Information Technology (IT)

Information technology (IT) is the use of any computers, storage, networking and
other physical devices, infrastructure and processes to create, process, store, secure
and exchange all forms of electronic data.

History Of Information Technology

Introduction
Information technology has been around for a long, long time. Basically as long as people have been around,
information technology has been around because there were always ways of communicating through technology
available at that point in time. There are 4 main ages that divide up the history of information technology. Only
the latest age (electronic) and some of the electromechanical age really affects us today, but it is important to
learn about how we got to the point we are at with technology today.

Ages
Premechanical
The premechanical age is the earliest age of information technology. It can be defined as the time between
3000B.C. and 1450A.D. We are talking about a long time ago. When humans first started communicating they
would try to use language or simple picture drawings known as petroglyths which were usually carved in rock.
Early alphabets were developed such as the Phoenician alphabet.
 Petroglyph

As alphabets became more popluar and more people were writing information down, pens and paper began to be
developed. It started off as just marks in wet clay, but later paper was created out of papyrus plant. The most
popular kind of paper made was probably by the Chinese who made paper from rags.

Now that people were writing a lot of information down they needed ways to keep it all in permanent storage.
This is where the first books and libraries are developed. You’ve probably heard of Egyptian scrolls which were
popular ways of writing down information to save. Some groups of people were actually binding paper together
into a book-like form.

Also during this period were the first numbering systems. Around 100A.D. was when the first 1-9 system was
created by people from India. However, it wasn’t until 875A.D. (775 years later) that the number 0 was invented.
And yes now that numbers were created, people wanted stuff to do with them so they created calculators. A
calculator was the very first sign of an information processor. The popular model of that time was the abacus.

Mechanical
The mechanical age is when we first start to see connections between our current technology and its ancestors.
The mechanical age can be defined as the time between 1450 and 1840. A lot of new technologies are developed
in this era as there is a large explosion in interest with this area. Technologies like the slide rule (an analog
computer used for multiplying and dividing) were invented. Blaise Pascal invented the Pascaline which was a
very popular mechanical computer. Charles Babbage developed the difference engine which tabulated
polynomial equations using the method of finite differences.

Difference Engine
There were lots of different machines created during this era and while we have not yet gottent to a machine that
can do more than one type of calculation in one, like our modern-day calculators, we are still learning about how
all of our all-in-one machines started. Also, if you look at the size of the machines invented in this time compared
to the power behind them it seems (to us) absolutely ridiculous to understand why anybody would want to use
them, but to the people living in that time ALL of thse inventions were HUGE.

Electromechanical
Now we are finally getting close to some technologies that resemble our modern-day technology. The
electromechanical age can be defined as the time between 1840 and 1940. These are the beginnings of
telecommunication. The telegraph was created in the early 1800s. Morse code was created by Samuel Morse in
1835. The telephone (one of the most popular forms of communication ever) was created by Alexander Graham
Bell in 1876. The first radio developed by Guglielmo Marconi in 1894. All of these were extremely crucial
emerging technologies that led to big advances in the information technology field.

The first large-scale automatic digital computer in the United States was the Mark 1 created by Harvard
University around 1940. This computer was 8ft high, 50ft long, 2ft wide, and weighed 5 tons - HUGE. It was
programmed using punch cards. How does your PC match up to this hunk of metal? It was from huge machines
like this that people began to look at downsizing all the parts to first make them usable by businesses
andeventually in your own home.

Harvard Mark 1

Electronic
The electronic age is wha we currently live in. It can be defined as the time between 1940 and right now. The
ENIAC was the first high-speed, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of
computing problems. This computer was designed to be used by the U.S. Army for artillery firing tables. This
machine was even bigger than the Mark 1 taking up 680 square feet and weighing 30 tons - HUGE. It mainly
used vacuum tubes to do its calculations.

There are 4 main sections of digital computing. The first was the era of vacuum tubes and punch cards like the
ENIAC and Mark 1. Rotating magnetic drums were used for internal storage. The second generation replaced
vacuum tubes with transistors, punch cards were replaced with magnetic tape, and rotating magnetic drums were
replaced by magnetic cores for internal storage. Also during this time high-level programming languages were
created such as FORTRAN and COBOL. The third generation replaced transistors with integrated circuits,
magnetic tape was used throughout all computers, and magnetic core turned into metal oxide semiconductors. An
actual operating system showed up around this time along with the advanced programming language BASIC. The
fourth and latest generation brought in CPUs (central processing units) which contained memory, logic, and
control circuits all on a single chip. The personal comptuer was developed (Apple II). The graphical user
interface (GUI) was developed.

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Need for information technology

 Addition of knowledge
 Decision making aids
  Increase in productivity
benefits of information technology

. Remote accessibility:
Advancements in information technology systems provide access to your company’s electronic
network from many other places other than the office itself. You can now work from home, or
even from the road. This sure increases one’s productivity and work keeps coming in even when
one is not physically present in office. Mobility is now so commonplace that most people don’t
even notice it!

Creation of new jobs:

The rising demand of IT professionals across businesses is creating new opportunities every day.
Several emerging economies all over the world are now setting new records by strengthening
their competence in this field. A greater number of people are showing interest in jobs like
computer programming, system analysis, testing, software and hardware development and web
application design.

. Information Technology and education:

The application of information technology in education has significantly changed the traditional process of
teaching and learning. Gone are the days of classrooms with blackboards. Today all educational institutions are
imparting knowledge by using various modern gadgets. Students with access to the internet have a whole
world of research material at their disposal, which helps them grasp concepts efficiently and without wasting
any time.
(img source: bth.se)

7. Information technology and the health sector:

The use of information technology has helped in improved patient care all over. Patients using the internet can
now communicate with expert physicians from their home via virtual healthcare application systems. Also,
tele-medicines, electronic health records and health grids have resulted in a greater impact on delivering
efficient and quality health care to people across the globe.

(img source: rte.ie)

6. Advancement of economies:
Since information technology has made businesses more efficient, the overall buying and selling activities are
no longer restricted by time and distances. Companies from different parts of the world can now interconnect
with each other conveniently. Today, every local as well as international has its presence online and caters to a
much larger audience beyond its borders.

(img source: educationjungal.com)

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5. Communicating news:
Wireless communication has revolutionized the ways in which we communicate news broadcast. And, whether
it is latest updates from Ghana, or New York, it is all being effectively communicated with the rest of the
world. Today, it takes less than a few seconds for a new story to propagate from one part of the world to the
other.

(img source: ntdtv.org)

4. Entertainment:
The widespread use of internet on laptops, smartphones, iPods, and other devices has given us unlimited
access to various entertainment platforms. Gone are the days when people had to wait for the Friday night
show or special telecast on the television! You can now download and purchase music, movies, TV shows and
games easily and more conveniently.
(img source: betanews.com)

3. Effective communication:
Information technology has definitely made communication cheaper, quicker and far more superior than ever
before. Sending e-mails, video calling through Skype, sending text messages through various online apps
allows people sitting miles away to connect with each other instantaneously. Businesses are reaping maximum
benefit from this and employees distributed over a wide area can now remain connected through internal chat
rooms or open source applications.
(img source: us.gmocloud.com)

2. Globalization:
Information technology has removed the physical barriers between nations and connected them through their
shared ideas and opportunities. The advent of social media has made interactions easy and the use of
Facebook, Twitter and all other social networking sites has drawn culturally different people to communicate
with one another. People on the social media are now becoming ‘global’ citizens!

(img source: indonors.com)

1. Accurate and speedy processing of information:

Whether it is government organizations, private business houses, institutions or even individuals, Information
Technology has multiplied their abilities to process all sorts of information accurately and with lightening fast
speed. The use of spread sheets, database programs, word processors and many other tools help in ease of work
without compromising on reliability. A handful of software engineers can now design economically viable
systems that can serve millions of businesses all over the world.