Information and Communication Technology

Conceptual Overview

Information and communication technology implies both the processing and successful exchange of information. Though the structured expression and communication of information is thought to have begun with Mesopotamian cuneiform around 3000 BC, information theory was only recognized as a discipline with the publication of Claude Shannon's paper, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” in 1948. This date closely parallels the creation of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) in 1946. As Weik notes, ENIAC was the first general-purpose computer to use vacuum tubes rather than mechanical instruments to perform calculations, making it the first electronic computer. The modern age of digital computing was thus begun, providing the foundation for ICT.

Also of note is the project that created ENIAC; slated to finish in 1943, the US$61,700 contract between the University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Army required nine extensions before finishing in 1946 at a total cost of US$486,804.22, according to Weik in 1961. Thus began an alarming pattern of late delivery and cost overruns in ICT projects. This pattern of challenged projects has implications for both the project organizations that create and implement ICT projects and for the organizations that attempt to adopt them. Logan notes that the most frequently cited reasons for ICT project failure—poor communication, lack of clear objectives, and lack of senior leadership support—are organizational rather than technical in nature, and Wickenberg provides a more detailed analysis of the effects of formal and informal systems in project teams (see Logan's 2005 study and Wickenberg's 2004 study). In fact, Wickenberg points out that project management practices, long thought to remove uncertainty in the development of ICT applications, may actually prevent the learning and adaptation necessary for project teams to navigate the complexity of interdependent technologies and stakeholders. Any discussion of ICT in organizations must acknowledge the difficulties of creating and adopting such systems.

Since the advent of digital computing, ICT has attained astonishing breadth and depth in society generally and in organizations specifically. Global IT spending reached US$965 billion in 2004 and is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 6%, according to Gonsalves. The ubiquity of ICT can easily be taken for granted; e-mail, voice technologies, instant messaging, streaming video, digital audio players, and handheld messaging devices have become fixtures in daily life over the past two decades, with much of the technology transitioning from innovation to commodity in the past 10 years.

Kristula notes the significance of the 1957 launch of Sputnik, the first artificial earth satellite, in provoking the most profound societal application of ICT to date: the Internet. Launched by the Soviet Union to gain an advantage in the exploration (and subsequent militarization) of space, Sputnik shocked the American public with the possibility that the Soviets could launch ballistic missiles from a space-based platform. In addition to escalating the pace of satellite development, the United States also formed its Advance Research Projects Agency in the Department of Defense to lead the development of innovative military technologies. One of these technologies, ARPANET, was conceived as a means to communicate without interruption during a nuclear attack, and its underlying concepts produced the commercial [Page 665]Internet. Begun in 1968, ARPANET enabled e-mail in 1972, listservs in 1979, the World Wide Web in 1992, and the online ordering of Pizza Hut pizza in 1994, as noted by Kristula in 1997. Most current applications of ICT make use of the Internet.

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