Digital Commons Network^™

Chapter 02 History Of Information Technology, Shambhavi Roy, Clinton Daniel, Manish Agrawal

FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Textbook – English

How do you spend your free time? How do you communicate with friends? How do you complete schoolwork? How do you find information you need? How do you buy things you like? What are some of your most prized possessions? What do some of the business celebrities you admire do? On completing school, what are some of the popular high paying jobs in your town that you might be interested in doing? In the first half of the 21st century, Digital Information Technologies (DIT), or Information Technologies (IT) for short, are likely to be part of the answer for all …

Chapter 13 Computer Languages, Applications, And Emerging Technologies, Shambhavi Roy, Clinton Daniel, Manish Agrawal

FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Textbook – English

Computer languages are the rules for writing computer programs. Just as we need languages such as English to communicate ideas and information with each other, we need computer languages to tell computers what to do. Computer languages are popularly called programming languages. The important difference between human languages and computer languages originates from the human ability to handle ambiguity and fill context. For example, in most contexts people would understand the phrase “let’s meet tomorrow.” But computers would not be able to figure out who is meeting, the place of the meeting, the time of the meeting, any prior preparation …

Chapter 01 Digital Information Technology Course Introduction (Preface), Shambhavi Roy, Clinton Daniel, Manish Agrawal

FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Textbook – English

In today’s digital age, technology permeates every aspect of our lives. Understanding the fundamentals of information technology is increasingly critical for personal satisfaction and professional success. Whether you are a curious novice or an aspiring technology professional, this book is your gateway to unlocking the mysteries and endless possibilities of the world of computing.

This book aims to give someone with no background in information technology the essential working knowledge of computers while also offering a sweeping view of the more complex topics. Whether you aspire to build cutting-edge applications, do groundbreaking research, or simply want to gain a deeper …

Chapter 14 Database Applications, Shambhavi Roy, Clinton Daniel, Manish Agrawal

FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Textbook – English

Databases are structured collections of data that can be efficiently searched and manipulated by computers. Databases are the underlying information store powering our modern technology- driven world. These databases are like digital vaults where you can keep data safely, and authorized users can read or update the data as needed. While you may not yet know what databases are, they touch your life daily. Your student records, your score history in online video games, your checkout history at the library are all stored in databases somewhere. In all likelihood, your personal information, including your home address, your phone number, and …

Chapter 16 Cybersecurity, Shambhavi Roy, Clinton Daniel, Manish Agrawal

FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Textbook – English

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), founded in 1901, is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce and supports the U.S. mission to promote today’s innovations and industrial competitiveness. This mission is accomplished by advancing measurements and standards in science and technologies that enhance economic security and quality of life. NIST, defines cybersecurity as:

Prevention of damage to, protection of, and restoration of computers, electronic communicationssystems,electroniccommunicationsservices,wirecommunication, and electronic communication, including information contained therein, to ensure its availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and nonrepudiation.

At the core of cybersecurity is the motivation to protect information and the systems that manage …

Chapter 10 Introduction To Presentation Applications, Shambhavi Roy, Clinton Daniel, Manish Agrawal

FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Textbook – English

A presentation is an electronic document that conveys information to an audience. Robert Gaskins got the idea of software to create “slides of text and graphics in a graphical, WYSIWYG environment, then outputting them to 35-mm slides, overhead transparencies, or video displays and projectors... [t]he presentation would spring directly from the mind of the business user, without having to first transit through the corporate art department.” Before working on PowerPoint, as a student Gaskins had worked in the computer lab at Berkeley as a graphics consultant. Gaskins began working on the software, initially called Presenter, in July 1984, and continued …

Chapter 03 Careers In Information Technology, Shambhavi Roy, Clinton Daniel, Manish Agrawal

FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Textbook – English

Information technology now offers a range of attractive career options for workers with a wide variety of interests, skill levels, and career ambitions. See Figure 6. Some of these roles are highlighted in this chapter.

Chapter 17 Ethical Issues In Information Technology, Shambhavi Roy, Clinton Daniel, Manish Agrawal

FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Textbook – English

Ethics are a community’s shared beliefs about what is good for the individual and for society and the duties that people owe themselves and one another. The word “ethics” traces to the Greek word ήθος (ethos), which describes the guiding ideals of a community. Though some ethical principles may be codified as law, ethics are more commonly enforced by disapproval among members of the community. For example, not breaking a promise to a friend is a common ethical principle. It is not prohibited by the law; however, strong disapprovals ensure that friends do not break promises among each other.

Today, …

Chapter 06 File Management, Shambhavi Roy, Clinton Daniel, Manish Agrawal

FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Textbook – English

File management is about creating an organized structure to store information on your computer for easy retrieval and use. As more and more of our information becomes digital and ends up in our digital devices—e.g., school assignments on laptops, photos on smartphones, emails in the cloud—it becomes increasingly important to create an organized structure to store this information, so it is available when needed. After all, what is the point of taking that keepsake picture with a friend if you can’t find it later when you need it?

Think of file management as a small-scale/personal version of Google. Google’s vision …

Chapter 04 Researching And Using The Web, Shambhavi Roy, Clinton Daniel, Manish Agrawal

FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Textbook – English

Never in history have we had so much knowledge stored, organized, and ready to be consumed with the click of a mouse or the tap of a button. If we step back for a moment and think about what is available on the web, we will be amazed by the information close at hand, all thanks to computers and the Internet. You can find the score of any weekend football game, price of grain in Nebraska, weather in Antarctica, tide schedules in South Australia, and the outcome of an election in Britain by typing your question in any search engine. …

Chapter 18 Social Media, Shambhavi Roy, Clinton Daniel, Manish Agrawal

FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Textbook – English

At the turn of the century, we were still at the beginning of our journey into this always-on, always-connected world. We still wrote physical letters and sent birthday cards by mail. Phone calls were expensive and video calling was like science fiction. Google and Facebook didn’t exist. You couldn’t download video games on your mobile phone because you didn’t have access to an app store that sold software.

In contrast, just today you might have viewed TikTok videos, checked Instagram, sent a WhatsApp message, liked an author’s tweet, and chatted with your friends on Discord. All before starting your school …

Chapter 12 Introduction To Html And Website Development, Shambhavi Roy, Clinton Daniel, Manish Agrawal

FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Textbook – English

The Internet has been around since the early 1970s. In the early years, the Internet only supported plain text and using the Internet required users to learn the precise syntax of several computer commands. For example, to send an email to user jane@example.com required users to type the command: mail -s “mail subject” jane@example.com <<< “Mail body.” Most users found this too challenging and the only users on the early Internet were computer science researchers at universities.

This changed in 1989 when Sir Tim Berners Lee proposed and demonstrated an information management system in 1989 based on hyperlinks. Users could click on links to navigate to other pages. By 1993, Tim Berners Lee had specified the first version of HTML, which made information …