RE: [Telecentres] Basic Telecentre Items/ICT Definition

[Elizabeth Carll, PhD]

Don, Ashish, Andy, and all,   I think you raise some very interesting questions as to the implied definition of ICTs.  In the various WSIS documents, both acronyms of ICT and ICTs are used for information AND communication technologies.  I tend to use ICTs with an "s" and am not as concerned with technical correctness but with the (redundant) implication that there are various forms including traditional technology.  Similar to my redundant use of Media/ICT for the WG to which I had previously referred.   Don,  the generalization of the definition of ICT as is your experience, is in contrast to my experience that technical people of all types associate ICTs with computers and the Internet.  I was having this discussion with a colleague who had worked for IBM for 30+ years writing programs since 1960's and now is retired.  She was adamant that ICTs were all about computers and the Internet and broadening this definition to include traditional (I didn't realize that I was broadening it, as I always viewed it as inclusive) was encroaching on an established specialty area.  This was from someone who had been involved with ICT before the Internet.     Perhaps there are also regional differences as to how ICTs are defined as to the inclusion of traditional technologies and the above may be more peculiar to the US.   Although this would appear to be a very interesting phenomenon in a country that is considered one of the most saturated of both traditional and newer technologies.   Elizabeth -----Original Message----- From: Don Cameron [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2004 3:57 AM To: 'Elizabeth Carll, PhD'; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [Telecentres] Basic Telecentre Items/ICT Definition >> in the hopes of informing the public as well as techies/specialists who may only associate ICTs with the Internet and computers (snip)   Elizabeth we are certainly in agreement on the nature of ICT’s however in my experience it is more the masses, the media, politicians, academics of non-technical disciplines and other non technical people who tend to associate ICT’s solely with computers and the Internet. Most technically trained people are well aware of the silent ‘&’ in ICT’s as well as the grammatical inappropriateness of adding ‘s’ to an already inflected plural noun (technology) - yet we use the acronym nonetheless. The exceptions in technical professions are usually promoters of advanced ICT who tend to discount any benefits of older yet more adaptable and economical technology (the ‘essential nature’ of broadband deployment as a case in point).   Your comments certainly beg a question… how appropriate is this acronym of ICT’s? – We are not dealing with Information Communications Technologies (ICT’s), we are dealing with Information And Communications Technology (I&CT). Perhaps there would be less confusion about the true nature of I&CT were we to promote the use of an accurate descriptor.   (I think it is acceptable to use ‘&’ instead of ‘A‘ in this day and age however acknowledge that some may prefer the acronym IACT as in RADAR where the word ‘And’ warrants an ‘A’ to be included).    Rgds, Don

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