Information Technology in a Global Society

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Exam Prep 9

2.3.2 Personal and public communications

Paper One and Two may require you to evaluate the social and ethical issues involved in the use of personal and public communications you should have an understanding of the following related technological concepts.

The social and ethical issues involved in the use of personal
and public communications. These may include:

• the psychological consequences of people being in permanent contact

• ethical considerations of control as the result of using communications technologies

• social impact on health of the use of mobile devices

• effect on personal productivity of personal communications devices

• effect on the environment of personal communications devices

• social effects of telecommuting

• social effects of the widespread use of teleconferencing and videoconferencing

• social and environmental impact and ethical considerations of telecommuting

• social impact and ethical considerations of: distance learning, digital entertainment, global media and public information systems.

Knowledge of technology
In order to study and evaluate the social and ethical issues involved in the use of personal and public communications the student must have an understanding of related technological concepts. These may include:

• key terms—convergence, teleconferencing, videoconferencing, telecommuting, digital television, push–pull technologies

• mobile phone and associated services and uses

• digital entertainment versus live entertainment

• contents of digital entertainment, e.g. violence, pornography and realism

• features of telecommuting, e.g. environmental aspects, flexibility, productivity, business and social relationships

• face-to-face communications versus communications via technology

• minimum requirements to enable realistic teleconferencing and videoconferencing

• undetected intrusions into IT systems, e.g. phone tapping

• personal mobile devices, e.g. PDA, laptop

• emerging technologies as the result of convergence of computers and
  communications technology

• public information systems, e.g. traffic control, security camera systems, public transfer information systems.
   

Do you understand these issues and terms?  If you don't then do some research - find out what it ALL means.

When you think you know about personal and public communications answer the questions below using a pen/pencil and paper: 

Click here for a print version

J-Soft Osaka corp develops and sells software to companies in Japan, but also in the other Asian countries particularly Korea and China. The software is developed in the J-soft offices, but some people can work from home if they want. After a project is finished and the software is installed at the customer's site, J-Soft continue with education, and then with maintenance after that. All this is done remotely, and only in very small number of cases do they send someone to go to the customer's offices. When the client is far from them, e.g. in another country, they have a partner-team located there, who can resolve hardware or communication problems. Thanks to all this, some of the software development team, the help desk staff, and even the sales consultants can work from home.

1. Identify twp peripheral IT devices necessary for telecommuting. [2 marks]
    

2. An increasing number of J-Soft employees are choosing to work from home full time. Describe one advantage and one disadvantage for employees who telecommute. [4 marks]
    

3. Examine two benefits of telecommuting for J-Soft. [6 marks]
    

4. To what extent can remote communication via the use of information technology replace or even improve on face-to-face communication.[8 marks]