Popular Technology Degrees

A Daily Dose of Internet Communications

June 19, 2006
by Mary Hobson
mary.hobson@technology-schools.com
Technology Schools Columnist

Have you stopped to consider how many ways there are to communicate electronically with other people today? Electronic communications were with us for almost all of the twentieth century in the form of the telephone, television, magnetic tape, and the gramophone record. However, the last ten years of the twentieth century catapulted an enormous expansion in e-media.

Email is the Norm

Of course, most of us are familiar with email--either through your own Internet Service Provider (ISP) or through "free" email such as Yahoo, Hotmail, or Google. For many of us, email has taken the place of postal mail (now called snail mail), making communication almost instant and also a matter of record. Although email became popular during the later half of the 1990s, in the 2000s it has become a daily communication tool of the Western world.

Casting a Wider Web

The Internet also spawned a number of other communications applications, including instant messaging (IM). The process, known as IMing, is a cross between email and a telephone call that allows you to write your message and get your reply immediately. This application grew out of chat rooms--a kind of Internet conference where vistors write their responses to be viewed in real time by other visitors.

As more people have access to broadband communications, more sophisticated forms of communication are being developed on the Internet. Video conferencing has been available for some time, but better broadband access means that the pictures are better with less delay. Another variant on video conferencing over the Internet is the use of Web casting, a kind of broadcasting over the Internet that allows you to store information and replay it.

Digital Telecommunications

Of course, telephony has also undergone a revolution. Because telephone networks were digitized in the 1980s, telephony has significantly changed. You can use the network to send any digitized items, including voice recordings, images (such as faxes), and data. The telephone network allowed the Internet to work for many years, and is still the basis of much of the infrastructure on which the Internet relies. Mobile telephony created a second wave of revolution, including the use of wireless networks for two-way communications. Today we use wireless networks for computing, satellite networks for all kinds of communications, and mobile telephony for personal data devices.

What will the future bring? Take a look at this generation of mobile telephones. We will have teleconferencing over mobile telephones and increasing contact with remotely operated devices in our homes and offices. Wireless networks allow us global contact and applications such as universal banking and news.

Careers in Electronic Communications

The opportunities are legion--not only for communications development, but for careers as well. Electronic communications is an exciting industry. With the right kind of basic technical education, such as a suitable degree, you can enter this field and keep ahead of the game with continuous education and training. It's the perfect opportunity to utilize the very technologies you are working in by pursuing online training and education.

Sources
CNN Technology
Free eCommunications Guide

About the Author
Mary Hobson is the Head of IT School at a Polytechnic in New Zealand and has worked as a consultant for technology start-ups in Russia.