Abstract
Information Technology is a very vital element in communication and information flow in the current society. Since it ensures communication between any two parties, there must be in existence some form of connection between them. Technology comes in to provide this vital connectivity and ensure flow of information. In this paper, we are going to show that with information technology, communication and information flow is made easy. Additionally, the cost of communication becomes drastically reduced with the use of various information technology gadgets. The very use of these technological gadgets eliminates the need of hiring more staff to enable communication and hence reduces the number of individuals that are to be held responsible during any form of communication. Lastly, this paper will show that with the use of IT infrastructure, communication becomes faster and hence information flow and delivery can become real time if need be again with minimal costs incurred.
Although, popular to many critics, there is no true substitute to being in the actual place with someone you wish to pass information to, especially in business related scenarios (Davis, 65). Information Technology has certainly enable real time meeting that are video enable for people that are separated by great distances.
Introduction
Information Technology (IT) can be defined as a combination of microelectronics-based telecommunications devices. The computing power it possesses helps in the processing, storage or dissemination of numerical, pictorial, textual and vocal information after it has been acquired as data. However, when the notion of hastening communication and flow of information comes in, then one cannot miss to mention information and communication technology which is famously abbreviated as ICT. ICT in real sense, although usually used as another synonym for information technology, can be defined as a collection of all the technical aspects that aid the communication process and helps handle information.
Communication and Information Flow before IT
Before the invention of computers, the process of communication was tiresome and long. Imagine if you were to write a business plan and post it to someone, it would require patience on your side. If you were to make an error in a certain strategic page, you had to redo the whole page and not forgetting that you had to make a first draft, rewrite it later and so forth till you had a document that you considered perfect to communicate your ideas across (Ahituvet al., 89). Once through, you had to go to the post office and post it and without any form of confirmation, you just had to have faith that it reached its intended recipient. Well, I think that we should be very thankful that we can just undo any typing mistakes and continue with typing only one draft. For those of us who have become online addicted, i.e. almost everything is done online from working to handling of your finances to shopping to finding a date and recently, there are online sites that offer online wedding, life is easy but try to consider just a few hours of the day when suddenly there was no internet connectivity. Well that would put life into a real hustle.
Major Roles of IT in Communication
One of the major roles that Information Technology has played is making work easier. Communication has been simplified right from the invention of telephone. With the invention of email systems, it became relatively easy to write and sent messages that were vital to provide some form of urgent written communication to various parties. Compared to the former procedure of having to write with your hand, deliver to a mailman who would have to deliver to the post office then the letter would get transported to another city or if it is outside the country be flow and maybe take days to reach the respective city (Sheth, 9). Later the letter would be delivered to the post office before a mailman can deliver to its final destination. Now imagine if this same letter was to reach 1000 more recipients, then I think the secretary would be calling it quits on that same day for being overworked.
This long process has been made easier with the email systems whereby with just a click of a button, your mail is sent of course if all respective variables are held constant e.g. the servers are working just fine. The issue duplication of the same message would be quite easy as the only effort need would be to import the mail addresses of all the intended recipients. This would ensure that this vital information is delivered to the many recipients without the need of having to physically re-write each letter separately.
With the ever increasing need of communication, immense costs can be incurred just to ensure that there is constant information flow. However with information technology, the cost of communication has drastically gone down since there are few people involved in keeping the system running and hence reduced costs. This ensures that everyone can stay in contact and vital information can be easily passed to many people. For example, should one need to pass urgent information to the people of a certain state, they need not to use loud speakers and posters on the notice boards. They could instead just use the television that is watched by many and pass-along that information. Alternatively, they could post this vital information on social mediums on the web like facebook and you will be amazed how fats people are going to get informed about it.
With such costs gone down, it certainly encourages people to communicate more and pass along that piece of vital information. Although the initial cost of installation might be high, in the long run, future costs of communication become low. In real sense no further coasts are experienced after installation of communication technology equipments (Venkatesh et al., 12).
Information technology does allow faster communication to take place. The use of internet protocol especially coupled with fiber optic connectivity can do wonders for you. It will even enable face to face conversation via video conferencing with an amazing clarity in voice and picture. Video streaming enable the transfer of videos from one person to another and viewing of those videos online.
In space explorations, information technology has been widely used to ensure faster delivery of pictures on far way planets back to the ground station on earth for analysis.
Further still, to ensure that communication is hastened, there need be a fast system of retrieval of this very information. With the use of Information Technology, there is no need of having to go through files of delivered letter to find the need one. You could just search the delivered mail and find the mail that you are looking fore. More over, IT ensures that should the information contain such elements as images, sounds, or videos are preserved. This will ensure that communication is passed from a source to destination without much effort in trying to restore the original information.
Faster means of communications are always being invented daily through the use of innovative technology. Such an example would be the launch of the Nokia 9000 in 1996 in Finland. This communicator enabled internet connectivity on it. Soon providers of the network developed systems to access the phone conveniently and allow flow of information from the internet to the phone. Later in 1999a Japan Company NTT DoCoMo launched an I-Mode: Internet services on the mobile. Sooner rather than later, email system that run on mobile phones were to be introduced and more crazier systems and gadgets have been invented to ensure seamless connectivity from the phone to the internet and this eliminates the need of a computer for one to access their emails (NSBA, 1). Therefore you can call and send emails on your phone. This is truly hastened faster communication
Conclusion
Information technology has truly enabled the bridging of the distance and making it to have very little effect when it comes to information flow. Thus communication is hastened to new levels that a few years ago would seem impossible. Technology has also enabled massive reproduction of information to be transmitted to various people at almost no cost at all. However, most importantly, information technology has enabled secure transmission of correspondence between individuals. Through the websites which owe their existence to the invention of internet, more people can be reached simultaneously at a faster rate. More people can be reached through the various social mediums with minimum costs.
Works Cited
Ahituv, Nathan et al. Principles of information systems for management. London: McGraw-Hill Professional, 1993.
Davis, Frank. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of Information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13.3 (1989): 23-35.
NSBA. Technology and the Workplace. 2010. Web.
Sheth, Johnson. Strategic Importance of Information Technology. New Jersey: Sheth, JN, 1994.
Venkatesh, virnash et al. User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified View. Information Management, 27.3 (2003): 12-14.