The Global Information Technology

Denmark is the most networked economy in the world, followed by Sweden and Switzerland, according to the last edition of The Global Information Technology Report. Among the top ten, the Republic of Korea (9) and, to a lesser extent, the United States (4) post the most notable improvements.Under the theme Fostering Innovation through Networked Readiness, this year’s Report places a particular focus on the role of networked readiness in spurring innovation.
Published for the seventh consecutive year with record coverage of 127 economies worldwide, the Report has become the world’s most comprehensive and authoritative international assessment of the impact of ICT on the development process and the competitiveness of nations.

Center for Information Technology (CIT)

The Center for Information Technology is a multidisciplinary laboratory operated by Stanford University in association with affiliated organizations from industry, government, and academia. The staff of the Center includes a core of full-time employees, together with faculty and students from Stanford and professionals from the affiliated organizations.
The central focus of the Center's activity is the development of advanced information technology -- computer technology appropriate to the encoding, storage, communication, manipulation, and use of information in digital form. Examples of this technology include digital libraries, electronic education, electronic commerce, computer-based patient records, and computer-based collaborative engineering.
In a departure from the tradition of many academic organizations, the work of the Center is vertically integrated, with a significant amount of effort devoted to

1. research on the principles underlying information technology,
2. development of practical technology based on this research, and
3. demonstrations and testbeds to illustrate this technology and assess its strength and limitations.

In order to ensure a steady flow of innovative ideas into the Center's development efforts, the Center conducts basic research on the following topics.

• Multimedia Technology
• Integration Technology
• Information Capture
• Human-Computer Interaction

Information Technology and Internet Issues

This part of the Privacy Commissioner's website looks at topical IT and Internet issues that may affect the privacy of individuals. Our aim is to promote awareness of these issues and to encourage public debate.
This Office has produced Guidelines for Federal and ACT government websites and Guidelines on workplace e-mail, web browsing and privacy available from the left hand menu. General information has been produced by this Office on how to protect your privacy on the Internet and tools available for doing so. Please check our left hand menu.
The development of information technology and the Internet has dramatically increased the quantity of information available in digital form. This has resulted in a proliferation of uses of personal information. Some of these have major implications for the privacy of individuals.
The inherent limitations of paper-based systems provide a certain level of privacy protection. The migration of records of personal information to IT systems has made possible a far greater range of uses of personal information and has made it easy to transfer information. The Internet makes it easy to solicit and collect information.

Principles of information security

The purpose of information security is to protect the information resources of the university from unauthorized access or damage. The underlying principles followed to achieve this objective are:

• Information Protection, Back-Up and Recovery - Institutional information resources, including systems, workstations, and data and record classifications, identified by this policy, shall be operated in a manner that reasonably minimizes the threat of internal or external compromises to the security, confidentiality or integrity of university information. Information custodians and users are expected to safeguard such information in compliance with legal obligations and administrative policies and procedures, including confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements.
• Support of Academic Pursuits and Business/Administrative Functions - The information resources of the university, including the network, the hardware, the software, the facilities, the infrastructure, hard-copy documents and any other such resources, must be available to support the teaching, learning, research and administrative roles for which they are created. The requirement to safeguard information resources should balance the need to meet regulatory guidelines, legal requirements, and audit criteria with the support of these critical university functions.
• Information Integrity - Information stewards should employ appropriate authentication and verification measures so that the information, used in the pursuit of teaching, learning, research and administration, can be trusted to be accurate.
• Information Use - The use of Restricted Information for identification, authentication, or any other purpose should be eliminated whenever possible. Historical records containing Restricted Information shall be appropriately maintained and destroyed in accordance with legal and regulatory standards, and the principles set forth in this policy.

Japanese Use of Information Technology and Internet

Some of the important data offered by this survey shows that 79.48 millions of Japanese use Internet and the Internet penetration rate in Japan is currently 62.3%. This is an increase of 32 million of users and 25.2% penetration rate since Japan's last survey in 2000. The survey also confirms that by the end of 2004, 62% of Japanese used broadband technology; 20.4% used dial-up system; and 18.4% used the ISDN system.

Regarding the use of PC and mobile phones in Japan, the survey reported that 65.1% of Japanese are satisfied with Japan's PC services but only 20.5% declared alike satisfaction for mobile services in Japan. Japanese considered that information gathering, shopping; communications; and financial services online have improved since 2000; whereas health services, administration, and labor services presented little progress.

Japanese search for information in the following level of preference, internet, TV, magazine/books, and newspapers according. The impact of internet in people's life in Japan is great. Japanese reported that the use of Internet decreased their time for reading books/ magazines, sleeping, watching TV, and personally seeing family members. Yet, internet and phone communication with family members increased by the use of these new technologies. Japanese said they now gather more information on the Internet and buy less books, magazines, video games, and music CDs.

Uses of information technology in the real estate brokerage industry.

It is now possible for someone working at their computer to tour a property and its surrounding neighborhood and/or get approved for a loan without using a real estate broker or banker directly. With this kind of service available on the Information Superhighway a commonly asked question has become, "Who needs real estate agents if anyone can access property information online?’’ A group clearly interested in the answer is the residential and commercial real estate brokerage industry. Indeed, the dramatic increase in technology in the last 15 years has been geometric in scope and real estate professionals who ignore these megatrends do so at their own peril.
The purpose of this study was two-fold. First, the study involved determining what types of technology are currently being used in the real estate brokerage industry. Identifying and summarizing how the real estate brokerage industry currently uses and plans to use technology in its businesses is a matter of interest not only to the industry, but their trade groups, and to government agencies related to the real estate brokerage industry as well. Second, previous research has suggested that there may exist a "size effect" in the real estate brokerage industry, although the results are mixed. This study will determine if there exists a size effect as it relates to the current and future use of technology.

Technology Overview

We stand alone in our focus on developing the "perfect search engine," defined by co-founder Larry Page as something that, "understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want." To that end, we have persistently pursued innovation and refused to accept the limitations of existing models. As a result, we developed our serving infrastructure and breakthrough PageRank™ technology that changed the way searches are conducted.
From the beginning, our developers recognized that providing the fastest, most accurate results required a new kind of server setup. Whereas most search engines ran off a handful of large servers that often slowed under peak loads, ours employed linked PCs to quickly find each query's answer. The innovation paid off in faster response times, greater scalability and lower costs. It's an idea that others have since copied, while we have continued to refine our back-end technology to make it even more efficient.

• PageRank Technology: PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.
  PageRank also considers the importance of each page that casts a vote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value, thus giving the linked page greater value. We have always taken a pragmatic approach to help improve search quality and create useful products, and our technology uses the collective intelligence of the web to determine a page's importance.
• Hypertext-Matching Analysis: Our search engine also analyzes page content. However, instead of simply scanning for page-based text (which can be manipulated by site publishers through meta-tags), our technology analyzes the full content of a page and factors in fonts, subdivisions and the precise location of each word. We also analyze the content of neighboring web pages to ensure the results returned are the most relevant to a user's query.

Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources

This acceptable use policy governs the use of computers and networks by all persons at Central Oregon Community College (COCC). As a user of these resources, you are responsible for reading and understanding this document. If you have questions, please contact Information Technology Services .Central Oregon Community College encourages the use and application of information technologies to support the research, instruction, and public service mission of the institution. COCC computers and networks provide access to resources on and off campus, as well as the ability to communicate with other users worldwide. Such open access is a privilege and requires that individual users act responsibly. Users must respect the rights of other users, respect the integrity of systems and related physical resources, and observe all relevant laws, regulations, and contractual obligations.
Term and Conditions of use:

• The primary purpose of electronic systems and communications resources is for College-related activities.
• Users do not own accounts on College computers, but are granted the privilege of exclusive use. Users may not share their accounts with others, and must keep account passwords confidential.
• Each account granted on a COCC system is the responsibility of the individual who applies for the account. Groups seeking accounts must select an individual with responsibility for group accounts.
• COCC cannot guarantee that messages or files are private or secure.COCC may monitor and record usage to enforce its policies and may use information gained in this way in disciplinary and criminal proceedings.
• Users must adhere strictly to software licensing agreements and copyright laws.
• When accessing remote systems from COCC systems, users are responsible for obeying the policies set forth herein as well as the policies of other organizations.
• Any violation of this policy or local, state, or federal laws may be referred to appropriate COCC offices and/or, as appropriate, law enforcement authorities.
• Misuses of COCC computing, networking, or information resources may result in the immediate loss of computing and/or network access, and may lead to further disciplinary action as well.

Inappropriate Use of Information and Communication Technology.

Users of information and communication technology may enjoy relatively unencumbered use of these services but in return they have an obligation to act responsibly and respect the rights of others. An obvious requirement is to obey the laws of Canada and Ontario, and to abide by the policies and codes of the University. These provisions deal with issues such as harassment, threatening behaviour, hate crimes, libel and defamation, discrimination, theft, fraud and plagiarism, whether ICT is involved or not. Particular facilities and services may impose additional conditions on their users. Some specific examples of inappropriate use that might arise from the violation of laws or University policies are set out below. The list is not exhaustive.

Why use Instructional Technology?

• Students can be actively engaged in learning, leading to greater time on task and greater depth of knowledge
• Student learning can emphasize continuous improvement of a piece of work, a concept sometimes called "D.I.A.T." or Doing It Again Thoughtfully (Steven Ehrmann, final report of Project Flashlight)
• Students can work more collaboratively with one another
• Students can be given more practice with feedback
• Students can examine their existing conceptions and update or modify
• Learning materials can be provided to match the learning style of the learner
• Self-paced learning may be possible, with study and practice until the student reaches his/her "personal best"
• Classroom dialogue can extend beyond the time and space constraints of class time
• Students can learn by working on complex, open-ended, realistic (or real-world) tasks
• Faculty can restructure their role, using individual and peer-group work or technology for some purposes, thereby freeing time to make their unique contribution to student learning
• Perhaps most importantly, faculty find rethinking their teaching an energizing and regenerative experience!

What are the disadvantage of information technology?

Some of the disadvantages of information technology.

• Unemployment - While information technology may have streamlined the business process it has also crated job redundancies, downsizing and outsourcing. This means that a lot of lower and middle level jobs have been done away with causing more people to become unemployed.
• Privacy - Though information technology may have made communication quicker, easier and more convenient, it has also bought along privacy issues. From cell phone signal interceptions to email hacking, people are now worried about their once private information becoming public knowledge.
• Lack of job security - Industry experts believe that the internet has made job security a big issue as since technology keeps on changing with each day. This means that one has to be in a constant learning mode, if he or she wishes for their job to be secure.
• Dominant culture - While information technology may have made the world a global village, it has also contributed to one culture dominating another weaker one. For example it is now argued that US influences how most young teenagers all over the world now act, dress and behave. Languages too have become overshadowed, with English becoming the primary mode of communication for business and everything else.

What are the advantage of information technology?

Some of the advantages of information technology include:

• Globalization - IT has not only brought the world closer together, but it has allowed the world's economy to become a single interdependent system. This means that we can not only share information quickly and efficiently, but we can also bring down barriers of linguistic and geographic boundaries. The world has developed into a global village due to the help of information technology allowing countries like Chile and Japan who are not only separated by distance but also by language to shares ideas and information with each other.
• Communication - With the help of information technology, communication has also become cheaper, quicker, and more efficient. We can now communicate with anyone around the globe by simply text messaging them or sending them an email for an almost instantaneous response. The internet has also opened up face to face direct communication from different parts of the world thanks to the helps of video conferencing.
• Cost effectiveness - Information technology has helped to computerize the business process thus streamlining businesses to make them extremely cost effective money making machines. This in turn increases productivity which ultimately gives rise to profits that means better pay and less strenuous working conditions.
• Bridging the cultural gap - Information technology has helped to bridge the cultural gap by helping people from different cultures to communicate with one another, and allow for the exchange of views and ideas, thus increasing awareness and reducing prejudice.
• More time - IT has made it possible for businesses to be open 24 x7 all over the globe. This means that a business can be open anytime anywhere, making purchases from different countries easier and more convenient. It also means that you can have your goods delivered right to your doorstep with having to move a single muscle.
• Creation of new jobs - Probably the best advantage of information technology is the creation of new and interesting jobs. Computer programmers, Systems analyzers, Hardware and Software developers and Web designers are just some of the many new employment opportunities created with the help of IT.

Information and Information Technology (I&IT) in the Ontario Public Service.

Whether it's applying for a birth certificate online, registering a new business or renewing a driver's licence at a Service Ontario kiosk, the Ontario Public Service is known for its innovative work in Information and Information Technology (I&IT). We have won many awards for our work to improve government accessibility and service delivery through technology, and we are seen as leaders in the field. But that's not all. I&IT is integral to how government works on the inside. From researching new and exciting applications to establishing a new infrastructure service, I&IT helps the government get things done.
As an I&IT Intern with the Ontario Internship Program (OIP) you will have the opportunity to be part of the technological transformation taking place across government. You will get hands-on experience working on real challenges both individually and in project teams. Creating new IT infrastructure, assessing system and business requirements and developing common services and applications are just a few of the interesting projects where former I&IT Interns have had the opportunity to produce results. The OPS is a unique place to work not just in terms of the vast scope of I&IT work being done, but because of the flexibility and mobility you have to advance your career with a single employer.