Lecture №1. An ICT role in key sectors of development of society.

Standards in the field

of ICT.
Plan:
1.Definition of ICT. Subject ICT and its purposes.
2.An ICT role in key sectors of development of society.
3.Standards in the field of ICT. Communication between ICT and achievement of the
objectives of a sustainable development in the Millennium Declaration.
Aim of the lecture: to give a brief introduction to ICT Skills and introduce the
terminology related to the subject.
Having studied this session the student will be able to:

Describe what IT is.

Describe what ICT is
Describe what CS is
Understand the relationship between Computer Skills and ICT
Understand the aims and objectives of learning ICT Skills

1.Definition of ICT. Subject ICT and its purposes.

The term Information Technology refers to an entire field that uses computers,
networking, software, and other equipment to manage information electronically in a digital
form. Consider an IT department in an organization. They are equipped with computers,
database Management Systems, servers, and security mechanisms for storing, processing,
retrieving, and protecting information available with the organization. You might have heard
about the professionals working in such department of a company like system administrators,
database administrators, programmers, IT managers, network engineers. If it is a business
organization, they all work together to provide services such as providing information, providing
tools to improve the productivity, automating the business processes, and providing means for
connect with customers. Therefore, in the modern world, IT is an essential part of all of business
operations.
The term Information and Communication Technology can be considered as an extended
version of the term IT as it involves a „C‟ that represents the communication of data by
electronic means, usually over some distance. Here, communication refers to the media
broadcasting technologies, audio/video processing and transmission and telephony. Recently, the
term ICT has been used to refer to the integrating telephone and audio/ visual networks with
computer networks. This integration has provided large savings of costs due to the elimination of
telephone networks. Simply, ICT can be seen as the integration of information technology with
communication technology.
Information and Communications Technology or (ICT), is often used as an extended
synonym for information technology (IT). But it is a more specific term that stresses the role of
unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless
signals), computers as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage, and audio-
visual systems, which enable users to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information.
The term ICT is more inclined and widely used in the educational sector. Some have
simplified ICT as using audiovisual equipment for learning at school and the use of networks
that help transmit information across schools.
IT was limited only to the textual mode of transmission of information with ease and fast.
But the information not only in textual form but in audio, video or any other media is also to be
transmitted to the users. Thus, the ICT = IT + Other media. It has opened new avenues, like,
Online learning, e-learning, Virtual University, e-coaching, e-education, e-journal, etc. Third
Generation Mobiles are also part of ICT. Mobile is being used in imparting information fast and
cost effective. It provides e-mail facility also. One can access it anywhere. It will be cost
effective. The ICT brings more rich material in the classrooms and libraries for the teachers and
students. It has provided opportunity for the learner to use maximum senses to get the
information. It has broken the monotony and provided variety in the teaching – learning
situation.
As already mentioned above, by the technology of communication we process transfer
digital data from one device to another. These technologies related to the communications are
usually complex. Though you are not going to study about them in this material, there are some
aspects of digital communication that you need to study such as the types of networks and the
mechanism of getting connected with the internet. These topics are discussed within this course
material in coming sessions.
In addition to the terms IT and ICT described above, you might have heard another
terminology “Computer Science” which also sounds similar to the above two. Computer
Science is the mother of all computational disciplines (Computer Engineering, Information
Technology/Information Science, Software Engineering, ICT, etc). In simple words, Computer
Science is all about computers. In contrast with IT, CS is the science of computing with in depth
knowledge of working principles of computers whereas information technology is the science
designed to make best use of information systems to make work easier in business environments.
CS is the scientific and practical approach to computation and its applications. A computer
scientist specializes in the theory of computation and the design of computational systems. So, a
computer scientist is obviously thorough in Physics, Mathematics, electrical engineering, and
forms of languages. CS is a field related to research work and thus it‟s evolving with the
innovations of the research outcomes.
Now you may have some idea that the ones who can afford to be in touch with the
information and communication technology can be updated with evolving knowledge while the
ones who fail or have less chances may remain in the pre-knowledge stage.
It is clear that you require some skills ranging from basic to advanced, that are needed to be
able to work with computer based information systems. Simply, you will require the capability
of using computers and computer software in order to deal with information and communication
technologies.
Therefore, the fundamental objective of this course unit is to be able to:
 Convert
 Store
 Protect
 Process
 Transmit/communicate and
 Retrieve
information by using computers and its software. So, now you can understand that the
computer skills are necessary and highly related to ICT.
Imagine that you have followed this course unit. Let us take very simple examples to brief
the above six terms related to information to understand the necessary computer skills for ICT.
 You can sing a song and record your voice using a microphone and save it in your
computer as a digital file which you can open and play later. Here the voice input has been
converted into a digital media file and stored it in your computer for future reference. You may
save (store) it in a CD and give it to your friend to listen.
 Imagine that you have very confidential documents saved in a folder of your computer. In
order to avoid others accessing those documents you may lock (protect) the folder accessibility
by applying a password on the folder. Simply, when someone tries to open that folder, the
computer will ask for a password which is only known to you.
 If you are working in the salary division of your company you may use a simple
computer program which gives the monthly salary of employees when the data such as basic
salary, salary advance taken, allowances to be given, no. of overtime hours worked, and the rate
of monthly salary increment are entered into the computer. Here the data given has been
processed into the monthly salary which is important information.
- The salary particulars of all employees of Matara branch of your company may be
processed at the Colombo Head office and the salary file may be sent to Matara branch through
the company intranet (a network built among the branches of your company). Otherwise the
salary file may be e-mailed to the branch manager at Matara. Here, using either ways, the
required salary file is transmitted /communicated through a computer network.
 You may be asked by your manager to give a list of employees who work in the Sales
division who have exceeded a total of 250 OT hours during the last six months. It will be just a
matter of calling (retrieving) the existing data saved in the central database to generate the report
in the required format.

2.An ICT role in key sectors of development of society.

The Kazakhstan Information Technology (IT) sector represents a growing and dynamic
market that is especially attractive for the International market players in view of the slowdown
in the global telecommunications sector. Although still relatively small at about$220 million, the
Kazakhstan IT market grew by 25 - 30% in 2002. It is expected to reach $275 million in 2003.
The major factors for its growth in Kazakhstan were low dependence of the IT sector on
fluctuations of the international economy, the increase in the home demand due to the rise of
international prices for Kazakhstan’s mineral commodities and growing demand for customized
solutions in the private sector.
The times when Kazakhstan’s IT market looked like the Americas of Columbus’ times have
passed. However local demand is extremely price-sensitive. Average consumers generally prefer
a low-cost computer to a globally recognized brand. Nonetheless, the Kazakhstan market
remains one of the promising emerging markets.
There is growing demand for imported equipment in the corporate sector. A continuing
growth in the number and purchasing power of small and medium-sized private enterprises is
driving demand for legally imported operating systems, software application packages and
enterprise management software. Best immediate sales prospects also include peripherals,
networking equipment, and internet technology.
A considerable increase in state purchase of computers and software within government
regional procurement programmes has facilitated the spread of the Internet in the sphere of
education. According to research conducted by Actis Systems Asia, each third Internet user in
the country is a student.
Kazakhstan’s government has realized the importance of the internet and information
technology in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of government bodies, enhancing
political transparency, and improving quality of life in general.
Laws and regulations on IT sector were not a priority for the Kazakhstan authorities but
during the last two years a number of important regulatory papers were developed. Some of them
adopted by the Majlis and came into force.
The laws On Electronic Document and Electronic Digital Signature and On Informatizaton
were passed in January and May 2003, respectively. These acts are supposed to improve the
legal aspects of the activities of Internet providers and to spur up the spread of the Internet in the
country. At the same time there are some legal problems in the IT sector of Kazakhstan, in
common with the whole International Community. These are pirated software and “gray import”
issues.
For example actual demand for IT products is difficult to determine due to the high level of
pirated software products. Also, the International Planning and Research Corporation (IPR)
estimate “gray” imports (shipments through third countries unauthorized by the original supplier)
to be as high as 89% of the total market. In recent years, the Kazakhstan government has taken
steps to improve enforcement against piracy, but pirated consumer software remains readily
available on street markets. Poor IPR enforcement is likely to severely limit the sales potential of
legitimate software suppliers in Kazakhstan.
 The foundation in 2001 of the Kazakhstan IT Industry Association is perceived as an
important step in the industry’s development and promotion of legal improvements to the
Kazakhstan IT market. Around 12 companies both Kazakh and local representatives of foreign
companies have become the founding members. The goals of the association are to represent the
interests of the Kazakhstan IT industry domestically and internationally, to foster conditions for
the future growth of the IT market and to protect the corporate interests of IT companies. Among
the association members there are as well as the Kazakhstan companies BIPS, ALSI, Actis
Systems Asia and GLOTUR.
Government Sector. The ambitious state program named “Formation and Development of
National Informational infrastructure Kazakhstan” was launched in 2001 and was aggressively
followed to stress the IT sector’s importance for the national authorities. The estimated cost of
the program for the period 2001 – 2003 is about $130 million. The target is to create key
elements of a national information infrastructure that are able to provide independence and
security for the country.
Current Kazakhstan Government priorities for the sector are as follows:
• to make internet access easy for private individuals and public sector organizations.
• to support IT investments stressing support to domestic developers.
• to proceed with legislative and regulatory grounding of the IT sector
Step by step realization of the state doctrine in this field should be achieved through
accomplishment of the following programs:
• Information and Telecom Systems monitoring
• Data exchange standardization
• E-Commerce promotion
• Development of information infrastructure for the state authorities
• State finance information and telecommunication integration
• Development of the state databases covering personalities, legal entities and “Kazakhstan
Resources”
• Monitoring of social and economic environment in Kazakhstan
Several state-supported projects were implemented in 2001 including the presidential
program ”Computerization of Secondary Schools”. According to the Statistical Agency of the
Republic of Kazakhstan, around 81 thousand PCs were bought for 8200 schools in this program.
There is 1 PC per 40 students on average in Kazakhstan, compared with Russia with only 1 PC
per 80 students. The winners of the tender for this project included ALSI, GLOTUR, etc.
State orders have become an important demand driver for IT products. Increased
government spending on computers contributed to the growth of the sector with more tenders
held for government projects and budget-funded public schools in rural areas. In 2001
government and educational institutions accounted for 35-40% of computer demand. Another
factor that boosted PC sales was major IT investment projects in mining, banking, financial
services and manufacturing.
According to the Kazakhstan Communication Ministry officials the Government of
Kazakhstan supports the growth of basic telecom infrastructure and stimulates competition in the
supply of telecom and internet services. A favorable enabling environment is also needed to
foster the development of a wide range of IT and non-IT business services needed to support the
development of e-commerce systems and their use by business organizations, government, and
consumers.
Developing a supportive policy and regulatory environment will require active dialogue
between government policy makers and private sector participants involved in the IT industry.
To increase private sector inputs into the policy-making process, private sector participants will
need to join together and form effective IT industry associations. Representatives of the telecom
industry are currently organizing a telecommunications association to lobby for changes in some
of the basic telecom regulations and laws. Other segments of the IT industry in Kazakhstan could
benefit from forming their own associations.
 Software Kazakhstan’s rapidly expanding software market in 2001 was estimated at $16-20
million, and growing at an annual rate of 25%. The best sales prospects are for Data
Management products, which currently account for 35% of the software sector and Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) – 15%. There are no means for accurate evaluation of software
demand due to the high level of pirate software that some industry estimates put as high as 80%.
The packaged software sector experienced a major boost during 2002, rising by 18-20%.
Growing demand has been reported for basic operating systems, integrated ERP and application
tools for database development and management.
IT Services Demand. Kazakhstan companies spent around $65 million on information
technology services in 2002. Kazakhstan companies BIPS, ALSI, Imanali-soft, AlphaTech,
ActisSystems Asia and PlusMicro are mentioned as leading local players with 10% of the
market. But the maturity of this segment is pending still.
Information system development expenses made up around a quarter of all money spent
on IT services. The picture of this segment is still defined by large projects that were launched
by banks or petroleum enterprises. International companies’ presence on the local IT services
market is still scant. Most of them still focus on the development and technical support for the
local partner’s networks. The only exception is Hewlett Packard rated among the top five
suppliers of IT services to customers in Kazakhstan. Cisco Systems, Samsung Electonics and LG
Electonics work vigorously in Kazakhstan.
Enterprise management systems services are among the most requested IT services in
Kazakhstan. A steady rise in demand for these services is forecasted for the next five years. The
ERP/CRM segment has steady development in Kazakhstan due to the progress towards a clearer
strategic IT vision of the management among local companies.
End Users. The following are the major groups of IT end-users in Kazakhstan:
• Multinationals
• Government agencies and institutions
• Kazakhstan exporters of raw materials and commodities.
• Kazakhstan companies, with progressive management seeking to increase operational
monitoring/control efficiency (banking, telecom companies, freight industry, food processors)
• Small and medium size Kazakhstan companies, which are growing in number and
becoming an economic force in the country.
Almaty, Atyrau and Astana are the most important computer markets to date. However
there are heavily populated industry centers in western oil-producing regions that start to become
a focusing interest of IT products and services suppliers and distributors. The longer-term
opportunities for expansion in the regions under the healthy economic conditions are more than
promising.
3.Standards in the field of ICT. Communication between ICT and achievement of the
objectives of a sustainable development in the Millennium Declaration.
System of ICT standards is a complex of normative technical and normative methodical
documents that includes the combination of correlated standards and other standardization
documents related to ICT, as well as documents that define the methods of development of those,
their correlation, confirmation, changes, inclusion, usage and replacement, including the methods
of rating objects whether they meet the required standards and other standardization documents
or not.
Standards play a very important role for ICT since they bring the language that enables
technology tounderstand each other. This is especially relevant because the key idea behind ICT
is that informationstorage devices need to communicate with communication networks and
computing systems.
Satellite and cable TV and mobile telephony spread relatively quickly in Kazakhstan, as
well as digital and web media, informational media resources and optical fiber connection.
 Rather successful projects in Kazakhstan were projects like “Electronic government”, state
service through the Internet, blogs of officials, communication with local government through
websites and open data of the state.

Questions:
1. What is the digital revolution?
2. What is convergence and how does it apply to the digital revolution?
3. What is the difference between IT and ICT?
4. Write a note on how IT can help an organization in gaining a competitive advantage on its
operations.
5. Briefly describe one way how ICT can be applied in each of the following areas.
6. What are the key applications of ICT that you will learn during this course unit?

References
1. June J. Parsons and Dan Oja, New Perspectives on Computer Concepts 16th Edition -
Comprehensive, Thomson Course Technology, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc Cambridge,
MA, COPYRIGHT © 2014.
2. Lorenzo Cantoni (University of Lugano, Switzerland) James A. Danowski (University of
Illinois at Chicago, IL, USA) Communication and Technology, 576 pages.
3. Craig Van Slyke Information Communication Technologies: Concepts, Methodologies,
Tools, and Applications (6 Volumes). ISBN13: 9781599049496, 2008, Pages: 4288
4. Utelbaeva A.K.,Utelbaeva A.K. Study guide for lectures on discipline “Computer
science”, Shimkent 2008, 84 pages.