RE: [DDN] information society terminology - e vs i ICT vs IC

2005-05-11 Thread Barbara COMBES
Hi DDN listers,

In The Information Science world the 'e' merely denotes delivery
method/format. Everything is information. By the way, we are
puiblkishing more in print than ever before. So much for computers
heralding a paperless society!
:)
BC


@ Your Library

Barbara Combes, Lecturer
School of Computer and Information Science
Edith Cowan University, Perth Western Australia
Ph: (08) 9370 6072
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-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of yslee2
Sent: Tuesday, 10 May 2005 10:18 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [DDN] information society terminology - e vs i  ICT vs IC

Hello DDN members.. 


I've been lurking for a while and thought I would post a message myself.


I am curious about members' thoughts on various terms we use when we
discuss 'information society'. 


First, I would like to focus on the e vs i  issue.  (electronic vs
information)


We have been using terms such as e-govt, e-business, e-commerce, 
e-education/learning, e-health, etc for about 10 years now. 

My feeling is that this is not an accurate description and 
a better alternative would be to use 'i' instead of 'e'. 
(i-govt, i-business, i-commerce, i-education/learning, i-health, etc)

Information society is not simply about 'electronification'.
It is about 'informatization', which involves 'electronification' plus 
changing work processes (e.g. BPR : Business Process Re-engineering). 

Using 'government' as example :  

We can use the term 'i-government' as a short term for   
'informatized government' or 'informatization of government'. 

or if the term 'informatization' is not comfortable, 

We can still use 'i-government' as a short term for 
'ICT based government' 



It's interesting that in the WSIS declaration and action plan, the term
'ICT Applications' is used. 

But WSIS declaration and action also uses terms 'e-government,
e-business, e-health, etc'

This is somewhat inconsistent. 

On the other hand, the ITU uses the term 'e-applications'. 



Perhaps we can unify these terms so that we have : 

i-applications : to describe applications in general
i-government, i-business, etc : to describe sectoral applications



The WSIS also urges national governments to develop national
'e-strategies' by 2008. 
Perhaps a better term might be 'information strategies' or 'information
society strategies' or
'i-strategies'. 



Second,  I would like to mention ICT vs IC  
(information  communications technology vs information 
communications)

Here, I prefer the term 'information  communications'. 

The term ICT is often used as it seems easier to grasp considering that
without technology,
the 'current' information society would not be possible. 

Still, 'technology' itself is not the core of information society,
'information' is. 
(There are many issues such as 'information privacy' which is not just
about
online information privacy, but is also about offline information
privacy as well)

Technology is something which plays supporting role in all sectors such
as 
finance, industry, environment, transportation, health, etc. 

Yet, we don't say finance technology policy, envrionement technology
policy, etc. 

We simply say finance policy, environment policy etc. 

The same logic should apply to information  communications. 

It's interesting that during WSIS-1, in the initial non-paper on 
WSIS declaration prepared by the President of Prepcom,
the title read 'Information  Communications for All'.
(which was later changed to 
'Building the Information Society : a global challenge in the new
Millennium'.)

It didn't say 'Information  Communications Technology for All'. 

On a side note, I thought 'Information  Communications for All' was
much better than the 
'Building the Information Society : a global challenge in the new
Millennium', 
as the latter seems to depict information society as something we pass
through in the
course of history rather than a permanent fixture among human activities
such as 
health, economic, transportation, politics, social, education, etc. 
(e.g. Humans have always conducted 'transportation' activities, even
though 
we didn't have 'transportation policy' till later stages of human
history.   
Same can be said for information  communications.  
Humans have always conducted 'information  communications' activities, 
even though we didn't have 'information  communications policy' in the
modern sense till recently)

It's interesting that in some countries, there is Ministry

[DDN] information society terminology - e vs i ICT vs IC

2005-05-09 Thread yslee2
Hello DDN members.. 


I've been lurking for a while and thought I would post a message myself. 

I am curious about members' thoughts on various terms we use when 
we discuss 'information society'. 


First, I would like to focus on the e vs i  issue.  (electronic vs 
information)


We have been using terms such as e-govt, e-business, e-commerce, 
e-education/learning, e-health, etc for about 10 years now. 

My feeling is that this is not an accurate description and 
a better alternative would be to use 'i' instead of 'e'. 
(i-govt, i-business, i-commerce, i-education/learning, i-health, etc)

Information society is not simply about 'electronification'.
It is about 'informatization', which involves 'electronification' plus 
changing work processes (e.g. BPR : Business Process Re-engineering). 

Using 'government' as example :  

We can use the term 'i-government' as a short term for   
'informatized government' or 'informatization of government'. 

or if the term 'informatization' is not comfortable, 

We can still use 'i-government' as a short term for 
'ICT based government' 



It's interesting that in the WSIS declaration and action plan, the term
'ICT Applications' is used. 

But WSIS declaration and action also uses terms 'e-government, e-business, 
e-health, etc'

This is somewhat inconsistent. 

On the other hand, the ITU uses the term 'e-applications'. 



Perhaps we can unify these terms so that we have : 

i-applications : to describe applications in general
i-government, i-business, etc : to describe sectoral applications



The WSIS also urges national governments to develop national 'e-strategies' by 
2008. 
Perhaps a better term might be 'information strategies' or 'information society 
strategies' or
'i-strategies'. 



Second,  I would like to mention ICT vs IC  
(information  communications technology vs information  communications)

Here, I prefer the term 'information  communications'. 

The term ICT is often used as it seems easier to grasp considering that without 
technology,
the 'current' information society would not be possible. 

Still, 'technology' itself is not the core of information society, 
'information' is. 
(There are many issues such as 'information privacy' which is not just about
online information privacy, but is also about offline information privacy as 
well)

Technology is something which plays supporting role in all sectors such as 
finance, industry, environment, transportation, health, etc. 

Yet, we don't say finance technology policy, envrionement technology policy, 
etc. 

We simply say finance policy, environment policy etc. 

The same logic should apply to information  communications. 

It's interesting that during WSIS-1, in the initial non-paper on 
WSIS declaration prepared by the President of Prepcom,
the title read 'Information  Communications for All'.
(which was later changed to 
'Building the Information Society : a global challenge in the new Millennium'.)

It didn't say 'Information  Communications Technology for All'. 

On a side note, I thought 'Information  Communications for All' was much 
better than the 
'Building the Information Society : a global challenge in the new Millennium', 
as the latter seems to depict information society as something we pass through 
in the
course of history rather than a permanent fixture among human activities such 
as 
health, economic, transportation, politics, social, education, etc. 
(e.g. Humans have always conducted 'transportation' activities, even though 
we didn't have 'transportation policy' till later stages of human history.   
Same can be said for information  communications.  
Humans have always conducted 'information  communications' activities, 
even though we didn't have 'information  communications policy' in the modern 
sense till recently)

It's interesting that in some countries, there is Ministry of Information  
Communications, 
in others, there is Ministry of Information  Communications Technology. 
(The EU on the other hand, uses the term 'information society' for the name of 
the Directorate General)


In addition to 'e vs i' and 'ict vs ic', there are other terminology issues 
such as 
'information vs digital', 'telecommunications vs communications', 
'information  communications vs ICT vs information society vs information 
economy vs digital economy' ,
etc, but perhaps we can discuss that some other time. 


Hope this is some food for thought.


Sincerely, 

YS Lee
National Computerization Agency
Republic of Korea
www.nca.or.kr



(our Agency's name is a bit interesting too...
we are working to come up with a better name ...   ^*)
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