Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

From glossaLAB
Collection GlossariumBITri
Author Estela Mastromatteo
Editor Estela Mastromatteo
Year 2010
Volume 1
Number 1
ID 81
Object type Concept
Discipline
Resource
Domain Information Society
Transdisciplinar
es Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones –TICs
fr Technologies de l'Information et de Communication -
de Information- und Kommunikationstechnologien

Currently, our society is characterized by a growing and determinant emphasis on information and knowledge in wealth production. This constitutes the so-called information age, information society or knowledge-based society. This information age is characterized by the use, distribution, storage and creation of new information and knowledge resources through the application of information and communication technology (ICT). ICT is a set of advanced techniques, developments and devices that integrate functionalities to information storage, processing and transmission. This term is used to refer to informatics connected to the Internet and especially the social aspect. These technologies can be used for educational purposes and cultural global promotion as well.

Technologies dealing with the treatment of information offer a special service to society since they make possible activities like researching, organizing, and handling data, information and knowledge along with other electronic media like the cell phone, fax, Internet and television. This media have produced a significantcultural change as long as -in principle- people have access to real knowledge, assets and intangible cultural values. ICT is not egalitarian. It is prevalent in wealthy countries, especially among upscale social groups as a mechanism to replicate inequality. However, there is a difference with regards to traditional inequalities: ICT penetrates faster and stronger among young people. What we know as the digital divide does express these inequalities. This information society exclusion is no other than a new way to segregate people. This can be called digital marginalization. This marginalization is the result of the technology revolution. Evidently, this is not resolved by connecting computers in a network since core problems may remain the same. These problems are amplified by the access to different avenues to grow faster excluding even more developing countries. This asks for resolving essential rights to favour integral individual self-improvement allowing the participation in current changes in nourishment, education, health, and work rights.

Knowledge production, diffusion and use should be transformed into the main growth opportunity as farming or industrial productions once were. Otherwise, we will have no other chance to participate in the knowledge society and we will only become mere spectators. This issue is not really new. We have found out that the development is the result of the knowledge that countries are able to generate, diffuse and manage. Nowadays, this is so evident that differences are still raised exponentially.

Our times are the current stage of transformations and radical changes so relevant that some people do not hesitate to claim we are living a third industrial revolution. This is no other than the so-called technology and communication information revolution. It goes along with a change in the knowledge system. For several decades now, the extent of technology transformation has been influencing the means for the creation, treatment and diffusion of knowledge. We believe this may bring about a new digital knowledge age.

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