Empowerment Technology Reviewer

Information and Communication Technology – A global Communication Tool

Lesson 1: The Internet

Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

 Refers to the various technologies, tools and devices that are used
to gather, create, edit, and store information that are communicated
or exchanges with others by means of electronics.

Information and Communication Technologies includes technologies such as:

 Computers, Radio, Television, Video, DVD’s, Telephone, Personal
Digital Assistants (PDA’s), Satellite systems.
 Network hardware and software, and the equipment and services
associated with these technologies such video conferencing, email,
instant messaging, and blogs.

On October 24, 1995, the Federal Networking Council (FNC) unanimously

passed a resolution defining the term Internet:

 As a logically linked together by a globally unique address space

based on the Internet Protocol (IP) or its subsequent
extensions/follow-ons.
 Able to support Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP) suite or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons, and/or the
other IP-compatible protocols, and
 Provides, uses, or makes accessible, either publicly or privately,
high-level series layered on the communications and related
infrastructure described herein.

Internet
 The internet is composed of millions of small computer networks all
brought together to form the vast “Inter-Network”.
 The word never caught on, so it was shortened to much easier-to-say
“Internet”.
 A large part of the internet is the World Wide Web (WWW).
 This is made up of websites that have one or more web pages. This is
the part of the internet that you probably use most of the time.

But the internet isn’t just a web page. It also includes other services
such as instant messaging, chat rooms, e-mail, file transfers, new groups,
peer-to-peer networks, and forums.

Early Internet Timeline

Mid 1960-Papers on “Packet Switching”
emerge.
End 1960s- ARPA sponsors the development of a packet-switching network
called the ARPANET. First four nodes of the ARPANET are University of
California, Los Angeles(UCLA), Stanford Research Institute (SRI),
University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)and University of Utah.
1974- Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf propose TCP/IP protocols and models
1980- IPv4 is introduced
1983- ARPANET adopts TCP/IP. At this time, the ARPANET has 200 routers.
1984- NSF funds a TCP/IP-based backbone network. This backbone grows into
the NSFNET, which becomes the successor of the ARPANET.
1995- NSF stops funding of NSFNET. The internet becomes completely
commercial.

Uses of the Internet

1. Communication
2. Shopping
 3. Leisure and Entertainment
Exploring the World
 The internet age opened up the doors and the windows to the world.

 Getting to places is as easy as a click of a button through online

booking.
 One can opt to be a digital traveler as well, going to and learning
about many places at the convenience of the computer screen.
 The internet offers many services and features that help you to
explore places, faces and experiences.

Benefits of the Internet

1. The internet is always available.
2. The internet offers a vast range of information.
3. The internet serves as a means to communicate with people.
4. The internet offers a wide access to learn about other cultures.
5. Information on the internet is readily updated.

Lesson II: Internet-Based Collaboration

Internet-Based Collaboration
 Refers to web, social, and software tools used by an organization
to facilitate communication and collaboration with customers for
increased sales and satisfaction via the internet in real time.
 Web collaboration can be used in an Internet (IP) environment or
integrated with an organizations’ existing telephone infrastructure
to provide automated customer assistance for a client’s web-based
inquiries.

Collaboration Tool
 Used to assist work groups to get things done better and simpler by
providing an avenue for several individuals to communicate
simultaneously using one platform.
 Before computers and the Internet existed, we have been using the
simplest collaborative tool available-PAPER.

Types of Internet-Based Collaboration Tools

1. Document sharing of file sharing

2. Work grouping
3. Web presenting
4. Co-browsing
5. Web conferencing
6. Video conferencing
7. Screen sharing
8. Instant messaging
9. Mind mapping
 Central concept – is linked via lines to other concepts which in
turn are linked with other associated ideas.

Collaborative Management (Coordination) Tools

 Collaborative management tools – facilitate and manage group

activities.

1. Electronic Calendars
 (Also called time management software).
2. Project Management Systems
 Schedule, tract, and chart the steps in a project as it is
being completed.
3. Workflow Systems
 Collaborative management of tasks and documents within a
knowledge-based business process.
 4. Knowledge Management Systems
 Collect, organize, manage, and share various forms of
information.
5. Enterprise Bookmarking
 Collaborative bookmarking engine to tag, organize, share, and
search enterprise data.
6. Prediction Markets
 A group of people predict together the outcome of future
events.
7. Extranet Systems
 (Also known as ‘project extranets’) collect, organize, manage,
and share information associated with the delivery of a
project
8. Social Software Systems
 Organize social relations of groups online to collaborate and
share structured data and information, which primarily
includes surveys, project management, feedback, and time
tracking.

Lesson III: WEB 2.0

 Is not a new version of the World Wide Web.

 It describes a new wave of web applications that followed the
dot.com bubble of 1997-2001 and began to appear around 2004.
 The applications allow the users to create and share information
and collaborate with others on the web
interactively.
 With the unique tools, anyone can create and publish their own
materials which could be linked to group of friends, colleagues, or
even to a worldwide audience
that never requires any special skills from the user.

Features of Web 2.0

 Users being able to change the web
content in some websites
 Keep in touch with friends
 Organize meetings
 Exchange news and photos
 Blogs
 E-portfolio
 Podcasts
 Social bookmarking
 Social networks
 Wikis
 Video sharing

Characteristics of WEB 2.0

 Rich user experience, user participation, dynamic content, metadata,
web standards, and scalability
 Openness, freedom, and collective intelligence by way of user
participation can also be viewed.

Key Features of WEB 2.0

1. Ease of finding information through keyword searching.
2. Links are guides to important pieces of information.
3. Authoring is the ability to create and constantly update content
that is co-created by users.
4. Tags are categorization of content by creating that are simple,
one word description to facilitate searching and avoid having fit
into rigid, pre-made categories. (Folksonomies - the collection
of tags created by many users within a single system.)
 5. Signals which uses of RRS (real simple syndication) technology to
create a subscription model which notifies users of any content
changes.

WEB 2.0 Tools and Services

 The social web is one of the important part of Web 2.0 which
consists of a number of online tools and platforms where people
share their perspective, opinions, thoughts and experiences.
 Web 2.0 applications tend to interact much more with the end
user.

WEB 2.0 Tools and Services

1. Podcasting
 “POD”-which is a mobile playback device that has an MP3 player
and “CASTING”-derived from the word broadcasting.
2. Blogging
3. Tagging
4. Curating
 Curators – services or people that implement content curation
5. Social Bookmarking
 Metadata “tags” or keywords
Are used so that the lists can be organized and shared across
the Internet.
 Social Bookmarking Systems
User can save links to websites that they want to remember or
share.
 Bookmarks – are arranged chronologically, by category or tags,
or via a search engine so that people can access them easily.
6. Social Networking
 “Social media”
7. Web Content Voting
8. E-Portfolios (Electronic Portfolio)
9. Wikis
 The word “WIKI” is derived from Hawaiian which means FAST.
10. Microblogging
 “Mobile social networking”
 is a form of blogging that limits the size of each message or
post to less than 200 characters, and publish them via web
browser-based services, e-mail, or mobile phones.

Lesson IV: WEB 3.0 An Intelligent Web

WEB 3.0
 Is the third generation of Internet-based services is referred to an
intelligent web or semantic web with technologies that promote common
data formats like big data, linked data, cloud computing, 3D
visualizations and augmented reality.

Idea behind WEB 3.0

 Is to analyze data and integrate and link them in order to have more
effective discovery, improve data management, support accessibility
of mobile internet, and simulate creativity
and innovation.

WEB 3.0 Expanded Definition

1. Ubiquitous Connectivity
 Broadband adoption
 Mobile Internet Access
 Mobile Devices

2. Network Computing
  Software-as-a-service business model
 Web services interoperability
 Distributed computing (P2P, grid computing, hosted “cloud computing”
server farms)

3. Open Technologies
 Open APIs and protocols
 Open data formats
 Open-source software platforms
 Open data (Creative Commons, Open Data License, etc.)

4. Open Identity
 Open Identity (OpenID)
 Open reputation
 Portable identity and personal data (for example, the ability to port
your user account and search history from one service to another)

Some Acronyms to note:

 RDF-Resource Description Framework
 OWL- Web Ontology Language
 SWRL- Semantic Web Rule Language
 SPARQL- (sparkle) is the standard query language and protocol for
Linked Open Data on web.

The Intelligent Web

 Semantic Web Technologies RDF, OWL, SWRL, SPARQL, Semantic
application platforms, and statement based data stores such as triple
stores, tuple stores and associative databases.
 Distributed databases- or “The World Wide Database” (wide-area
distributed database interoperability enabled by Semantic Web
Technologies)
 Intelligent Applications (natural language processing, machine
learning, machine reasoning, autonomous agents)

Characteristics of WEB 3.0

1. Intelligence
2. Personalization
3. Interoperability
4. Virtualization

Lesson V: Convergence of Technology

Convergence
 Means the union or emerging of two or more things to make a new
entity.
 The phenomena of group technologies which are developed for one use
but are being utilized in many different contexts.

Convergence Technology
 It refers to the interlinking of computing and other technologies such
as media, content, and communication networks that have risen as a
result of evolution and popularization of the internet, as well as
activities, products, and services in the digital space.
 May also be called technological convergence which can be defined as
the process by which exiting technologies merge into new forms that
bring together different types of media applications.

Three primary reasons of convergence and they can be described with the
following statements:
 The rapid advancement in the field of internet along with the
emergence of various products and services in the digital media space;
 The availability of carrier technology with high bandwidth; and
  The need for devices that will not only interact with media but are
capable to handle a large number of other formats.

Three CS of Technology Convergence

1. Computer Technology
 Is the design and construction of computers to better help people
at school, in business, and at home, etc.
 It correlates with Information technology and encompasses a
developing list of different software programs and devices.
2. Content Technology
 Multimedia content means the mixing of different media (text,
sound, video, etc.) on the same screen (computer, television,
etc.) in an /interactive mode.
3. Communication Technology
 The capability to operate, maintain, and upgrade communications
equipment from part of every technology convergence.
 Whenever a computer requires multimedia content from a remote
computer or a server, this information travels through computer
networks using one communication technology such as mobile and
internet-based communications.

Types of convergence
1. Digital Convergence
 Refers to the convergence of various types of data such as text,
voice, video and graphics into digital form.
 The ability to view the same multimedia content from different
types of devices.
2. Messaging Convergence
 Refers to the grouping of services that integrates SMS with
voice.
 This convergence is mainly helpful for call centers, media
companies, and broadcasters.
3. Media Convergence
 Is the concept in which old and new media intersect.
 It is basically the convergence of several media channels
through digitization.
 It brings 3C’s together (computing, communication and content).
4. Technology
 Smart phones, tablets, and the Internet made it a lot easier for
users to get access to media content.
5. Industry
 This refers in general, to the emerging of industry leaders and
players that opted to increase or diversify their interests in
the market.
 Mergers meant more products and services, bigger market, loads of
investments as well as returns.
6. Social Awareness
 The rise in popularity of social media sites also meant an
opportunity for wider coverage and market range through
mainstream net-based communication such as social media sites and
blogging platforms.
7. Content Convergence
 Is simply defined as the portability of content which means that
the content can be mixed and matched to fit new context.
 It provides an opportunity for individual consumers to interact
with others on social level and create a new experience with the
help of various media platforms.
Lesson VI: The Social Media
Social Media
 Is a term used to describe a variety of web-based platforms,
applications, and technologies that enable people to socially interact
 with one another, create, share, or exchange information, ideas, and
pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks online.
Seven Functional Building Blocks of Social Media
1. Identity
 This block represents the range to which users can know if other
users are accessible.
 It includes knowing where others are, in the virtual world and/or
in the real world, and weather they are available.
2. Conversation
 This block describes how users communicate with other users in a
social media setting.
 Many social media sites are designed primarily to facilitate
conversations among individuals and groups.
 Others see social media as a way of making their message heard
and positively impacting humanitarian causes, environmental
problems, economic issues, or political debates.
3. Sharing
 It is the block that defines the way users exchange, distribute,
and receive content.
 The term „social‟ often implies that exchanges between people are
crucial.
4. Presence
 This block represents the range to which users can know if other
users are accessible.
 It includes knowing where others are, in the virtual world and/or
in the real world, and weather they are available.
5. Relationship
 The block that shows how the users can be related to other users.
 Two or more users have some form of association that leads them
to converse, share objects of sociality, meet up, or simply just
list each other as a friend or a fan.
6. Reputation
 It characterizes the scope to which users can identify the
standing of others, including themselves, in a social media
setting.
7. Groups
 It is the block that shows the range on how users can form
communities and sub-communities.
 The more “social” a network becomes, the bigger the group of
friends, followers, and contacts.

Examples of Prominent Social Media

 Facebook
 Is a popular free social networking website that allows
registered users to create profile, share ideas, upload photos
and videos, send messages, and keep in touch with friends, family
and colleagues.
 Tweeter
 Is a free microblogging service that allows registered members to
broadcast short posts called tweets.
 Twitter members can broadcast tweets and follow other users‟
tweets by using multiple platforms and devices
 Google +
 Is Google’s social networking project, designed to replicate the
way people interact offline more closely than is the case in
other social networking services.
 The project’s slogan is “real-life sharing rethought for the
web.”
 LinkIn
 Is a social networking site designed specially for the business
community.
  The goal of the site is to allow registered members to establish
and document networks of people they know and trust
professionally
 Reddit
 Is a social news website and forum where stories are socially
curated and promoted by site members.
 The site is composed of hundreds of subcommunities, known as
“subreddits”- it has a specific topic such as technology,
politics or music.
 Reddit site members, known as, “redditors”, submit content which
is then voted upon by other members.
 Pinterest
 Is a social curation website for sharing and categorizing images
found online.
 Requires brief descriptions but the main focus of the site is
visual
 Clicking on an image will take you to the original source.

Social Media
 Refers to the combination of mobile devices and social media.
 This is a group of mobile marketing applications that allow the
creation and exchange of user generated content.
 Due to the fact that mobile social media run on mobile devices, they
differ from traditional social media by incorporating new factors such
as the current location of the user (location sensitivity) or the time
delay between sending and receiving messages (time sensitivity.
Four Types of Mobile Applications
 Space-timers (location and time sensitive)
 Exchange of messages with relevance for one specific location at
one specific point in time
 Space-locator (only location sensitive)
 Exchange of messages, with relevance for one specific location,
which are tagged to a certain place and read later by others
 Quick-timers (only time sensitive)
 Transfer of traditional social media applications to mobile
devices to increase immediacy
 Slow-timers (neither location, nor time sensitive)
 Transfer of traditional social media applications to mobile
devices
Lesson VII: Web-Based Information Systems and Platforms
Web-based Information Systems
 Is an information system that uses Internet web technologies to
deliver information and services to users or other information
systems/applications.
 It is an information system that can be accessed through the
World Wide Web.
 A web information system not only disseminates information, but
also proactively interacts with users and processes their
business tasks to accomplish their business goals.
 It usually supports work and is tightly integrated with other non
WISs (web-based information systems) such as databases and
transition processing systems.

Types of Web-Based Information Systems

1. Intranets
 Is a network based on TCP/IP protocols belonging to an
organization, usually a corporation, accessible only by the
organization’s members, employees, or others with authorization
and are used to share information.
 It looks like any other websites, but the firewall surrounding it
fends off unauthorized access.
 2. Web Presence Site
 Is an individual or business having an established existence in
the World Wide Web, through a website, email, advertising, blog,
or a collection of web files.
 It is considered as a marketing tool designed to reach consumers
outside the firm.
3. Electronic Commerce (e-commerce) systems
 Support consumer interactions that are usually related to buying
and selling of goods and services, or the transmitting of funds
or data over the electronic network, primarily the Internet.
 These business transactions occur either business-tobusiness,
business-toconsumer or vise versa.
4. Extranets
 Is a controlled private network that allows customers, partners,
vendors, suppliers, and other businesses to gain information,
typically about a specific company or educational institution,
and do so without granting access to the organization’s entire
network.

Lesson VIII: Online Safety, Security, Ethics, and Etiquette

Common Terms
 Online Safety - it is also called cyber safety or digital safety which
refers to practices and precautions one should observe when using the
Internet.
 Internet security - a very broad issue covering security in relation
to transactions made over the internet. It encompasses the security of
data entered through a web form, browser security, and overall
authentication and protection of data sent via Internet protocol
 Ethics - refers to a set of moral principles that govern an individual
or a group on what is considered as acceptable behavior while using a
computer.
 Netiquette - means acceptable rules for online behavior.
 Mobile learning - Learning by means of a hand-held device, such as a
mobile phone or a tablet. This can take place anytime and anywhere.
 Virtual classroom - may also be referred to as a digital classroom
where learning takes place over the internet and not in a physical
classroom
 Forum - a place on the Internet where users with common interact with
each other to find information and discuss topics.
 Keyword - a word or group of words that a person may use to search for
in a search engine.
 Search engines - search engines are software systems that people go to
the search for things on the Internet.
 Webinar - refers to a “web seminar”. A webinar is a seminar conducted
over the Internet making it possible to “virtually attend” through an
Internet connection.
 Wiki - a site written, controlled, and edited by the users themselves.
 Webpage - The webpage is the page seen by the user when browsing the
Internet. The webpage can be compared to a page in a magazine.
 Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) - these are the specific addresses of
the Internet pages and files.
 E-commerce - is a short for electronic commerce. The act of doing
business transactions (selling and buying) online.
 Downloading - is a term that generally applies to the transfer of data
from the Internet to the computer or mobile device.
 Firewall - is a broad term used to describe a protective barrier
against computer bugs or viruses.
Internet Threats
 Browsing hijacking - happens when malware or spyware replaces a web
user’s browser homepage that redirects the user to unwanted websites
while capturing sensitive private data for personal or business gain
  Identity theft - happens when a criminal impersonates a user by
stealing his or her personal information to withdraw money or pay
goods online.
 Malware – a malicious software that is intended to damage or disable
computer systems which has codes to collect information without one’s
knowledge. Viruses, Trojan Horse, worms, and the like are considered
as malwares.
 Pharming - is a technique which redirects a legitimate website’s
traffic to an illegitimate website to gain access to a user’s personal
information.
 Phishing - is an e-mail or instant message scam which looks like an
official message from a legitimate organization like a bank and credit
card company that asks about one’s personal information such as
passwords and credit card details.
 Phishers - (criminal who pretend to be a legitimate organization)
are responsible for this kind of cybercrime.
 Spam - is an irrelevant, inappropriate, unwanted, or junk e-mail that
comes from legitimate companies which, in the long run may be used for
phishing, scams, and malware
 Spyware - a software that enables user to obtain information about
another’s computer activities by transmitting data covertly to one’s
hard drive. Spyware are usually bundled with other software
 Trojan Horse - is a destructive program that pretends as a desirable
application that tricks the user to allow access to their computers
through downloads or e-mail attachments.
Tips of Staying Safe Online
1. Create a smart and strong password.
2. Use e-mail wisely.
3. Be smart when using instant messaging applications.
4. Watch out for phishing scams.
5. Make sure that your security software is running efficiently when you
are in gaming mode.
6. Use the privacy settings of social networking sites.
7. As much as possible, never post your complete identity information
such as cell phone number, home number, home address, and any
information that may be used against your will on any social
networking site
8. Shop safely.
9. Think carefully before posting a picture or a video of yourself.
10. When you see something worrisome or when you feel uncomfortable and
unsafe, leave the website immediately.
Netiquettes
1. Never use computers to bash other users.
2. Do not use computers and the Internet to steal other people’s personal
information.
3. Do not access files without the permission of the owner.
4. Always respect copyright laws and policies. Netiquettes
5. Respect the privacy of others.
6. Share expert knowledge.
7. Safeguard your user ID and password.
8. Complain about any illegal communication and activities to Internet
providers or local law enforcement unit.
Lesson IX: Contextualized Online Search and Research Skills
Search Engine
 A search engine is a software system designed to search the Internet
for documents related to the keyword or search word used or entered
into the system.
 Users are able to maximize the potential of search engines by learning
the proper searching protocols.
Types of Search Engines
 Directories
 Depend on human editors to create their listings or database.
 Two Types of Directories
 Academic and Professional Directories - which are often created
and maintained by subject experts to support the needs of
researchers.
 Commercial and Portal Directories - which are often created and
maintained by subject experts to support the needs of
researchers.
 Hybrid search engine
  Uses both crawler based searches and directory searches to
obtain their results.
 Meta search engine
 Transmit user supplied keywords simultaneously to several
individual search engines to carry out the search.
 In this type of search engine, duplicates can be eliminated and
clustering by subjects within search is implemented.
How to search the internet effectively
1. Use of keywords
 Determine which keyword works best, the recommended maximum is
six to eight carefully chosen words, preferably nouns and
objectives. 
 Avoid verbs and use modifiers only when they help to define your
object most precisely.
2. Use of phrases
 The most powerful keyword is a phrase, a combination of two or
more words that must be found in the documents being searched.
3. Capitalization
 When searching for proper names, use capital or uppercase to
narrow the search.
4. Boolean logic
 Is a powerful search to a reasonable number of results and
increase the chance of a useful outcome.
 The three most commonly used Boolean commands are AND, OR and
NOT. These are used to search for items containing both terms,
either term, or a team only if not accompanied by another term.
5. Wildcards and truncation
 This involves substituting symbols for certain letters of a word
so that the search engine will retrieve items with any letter in
the spot in the word.
 The syntax may allow symbol in the middle of a word (wildcard) or
only at the end of the word (truncation).