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This article provides information about the Relevance and Importance of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) in Knowledge Dissemination:
Not also only the creation of knowledge is important in knowledge societies, but its dissemination and knowledge sharing with the world around is equally important. In the information age ICTs are the main medium for knowledge dissemination.
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In this information age the info-technological revolution is restructuring the global social economic equations — shifting from income divide to knowledge divide. We stand at the dawn of the new millennium which ushers with it a world of greater interconnectivity, accelerating flow of data and shrinking time and national boundaries.
Accessibility of World Wide Web (WWW) is turning world into global village. The prediction is that around one billion will be “on-line” by the end of 2005. The decreased cost of processing and dissemination of information and increased convergence of information, computer and telecommunication technologies became the base of knowledge societies.
Knowledge sharing is the interactive process of making the right information available to people at the right time in a comprehensible manner to enable them to act judiciously- enriching the knowledge base in the entire mechanism. Knowledge sharing can occur at all levels— between countries, within a country, between communities and among individuals. It can occur from local to global, from poor to rich and vice versa. Knowledge dissemination and sharing became indispensable in day today life, for good governance, participation of people in their development etc. Unrestricted and continuous sharing of global and local knowledge between policy makers, public and private sectors and civil society heralds the way forward to an empowered knowledge society, which can efficiently manage the development change process. It ensures inclusion of poor and marginalised communities in the change process.
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Rapid technological advance since Second World War occurred due to the convergence of telecommunications and computing technology, known as Information and communication technologies (ICT). ICT have been the drivers of the knowledge society. They are providing new and faster ways of delivering and accessing information, innovative ways for real time communication and new ways to do business and create livelihood opportunities.
Since ages, knowledge has been passed on from one generation to the other through written text, folklore, word of mouth religions and customs. The knowledge, however, remained preserved geographically and hierarchically. On the other hand, ICT breaks all the natural, social, cultural and hierarchical barriers to knowledge sharing. It has the potential to help the people to leapfrog some of the traditional barriers to development by making use of knowledge in various ways such as by improving access to information, expanding their market base, enhancing employment opportunities, making government services work better etc.
In the contemporary global contest the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is expanding rapidly. ICTs comprise a diverse set of technological tools and resources to create, disseminate, store and manage data and information. Traditional ICT tools such as television, radio and the telephone have proven their effectiveness in promoting development.
The emergence of computers, the Internet and wireless communications technology, along with powerful software for processing and integrating text, sound and video into electronic media, comprise modern ICT. For the past two decades, the spread of the global electronic network of computers, popularly referred to as the Internet, and wireless telephony has generated an unprecedented global flow of information, products, people, capital and idea. Internet based electronic mails, newsgroups, discussion groups and interactive web sites hold boundless potential to reach everyone who is connected to the Internet to target.