ITGS

Information Technology in a Global Society

Exam Prep 9

2.3.2 Personal and public communications

Definitions

convergence

In general, convergence is a coming together of two or more distinct entities or phenomena. Convergence is increasingly prevalent in the IT world; in this context the term refers to the combination of two or more different technologies in a single device. Taking pictures with a cell phone and surfing the Web on a television are two of the most common examples of this trend.
Convergence may influence consumers to accept new technologies. According to some studies, people who aren't computer literate are more likely to embrace the Internet, video-on-demand, and so on if they can -- at least initially -- access these technologies through their televisions. In general, TV is familiar and non-threatening. Displays are large and TVs are easy to operate, requiring almost no training. Personal computers, in spite of their graphical user interfaces (GUI) tend to be more text-oriented, highly interactive, oriented in terms of purpose and content toward business and education uses. Displays are smaller. Computers can be very challenging to use and usually require formal education or a certain personal learning curve.

Computer-television convergence is already underway with WebTV, which pipes the World Wide Web to a slightly-modified TV set with a set-top box from an ordinary phone line and provides a degree of interactivity. A number of interactive games designed for the TV environment can also be played over the Internet. Broadcasting companies such as NBC have partnered with computer companies such as Microsoft for TV program content.

A major barrier to more rapid convergence is the large investment required to bring cable TV to households, both by cable access providers and individual households. satellite wireless service is another approach that is only beginning to bring its subscribers access to the Internet. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technologies offer the possibility of sufficient bandwidth connections over ordinary phone wires for streaming video to TV sets.

A consortium of leading computer and telecommunication companies including Compaq, IBM, and Microsoft are working toward common standards that will help speed up convergence and hope to sponsor a standard for a relatively low-cost digital TV. They have endorsed a subset of the recommendations of the Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC) that would speed up a transition to digital TV and so that personal computers could have the ability to receive digital video and data.

teleconferencing

("long distance" conferencing) An interactive communications session between two or more users who are geographically separated. Years ago, teleconferencing meant a "conference" that required at least three people. Later, the term evolved into meaning two or more people.

videoconferencing

A realtime video session between two or more users or between two or more locations. Although the first videoconferencing was done with traditional analog TV and satellites, inhouse room systems became popular in the early 1980s after Compression Labs pioneered digitized video systems that were highly compressed. While videoconferencing may comprise any number of end points communicating, the term "video chat" typically means between two end points only.

For years, the explosion of videoconferencing has long been forecast to be right around the corner, but that corner has been farther down the road than expected. However, it is gaining significant ground within the enterprise. As cable modems and DSL lines become ubiquitous, it will begin to accelerate for the consumer as well

Room Systems

Videoconferencing got its start with room systems, and they are still commonly used for small and large business groups.

Personal Desktop Systems

Current video conferencing systems can be contained within standard personal computers with appropriate software and webcam.

telecommuting

Telecommuting and telework are synonyms for the use of telecommunication to work outside the traditional office or workplace, usually at home (SOHO ~ small office home office) or in a mobile situation. According to some studies, telecommuting has been growing at 15% a year since 1990 in North America. 80% of Fortune 1000 companies are likely to introduce it within the next two to three years. Although work at the company premises is not likely to disappear, new forms of telecommunication such as voice and picture communication and groupware are likely to make telecommuting more social in the future.
Factors that will continue to affect the future of telecommuting include the availability of bandwidth and fast Internet connections in a given country; social methodologies for balancing work control and work freedom; the perceived values and economies in telecommuting; and the opportunities and need for working collaboratively across large distances, including globally.

With the arrival of the Internet and the Web as a kind of "standard" for groupware, one can join a virtual organization to access resources developed for members who work almost entirely through telecommunication with an occasional face-to-face meeting.

digital television

Digital television (DTV) is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound by means of digital signals, in contrast to analog signals used by analog (traditional) TV. DTV uses digital modulation data, which is digitally compressed and requires decoding by a specially designed television set or a standard receiver with a set-top box.

Digital television has several advantages over traditional analog TV, the most significant being that digital channels take up less bandwidth space. This means that digital broadcasters can provide more digital channels in the same space, provide High-Definition digital service, or provide other non-television services such as pay-multimedia services or interactive services. Digital television also permits special services such as multicasting (more than one program on the same channel) and electronic program guides. The sale of non-television services may provide an additional revenue source. As well, digital television often has a superior image, improved audio quality, and better reception than analog.

However, digital television picture technology is still in its early stages. Digital television images have some picture defects that are not present on analog television or motion picture cinema, due to present-day limitations of bandwidth and the compression algorithms such as MPEG-2. When a compressed digital image is compared with the original program source, such as a 35mm motion-picture film print, some digital image sequences may have distortion or degradation such as quantization noise, incorrect color, blockiness when high-speed motion is depicted, or a blurred, shimmering haze.

push–pull technologies

push technology: any automatic mechanism for getting information off the web from the users perspective. Push simply means that new information is delivered or retrieved automatically from a remote computer to the (student's) PC. Information does not need to be updated manually on a regular basis.

pull technology: The current model of the Internet requires learners to point-and-click web pages to pull information from remote computers to the desktop

E-mail gives the sender the choice about what content others receive -- in other words it is entirely a "push" technology. RSS and Blogs give all the choice to the recipient -- they are entirely "pull" technologies. But an effective communications channel should enable the sender and recipient to collaborate in choosing what content is transmitted. Recipients should be able to control their policies and so should senders, and so long as their policies are compatible, communication can take place. This approach combines the best of "pull" and "push" to create a better modality. Simple I.M. buddy lists are an example, but this is just the beginning. In this paradigm the movement of information is policy driven so that any given channel can implement push, pull or anything in between.