Reviewer

Information and Communication Technologies

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) deals with the use of different
communication technologies such as mobile phones, telephones, internet, etc. to locate, save, send and
edit information.

When we make a video call, we use internet. When we send a text or make a call, we use
cellular networks. When we run out of load or battery, we use payphones which use a telephone
network. Having a unified way to communicate is one of the goals of ICT.

In terms of economics, ICT has saved companies a lot of resources (time and money) with the kind of
communication technology they use, nowadays. In a similar way, we spent less because of ICT. As it
normally cost us a peso to send a text message or SMS, with the internet, we can send multiple
messages and only be charged by a fraction.

ICT in the Philippines

According to the 2013 edition of Measuring the Information Society by the International
Telecommunication Union, there are 106.8 cellphones per 100 Filipinos in the year 2012. That would
mean that for every 100 Filipinos you meet, there is a high chance that they have a cellphone and
approximately for the seven of them, they have two.

In a data gathered by the Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industries, NSO, in 2010, the ICT
industry shares 19.3% of the total employment population here in the Philippines.

To add these statistics, Time Magazine’s “The Selfiest Cities around the World” of 2013 places two cities
from the Philippines in the top 1 and top 10 spots. The study was conducted using Instagram, a popular
photo sharing application.

World Wide Web – invented by Tim Berners-Lee

When the World Wide Web was invented, most web pages were static. Static (also known as flat page
or stationary page) in the sense that the page is “as is” and cannot be manipulated by the user. The
content is also the same for all users. This is referred to as Web 1.0.

However, the World Wide Web is more than just static pages. Pretty soon, Web 2.0 came to the picture.

Web 2.0 is a term coined by Darcy DiNucci on January 1999. In her article titled, “Fragmented Future,”
she wrote.

“The Web we know now, which loads into a browser window in essentially static screenful, is
only an embryo of the Web to come. The first glimmerings Web 2.0 are beginning to appear, and we are
just starting to see how that embryo might develop.”
Web 2.0 is the evolution of Web 1.0 by adding dynamic web pages-the users is able to see a website
differently than others.

Examples are: social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, hosted services, and web
applications.

Web 2.0 allows users to interact with the page:

 instead of just reading a page, the users may be able to comment or to create a user account
 Web 2.0 is also allows users to use web browsers instead of just using their operating system.
 Browsers can now be used from their user interface, application software (or web applications)
 And even for file storage.
Most websites that we visit today are Web 2.0.
1. Folksonomy – allows users to categories and classify/arrange information using freely chosen
keywords (e.g., tagging). Popular social networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
etc. use tags that start with the pound sign (#). This is also referred to as hashtag.

2. Rich User experience – content is dynamic and responsive to user’s input. An example would be
a website that shows local content. In the case of social networking sites, when logged on, your
account is used to modify what you see in their website.

3. User participation – the owner of the website is not the only one who is able to put content.
Others are able to place a content of their own by means of comments, reviews, and evaluation.
Some websites allow readers to comment on an article, participate in a poll, or review a specific
product (e.g., Amazon.com, online stores).

4. Long tail – services that offered on demand rather than on one-time purchase. In certain cases,
time-based pricing is better than file size-based pricing or vice versa. This is synonymous to
subscribing to a data plan that charges you for the amount of the time you spent in the internet,
or data plan that charges you for the amount of bandwidth you used.

5. Software as a service – users will subscribe to a software only when needed rather than
purchasing them. This is a cheaper option if you do not always need to use a software. For
instance, Google Docs is a free web-based application that allows the user to create and edit
wrong processing and spreadsheet documents online. When you need a software, like a Word
Processor, you can purchase it for a one-time huge amount and install it in your computer and it
is yours forever. Software as a service allows you to “rent” a software for a minima fee.

6. Mass Participation – diverse information sharing through universal web access. Since most
users can use the Internet, Web 2.0’s content is based on people from various cultures.
 Web 3.0 and the Semantic Web

The semantic Web is a movement led by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The term was coined
by inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee. Lee also noted that the semantic Web is a
component for Web 3.0.

The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across
application, enterprise, and community boundaries”.

According to W3C, “The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared
and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries”.

When doing a web search in Web 2.0, the topmost result is based on the preference of several users
who already searched for the item. The search engine then label in the most common answer to the
search query, though there are instances wherein several preferences are considered like geographic
location. Web 3.0 aims to do better.

This is through studying personal preferences of an individual user and showing result based on those
preferences. The Internet is able to predict the best possible answers to your question by “learning”
from your previous choices.

For example, if you search the internet for “Where is the best place to go shopping?” Web 3.0 will aim
to give you result depending on how you have made choices in the past. If you have purchased several
shoes online, the Internet will give you results on the best place with the highest rated shoes around
your vicinity.
Another example is when you search for the best restaurant to visit in a specific area. First, it may look
for your previous visits from the other restaurant and if you have rated them whether good or bad. In
return, web 3.0 will search for restaurants that have a similar menu, good rating and budget that fit your
reference in the past.

Web 3.0 is yet to be fully realized because of the several problems.

1. Compatibility. HTML files and current web browsers could not support web 3.0.
2. Security. The user’s security is also in question since the machine is saving his or her
preferences.
3. Vastness. The world Wide Web already contains billions of web pages.
4. Vagueness. Certain words are imprecise. The worlds “old” and “small” would depend on the
user.
5. Logic. Since machines use logic, there are certain limitations for a computer to be able
predict what the user is referring to at a given time.