Defining Information Communication Technology

Defining Information Communication Technology

FURY: ICT Minister Nelson Chamisa

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By Msekiwa Makwanya
Posted to the web 05/04/2009 23:03:28
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s attempt to divorce telecoms from the Information Communication Technology Ministry (read) has no rationale, as much as it has no precedent in the modern world.

The debate over whether or not Nelson Chamisa, the ICT Minister, should be in charge of the telecoms sector is a sheer waste of time and energy, and certainly one that does not require arbitration because the answer is in the dictionary.

The issue requires President Mugabe’s advisors to visit the free encyclopedia, Wikipedia, for the definition of Information Communication Technology (ICT).

Minister Chamisa can draw comfort from the fact that one of his principals, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, is a rocket scientist who is more than capable of educating President Mugabe on ICT.

According to Wikipedia the term is sometimes used in preference to Information Technology (IT), particularly in two communities: education and government.

In the common usage it is often assumed that ICT is synonymous with IT; ICT in fact encompasses any medium to record information (magnetic disk/tape, optical disks (CD/DVD), flash memory etc. and arguably also paper records); technology for broadcasting information - radio, television; and technology for communicating through voice and sound or images - microphone, camera, loudspeaker, telephone to cellular phones.

ICT includes the wide variety of computing hardware (PCs, servers, mainframes, networked storage), the rapidly developing personal hardware market comprising mobile phones, personal devices, MP3 players, and much more; the full gamut of application software from the smallest home-developed spreadsheet to the largest enterprise packages and online software services; and the hardware and software needed to operate networks for transmission of information, again ranging from a home network to the largest global private networks operated by major commercial enterprises and, of course, the internet. Thus, "ICT" makes more explicit that technologies such as broadcasting and wireless mobile telecommunications are included.

The above definition makes it clear what ICT is and what it is not.

The current unnecessary dispute over the ICT ministry gives credence to the MDC’s concerns that some of the ministries were created to give the party “useless” posts. For if Chamisa loses a function that is at the heart of his ministry, how can he be taken seriously?

However, as the late Eddison Zvobgo once observed, you do not reduce great minds by giving them small or meaningless tasks.

The controversy has some unintended consequences -- by drawing attention to the ICT Ministry, it will help to raise the profile of and a better understanding of ICT.

The MDC must fight tooth and nail this brazen attempt at a public castration of a minister by President Robert Mugabe.
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