[Back to Lecture Notes page]
Today's society is moving more and more towards being based on information. The significant major political, economical, and social decisions cannot be made without having the information required from many different sources, some from far away in terms of physical distance. All developed nations (including Australia) recognises this, and have national plans in information and communication technology (ICT) to take full advantage of this global shift.
In this unit, we will focus on the technical aspects of efficient communicating information using computer networks. We will also discuss some implications of these technical matters on organisation and on individuals.
In this unit, we study machines which are interconnected, which means they can communicate through software and hardware. They can be connected via copper wire, fiber optics, microwave link, statelites, etc. We also require that the machines be autonomous, which means that we exclude set-ups such as a mainframe with multiple dumb terminals hooked up to it, or a computer with remote printers and other devices.
resource sharing
Make data, programs and equipment available to everyone regardless of where they are physically.
reliability - by having alternatives
Having duplicate machines to do the processing in case one or more machine goes down, or having files mirrored on different servers so we don't depend on one machine for those files.
saving money
Better price for performance. Mainframes which are only about ten times the power of a personal computer, cost about a thousand times more. Better to get cheaper machines and network them.
scalability - ability to grow and shrink the computer set-up
Easier to add a machine or device to a network than to add components to a mainframe.
Banks, online digital libraries (in place of printed newpapers & magazines)
Email, videoconferencing
Audio (music, radio, etc) and Video (movies, events, etc) on demand
Censorship
Since computer networks breaks national boundaries, and have it's own way of distributing data, conventional laws (such as those for pornographic and politically incorrect materials) do not cover the online forms of publications. We have to consider the appropriate delivery of these materials to the appropriate receivers.
Privacy
Since all data are now potentially accessible electronically, we have to consider what sensitive and confidential information should be protected, and how security should bne set-up to give that protection. An example is the web surfing habits of a user, which technically web sites around the world has the power to detect. Should that information be made public? Another example is whether an employer should be able to access all employee's emails, when those emails are meant for work.
Identity
We now have power to obscure our identity when doing things, through services such as anonymous email. We also have the power to change identities by logging onto chat rooms and multi-user dungeons (MUDs). Such virtual existence changes the way we interact socially.
Responsibilities and rights
We are still in the process of formulating laws governing the behaviour of users across computer networks (eg. what they can say, do, send, receive, etc). Also we have to consider what responsibilities we have to provide for the disabled, remote and underpriviledged communities, people with different languages, etc. All of them have the right to the same information currently available on networks.
[Back to Lecture Notes page]