Essays

In 1851, Charles Babbage, the father of computers wrote, "it is not a bad definition to describe man as a tool making animal". He wouldn't have had the faintest idea of how prophetic his statement would become one day. Today, man has invented all sorts of machines, which a century ago would have been unimaginable.

IT is an initialism for Information Technology. IT Day, which involves the participation of many IT companies features eminent developments and future trends which are somehow connected to computers and information technology.

Information Technology (also known as Information and Communication (s) Technology (ICT) and Infocom, especially in Asia) is a broad subject concerned with technology and other aspects of managing and processing information, especially in large organizations.

In particular, IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and retrieve information. For that reason, computer professionals are often called IT specialists, and the division of a company or university that deals with software technology is often called the IT department. Other names for the latter are Information Services (IS) or Management Information Services (MIS), Managed Service Providers (MSP). In the United Kingdom education system, information technology was formally integrated into the school curriculum when the National Curriculum was revised. It was quickly realized that the subject covered was useful in all subjects. With the arrival of the Internet and the broadband connections to all schools, the application ' of IT knowledge, skills and understanding in all subjects became a reality. This change in emphasis has resulted in a change of name from Information Technology (IT) to Information and Communication Technology (ICT). ICT in Education can be understood as the application of digital equipment to all aspects of teaching and learning. It is present in almost all schools and is of growing influence.

The earliest problem of storing numbers can be traced back to the Egyptians. By 650 BC, they were using a system of hieroglyphics and cave-wall pictures to depict numbers. Later, pebbles and shells were used to keep track of the possessions. The Romans had devised a tally stick for the same. It was a simple wooden stick with a line down the centre and was used for business transactions. A notch was made on the stick to record each aspect of the business transaction. When the deal was completed, the stick was divided into two and each partner got his half. Around AD 1200, abacus was very much in use in China.

The 17th century saw the invention of John Napier's logarithms in 1617, Blaise Pascal's arithmetic machine and later with Samuel Moreland's small calculator began the unending development of machines and information storage and processing devices. Thirty years later, a German named Gottfried Von Leibnitz invented another calculating machine. Like Pascal's, this machine too used toothed wheels with the added advantage that it could multiply and divide besides adding and subtracting.

Today's information age began with the telegraph. It was the first instrument to transform information into electrical form and transmit it reliably over long distances. The original Morse telegraph did not use a key and sounder. Instead it was a device designed to print patterns at a distance. The transmitter, in front, had code slugs shaped in hills and valleys. These represented the more familiar dots and dashes of Morse code. These patterns were printed at a distance by the receiver. It recreated the hills and valleys as the arm was pulled back and forth by an electro-magnet, which was responding to the signals sent by the transmitter. Morse developed a key and sounder for his first commercial telegraph in 1844. Then came Graham Bell's great invention—the telephone.

This was just the beginning of an unending era of information technology—growing and connecting the world like never before. On the other hand, in 1823, Charles Babbage put together the first mechanical computer called the Difference Engine and later devised an Analytical Engine. The first commercially available adding machine was introduced by William Burroughs in 1892, which had two important innovations—it used a typewriter style keyboard for inputting numbers and for recording it used a compact-printing device. Later, gradually, we saw the development of Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENAIC), also known as the first generation of computers; transistors or the second generation of computers and later the third generation of computers known as Integrated Circuits. That was just the beginning as we see today, we have upto the fifth generation and more. The possibilities today are endless and infinite.

The revolution of computers triggered what we know today as Information Technology or IT. The invention of Internet, has converted the world into a small microchip and has squeezed the information of the entire world a click away. Today, information is the greatest instrument of power. It is no more money or petroleum or gas. The keyword to power today is information, which is worth a fortune. The importance of information can be gauged from the fact that information is now recognized as a right in most of the countries across the globe. Every citizen has the right to information and no one can deny this right to him.

IT has opened new vistas and discovered new horizons; today everything a person needs is a click of mouse away. Mobiles too are a handy instrument that one carries in one's pocket and has the world of information at his disposal with a single press of a button. He can receive, process, store and analyze information and data anywhere he wants. IT has transformed the world from being power-centred, polity-centred and economy-centred to information-centred. IT has brought about a revolution in every field of man's activity today. Look everywhere and one can catch a glimpse of these various wonders of IT, which have become indispensable for one's development and nation's progress.