ICT is a very diverse and heterogonous complex sector. Blurton (2002) defined ICT as a “diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate, and to create, disseminate, store, and manage information.”(Blurton, c., 2002). These technologies include computers, the Internet, wireless networks, mobile broadband, broadcasting technologies (radio and television), and telephony. Mansel (1994) states that ICT refers to “a myriad of stand-alone media as well as computer-mediated networks that link a personal computer to the Internet. ICT is an integrated system that incorporates the technology and infrastructure required to store, manipulate, deliver and transmit information”. Jovanovic/Rousseau (2005) define ICT as a technology with special and far-reaching characteristics. They state three main characteristic for ICT: (1)ICT is pervasive and spreads to all sectors, (2) ICT improves over time and hence keeps lowering the costs for users, and (3) ICT spawns innovation and facilitates research, development and market introduction of new products, services or processes.
Information and communication technologies have provided new communication capabilities for nations such as instant messaging, voice over internet protocol (VoIP), and video-conferencing.
Social networking websites provide facilities for their users to stay in contact and communicate from all over the world on a regular basis.
The European information Technology Observatory (2009) categorized the ICT market into three segments including: information technology (IT), telecommunications (TC), and consumer electronics
Shapiro and Mathur (2011) have divided ICTs into two groups of activities. First, ICT producing activities and second, ICT using activities. The first group activities will be categorized into two sub groups including:
“- ICT producing manufacturing activities: are those which manufacture products intended to fulfill the function of information processing and communication or must use electronic processing to detect, measure or record physical phenomena or control of physical process.
- ICT producing service activities: are those activities that produce service which are meant to enable the function of information processing and communication by electronic means.”
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For a number of years, researcher and policy makers have made many efforts to measure the importance of the "ICT sector". The lack of a standard definition for the ICT sector, made impossible monitoring its impacts.
For the first time in 1997, at the OECD the Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policy (ICCP) established a research group to develop a standard definition for the ICT sector. This group determined a definition for ICT sector on the basis of a list of industries drawn from the third revision of the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC. rev.3).
The definition of ICT sector was revised in 2002, reflecting the release of ISIC Rev. 3.1 (United Nations Statistics Division, 2002). After that this group made periodic reviews on ICT sector definitions. In 2006 the revisions to ISIC Rev. 4 were completed and a good opportunity to review the ICT sector definition was presented (UNSD, 2008). The OECD was an active participant in the ISIC revision process and the classification includes improvements to ICT-related categories.
Shapiro and Mathur (2011) have stated ICT sector comprise four sub-industries: (1) computer and electronic products; (2) publishing (including software); (3) information and data processing services; and (4) computer systems design and related services.
Table3. The OECD ICT sector definition (based on ISIC Rev. 4, 2006-2007)
Industry groupings ISIC Industry titles
ICT manufacturing industries
2610 Manufacture of electronic components and boards 2620 Manufacture of computers and peripheral equipment 2630 Manufacture of communication equipment
2640 Manufacture of consumer electronics 3230 Manufacture of magnetic and optical media
ICT trade industries 4651 Wholesale of computers, computer peripheral equipment and software 4652 Wholesale of electronic and telecommunications equipment and parts
ICT services industries
5820 Software publishing
6110 6110 Wired telecommunications activities 6120 6120 Wireless telecommunications activities 6130 6130 Satellite telecommunications activities 6190 6190 Other telecommunications activities 6201 6201 Computer programming activities
6202 6202 Computer consultancy and computer facilities management activities 6209 6209 Other information technology and computer service activities 6311 6311 Data processing, hosting and related activities
6312 6312 Web portals
9511 9511 Repair of computers and peripheral equipment 9512 9512 Repair of communication equipment
Source: From OECD (2006a). The codes and titles were checked against the final (November 2008) version of ISIC Rev. 4.
In the table 4 the evolution of ICT from early era to hyper-connected era has been shown. Hyper-connectivity is redefining interactions among different factors of pertinent context. However this phenomenon provide new opportunities to improve living standards, it can introduce new threats concerning individual rights, privacy, the flow of personal data, cultural evolution and cybercrime.
Table 4. evolution of ICT: from early era to hyper-connected era
Early Era Mainframe Computingor
Era
1950 First commercial computer was announced 1953 Magnetic core memory first used
1954 First mass-produced computer (IBM 650) 1957 First commercial FORTRAN program 1962 First interactive computer game 1964 First networked computer
BASIC programming language was created 1969 Internet was invented
First UNIX operating system First computer controlled robot
Mini Computing Era
1971 Email was invented 1972 First modern video game 1975 First email client
Microsoft Corporation was founded 1976 Apple computers were announced 1977 Home gaming was born
Stores begin to sell PCs
First PC Modem was developed
Client/Server Computing
Era
1980 First Hard Disk Drive(HDD)
1981 Electronic Data Exchange(EDI) VAN(Value Added Network) services started
MS-DOS released 1982 Commodore 64 released
1984 Domain Name System was created Apple Macintosh was launched
1986 Internet newsgroups were born(using internet-standard TCP/IP connections)
Pixar is founded 1987 Internet growth 1988 First computer virus
Open Source Initiative(OSI) was founded (OSI is an organization dedicated to promoting Open Source Software)
World Wide Web Era
1991 The World Wide Web was launched to the public Windows 3.0 was launched
1992 Linux was Launched ( the first open source operating system) 1993 First Graphical Internet Browser
Browsers such as Netscape launched
1994 Development of common protocols for the evolution of World Wide Web Yahoo was created
1995 Amazon, eBay were introduced(Internet shopping) 1996 Hotmail become first web-based email service
Web TV was introduced
1997 The cable Modem was introduced 1998 Google search engine was launched
Windows 98 released
1999 Salesforce.com launched as a company specializing in software as a service Napster was launched
Cloud Computing, Social Networking Mobile Internetand
Era
2000 Dot com bubble bursts
Amazon played a key role in the development cloud computing by modernizing their data centers
2001 Use of broadband begin rising
Wikipedia was launched(collective Web content generation)
2004 Take part in the internet, blogging, chatting and social networking(Web 2.0 became a mainstream concept)
Facebook was launched
2005 YouTube was launched (bringing free online video hosting and sharing to the masses
2006
Twitter was created
Amazon launched Amazon Web Service(AWS)
Java officially went 'open'. It was the largest source code released under Open Source till date
2007 Mobile internet access or mobile web First iPhone announced
2008 Eucalyptus became the first open-source software for deploying private and hybrids clouds.
2009 Salesforce launched Force.com(it is a cloud computing platform as a service system from salesforce.com
Mobile broadband access
Microsoft launched windows 7
2010 Cloud service got much needed boost with the launch of i-services for iPad and iPhones customers
Hyper-connected Era 2011 Several start-ups were founded that leverage the cloud services.
2012 exponential growth of mobile broadband and social media are drivers of hyper-connectivity