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Communications and Information Systems (C&I

Systems)
Common terms
Search engine
A search engine is a computer program which helps you find the information you want on the
Internet. Search engines continually trawl the net for new websites cataloguing them into an
index. Some commonly used search engines are Google, HotBot, AltaVista and Dog Pile, but
there are many others.

Chat
Chat functions allow users to talk to friends or join in discussions online. ISPs usually provide
links to chat rooms. Chat is much cheaper than using a phone to talk.

Newsgroup
Newsgroups are areas on the net where you can get in touch with people sharing the same
interests or find out about a particular subject. Newsgroups are named according to their subject
and users can post messages and read other people's answers. Links to newsgroups can be found
via your ISP or browser software

HTML
Hypertext Markup Language - language used to design a web page.

Home page
Most sites have a page that links the user to the other main areas of the site. This is called the
homepage.
When a computer user accesses a site on the World Wide Web, he or she is presented with a
screen of information called a page. An organization usually maintains a home page, the “master
page” from which other pages can be reached by a series of branching pathways. The user can
make the jump to another page by “clicking on” a highlighted “hot spot”. Similar simple actions
enable the visitor to the page to see film clips, hear sound sequences, send e-mail, or send
information to the Web site.

Hypertext links
The feature that allows a text area, image, or other object to become a link that retrieves another
computer file (another web page, image, sound file, or other document) on the Internet.

Surfing
Moving around web pages.
URL
Uniform resource locator - the unique address of any web document.
Each web page has its own unique address or URL. Typically a URL will have this structure:
http://www.gov.bw.

WWW:World Wide Web - a network of information and software which is one of the features of
the Internet.

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When we refer to the Internet we are usually talking about the World Wide Web (WWW)
which is the most used feature of the Internet.
The WWW stores millions of web pages on web servers. These pages can contain text, pictures,
movies, animation and sound. Web pages are written in a language or code called HTML

Web pages
Pages on the internet which may contain text, pictures, movies, animation and sound. A Web page
is a single document.

Web servers
A computer running that software, and connected to the Internet so that it can provide documents
via the World Wide Web. A particular Web site is stored in a particular Web server. A Web
server has to be on-line to get connected to a particular site stored in it.

Website
A set of web pages belonging to an organisation or individual. Each Web site has its own address.

Examples of C&I systems

Internet
Electronic mail (email)
Chat
Video conferencing/Teleconferencing
Electronic commerce (e-commerce)
Intranets
Telecommuting

Internet
What is the Internet?
Internet, a collection of computer networks that operate to common standards and enable the
computers and the programs they run to communicate directly. It is a network of networks that
uses a wide range of telecommunications media to provide a means of global information
interchange. One can access Internet form anywhere in the world using any type of computer and
even using a cell phone.

Resources required accessing the Internet

To connect to the internet you need:
A computer
An ordinary phone line or ISDN line; or an ADSL line or cable connection
An analogue modem (ordinary phone line) or terminal adaptor (ISDN) or broadband
modem (ADSL and cable)
An account with an ISP (Internet Service Provider)
Browser software

An analogue modem links your computer to the phone and converts computer signals (digital
signal) to analogue phone line signals - and back again.

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ISP
Service Provider, company that provides computer access to the Internet, also called Internet
service provider (ISP) or access provider. A user subscribes to a service provider, which gives the
user an identifying username and password and a phone number.

Browser
A browser is a program that allows you to view the pages on the Web. The most widely used are
Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. All browsers will have a number of similar features to
help you use the Web:
Forward and back buttons to move between pages
A history folder which stores details of recently visited web pages
A stop button if a page is taking too long to load
Favourites and bookmark options to store often visited pages
Options to cut, copy, save and print the information viewed

ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Lines)

Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Lines (ADSL), a technology that enables high-speed data to be
carried between modems located at the customer site and local telephone exchange via the
twisted-pair copper local loop normally used for telephone calls. ADSL and cable are much faster
digital connections, which unlike dial-up connections are 'always on'. ADSL is usually provided
by a phone company such as BTC, and uses the telephone network but enhanced with broadband
modems at both the user-end and the exchange. ADSL and cable offer speeds between 500 Kbps
and 1,000 Kbps (1 Mbps). These are known as broadband connections.

ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)

ISDN is a digital dial-up connection using ordinary phone lines but at higher speeds than an
analogue modem connection - up to 128Kbps. Unlike a dial-up connection, ISDN allows
telephone voice signals to travel down the line at the same time as computer data signals. In place
of a modem, ISDN uses a device called a terminal adaptor at both user end and the exchange.

It is also possible to connect to the net via satellite dish.

Advantages of using Internet

Always available - The Internet is always available for you to use, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
365 days a year. You don't have to wait for it to open or wait for someone to make it available. It
is just there, when you need it and for whatever you need and it can be accessed from anywhere in
the world at any time.

Vast range of information – Internet can provide information about any topic which we are
looking for. It doesn't matter what you want to know about, you will find something on the
Internet that can provide the information you need.

Easy to contact people - The Internet provides many ways to enable you to keep in contact with
people at all hours of the day and night. Some of the examples are: email, newsgroups, chatrooms,
telephone calls and video conferencing. This ability has helped many companies grow from a
small local company into a large, multi-national organisation.

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Access to other cultures - The Internet enables you to look at sites about or written by people in
other countries. You can look at photographs of where they live and read about their way of life.
This enables you to get a unique insight into their culture, something that just wouldn’t be
possible without actually visiting them in person.

Up-to-date - One of the main advantages of the Internet is how fast things can be updated. When a
news story breaks, the BBC website can have that news on its pages within a couple of minutes.
They can keep adding more information as it becomes available. If that were a newspaper, you
would have to wait up to a day to read about the news. Even news on the television takes longer to
get to you than the Internet.

Search engines are available – Search engines help us to find the information we are looking for.
Searching in traditional books is very slow. It is faster to look for information using a search
engine and Internet.

Disadvantages of using Internet

Information overload - There is almost too much information on the Internet. It is easy to get
confused by the amount of information that is out there. When you type a search term into a
search engine, you won't just get a few results, you will get millions.

Information can be biased - No one owns the Internet and there is nothing to stop people posting
their opinions and points of view on web pages, forums, blogs. Many people believe what they
read on the Internet. You need to be careful and think about what you are reading. An awful lot of
material and web sites are biased and only give you one point of view.

Information can be inaccurate - With a book or encyclopaedia, you can be pretty confident that
what you are reading has been checked, cross referenced and is correct. But with the Internet, no
one checks what has been written.

Offensive material - No matter how careful you are when using the Internet, there is always the
possibility that you will come across some sites that contain offensive or even illegal material.
The police spend a lot of time trying to track down and shut sites which have unsuitable images of
children on them. But as soon as they close one, another one pops up.

Cyber-bullying - With the growth of the Internet and new technology, bullying has been moving
from the traditional playground to emails, chatrooms, texts and social websites.This type of
bullying is every bit as harmful and hurtful as if done in person but it is much harder to tackle and
stop.

Addiction - There has been a worrying increase in the number of people who are becoming
'addicted' to the internet. Every spare moment they have is spent online, some even go without
proper sleep so that they don't have to log off. There have been reports of families breaking up
and people losing their jobs because of this problem.
Virus transmission – Internet is the main source of spread of computer virus from one computer to
another.

Hacking – The Internet has made it possible for hackers to gain access to other computers without
leaving their homes. Credit card information can be stolen by hacking.

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Piracy – Using Internet people can illegally download music, pictures, photographs and movies
which are produced by someone and distribute them.

THE MOST COMMON USES OF THE INTERNET

Internets support thousands of different kinds of operational and experimental services. A few of
the most popular include the following:
The World Wide Web, which gives access to remote databases, through browsing and
searching.
Electronic mail, which provides one-to-one communication and exchange of information.
File transfer, which makes it possible to transfer large amounts of information.
Video conferencing, which enables meeting to be conducted between people who are
geographically separated without travelling.
Electronic commerce, which enables buying and selling of goods at the comfort of their
own houses.
On-line learning, which enables one to study and get degrees without going to colleges
and Universities.
On-line research using on-line library.
Chat rooms, which allows users to talk to friends or join in discussions online from
anywhere in the world at any time at a cheaper rate.

Internets support thousands of different kinds of operational and experimental services. A few of
the most popular include the following:

E-mail (electronic mail) allows a message to be sent from one person to another, or to many
others, via computer. Internet has its own e-mail standards that have also become the means of
interconnecting most of the world's e-mail systems. Internet e-mail addresses usually have a form
such as “editor@encarta.microsoft.com”, where “editor” is the e-mail account name, and
“encarta.microsoft.com” is the domain identity of the computer hosting the account. E-mail can
also be used to create collaborative groups through the use of special e-mail accounts called
“reflectors” or “exploders” that automatically redistribute mail sent to the address.

Resources needed too set up email:

A computer
An ordinary phone line or ISDN line; or an ADSL line or cable connection
An analogue modem (ordinary phone line) or terminal adaptor (ISDN) or broadband
modem (ADSL and cable)
An account with an ISP (Internet Service Provider)
Email software
Your Internet Service Provider will give you an email account, a password and a mailbox.
Example of an email address: James@gmail.com
With a dial-up connection, you have to pay the cost of your phone calls at local rate, and in most
cases a subscription to your provider (though some are free).

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Advantages of email
Instant (or very fast) delivery of your message. Email messages can reach to anywhere in
the world at the shortest time.
Available 365 days, 24 hours per day -and, email can be picked up anywhere in the world
as long as you have access to the internet.
Cheap – emails are much cheaper than traditional mail because you don’t need stamp and
envelop to the send the message. You don’t have to travel to the post office to send the
mail. You can send at the comfort of your house. Therefore you save money on stamp,
envelop and travelling cost.
Automatic reply to messages – email has a feature called reply which could be used send
reply to the sender.
Auto forward and redirection of messages – a feature called forward could be used to send
the message received to another person. With ordinary mail you need rewrite the same
letter and send again to another person.
Facility to send copies of a message to many people. It is possible to send the same
message to many people at the same time without adding extra cost. With ordinary mail
we need to mail to each person separately and the cost will be much more.
Generally reliable, i.e., delivery is guaranteed as long as the email address is correct.
If the email is not delivered because of some reason a message will be send to the sender
stating that message is failed to send to the receiver with reason. This is not possible with
the ordinary mail.
Files, graphics or sound can be sent as attachments. It is possible to send messages in
multimedia format using the email.
Webmail and mobile email can be used to receive and send messages while on the move.

Disadvantages of email
It can only be sent to people who themselves have access to the internet. You cannot send
emails to people who don’t have an email address. With traditional this is not a problem
because each and every individual will have one postal or physical address.
No guarantee the mail will be read until the user logs on and checks their mail. Email can
stay in the mailbox until the user open the mailbox. Sometimes the user may not be able to
open the mail box because of many reasons such as connection is available, computer is
out of order or no email facility.
Junk mail. These are unwanted mails that come to ones mail box without the permission of
the user. If one gets so many junk mails, it is very difficult to find out the important mails.
It also takes up a lot of memory.
E-mails are not as secure as traditional letters. It is possible for hackers to access ones
email illegally.
Virus transmission. Email is the one of the main source of virus transmission.

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E-Commerce
 E-Commerce, abbreviation for electronic commerce, usually defined as the conduct of business online,
through the Internet.
 It is buying and selling of goods and services using computer communications.
 This can mean businesses selling to customers or businesses selling to other businesses or ordinary people
selling to other people.
 This might be done through a messaging system such as electronic mail, through the World Wide Web, or
by direct computer-to-computer communications.

What do you need to do ecommerce?

When a customer wants to buy products using ecommerce they will need:

 A computer
 Access to the Internet and a way of sending an order
 A website or webshop with all of their products displayed
 A secure way of taking payment from their customers. Customer should have a credit card
 Order confirmation by email.
 A way of sending item ordered to the customers such as courier service, e.g. Botswana Post, DHL

Advantages for customers

You can shop any time, night or day, 365 days a year
There is no need to travel for shopping - saving time and money spent on fuel and transport
You can shop from the comfort of your own home
You can buy from shops that you wouldn't have access to normally e.g. in other countries
You can easily compare prices between different shops without going to those places

Advantages for businesses

Don't need expensive shop premises in high cost area. Don't have to pay so many costs from running a shop such
as insurance, electricity
Usually need less staff with an online business than compared to a shop so large savings
Customers from all over the world can access your products
Can easily keep track of competitors and quickly change prices to match

Disadvantages for customers

Security concerns with personal and credit card details. Credit card details can be stolen.
You can't check the quality when purchasing like you could in a shop because you can’t touch and feel
goods
The shop might not send exactly what you ordered, you might get a substitute
It can be expensive to return goods because of transport charges
The item might get damaged in the post and you would have to arrange a replacement
Loss of social contact and you may not get assistance to do shopping

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Disadvantages for businesses
Need to pay a lot of money to have a professionally designed website developed
Need staff with expertise to keep the website maintained
If the website goes down then no one can purchase things
A lot of online fraud, risk of losing money on sales

On-line banking
It is a method of transferring funds electronically without going to the bank.

Advantages to the bank

 Fewer staff is needed because a lot of transfers are done using computer system
 They don’t have to spend a lot of money on infrastructure
 Bank can get customers from all over the world and also can provide 24 hour per day service. This will
attract a lot of customers.

Advantages to the customer

 Customers can do banking at the comfort of their home. They don’t have to spent money and time on
travelling
 Banking can be done at any time of the day because service is always available
 They don’t have to carry a large amount of cash with them. This will save them by attack from thieves.

Telecommuting
Telecommuting, also known as teleworking, allows employees to fulfill job responsibilities at a site other than their
primary business location, often in the home environment. This is made simple with the use of various
telecommunications technologies such as a telephone, fax machine and the internet. Many telecommuters are also set
up with web conferencing capabilities allowing them to sit in on office meetings via modem and webcam, or at the
very least, a conference call.

Advantages of telecommuting to Employee:

1. Increased job satisfaction.
2. Cost of commute to work is saved.
3. Reduced unplanned requests and less distraction from co-workers.
4. Reduces stress and better personal time management.
5. A better work and family balance.
6. Company may even pay for your internet connection and/or telephone bill in some cases.

Advantages of telecommuting to Company:

1. Increased employee job satisfaction results in better employee retention.
2. Some companies may actually save on infrastructure and housekeeping costs if a certain percentage of workers
always work from home.
3. Additional incentive which is helpful in recruiting new candidates.
4. Decreased absenteeism - An employee who would have taken a full day off due to some personal work, may now
work for (say) half day once he gets back home.
5. In many cases an employee may agree to work at a lower salary.
6. It may also result in higher productivity and opportunity to devote extra time much easily if needed (like
weekends).

Disadvantages of telecommuting to Employee:

1. More distractions and at times the employee's spouse or kids may take him for granted for certain things. Like if
you are expecting a courier, your wife may tell you to receive it while she is out, but what if the delivery guy shows
up when you are in a meeting.
2. You are isolated from daily activities of the company and may be less aware of the other things going in the
company.
3. There may be times when you me be out-of-mind just because you are not physically present in the office or
possibly under-managed.
4. Possible hatred from other employees who do not telecommute.
5. You may be subjected to more working hours.

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6. Your personal charges related work may increase (like phone bill, better internet connection bill, electricity etc..)

Disadvantages of telecommuting to Company:

1. As already mentioned (no supervision) - an employee may not devote full time for work and may use time to do
personal errands or taking care of other domestic issues.
2. There may a delay in contacting employee or your customers may get a delayed customer service.
3. Employee may be isolated from others and often be out of touch with others.
4. Additional Infrastructure and intranet cost required to enable that employee to work from home.
5. Security concerns - the data being used by client over the internet can possibly be hacked.

VIDEO CONFERENCING
Videoconferencing allows conducting meeting with people in geographically different
locations. b
In videoconferencing people can see one another because video cameras are used to send
live images over telephone lines.

RESOURCES REQUIRED FOR VIDEO CONFERENCING

 A computer
 Communication line such as broadband line or ADSL
 Video camera or web cam to capture video
 Good quality speaker to hear voice clearly
 Microphone to input sound

ADVANTAGES OF VIDEO CONFERENCING

 There is no need to spend time and money travelling to meetings. You can have a
'meeting' with people from many different offices /countries without any of them having to
travel
 Need not prepare expensive venue for meeting
 Meeting can be arranged between people who are far off in short notice of time.

DISADVANTAGES OF VIDEO CONFERENCING

 Everyone who is going to 'attend' the meeting needs access to suitable hardware and
software. This can be expensive and can take a while to set up.
 A very reliable, fast data link is needed. Many companies hire a connection specifically to
allow video conference