SOCIETAL IMPACTS OF I.T.

(Information

Technology)

Rohan Verma IX- A

Information technology (IT) is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunicati ons.

IT is the area of managing technology and spans wide variety of areas that include but are not limited to things such as processes, computer software, information systems, computer hardware, programming languages, and data constructs .

In short, anything that renders data, information or perceived knowledge in any visual format whatsoever, via any multimedia distribution mechanism, is considered part of the domain space known as Information Technology (IT). IT professionals perform a variety of functions (IT Disciplines/Competencies) that ranges from installing applications to designing

A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well as management and administration of entire systems. The Worldwide IT services revenue totaled $763 billion in 2009. When Was The Term IT Coined ?

The term in its modern sense first appeared in a 1958 article published in the Harvard Business Review, in which authors Leavitt and Whisler commented that "the new technology does not yet have a single

Poised to become a US$ 225 billion industry by 2020, the Indian information technology (IT) industry has played a key role in putting India on the global map. The IT-BPO sector has become one of the most significant growth catalysts for the Indian economy. In addition to fuelling Indias economy, this industry is also positively influencing the lives of its people through an active direct and indirect contribution to various socioeconomic parameters such as employment, standard of living and diversity.

IT- Raking in the moolah

1. TCS

2. Infosys

3. HCL

4. Wipro

The industry has played a significant role in transforming Indias image from a slow moving bureaucratic economy to a land of innovative entrepreneurs and a global player in providing world class technology solutions and business services, according to National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM).

Infosys Media Centre in Electronic City, Bangalore.

Cont.

The Indian Information Technology industry accounts for a 5.19% of the country's GDP and export earnings as of 2009, while providing employment to a significant number of its tertiary sector workforce .
More than 2.5 million people are employed in the sector either directly or indirectly, making it one of the biggest job creators in India and a mainstay of the national economy.

Computers and Information Technology are widely used in the railway system and railway industry. Some examples are: Tracking, scheduling, monitoring and reporting railway traffic. Design of railway track systems and railway vehicles. Managing Railway construction projects. Pricing and ticketing.
In

Administration ,Such As

Accounting

and financial controls. Statutory records and reports . Financial reports and taxation requirements. Letter writing, staff records, payroll.

recording

and tracking movement of goods, pricing, invoicing. Accident and incident records and statistical analysis. Customer relations: Analysis of customer questionnaires etc. Daily operations: monitoring lines and enabling control of signals and track-switching. 1. We can use information technology to increase productivity in our home or business. Programs such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint can be used to create word documents, spreadsheets and presentations. 2. Use information technology as a means to communicate. For example: e-mail, instant messaging .

Information Technology In Daily Life

3. Use information technology to learn

4.

5.

6.

new information. Example: internet. Use information technology in your automobile by installing a GPS (Global Positioning System) device. Use information technology in your automobile by installing a GPS (Global Positioning System) device. The GPS device can also help track your automobile if you should ever become the victim of auto theft.

A GPS device

IMPORTANCE OF IT
access to variety of learning resources

immediacy to information anytime learning anywhere learning collaborative learning multimedia approach to education authentic and up to date information access to online libraries teaching of different subjects made interesting educational data storage distance education Importance Of IT A Pie access to the source of information Chart multiple communication channels-e-mail, chat, forum, blogs, etc. access to open courseware better accesses to children with disabilities reduces time on many routine tasks

Appreciating

the Benefits

Entertainment-games-DVDs,

etc. World Wide Web and the Internet Business data E-mail and e-commerce Digital libraries Automobiles/trucks/hybrid cars, ABS brake sensors, night vision drivers Crime fighting-crime reports, records, analysis, database fingerprints,etc. Tools for disabled

With the increased use of computers in our daily lives, all this has affected our lives both in the home and at work, in numerous ways .At one side, computers have created many new careers, while at other side many ethical and others issues have cropped up.

Ethical
a) b)

issues

c) d) e)

f) g)

Plagiarism Individuals Right To Privacy Intellectual Property Rights Accuracy Of information Security And Integrity Of Information Hacking And Piracy Careers In IT

The

and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work is known as plagiarism. Let us try to understand plagiarism with the help of an example: Rahul (a student) just found some good stuff on the web for his science report about sharks. He copies it and pastes it into his report. He quickly changes the font so it matches the rest of the report and continues his research. He just made a big mistake . He committed plagiarism. It's not allowed in school, college, or beyond, so it's a good idea to learn the proper way to use resources, such as websites, books, and magazines.

unauthorized use or close imitation of the language

What should have Rahul done? He should have written down the name of the website and the name of the person who wrote the article. Then he could have added it and given credit to the source
We commit plagiarism when we :
copy

another persons idea, opinion, or theory; copy any facts, statistics, graphs, drawingsany pieces of informationthat are not common knowledge; copy quotations of another persons actual spoken or written words; or turn in someone else's work as your own copy words or ideas from someone else without giving credit change words but copy the sentence structure of a source without giving credit

Paraphrase

Never use someone else's words substituting synonyms is also not an option. Don't use their sentence structure either. Write everything in your own words as you understand it. The best way to do this is to go through the required reading material and then put it all away when you start writing. Refer to it only after you are done to check if you have got all the facts right. Quotation Marks If you need to use what someone else has written or said in your writing, write their exact words and put them in quotation marks. If you are omitting certain sections, put '......' in between words to indicate this. If you are incorporating a word or words so that the sentence makes reading sense, put those words in square brackets .

Cite

Sources You can either write 'According to Professor soand-so....' or 'Professor so-and-so states that....' or you can provide links to websites you have referred to or you can list the sources after your article or do all of the above. Manage your time If you have to meet a deadline, start work early. So you have plenty of time to research and write. Lack of time is one reason many people especially stressed-out students intentionally or unintentionally plagiarize.

Privacy

is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively.

When something is private to a person, it usually means there is something within them that is considered inherently special or personally sensitive. Almost all countries have laws which in some way limit privacy.

Privacy is the right to be let alone. A citizen has a right to safeguard the privacy of his own, his family, marriage, procreation, motherhood, childbearing & education among other matters . None can invade/interfere concerning the above matters without his consent whether truthful or otherwise & whether laudatory or critical .If he does so, he would be violating the right of the person concerned & would be liable in an action for damages.

The

Internet has brought new concerns about privacy in an age where computers can permanently store records of everything :where every online photo, status update, Twitter post and blog entry by and about us can be stored forever . This currently has an effect on employment. Microsoft reports that 75 percent of U.S. recruiters and humanresource professionals now do online research about candidates, often using information provided by search engines, social-networking sites, photo/video-sharing sites, personal web sites and blogs, and Twitter. They also report that 70 percent of U.S. recruiters have rejected candidates based on internet information.

The

ability to do online inquiries about individuals has expanded dramatically over the last decade. People set up accounts for Facebook; enter bank and credit card information to various websites. Facebook, as of July 2010, was the largest social-networking site, with nearly 500 million members, or 22 percent of all Internet users, who upload over 25 billion pieces of content each month. People set up accounts for Facebook; enter bank and credit card information to various websites. This leads to violation of privacy and identity thefts .

c)

Intellectual Property Rights

What

is Intellectual Property? Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.

An American provider of IP management solutions, created a program called "Digital Watermark on the internet. Digital Watermark allows copyright owners to track distribution, access and payment of its material thus, violating intellectual property rights.

IP is divided into 2 categories: 1) Industrial property, which includes inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of source. 2) Copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels, poems and plays, films, musical works, artistic works such as drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs. Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programs.

Although civil remedies that may provide compensation to wronged intellectual property rights holders are available, criminal sanctions are often warranted to ensure sufficient punishment and deterrence of wrongful activity.

d)

Accuracy of Information

The

worlds largest online encyclopedia is Wikipedia. Unlike most encyclopedias, anyone can contribute to this one. There in lies its success and its failure. The open nature has resulted in a trove of useful information, especially in the science and technology areas. But on controversial topics, Wikipedia articles sometimes descend into a free-for-all, and the information may be biased or inaccurate.

The

information on the internet is not always reliable. We should always use our common sense before believing anything that is on the internet. It is a very good source of knowledge provided it is correct. There have been several instances in which famous online educational sites such as Wikipedia have provided wrong information about people and other things leading to misinterpretations among mass audiences.

Lack of accuracy in the information provided by the internet can also lead to loss of a sense of the reality of people and things.

e)

Security And Integrity Of Information

What is meant by the term, Security of Information ?

Information

security means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, perusal, inspection, recording or destruction.

Information Security Components: or qualities, i.e., Confidentiality , Integrity and Availability (C IA). Information Systems are decomposed in three main portions, hardware, software and communications

Information

of protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information; however, there are some subtle differences between them. For the individual, information security has a significant effect on privacy, which is viewed very differently in different cultures. For example: If a laptop computer containing sensitive information about a company's employees is stolen or sold, it could result in a breach of confidentiality.

security has the goals of protecting

oConfidentiality

is the term used to prevent the disclosure of information to unauthorized individuals or systems. For example, a credit card transaction on the Internet requires the credit card number to be transmitted from the buyer to the merchant and from the merchant to a transaction processing network.

Definition of Integrity Integrity: Protection of the information from unauthorized access or revision, to ensure that the information is not compromised through corruption or falsification. Integrity is violated when a message is actively modified in transit. A Word To The Organizations On Information Security Organizations must manage information security effectively as they share data across the enterprise, as well as with their partners and customers. This includes enabling secure business collaboration with controls that protect intellectual property and ensure the privacy of information without slowing down business processes.

f)

Hacking And Piracy

A hacker is a person who breaks into computers and computer networks for profit, in protest, or because they are motivated by the challenge. This whole activity of breaking into another computer networks is known as hacking. It is a cyber crime and whoever commits it is severely punished. A recent example of hacking is the PlayStation Network Outage which lasted for 22 days.

Computer

hacking always involves some degree of infringement on the privacy of others or damage to computer-based property such as files, web pages or software. The impact of computer hacking varies from simply being simply invasive and annoying to illegal. If individuals can successfully enter computers via a network, they may be able to impersonate an individual with high level security clearance access to files, modifying or deleting them or introducing computer viruses or Trojan horses.

1)

2)

Whoever with the intent to cause or knowing that he is likely to cause wrongful loss or damage to the public or any person, destroys or deletes or alters any information residing in a computer resource or diminishes its value or utility or affects it injuriously by any means, commits hacking. Whoever commits hacking shall be punished with imprisonment up to three years, or with fine which may extend up to two lakh rupees, or with both.

What is computer piracy ? Computer piracy is reproduction, distribution and use of software without permission of the owner of copyright. It is the duplicating a software without the authority of the creator of the software. This has been a heavy crime since the beginning of the internet age. Piracy is illegal and punishable by fines or jail time.

Large scale production houses lose billions of money each year because of piracy. It may take a company years to make a software but it just takes seconds to copy that software and distribute it illegally on the internet.

Why do people buy pirated things ?

The main reason for this is because pirated things are much cheaper than the original. For example if a original movie dvd costs Rs. 300, its pirated version would cost no more than Rs. 50.

An unskippable antipiracy film included on movie DVDs equates copyright infringement with theft.

The

personal computer (PC) has become a necessity for today's successful small business operations. Unfortunately many computer users make illegal copies of computer software. This theft is a violation of federal copyright law.

1. 2.

3.

4.

selling of computer facilities with illegally installed software; replication and distribution of software copies on information carriers without permission of the copyright owner; illegal distribution of software through communication networks (Internet, email, etc.); illegal use of software by the user.

e)
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Careers In IT

7.
8. 9. 10.

Information System Managers Office Machine Repairers Video Game Development Computer Engineer Computer Systems Specialist Military Cryptanalyst: Cryptanalysts analyze and decipher secret coding systems and decode messages Hardware and Software Developer Software Engineer Software Programmer Software Tester