Evolution of Communication Systems

• Information Technology revolutionized the generation and distribution of information
• This session covers the evolution of communications from oral tradition to writing, publishing, and telecommunications

Session Objectives

• Be able to trace the development of communication systems for transmission of information
• Be able to explain how differences in information transfer through various communication systems have affected the use of information in society
• Be able to explain the importance of standardization in information communication and transmission

Session Outline

• Topic 1: ICT and the Information Field
• Topic 2: The first ICT Revolution: Writing
• Topic 3: Information Storage
• Topic 4: The Second ICT Revolution: Movement of Messages

ICT and the Information Field Processes

• Digital technology is not the start of the ICT revolution
• Human voice dates back 30,000 years as an instrument to exchange of information
• ICT and the information field entail four processes:
• Information creation and capture
• Information transmission
• Information storage
• Management and control information flow

Information Creation and Capture

• Memorization
• Writing
• Photography
• Audio Recording
• Digitization

Information Transmission

• CDs, Books, Letters, Broadcasts
• Carrier Pigeons
• In one's head
• Post Office
• Broadcast over the airways: Satellite, Radio, Television
• Through Cable
• Telephone, Telegraphy, Internet
• Voice
• Signal Ties
• Flags
• Electrical and Optical Signals
• Human Language

Information Storage

• Information storage depends on the urgency to retrieve stored information and the information's initial packaging
• Storage went from pigeon holes to book shelves

Management and Control Information Flow

• Informatics involves creating systems to facilitate management and control of information flow
• Informatics includes the study, design, and development of information technology that generates, stores, processes, and presents information

The First ICT Revolution: Writing

• Information is managed through sharing, taking two steps
• First step: Transfer information from one medium to another
• This involves Oral tradition and writing
• Oral tradition includes storytelling, recounting national & ethnic epics, and theatre
• Second step: Writing captures ideas in a permanent way, this constitutes the first information technology revolution

Cave Paintings

• Paleolithic paintings are the first known recorded information and date back to 30,000-32,000 BC
• Cave paintings include representations of animals and nude Venus figures
• Paintings are found in caves at Chauvret-Pont-d'arc, Lascaux, Grotte Cosquer, elsewhere in Europe, South America, and Australia
• These paintings may be magic spells, prayers, documentation of hunts, efforts to communicate to then contemporaries, gods, or descendants
• Cave paintings are static, unsharable over space, and non-portable
• Cave paintings symbolized religions' architecture, especially medieval cathedrals

Formal Writing Systems

• Cuneiform dates back to 3,500 BCE and was developed by Sumerians

• Cuneiform is wedge-shaped writing used for financial records/inventories

• Cuneiform was complex with more than 2000 symbols that were reduced by more than half

• Hieroglyphics date back to about 3,000 BCE, developed by Egyptians, also called 'Writing of the Gods'

• Hieroglyphics contains three symbols: pictographs (representations of objects), ideographs (representation of ideas), and an alphabet (representing phonetic)

• Summerian writing preserved complex records, mythology, Gilgamesh epics and the Code of Hammurabi (1795-1750 BCE)

• Egyptian Writing preserved the History of Egypt and the Egyptian Book of the Dead (1240 BCE)

• Chinese writing dates back to 1,200 BCE

• Oracle Bone Inscriptions date back to 1899

• Bronze Inscriptions date back to 1,000 BCE

• Shi Huangdi standardized Chinese script in 221 BCE

Information Storage introduction

• Information storage and writing are intertwined
• The Sumerian clay tablets discovered by Archeologists (Casson, 2001) were the first organized library
• The library at Alexandria was also important

The Ptolemaic Dynasty

• It went through restoration by UNESCO

• The Dynasty underwent Library metamorphosis

• This lead to a changed perception of the role of libraries

• Further change in the form of the book

• From Clay tablet

• To Scroll

• To Codex

• To Digital

• Books could be Handwritten, brush written, pen written, or Ink-jet printed

• The information age has new book formats, the hard disk, and hand held book readers books

The Second ICT Revolution: Movement of Messages

• Speeding up signals involves drums (sound waves), smoke (light waves), signal ties, light houses, semaphore, and flags
• Problems with Human Movement of Messages
• Transmission of signals over short distances, difficulties in sending complex messages accurately, and it is a time consuming process

19th C Improvements in Movement of Messages

• At the beginning of the 19th century there were No paved roads, railways, telephones, or electric utilities.

• Goods, services and people used Horse power on land, wind power on water, and walking

• Steam locomotive by George Stephenson 1814

• Photography by Joseph Nicephore Nepceans Louis Jacques MandeDagueerre 1820s

• First typewriter by W.A.Bust 1829

• Braille printing by Louis Braille 1829

• Telegraph invented by Samuel Morse 1837

• Morse code by Samuel Morse 1838

• Bicycles introduced by Kirk Patrick Macmillan 1839

• Mid 19th century saw the first prepaid postage stamp used in England 1840

• Fax machine by Alexander Bain 1843

• First commercial telegraph line established between Baltimore, Maryland and Washington DC 1844

• Fiber optic by John Tyndall 1845

• Later part of 19th century saw the first telephone by Alexander Graham Bell 1876

• Fountain pen by Lewis Edson Waterman 1884

• Radar discovered by Heinrich Hertz 1887

• Internal combustion engine (diesel engine) by Rudolf Diesel 1892

• Radio by Guglielmo Marceni 1895 range of 100 metres

20th Century Innovations in Movement of Messages

• First airship launched by Count Ferdinand Vonzeppehin 1900
• Aeroplane by the Wright brothers 1903
• Radio voice transmission by Lee De Forest 1906
• Coler photography by Auguste and Louis Lumieze 1907
• gyrocompass for aircraft navigation by Elmer A. Sperry 1908
• Talking motion pictures by Thomas Edison 1910
• First electrical ignition system for the auto mobile industry by Charles Franklin Kettering 1912
• Carthoderary pulse from urlid television developed by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin 1929
• Mechanical television which preceded television as we know it now by John Logie Baird 1929
• First broadcast of a television programme made by BBC 1930
• Car radio by Paul Gavin 1929
• Fm radio by Edwin Howard Armstrong 1933
• First photocopier by Chester F. Cavlson 1937
• Ballpoint pen by Ladislo Biro 1938
• First software controlled computer by John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry 1942
• Cellular phone first conceived in 1947
• Video tape recorder (VTR) by Charles Guisburg 1951
• Modem in 1958
• Audio cassette in 1962
• Video disc in 1963
• ARPANET in late 1960s
• Internet in 1980s
• WWW in 1991
• VCR introduced in 1970
• Microprocessor in 1971
• Ink-jet and laser printer in mid 1970s
• MS-DOS and IBM-PC in 1981
• CDs n CD players in 1982
• DVD players first marketed in 1996
• First mp3 players came in 1998

Lecture Summary

• Covers the evolution of communication systems that range from oral tradition to writing, publishing, and telecommunications