Digital Divide : Gap between those people who are able to make effective use of ICT, computers and the Internet and those who are not.
- Lack of access to the hardware/software
- Lack of necessary skills to use them
- Poor, racial minorities, less educated, rural
Effects of digital divide
Health services
Provide online services: details about medicines and common ailments + how to treat them
patients can book appointments, receive consultation by e-mail
+ order prescriptions
Can only be accessed by people with ICT facilities
May not be available
Cost
Lack of electricity supply
Remoteness
some hospitals can afford new technology and others cannot
Access patient records can be done by doctors at home
BUT if in rural area --> poor broadband connection
Employment opportunities
Most require understanding and skills in ICT
Candidates for jobs who do not possess these skills are unlikely to be employed
Schools and colleges have courses to teach ICT skills
Poor rural areas struggle to provide sufficient ICT resources
contributing to the digital divide
Nations
Global digital divide: Gap between countries who's economies make effective use of ICT, computers and Internet and those who do not.
Countries that have wide spread access to the Internet and, broadband can access world wide markets far more easily
very few supermarket websites cater for people with disabilities
hardcoded - data embedded within the program code - difficult to enlarge font
online banking
disability affects mobility
touch screen, voice recognition systems
amend account online
pay bills online rather than writing cheques +post letter
Online booking systems
easier than physically going to cinema/travel agent to book in advance
readily identify seating arrangements
customers can choose appropriate seat in appropriate position
Internet allows users to discover what is on offer
People with eyesight problems do not need to read travel brochures - can see same info on computer screen
can be zoomed (unless hardcoded)
Online health services
ability to contact, gain feedback
online consultation
saves time, expense of travelling to doctor's
mobility problems
Legal and Political Systems
Increased access to legal information - through Internet
Advice offered:
Family matters: divorce, provisions for children
Property: house conveyance
Legal contract
Liability
Taxes
Increased involvement in focus groups
Focus groups: Group of people gather together and discuss benefits and drawbacks of a product
Method in market research
Message board: form of Internet forum where members post messages for other users to see
Benefits:- members can be drawn from all over the world rather than from a narrow geographical area
Timings of meetings do not have to take into account the effects of travelling time and about of traffic
Meals do not have to be paid for
Poor weather condistions are no longer a factor in whether members will turn up
Disadvantages:- reduced interaction between members and moderator
Observers are no longer able to watch the reactions or general voice intonations
No face-t-face meeting
Increased influence with political representatives
Forums - websites used for holding discussions and allow postings
Weblogs (blogs) - Used by people to enable others to contribute to discussion
Wikis - website created for the purpose of any user who has access to it being able to edit it
Computer Fraud
Identity theft -copying of the details of a person for illegal use by another
Copying details of a credit card onto another card is a common method
Skimming - card that is swiped legitimately in a retail outlet is swiped again on another machine that reads all details from the card
can be transferred to a blank card
Phishing - customer is sent an email purporting to be from the bank asking for their account details and passwords
Pharming - genuine bank websites is redirected to a bogus website
Limit the ability of fraudster
use of firewall
anti-virus software
anti-spyware software
Antisocial Use of ICT
Hacking - Use of illegal methods to gain access to another user's computer
Virus - software program that can replicate itself over and over again on a hard disk
created to infect computers
usually attached to emails and instant messages
can also be downloaded through Internet
transfers from one computer to another and may modify or delete or corrupt files from a hard disk
Anti-virus software
contains a list of all known viruses and checks file extensions on all storage media in computer
deletes it
Problem: only works for viruses already known
uses rules similar to expert system
detects unusual behavior of computer system
Spyware - software put on a computer with malicious intent that allows people to access that computer and control its functions
Misuse of personal data
Deleting, amending, passing it on
Deleting personal data
logic bomb - delayed action piece of malicious code
when pre-defined date has been reached
when user fails to respond to a computer command
when user carries out a specific task
amending a file
Amending personal data
change details and resulting harm
distributing personal data
for financial gain
Method fo protect against loss/alteration of data
backup systems on completely different media
keep seperate from computer system
Spam - use of messaging systems to transfer messages in bulkto a main computer or device
carried out using email, instant messaging, blogs, mobile phones
copies of same message are transmitted in bulk
uses up memory capacity of the device
ISPs are most affected
but pwerless to prevent them
Spam filters - side effect: delete messages that are not spam
lots o spam - easy to create
companies that are prepared to sell CDs full of email addresses
Cyber bullying
use of Internet/messaging device to send messages to others to intimidate them
spreading rumors
personal data
Home Entertainment Systems
Home theatre systems
enables viewers to feel that they are watching a movie in a cinema or theatre
surround sound speakers - normally consists of 5 speakers placed around the room, allowing sound to come from the direction it appears on screen
Large, widescreen - to match the orientation of cinema screen
Clarity of pictures - produce sharper picture
Liquid crystal display (LCD)
Plasma TV
High definition source
HD optical disk such as blu-ray disk (blu-ray player needed)
Television
Satellite TV- transmitted via communication satellites
Transponder - device used for transmitting TV programmes
Attached to a communication satellite, receives signal from uplink satellite dish and transmits back to Earth to receiving satellite dishes
Signal gets amplified - Low noise blockdown (LNB) converter
Receiver acts as a decryption device
signal is encrypted
to decode/unscrabble, customer has to buy viewing card
Signal sent to satellite has to be compressed - encode signal
Free-to-air channels: viewer does not pay
Terrestrial TV -boardcast television
use of powerful aerials/antenna at broatcast centre
Broadcast centre --> Transmitter --> television aerial
Hills/mountains will prevent signal from reaching the destination
Internet TV
Increased Internet connection speed
decrease in connection costs
increased bandwidth
Television programmers
increased number of channels
better image quality (LCD and plasma)
Films (movies)
Channels that show only films, tend to have 'sister channels' (HDTV channels)
showing the same films but in HD format
Developments of blu-ray and DVD-RAM
Available to purchase on DVD
increase in quality
Music centres
Features:
FM tuner - capable of medium wave (MW) reception and some allow long wave (LW) reception
casette deck - may be becoming out of date
CD player - makes use of laser technology to convert digital data stored into electrical signals, which are then converted to sound
amplifier
speakers
universal serial bus (USB) port - allows a variety of devices to connect to computers or microprocessors so data can be receivedfrom or sent to the devices
memory stick
secure digital memory card - used to record digital audio broadcasts (DAB) radio programmes and used in digital cameras, handheld computers, GPS
MP3/Windows media audio (WMA) - formats of storing musical data in a comperssed form
reduce size of music filme and maintain sound quality
audio data diles are very large
normal compressed file is normally nearly 90% the size of the original and so not much benefit is derived
Interactive games console
Video-on-demand systems (VOD) - allows viewers to watch video over a network. The film is either constantly being transmitted over the network or downloaded in one go to a set-top box, allowing the viewer to watch it at their convenience
possible to pause, rewind and replay the film
projectors
Internet Auctions
allows people to put an item that they own up for sale
Digital Divide : Gap between those people who are able to make effective use of ICT, computers and the Internet and those who are not.
- Lack of access to the hardware/software
- Lack of necessary skills to use them
- Poor, racial minorities, less educated, rural
Effects of digital divide
Catering for disabilities
Legal and Political Systems
Computer Fraud
Antisocial Use of ICT
- Hacking - Use of illegal methods to gain access to another user's computer
- Virus - software program that can replicate itself over and over again on a hard disk
- created to infect computers
- usually attached to emails and instant messages
- can also be downloaded through Internet
- transfers from one computer to another and may modify or delete or corrupt files from a hard disk
- Anti-virus software
- contains a list of all known viruses and checks file extensions on all storage media in computer
- deletes it
- Problem: only works for viruses already known
- uses rules similar to expert system
- detects unusual behavior of computer system
- Spyware - software put on a computer with malicious intent that allows people to access that computer and control its functions
- Misuse of personal data
- Deleting, amending, passing it on
- Deleting personal data
- logic bomb - delayed action piece of malicious code
- when pre-defined date has been reached
- when user fails to respond to a computer command
- when user carries out a specific task
- amending a file
- Amending personal data
- change details and resulting harm
- distributing personal data
- for financial gain
- Method fo protect against loss/alteration of data
- backup systems on completely different media
- keep seperate from computer system
- Spam - use of messaging systems to transfer messages in bulkto a main computer or device
- carried out using email, instant messaging, blogs, mobile phones
- copies of same message are transmitted in bulk
- uses up memory capacity of the device
- ISPs are most affected
- but pwerless to prevent them
- Spam filters - side effect: delete messages that are not spam
- lots o spam - easy to create
- companies that are prepared to sell CDs full of email addresses
- Cyber bullying
- use of Internet/messaging device to send messages to others to intimidate them
- spreading rumors
- personal data
Home Entertainment SystemsInternet Auctions