for your thesis using online resources; however, it is already taking you hours searching for
the the article you need.
 
ICT is an acronym  for Information and Communications Technology.  A good way to think about
ICT is to consider the use of technology, which enables individuals, businesses and organizations to
use digital information. ICT covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit or receive
information electronically in a digital form. This covers areas under education, banking, healthcare,
government, business, and so many branches that we can think of. 1
1.1 Current State of ICT Technologies
Technology nowadays is mostly influenced by Internet access that is always under constant change
due to the changing needs of consumers. The following represents the timeline of the web
representation from Web 1.0 up until 3.0.
 
Timeline and Definition
 

 Web 1.0 is considered the foundation of web technology. The objective of Web 1.0 was to provide
access to the Web itself, making the people to view and read the information. The key areas of interest
centered on protocols such as HTTP, open standard markup languages such as HTML and XML, Internet
access through ISPs, the first Web browsers, Web development platforms and tools, Web-centric software
languages such as Java and Javascript, the creation of Web sites, the commercialization of the Web and
Web business models, and the growth of key portals on the Web.

 The infancy of Web 1.0 is the purpose of the birth of Web 2.0, known as the second generation of
Internet-based services. Most of the Internet navigators are now able to perform modification of
information, and interact with one another to share ideas and knowledge. This became the advent of social
networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies — that emphasize online collaboration and
sharing among users. The purpose of this was to make sure that the site accessed by an Internet user is
interactive. Another trend that has been a major factor in Web 2.0 is the emergence of the mobile Internet
and mobile devices (including camera phones) as a major new platform driving the adoption and growth of
the Web.

 Web 3.0, the supposed third generation of Internet-based technological innovations, is referred to
as ‘the intelligent Web’. At this instance, usage of semantic web, microformats, natural language search,
data-mining, machine learning, recommendation agents, and artificial intelligence technologies — which
emphasize machine-facilitated understanding of information in order to provide a more productive and
intuitive user experience, became very common.
1.1.1 Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is the current state of online technology as it compares with the early days of the Web,
characterized by greater user interactivity and collaboration, more pervasive network connectivity and
enhanced communication channels.
One of the most significant differences between Web 2.0 and the traditional World Wide
Web (WWW, retroactively referred to as Web 1.0) is greater collaboration among Internet users,
content providers and enterprises. Originally, data were posted on Web sites, and users simply
viewed or downloaded the content. Increasingly, users have more input into the nature and scope of
Web content and, in some cases, exert real-time control over it. 1
The social nature of Web 2.0 is another major difference between it and the original, static Web.
Increasingly, websites enable community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration.
Types of social media sites and applications include forums, microblogging, social networking, social
bookmarking, social curation, and wikis.
[Link] Elements and Tools of Web 2.0
Elements of Web 2.0

 Online database with adjustable content: There are websites that allow users to store
information which can be retrieved at a later time. These sites also enable users to contribute,
collaborate and edit site content. A good example of this is a wiki, which allows anyone to view
and even modify information on the site.
 The increasing prevalence of Software as a Service (SaaS), web apps and cloud computing
rather than locally-installed programs and services.
 Mobile computing, also known as nomadicity, the trend toward users connecting from
wherever they may be. This trend is enabled by the proliferation of smartphones, tablets and other
mobile devices in conjunction with readily accessible Wi-Fi networks.
 Mash-ups: Web pages or applications that integrate complementary elements from two or
more sources.
 Social networking: The practice of expanding the number of one's business and/or social
contacts by making connections through individuals.
 Crowdfunding or Crowdsourcing: Collaborative efforts based on the ability to reach large
numbers of participants and their collective resources
 User-generated content (UGC): Writing, images, audio and video content - among other
possibilities - made freely available online by the individuals who create it.
 Unified communications (UC): The integration of multiple forms of call and multimedia/cross-
media message-management functions controlled by an individual user for both business and
social purposes.
 Social curation: The collaborative sharing of content organized around one or more particular
themes or topics. Social content curation sites include Reddit, Digg, Pinterest and Instagram.

 
Web 2.0 tools

 Social media are Web 2.0 tools allowing people to interact with one another exchange
information, career interests, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks. A
more detailed discussion of this is illustrated on Module 1.1.3.

 Social bookmarking is a user-defined taxonomy system for bookmarks. Such a taxonomy is

sometimes called a folksonomy and the bookmarks are referred to as tags. Unlike storing
bookmarks in a folder on your computer, tagged pages are stored on the Web and can be
accessed from any computer.

This technology lets users organize their access to the web sites by storing the preferred sites that
have been recently accessed, and then maybe accessed later on. Web sites dedicated to social
bookmarking, such as Flickr and [Link], provide users with a place to store, categorize, annotate
and share favorite Web pages and files.
Unlike file sharing, social bookmarking does not save the resources themselves, merely bookmarks
that reference them, i.e., a link to the bookmarked page. Descriptions may be added to these
bookmarks in the form of metadata, so users may understand the content of the resource without first
needing to download it for themselves. 
Name Link Description

BibSonomy is a system for sharing bookmarks

BibSonomy [Link]
and lists of literature.

CiteULike is a web service which allows users

CiteULike [Link] to save and share citations to academic
papers.

The site was bought by Avos Systems on April

Delicious [Link] 27, 2011 though was operated by Yahoo! until
July 2011

Digg is a news aggregator with an editorially

Digg [Link]
driven front page

Designed to bookmark web pages and

Diigo [Link]
highlight key points for reference. Free.

Google
[Link] Bookmarking service by Google
Bookmarks

Collaborative bookmark exploration and

Pearltrees [Link] curation tool organized and presented like a
mind map.

Pinboard can automatically import your links

and tweets from a number of outside services.
The archive feature saves a local copy of
Pinboard [Link] everything you bookmark in case the original
page goes offline, and offers full-text search.
Currently 11 USD annual fee, with an optional
25 USD fee for archiving.

Pinterest is a web and mobile application

Pinterest [Link] company that offers a visual discovery,
collection, sharing, and storage tool.

Users submit content in the form of either a

Reddit [Link] link or a text ("self") post. Links and content
can be voted on.

StumbleUpon [Link] StumbleUpon is a discovery engine that finds

 and recommends web content to its users.

We Heart It is an image-based social network

We Heart It [Link]
for inspiring images

Syncs bookmarks (folders & sub-folders) and

profiles across different browsers and
Xmarks [Link] platforms. Includes sharing option and
possibility to access bookmarks via web-
based-interface.

Table 1.1.1.1a List of Social bookmarking sites and their Description 1

 A Podcast is basically just an audio (or video) file. What distinguishes a podcast from other
types of audio on the Internet is that a “podcaster” can solicit subscriptions from listeners, so that
when new podcasts are released, they are automatically delivered, or fed, to a subscriber's
computer or mobile device. Usually, the podcast features an audio show with new episodes that
are fed to your computer either sporadically or at planned intervals, such as daily or weekly. This
format encourages listeners to “subscribe.” 2 Common podcast applications include iTunes which
can be used only for iOS devices, and Spotify, an application focusing on streaming service
(streaming media is multimedia which allows a media file to be played before the entire file has
been temporarily been transmitted.)
 Educational tools. There are two types of educational tools under Web 2.0. Electronic
portfolios (also referred to as ePortfolios or Webfolios) are gaining recognition as a valuable tool
for learners. It is practically a storage medium for individuals who wish to store learned
information. Learning Management Systems (LMS), however, is faculty-centered type of
application that is focused on providing tools for students to learn and be assessed with. LMS is
owned by the institution to where it is currently being implemented while the ePortfolio is owned
by the learner. As it is more popular and common today, LMS will be discussed further and will be
the main topic on Module [Link].
[Link] The History of Web 2.0
The foundational components of Web 2.0 are the advances enabled by Ajax and other applications
such as RSS and Eclipse and the user empowerment that they support. 1
Darcy DiNucci, an information architecture consultant, coined the term “Web 2.0" in her 1999 article,
"Fragmented Future”, indicating that the Web will be known to be a "transport mechanism, the ether
through which interactivity happens. Darcy foresaw that the Web will be seen not only on personal
computer units but in TV sets, car dashboards, mobile phones, and hand-held game machines as
well. This was mostly observed when Palm Inc. started introducing their well known product -
personal digital assistant, with Web access capability.
Tim O'Reilly is generally credited for popularizing the term, following a conference dealing with next-
generation Web concepts and issues held by O'Reilly Media and MediaLive International in 2004.
O'Reilly Media has subsequently been energetic about trying to copyright "Web 2.0" and holds an
annual conference of the same name.
Tim O'Reilly and Dale Dougherty had a brief discussion to confer the changes experienced from
Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, as summarized in Table 1.1.1.2a. For instance,  the website for Encyclopedia
Britannica online was popular before; most of the researchers tend to gather information from this
site. In the new era, the attention of researchers are now focused on Wikipedia, as information are
mostly updated by end users themselves. 
 

Web 1.0 Web 2.0

DoubleClick Google AdSense

Ofoto Flickr

Akamai BitTorrent

[Link] Napster

Britannica Online Wikipedia

personal websites blogging

evite [Link] and EVDB

domain name speculation search engine optimization

page views cost per click

screen scraping web services

publishing participation

content management systems wikis

directories (taxonomy) tagging ("folksonomy")

stickiness syndication

 Table 1.1.1.2a Transition from Web 1.0 to 2.0 2