Can anyone give me an understandable definition of....

[shelleyd2008]

communication technology?? I understand that things like cell phones and email are types of communication technology, but how does this relate to things like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble? This is for an assignment I have in my Business Information Systems class. I've searched on Google and all through both texts that are given for the course, and I just can't find anything that makes sense. Help!!

 

[KBChicks]

The only thing that came to mind was books on tape....(I for one would love to get some ...cataracts make everything pretty blurry).

Hope that helped...

 

[FireTigeris]

E-books?

 

[bumpershoot]

I don't know about B&N, but Amazon has reviews of books written by folks. My husband is always writing reviews for technical computer books and SF.

 

[debilorrah]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_and_communication_technologies

 

[nonseq]

According to Wiki:

Communication is the process of generation, transmission, or reception of messages to oneself or another entity, usually via a mutually understood set of signs.

Technology is the usage and knowledge of tools, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization.

Information and communications technologies - The terms ICT should be read as "Information Technology and Communication Technology" literally to clarify its meaning which refers to the merging (convergence) of telephone networks with computer networks through a single cabling or link system. The term ICT has grown in usage out of huge economic incentives (huge cost saving due by eliminating the telephone network) to merge the telephone network with the computer network system. See VOIP. This in turn has spurred an industry to grow with organizations using the term ICT in their names to indicate their specialization in the process of merging the two network systems together.

So any tool, technique, craft, system or method of organization used to generate, transmit, or receive messages to oneself or another entity is "communication technology."

Cell phones
VOIP
computers - email, chat, message boards, etc.
telephones
etc.

 

[franklinstreetwest]

my vote is for e-books, amazon has the kindle and b&n i think just came out with one

 

[nonseq]

I think bumbershoot has it with the reviews. That's probably the best example of communication system on Amazon.

 

[welsummerchicks]

Amazon is a good example of communication technology, but it communicates in different directions. People go there to sell their own books and ebooks and music and to promote their books and ebooks...people write reviews there, people read the reviews and decide what to buy, people buy books and then people look at how many people buy a book before choosing if they will buy it or not...when you look at a book you also get to see 'people who bought this book also bought these books'...etc. There are a lot of interactions within a site like Amazon. It also has forums, communities...

There are interesting takes on how the internet affects people's behavior and thinking on www.npr.org that might give you some more ideas. People often do a google search and only read the first two or one things that pop up first on the search results. People might have very limited ideas if that's all they depend on and their buying and spending behavior might be very easily influenced by the internet.

I don't know exactly what they are after in your business class, if the emphasis is more on different ways that business takes place with the new information technology, I suspect that's really it.