The Evolution Stages of ICT

The very first forms of ICT and all the forms leading up to our current forms of ICT make our current
technologies what they are today. The evolution of the first ICT to our current form of ICT goes through 4
stages,
Pre-Mechanical, Mechanical, Electromechanical and Electronic. These 4 stages helped ICT evolve and adapt to
the latest forms of ICT.
Pre-Mechanical Age (3000 B.C. – 1450 A.D.)
The Pre-Mechanical age of technology is the earliest known form of ICT. It can be defined as the time
between 3000 B.C. and 1450 A.D. Which is a very long time ago. But this is when humans first started
communicating and try to do this in a few ways including trying to use language or simple symbols and picture
known as petroglyphs which were usually carved into rock. These Petroglyphs made up stories, messages and
warnings Early alphabets were developed such as the Phoenician alphabet. As Alphabets became more popular
and more commonly used for writing information down, pens and paper began to develop. It just started off as
marks on wet clay, but then later paper was created out of Papyrus Plant. The most popular kind of paper was
made 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 storage permanently. This is where the first books and libraries were developed.
You've probably heard or seen Egyptian scrolls which was one popular way of writing down information
permanently. Some people were binding information together in a book like form. Also during this period were
the first numbering systems. Around 100 A.D. was when the first 1-9 system was created by people from India.
However, it wasn’t until 875 A.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.
1. Writing and Alphabets - communication
a. Petroglyph – first humans communicated only through speaking and picture drawings.
b. 3000 B.C., the Sumerians in Mesopotamia (what is today Southern Iraq) devised cuneiform.
c. The Greeks later adopted the Phoenician alphabet and added vowels; the Romans gave the letters
Latin names to create the alphabet we use today.
2. Paper and Pens – input technologies
a. Sumerians’ input technology was a stylus that could scratch marks in wet day.
b. About 2600 B.C., the Egyptians write on the papyrus plant.
c. Around 100 A.D., the Chinese made paper from rags, on which modern-day papermaking is
based.
3. Books and Libraries: Permanent Storage Devices
a. Religious leaders in Mesopotamia kept the earliest “books”.
b. The Egyptians kept scrolls.
c. Around 600 B.C., the Greeks began to fold sheets of papyrus vertically into leaves and bind them
together.
4. The First Numbering Systems
a. Egyptian System:
i. The numbers 1-9 as vertical lines, the number 10 as a U or circle, the number 100 as a
coiled rope, and the number 1000 as a lotus blossom.
b. The first numbering systems like those in use today were invented between 100 and 200 A.D. by
Hindus in India who created a nine-digit numbering system.
c. Around 875 A.D., the concept of zero was developed.
5. The First Calculator: The Abacus
a. One of the very first information processors.
Mechanical Age (1450 – 1840)
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. There was a huge explosion
of interest in this era, resulting in more technologies being developed. Technologies like the slide rule (Which
was 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. There were lots of different machines
created during this era and while we have not yet gotten 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 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) ridiculous to understand why anybody would want to use them, but to the people living in that
time ALL these inventions were HUGE.
1. The First Information Explosion
a. Johannes Gutenberg – invented the movable metal-type printing process in 1450.
b. The development of book indexes and the widespread use of page numbers.
 2. Calculating Machine
a. Wilhelm Schickard invented the first mechanical calculator in 1623 that can work with six digits
and can carries digits across columns.
3. Pascaline
a. The Pascaline. Invented by Blaise Pascal (1642) (made of clock gears and levers) that could
solve mathematical problems like addition and subtraction.
4. Babbage’s Engines
a. Charles Babbage – invented the Difference Engine (1821) and Analytical Engine (1832). Father
of Computer.
Electromechanical Age (1840 – 1940)
Now we are finally getting close to some technologies that resemble our current 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 and eventually in your own home.
1. Morse Code (1835)
a. Samuel Morse – conceived if his version of an Electromagnetic Telegraph (Dots and Dashes)
2. Telephone and Radio (1876)
a. Alexander Graham Bell – developed the first working telephone.
3. Comptograph (1885)
a. Dorr Felt – invented first adding and subtracting calculator.
b. Comptograph containing a built-in printer.
4. Punch Card (1890)
a. Piece of stiff paper that contains digital information represented by the presence or absence of
holes in predefined positions.
Electronic
The electronic age is what 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
computer was developed (Apple II). The graphical user interface (GUI) was developed.
1. Z3 (1941)
a. Konrad Zuse – built the first programmable computer called Z3.
2. Mark l (1942)
a. John von Neumann – build the first stored program computer.
b. 8 feet tall, 51 feet long, 2 feet thick, weighed 5 tons, used about 750,000 parts, 500 miles of
wires.
3. ABC Computer (1942)
a. John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry.
b. Completed the first all-electronic computer called ABC or Atanasoff-Berry Computer.
c. Foundation for advances in electronic digital computers.

LAW/ORDINANCES
Data Privacy Act - 10173, otherwise known as the Data Privacy Act is a law that seeks to protect all forms of
information, be it private, personal, or sensitive. It is meant to cover both natural and juridical persons involved
in the processing of personal information.
REPUBLIC ACT NO. 10173: AN ACT PROTECTING INDIVIDUAL PERSONAL INFORMATION IN
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS IN THE GOVERNMENT AND THE PRIVATE
SECTOR, CREATING FOR THIS PURPOSE A NATIONAL PRIVACY COMMISSION, AND FOR OTHER
PURPOSES

Sim Card Registration Act - Senate Bill no. 2395, also known as the SIM Card Registration Act, will mandate
Filipinos to register their SIM cards before their use and activation. When enacted into law, the measure will
also require social media providers to register an individual’s real name and phone number during social media
registration.

ETHICAL ISSUES
1. Personal Privacy - It is an important aspect of ethical issues in information technology. IT facilitates the
users having their own hardware, operating system, and software tools to access the servers that are
connected to each other and to the users by a network. Due to the distribution of the network on a large
scale, data or information transfer in a big amount takes place which leads to the hidden chances of
disclosing information and violating the privacy of any individuals or a group. It is a major challenge for
IT society and organizations to maintain the privacy and integrity of data. Accidental disclosure to
inappropriate individuals and provisions to protect the accuracy of data also comes in the privacy issue.

2. Access Right - The second aspect of ethical issues in information technology is access right. Access
right becomes a high priority issue for the IT and cyberspace with the great advancement in technology.
E-commerce and Electronic payment systems evolution on the internet heightened this issue for various
corporate organizations and government agencies. Network on the internet cannot be made secure from
unauthorized access. Generally, the intrusion detection system are used to determine whether the user is
an intruder or an appropriate user.

3. Harmful Actions - Harmful actions in the computer ethics refers to the damage or negative
consequences to the IT such as loss of important information, loss of property, loss of ownership,
destruction of property and undesirable substantial impacts. This principle of ethical conduct restricts
any outsiders from the use of information technology in manner which leads to any loss to any of the
users, employees, employers and the general public. Typically, these actions comprise of the intentional
destruction or alteration of files and program which drives a serious loss of resources. To recover from
the harmful actions extra time and efforts are required to remove the viruses from the computer systems.

4. Patents - It is more difficult to deal with these types of ethical issues. A patent can preserve the unique
and secret aspect of an idea. Obtaining a patent is very difficult as compared with obtaining a copyright.
A thorough disclosure is required with the software. The patent holder has to reveal the full details of a
program to a proficient programmer for building a program.

5. Copyright - The information security specialists are to be familiar with necessary concept of the
copyright law. Copyright law works as a very powerful legal tool in protecting computer software, both
before a security breach and surely after a security breach. This type of breach could be the mishandling
and misuse of data, computer programs, documentation, and similar material. In many countries,
copyright legislation is amended or revised to provide explicit laws to protect computer programs.

6. Trade Secrets - Trade secrets are also a significant ethical issue in information technology. A trade
secret secures something of value and usefulness. This law protects the private aspects of ideas which is
known only to the discover or his confidants. Once disclosed, trade secret is lost as such and is only
protected by the law for trade secrets. The application of trade secret law is very broad in the computer
range, where even a slight head start in the advancement of software or hardware can provide a
significant competitive influence.
7. Liability - One should be aware of the liability issue in making ethical decisions. Software developer
makes promises and assertions to the user about the nature and quality of the product that can be
restricted as an express warranty. Programmers or retailers possess the legitimate to determine the
express warranties. Thus, they have to be practical when they define any claims and predictions about
the capacities, quality and nature of their software or hardware. Every word they say about their product
may be as legally valid as stated in written. All agreements should be in writing to protect against
liability. A disclaimer of express warranties can free a supplier from being held responsible of informal,
speculative statements or forecasting made during the agreement stages.

8. Piracy - Piracy is an activity in which the creation of illegal copy of the software is made. It is entirely
up to the owner of the software as to whether users can make backup copies of their software. As laws
made for copyright protection are evolving, also legislation that would stop unauthorized duplication of
software is in consideration. The software industry is prepared to do encounter against software piracy.
The courts are dealing with an increasing number of actions concerning the protection of software.