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© OCR 2008 Exemplar Work Issued 2008 OCR Level 3 Nationals in ICT Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW

Unit 2 Candidate MW Exemplar Work - Discuss …social.ocr.org.uk/.../Unit_2_Candidate_MW_Exemplar_Work.pdf · 2010-09-14 · We discussed the pullout section of Technology Today

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© OCR 2008

Exemplar WorkIssued 2008

OCR Level 3 Nationals in ICT

Unit 2: Collaborative Working

Candidate MW

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 1

Task 1A Technology Today – Internet Special Edition We discussed the pullout section of Technology Today. We have agreed that it will be 4 A4 pages

and that each of us will be responsible for one of the pages, from the research, collection of images

and text and the actual writing of the article.

The first page will give an overview of what can be found inside – short articles where the reader

will need to look inside for more information or the rest of the article. It will have a small masthead

at the top and will also have a contents section, clearly indicating what will be found inside.

The second page will focus on the history of the Internet with articles about how it was created and

how it has grown. There will be some key facts and figures, along with a graph showing how it has

become more popular.

The third page will focus on the here and now, looking at Internet usage today. One article will

explain to the readers what the Internet consists of, ie that it is not just the WWW. In this section,

there will be an article comparing the UK with other countries around the world. There will also be

a short case study of how the life of one specific person (still to be decided) is affected by the

Internet.

The back page will look at what the future holds for the Internet. This will be done in two ways.

The first will be technology that has yet to reach the UK but is in use in other parts of the world.

The second will be a ‘utopian’ view of what the Internet might be like in 2050.

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

Task 1B

© OCR 2008 Task 1

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 1

Task 1C My Deadlines What is the Internet today?

• Research – 14th October

• Article written (first draft) – 18th October

International comparisons

• Research – 21st October

• Article written (first draft) – 26th October

Case study John Doe from BT

• Research – 31st October

• Article written (first draft) – 5th November

Facts and figures

• Research – 7th November

• Article written (first draft) – 9th November

Small cartoon

• Locate suitable cartoon – 11th November

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 1

Task 1D Success Criteria

1. 3 articles written, 1 set of appropriate facts and figures produced, 1 suitable cartoon located

2. Spell checked, grammar checked and proofread

3. Easily understood by a test user

4. Suitable amount of text and images to fill one A4 page of the pullout section

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 2

Task 2A Communication methods for collaborative working • Email list/group:

It is possible to create a distribution list for your email so that the same message (or message

with attachments) can be sent to a group of people. This is a good way to work when you

are working collaboratively with other people. Information can be easily passed between

the group for them to look at, discuss and amend.

This method doesn’t require specialist software. All email clients allow you to create

distribution lists, such as Microsoft Outlook.

• Internet forums:

I am a member of a number of Internet discussion forums, such as the discussion groups on

MSN. These are good places for collaborative working to take place. One of the forums I

belong to is related to computer games. If someone has a problem or a general question,

they can post it and normally somebody is able to reply with the answer or guidance. The

reply is often very quick because many people are members of the forum.

To use Internet forums, you normally need to register for one. This is usually free. You can

them take part in online discussions either by logging onto the forum to read messages and

post replies or you can configure it so that the information is emailed to you automatically.

• Instant messaging:

Instant messaging such as MSN Messenger or Yahoo Messenger can be used for

collaborative working. It is a good way to discuss things (as long as all the people are

logged on at the same time!). You can ‘chat’ with one or more people at the same time as

well as sending files for them to look at.

• Online whiteboard:

An online whiteboard allows you to share a file with other online users at the same time.

Videoconferencing software includes a tool that allows you to do this, as does some instant

messaging software like MSN Messenger. A file or document can be shown on the screens

of all the participants for them to see or edit.

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 2

Task 2B Methods to share information • Collaborative editing:

In Microsoft Word, you can turn on the track changes feature. This means that if you send a

file to another person and they edit the document, you are able to see what they have

changed and accept or reject their changes.

It is also possible to inert comments so that when the file is returned, they can be looked at –

they often contain suggestions about the content of the file.

• Electronic calendars:

Our email system is Microsoft Outlook. We use this to arrange meetings with other

members of the group. I can go to my calendar and schedule a meeting to discuss the

content of the pullout section. Before I save the appointment, I can invite the other people

that are needed. They get an automated message and if they ‘accept’ the meeting, it is added

to their diaries as well.

It is also possible to share diaries so that I can see the other members of my group’s diaries

to try and find free slots.

• Wikis:

If you have specialist software such as Clearspace, you can create a Wiki. This allows work

to be placed as a webpage that can be edited and updated by others. It is possible to have a

personal Wiki on just one machine but having it so that others can share and update the

information means that information can be easily shared.

The most well known public Wiki is Wikipedia.

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 3

Task 3A Search Engines Web crawlers: Examples of search engines that use web crawler technology include:

Google (http://www.google.com/)

AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com/)

Lycos (http://www.lycos.com/)

Ask.com (http://www.ask.com/)

A web crawler (or spider) is an automated piece of software that follows every link it finds. The

content of each page is then analysed to see if it should be indexed – keywords are identified from

titles, headings or meta-data included in the webpage.

A user then enters search criteria into the search engine (a query) and the engine looks at its index

and returns a list of pages which best match the query. Boolean operators (such as AND, OR and

NOT) can be used to further specify the search query.

When the Google spider looks at a webpage, it notes two things - the words within the page and

where the words are found. Words occurring in the title, in the subtitle and in meta-data are noted

for special consideration during a subsequent search. The Google spider was built to index every

significant word on a page, leaving out words like ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’.

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 3

Directories: Examples of search engines that use web directory technology include:

Yahoo! Directory (http://uk.dir.yahoo.com/)

Open Directory Project (http://www.dmoz.org/)

World Wide Web Virtual Library (http://vlib.org/)

JoeAnt (http://www.joeant.com/)

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 3

Web directories don’t display lists of webpages based on keywords; instead they list websites by

category. The categorisation is based on the whole website rather than by page or keyword. Most

directories limit listings to one or two categories.

There are many general directories, covering broad topics and categories as well as niche

directories, focussing on just one specific area such as shopping directories.

Directories are built up using many different methods: free submission (a user submits the URL of a

website for consideration), reciprocal link (a website is listed if they provide a reciprocal link back

to the directory from the site), paid submissions (a website pays to be included) and featured listings

(where a website is listed as part of a focus on a specific area/topic.

Human-edited directories are created and/or maintained by editors who add links to a particular part

of the directory. These are often edited by volunteers, many of whom are experts in the category

they edit. Some directories have started to adopt Wiki technology to allow further editing of entries

by the users of the site.

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 3

Task 3B Comparing Search Engines 1. Searching for the ‘history of the Internet’ Web crawler – 374,000,000 possible results

Web directory – 566 possible results

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 3

2. Searching for ‘Internet usage facts and figures’ Web crawler – 39,100,000 possible results

Web directory – 0 possible results

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 3

Task 3C Search Techniques 1. Keywords

The way that search engines (using web crawlers) store the details of webpages is based

primarily on keywords. Words such as ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’ are automatically ignored. Therefore,

instead of typing in search criteria such as “What is the history of the Internet” is not as efficient

as “Internet history”

Using the phrase “What is the history of the Internet” returns 660,000,000 possible results.

However, refining the search criteria to “Internet history” reduces this to 38,900,000 possible

results.

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 3

2. Quotes

If you want to search for an exact phrase, you can put speech marks around it. In this case, the

search engine will not search for keywords; instead it will search for an exact match.

Using the phrase “What is the history of the Internet”, actually in speech marks so that the exact

phrase is searched for, returns 856 possible results.

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 4

Task 4A Information required What is the Internet today?

I will need to find some information about what the Internet consists of today. I will need to

find out information about what the Internet is made up of, along with some idea as to its

popularity. I will need to locate at least one suitable image to use in this article.

International comparisons

I will look for some data comparing Internet use in the UK with countries across Europe and

the world. This will include some comparison of speed and cost. I will need a suitable

image to go with this.

Case study – John Doe (BT)

I will create a case study for a fictional employee of BT. I will needs to find suitable images

to accompany this article.

Facts and figures

I will find some facts and figures related to the Internet and, in particular, the WWW. I will

try and find a suitable graph to go with this.

Small cartoon

I will search for a suitable cartoon to use, related to the Internet.

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

Task 4B & 4C & 4E Sources used, suitability and reliability, copyright Internet sources:

© OCR 2008 Task 4

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

Non-Internet source: I copied a PowerPoint off the Intranet at school that is used as part of an eBusiness course.

It had in it information about the Internet today.

© OCR 2008 Task 4

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 4

Source Information Date Suitability Reliability Copyright

http://ei.cs.vt.edu/book/chap3/index.html About the Internet 11th October It contains all the information needed

It is from a university in the USA so it must be reliable

The copyright owner is Vonda Patterson

http://www.delib.co.uk/dblog/new-internet-usage-data UK Internet usage 11th October The copyright owner is Gez Smith

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm Graphs comparing Internet use

19th October It is suitable as it has statistics from all around the world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_internet_usage Information about language on the Internet

19th October Wikipedia can be edited by anyone so the data might not be true

http://www.electronichouse.com/images/uploads/home_network_04.jpg

Image of fibre optics

19th October

http://www.learningpartnership.org/resources/facts/technology Facts and figures relating to the Internet

6th November

http://www.broadwavestudios.com/internet-facts.html Facts and figures relating to the Internet

6th November

http://www.pioneer.net/~mchumor/internet_cartoon_7219.gif Cartoon for use in the pullout

11th November The copyright owner is T McCracken

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 4

Task 4F Bookmarks and references I have bookmarked useful web links:

I have also recorded non-Internet sources used:

Unit4 The Internet.ppt – from ‘student$ on bwfile02’ and created by Mr Dave Clarke

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 5

Task 5A Download and save graphics and text Internet source 1 (Text):

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 5

Internet source 2 (Graphic):

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 5

Internet source 3 (Graphic):

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 5

Non-Internet source:

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 5

Task 5B My page of the pullout section I have included a printout of the first draft of my page for the pullout section.

Most people assume that when they talk about the internet, they are talking about the World Wide Web. The WWW is actually just one part of what the internet is. Add email, file transfer, telnet access and newsgroups and you have a more realistic representation. The internet itself is simply a large network connecting many smaller networks. No one organisation owns it or controls it. It is only thanks to TCP/IP that the whole things works at all! Everyone is familiar with the part of the internet that is the WWW and email; but what about the other

parts? File transfer simply allows you to transfer files form one computer to another using FTP. Telnet allows a user to remotely login to another computer, possibly on the other side of the world. Newsgroups consist of a set of machines that exchange articles about many varied topics. They are primarily used by governments, universities and businesses although anyone can access them for free. So next time you say ‘internet’, try and be a little more specific in exactly what you are talking about!

The UK risks falling a long way behind unless more money is spent in upgrading key infrastructure ready for the future!

Asia currently leads the world in terms of the number of internet users (510m). Followed by Europe with 348m users. Currently English is the most used language on the Internet. It is likely that Chinese will overtake English before the end of the decade. The fastest speeds on the internet can be found in Japan and Sweden. This is due to a high level of investment in fibre optic technology.

Interesting facts and figures:

• The most visited sites on the WWW are Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN

• 17,000 new domains are added every day

• The top 5 countries for inter-net usage are USA, China, Japan, Germany and India

• The internet is the fastest growing communication tool

• Native English speakers make up over 35% of the online population

What is the internet today?

The internet around the world

to stay in contact with both colleagues and family at the click of a button.” “At lunch I can connect to the internet on my mobile phone to check my personal emails.” “When out of the office, I access my work email using my PDA. and I can Telnet into my office machine.” “I simply could not live without modern technology, all linked

together through the internet.” John Doe works in the high-tech Future Technologies Division of BT. Mark Willimott recently asked him to sum up his use of internet technol-ogy in an average day. “I use the WWW both at work and at home. At work, primarily for re-search or to send large files around the world in the matter of seconds. At home, I do the food shopping online—it saves so much time.” “Email is important in allowing me

John Doe from BT’s Future Technologies Division

Technology Today Page 3

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 5

Section 1: Using information from:

http://ei.cs.vt.edu/book/chap3/index.html and Unit4 The Internet.ppt – from ‘student$ on

bwfile02’

http://www.pioneer.net/~mchumor/internet_cartoon_7219.gif

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 5

Section 2:

http://www.w3c.de/PubPraes/w3c-tbl.jpg Section 3: Using information from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/jun/14/internetphonesbroadband.digitalmedia

http://www.learningpartnership.org/resources/facts/technology

http://www.broadwavestudios.com/internet-facts.html

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 5

Task 5C Accuracy checking

I also proofread my page and asked Penny and Zafir to proofread it as well.

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 5

Task 5D Bibliography Broadwave Studios (2008) – Recent Internet Facts and Statistics -

http://www.broadwavestudios.com/internet-facts.html - accessed 6/11

Clarke, D (2005) – Unit4 The Internet - student$ on bwfile02 – accessed 11/10

McCracken, T (2007) – Cartoons - http://www.pioneer.net/~mchumor/internet_cartoon_7219.gif -

accessed 11/11

Miniwatts Marketing Group (2008) – Internet World Stats -

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm - 19/10

Patterson, V (1996) – The Internet Today - http://ei.cs.vt.edu/book/chap3/index.html - 11/10

Women’s Learning Partnership (2007) – Technology Facts and Figures -

http://www.learningpartnership.org/resources/facts/technology - accessed 6/11

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 6

Task 6A Getting feedback

Here is a screenshot of the feedback I got from Zafir:

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 6

Task 6D Giving feedback

I gave Zafir a range of feedback:

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 6

Task 6E Finished product Page 1 – Zafir

Page 2 – Zara

Page 3 – Mark

Page 4 – Penny

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 6

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 6

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 6

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 6

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 7

Task 7A Review and evaluation of finished product When I was researching my part of the pullout section for Technology Today, I used Google and

Lycos. Both search engines were helpful and gave me lots of possible links to follow to find

information that I needed.

I think that the criteria I used were good. I tried to use keywords so as to narrow down the search

results and this helped me find key information quicker. Had I just typed in a phrase, I might have

ended up with lots of links that didn’t contain relevant information for my part of the group task.

From the search engines, I was able to find information from a range of different sources. Some of

the websites were academic organisations or renowned companies. This made me happier to use

information that I found. I did visit some websites that were put together by individuals but I

decided not to use them in the finished product as I didn’t think I could trust what was there.

It was much easier using Internet-based sources because there are so many of them and they are up-

to-date. I went to the library to try and find some information but it was very limited and out-of-

date. Most of the magazines I looked covered aspects of ICT that I did not need. Luckily, my

teacher directed me to the Intranet and a PowerPoint presentation that had work on it that I was able

to use in my part of the pullout section.

I think that the end product is suitable. It looks professional and contains a range of interesting

information. I think that we have used text and images well and made the pullout section look

interesting so that people will want to read it.

Unit 2: Collaborative Working Candidate MW – Exemplar Work

© OCR 2008 Task 7

Task 7B Review and evaluation the group work When we had done our individual parts, we emailed our work to each other to get some feedback

and guidance. I did this by emailing my work to the other members of my group for them to see. I

got two emails back with comments in. It would have been better if I had sent it to one person first

and then looked at their comments before sending to the second person. I could also have used the

track changes feature so that I could easily see where changes were suggested.

I think we worked well together. Everyone contributed ideas at the planning stage and we all gave

each other ideas and technical help when it was needed. Zara was away for a couple of lessons so

we had to help her catch up – it did mean that we all finished our parts before her but she worked

hard to get caught up.

I feel that I worked well. I would have rather worked with some of my friends on this product but

we generally got on well together. I have learnt some new skills from the rest of my team and I feel

that I added something to the group. I enjoyed the work and enjoyed working with Zafir, Zara and

Penny. I don’t think there is anything I could have done better to make the final product better.

Part of the ongoing series looking at the technology from its invention to future uses

When the Internet was first created, it was never intended to be used as it is today. Its sole purpose was as a military tool to allow for communication in the event of a nuclear war. Developed by the military for use by the military, who would have thought that it would play a major

part in the lives of so many people—email, the WWW, file transfer and so on. Without the Internet, all of these things would not be possible. We would have to return to using libraries for research; let-ters to send messages; the Royal Mail for transfer-ring files…

For more details about the history of the Internet, turn to page 2 and see how it all began!

Introduction: This is the next in the se-ries of pullout sections. This issue looks at the Internet—its history, its present state and what the future holds. This pullout should give you a broad understanding of the Internet and what it is.

The Internet crystal ball

The future always con-tains unknowns. How-ever, with the Internet, the near future can be predicted by looking at the far east. Many new technologies already exist in countries like Japan and have yet to

make it to the European markets. Of course, other develop-ments will occur over time making the future much more exciting for many people. Read more on page 4...

A brief history 2

Heroes of our time 2

So what is hypertext? 2

What is the Internet today?

3

John Doe—a case study

3

The Internet around the world

3

New technology on its way

4

The future in our hands

4

Will you get left behind?

4

Inside this issue:

The Internet—everyone’s friend?

Internet: Past, Present & Future

Past, Present & Future

March 2008 Technology Today Special Pullout Section

The here and now

In the UK, a large propor-tion of households have access to the Internet. The increase in the use of email for both business and personal use has made far away places seem much closer. Access to a wealth of infor-

mation at your finger tips 24/7 means that we are more aware of world events than our ancestors. Is this a good thing? Who can say. However, choice is good and we have more choice than ever before. See page 3 for more...

Page 2 Internet: Past, Present & Future

There is no clear date to indicate when the Internet was actually created. However, the first time one computer ‘talked’ to another was on October 26th 1969. The first email message was sent in 1971 by an engineer working for the Advanced Research Projects Agency, using the ARPANET. The ARPANET was created to allow the US military to communicate in the event of a nuclear attack by the Russians. By 1977, ARPANET had over 100 hosts connected to it; 10,000 in 1987;

60,000 in 1988 and 100,000 in 1989. The Internet was revolutionised though in 1990 when the WWW was invented. In 1991, the Internet was “released” to allow commercial traffic. One year later, there were over 1 million

However, hypertext is not only found on the Internet. It is possible to have a word-processed document that contains links to differ-ent parts of the docu-ment or even different documents or webpages. Without hypertext, the WWW would simply con-tain a set of pages with-out the ability of link

Hypertext, in its simplest form, is text that when clicked, is linked to other text. The most commonly used incarna-tion of hypertext is on the World Wide Web. Webpages contain links to other pages or other websites and this is done using hypertext. In fact, webpages are generally writ-ten using HTML (HyperText Markup Language).

them together.

A brief history

So what is hypertext?

computers. Such forethought led to the creation of the ARPANET, later becoming the Internet. The inventor of the WWW itself, the most-used

part of the Internet, was a British scientist called Tim Berners-Lee. He

was working at CERN in Switzer-land and suggested a system based on the concept of hypertext. He went on to create this system, re-sulting in what we now know as the WWW.

The development of the Internet and the WWW has resulted in a number of key figures, many of whom are relatively unknown. Do you know who first thought up the idea of the Internet? Who created the WWW? Well maybe now is the time to learn about them. John Licklider, an American working for the ARPA, wrote a paper describ-ing a globally–connected network of

Heroes of our time

hosts and 50 of them used HTML to form websites. 1993 saw huge progress with the launch of the first online shopping malls and Internet banking. Sadly, it also saw the introduction of SPAM. By 1997, it was even possible to access the Internet from a mobile phone. The new millennium was marked with over 1 billion webpages existing on the Internet and a range of damaging viruses. A long journey in a short time!

Most people assume that when they talk about the Internet, they are talking about the World Wide Web. The WWW is actually just one part of what the Internet is. Add email, file transfer, telnet access and newsgroups and you have a more realistic representation. The Internet itself is simply a large network connecting many smaller networks. No one organisation owns it or controls it. It is only thanks to TCP/IP that the whole things works at all! Everyone is familiar with the part of the Internet that is the WWW and email; but what about the other

parts? File transfer simply allows you to transfer files form one computer to another using FTP. Telnet allows a user to remotely login to another computer, possibly on the other side of the world. Newsgroups consist of a set of machines that exchange articles about many varied topics. They are primarily used by governments, universities and businesses although anyone can access them for free. So next time you say “Internet”, try and be a little more specific in exactly what you are talking about!

The UK risks falling a long way behind unless more money is spent in upgrading key infrastructure ready for the future!

Asia currently leads the world in terms of the number of Internet users (510m). Followed by Europe with 348m users. Currently English is the most used language on the Internet. It is likely that Chinese will overtake English before the end of the decade. The fastest speeds on the Internet can be found in Japan and Sweden. This is due to a high level of investment in fibre optic technology.

Interesting facts and figures: 1. The most visited sites on the

WWW are Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN

2. 17,000 new domains are added every day

3. The top 5 countries for Inter-net usage are USA, China, Japan, Germany and India

4. The Internet is the fastest growing communication tool

5. Native English speakers make up over 35% of the online population

What is the Internet today?

The Internet around the world

to stay in contact with both colleagues and family at the click of a button.” “At lunch I can connect to the Internet on my mobile phone to check my personal emails.” “When out of the office, I access my work email using my PDA. and I can Telnet into my office machine.” “I simply could not live without modern technology, all linked

together through the Internet.” John Doe works in the high-tech Future Technologies Division of BT. Mark Willimott recently asked him to sum up his use of Internet tech-nology in an average day. “I use the WWW both at work and at home. At work, primarily for re-search or to send large files around the world in the matter of seconds. At home, I do the food shopping online—it saves so much time.” “Email is important in allowing me

John Doe from BT’s Future Technologies Division

Technology Today Page 3

The future in our hands

New Technology on its way!

Japan has the highest number of broadband users in the world. They are currently working on new technology that will completely replace the Internet as we know it today. The u-Japan initiative is working to put microchips in every-day electrical appliances, all connected to-gether. They are hoping to create a society where everyone and everything are connected together. Anyone, anytime and anywhere will be able to benefit from this “network” without needed to physically connect to it! We can expect the same technologies to arrive before the end of the decade...

Part of the ongoing

series looking at the

technology from its

invention to future uses

Most people in the UK will not get left behind. Large numbers of the population already have access to and use the Internet on a daily or weekly basis. As the years go by, today’s young generation will become the pension-ers of tomorrow. They have, of course, grown up with computers and the Internet. It is second nature to them. This means that the real concerns

must lie with other countries that are not so well-equipped. As e-citizens we have a responsibil-ity to help those that are disadvan-taged across the work to have access to the same tools as us. The Internet is great and will be-come greater. Just remember the famous saying “Knowledge is power”. The Internet could provide a level playing field for all the world’s in-habitants.

Will you get left behind?

The Internet will continue to develop as long as we want it to. It keeps getting cheaper and faster and easier to access because that is what con-sumers want. To stay ahead of the game, the big Internet players are having to invest huge sums of money to meet de-mand. It is predicted that by 2020, most mobile networks will run at one GB/second. This is a huge increase on today’s fastest networks which oper-ate at a fraction of this.

Different devices will become inter-connected allowing users to run their lives on the move. Imagine being able to use your mo-bile phone text your heating system from the train to turn it on; to turn on the washing machine; to turn the oven on. This is isn’t too far fetched. Users of Sky+ have long been able to text their set-top box to record pro-grammes simply using their mobile phones! We are not far from this utopia now!