Day 1: 1. OVERVIEW OF ICT

Day 1: 1. OVERVIEW OF ICT • 1.1. Definition of ICT • I.C.T. stands for Information and Communications Technology. It replaces the term I.T. (Information Technology) because many machines, including computers, now allow users to communicate with other people and machines, as well as to retrieve information • However, apart from explaining an acronym, there is not a universally accepted definition of ICT? Why? Because the concepts, methods and applications involved in ICT are constantly evolving on an almost daily basis. It’s difficult to keep up with the changes - they happen so fast. • A good way to think about ICT is to consider all the uses of digital technology that already exist to help individuals, businesses and organizations use information.

ICT covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit or receive information electronically in a digital form. For example, personal computers, digital television, email, robots. • So ICT is concerned with the storage, retrieval, manipulation, transmissionorreceiptof digital data. Importantly, it is also concerned with the way these different uses can work with each other. • ICTs are the key enabler of the knowledge society. Those who have easy and affordable access to ICTs and Communication networks can participate fully, while those without have fewer opportunities, and remain trapped in pre-knowledge economy forms of economic activity. • The phenomenon of differential access to ICTs is often labeled the “digital divide”. This is often assumed to be about the presence of ICT infrastructure and equipment.

1.2. Role of ICT in National Development • Information and communication Technology refers to technologies and systems supporting the collection processing, dissemination, access, and prevention of data or information. • Information Communication Technology is widely recognized as a potentially powerful tool in the fight against poverty, with a capacity to provide developing countries unprecedented opportunities to meet vital developmental goals far more effectively than ever before. • The possibilities of applying ICT for socioeconomic development purposes are limitless. The use of information technology can improve the provision of • Health care, promote educational achievements, increase agriculture production, facilitate participatory government and secure other socioeconomic developments as indicated below:

1.2.1. ICT for Agriculture • ICT applications can be used to facilitate wide access to information and intensive sharing of knowledge among planners, policy makers, practitioners and researchers in the agriculture sector; • ICT can assist farmers on such areas as input supply, extension and use of local knowledge; • Efficient marketing of agricultural products through information and telecommunication networks; • Provision of equitable access to new techniques for improving agricultural production; • Reduced food storage losses through more efficient distribution.

1.2.2. ICT for Health • The application of innovations such as virtual medicine and telemedicine make it possible for patients located in rural areas to have access to medical experts located thousands of miles away; • Enhancement of health administration and management through medical information system; • Establishment of information “health profiles” and decision support system on regional, national, rural and district levels.

1.2.3. ICT for Education and Research • Provide equitable remote access to resources in support of both distance education and the strengthening of local educational capacity; • Connecting schools, universities and research centers to national and international databases, libraries, research laboratories and computing facilities; • Reducing communication and administrative costs by building communication networks linking all educational establishments; • Promoting and supporting collaboration among teachers and researchers; • Extending the reach of educational facilities in informal learning, especially to community level.

1.2.4. ICT for Trade and Commerce • Today’s technological advances have not only opened new opportunities to advance human development but have also entirely changed the global economic and business systems. Advances in ICT have helped accelerate economic globalization that is rapidly unifying world markets. ICT-based innovations such as e-commerce have now emerged as a future way of doing business and are projected to dominate world trade in the future. The opportunities, which ICT can provide for businesses, include: • Linking chamber of commerce, trade associations and enterprises to both national and global trade; • Reduced commercial transaction costs; • Online trade related information and import/export opportunities; • Development and marketing of new products through electronic networks.

1.2.5. ICT for Good Governance • ICT is a powerful tool that can be used to facilitate macroeconomic and public sector management. Efforts to stabilize the macroeconomic environment, and strengthen the efficiency, accountability, and the transparency of government can benefit a great deal from the introduction of information technology applications. Information system, which can help the government design, implementation, and assess policy reforms are now powerful instruments of public policy. Such information systems could increase the speed, volume, quality, transparency and accountability of government transactions; yielding large productivity increases in government services. • ICT is among the most potent democratization tools that can be used to enhance participation in the democratic process. ICT can be used to open the government to the public and can also provide the citizens with the ability to enhance their interactions with each other and with the government. Citizens can be invited to send in comments and their views to government officials or parliament. By so doing, their views can be taken into account before laws are passed and policies made. This can have the effect of making government more transparent, accessible, and accountable to its constituents and can reduce public cynicism about the political process.

1.2.6. ICT for Environmental Management • Increase agricultural productivity by providing farmers with information on weather forecasts; • Implementing networks which, as far as possible, provide access to telecommunications in areas threatened by environmental degradation and natural disasters; • Facilitate the use of low cost terrestrial and satellite radio communication systems in emergency situations where there is no access to adequate telecommunications; • Establishing problem monitoring information systems using geographic information system (GIS) technologies, remote sensing and satellite early warning systems which provide tools to anticipate such problems in advance and enable governments and international organizations to be more proactive and to respond more effectively when the need arises; • GIS can combine information on soils, hydro-geology and rainfall with socio-economic data, allowing early warnings.

1.2.7 ICT for Tourism • Attractingmoretouristsand other visitors by offering high-quality information and telecommunication services in tourist resorts; • Reducing the costs of international promotions for attracting tourists; • Improving the image of the country through on-line promotional campaigns; • Provision of tourism related information and indicators that encourage and facilitate investment in tourism projects.

1.2.8. ICT for Gender • Improve the rights of women through access to information and indicators which may be used for tracking gender issues and elimination of stereotypes; • Ensure equitable access of women to information, technology and technological education; • Enhance the role of modern communications media to promote awareness of equality between women and men.

1.2.9. ICT for Culture • Making national museums accessible to all parts of the regions as well as to the rest of the world; • Electronic preservation and documentation of manuscripts and artifacts; • Increasing accessibility of rare manuscripts and artifacts to researchers and the general public through the development of cultural CDROM products.

2. ONGOING ICT DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN ETHIOPIA • In recognition of the critical role of ICT for sustainable development, democratization and good governance, the Ethiopian Government has taken bold and aggressive initiatives on several fronts in the development of ICT both at the federal and regional levels. In the context of the national ICT policy the Government recognizes the need to implement e-government and governance structure to bring the government closer to the people and the networked globe. The different ICT national initiatives are outlined as below:

2.1 E-Government • In recognition of the critical role of ICT for democratization and good governance, the Ethiopian government has taken wide-ranging measures for its development both at the federal and regional levels. Within the framework of PSCAP, the government initiated series of measures to make the civil and public service more efficient and effective in the delivery of government services, along with institutional reforms, improvements in working processes and procedures, and altitudinal changes. • The program is being carried out within this framework of what has come to be known as electronic government (E-government). • The broad objectives of Ethiopian e-government program are: • Improve administrative efficiency, effectiveness and productivity as well as information provision and service delivery to the public at the federal and regional levels of government;

Reduce administrative, operational and transactional costs of federal and regional governments, administrative activities, service delivery functions and operations by reducing operational inefficiencies, redundant spending and unnecessary excessive paperwork; • Increase the ability of the federal and regional governments to serve citizens and businesses better by enhancing and improving responsiveness to citizens and businesses; • Transform government systems into a citizen-centered government as will facilitate the process of bringing government closer to the people and making it easy for citizens to obtain services and interact better with government machinery and agencies at the federal and regional level; • Develop and implement information and communication infrastructure to support federal and regional level intra and inter-agency electronic service delivery and information exchange and; • Provide access to information and government services by the public and enhance good governance and strengthen the democratic process.

2.1.1 Woreda-net • Woreda-net is a terrestrial and satellite-based network whose primary objective is to provide ICT services such as video conferencing, directory services, mail services, voice services, and Internet connectivity at the federal, regional and lowest levels of government. • The Woreda net consist a government intranet, which connects 3 federal offices, 11 regional offices and 634 Woredas (districts).

The objectives of Woreda-net include: • To bridge the technology gap between urban and rural communities; • To provide knowledge and information to citizens; • To build organizational capacity at all levels of government; • To provide the lowest level of government with accurate and timely information.

2.1.2. School-net • School net arises from the need to integrate ICT into Ethiopia's school system. It connects about 600 secondary schools of the country through a wide area network and making Internet and on line education possible in these schools. The network will also facilitate the effective administration and service delivery within the school system of the country.

2. 2 CONTENTS AND APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT • In order to obtain maximum benefits from opportunities provided by ICT, appropriate ICT content and application need to be developed and tailored to user needs and local conditions. The government is committed to the development of locally relevant ICT content and application consistent with specific local situations and that are sure to add value to the daily lives of communities.

The components under this initiative include: • Localize the existing global knowledge and content for use at the national and local levels • Develop government portal and messaging solutions and interoperability between national and local languages in order for citizens to have unhindered and transparent access to government services; • Develop content for preserving the values, wisdom and acquired knowledge of traditional communities and cultures; • Promote initiatives for content and application development based on local languages, mass communication and information delivery;

In this line, the Government is determined to develop and implement appropriate sector based content and application in priority areas but spanning over eleven executing Agencies. These are public administration and service delivery, agriculture and rural development, trade and industry, health and education, economic development, public finance and statistics, archive and documentation and road transport. • Five languages will be used during the first phase of program development and implementation including Amharigna, Oromifa, Tigrigna, Afarigna and Somaligna.

The development of government portal and messaging solutions as well as interoperability between local languages will be the components of the current program. • Contents and applications to be developed in priority areas are classified into common and specific contents and applications.

2.3. ICT HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT • The basic objective of the ICT human resource development project is to facilitate the development of the required ICT human resource for the nation through an appropriate mix, quality and quantity. With developments in ICT • driven initiatives, the demand for ICT skilled professionals is expected to rise substantially in the future. Human resource development is therefore a challenge that needs to be addresses as matter of urgency, because there can be no sustainable ICT development without adequate human resource base.

The planned activities under this project are: • To develop national ICT human resource development strategy by identifying the ICT human resource need of the country; • To improve the overall ICT human resource and skill base within the civil and public service; • To train professionals within the civil and public sector to operate and manage computer systems in government ministries and agencies; • To increase the supply of adequately trained ICT personnel; • To develop national curricula for ICT education at all levels in collaboration with concerned stake holders; • To designate ICT center of excellence from among ICT training centers and institutions in the public and private sectors; • To setup and implement an accreditation system for ICT education; and training centers and institutions in the public and private sectors; • Establish ICT career structure for ICT professionals; • Promote ICT Research and development; • Promote ICT awareness and Literacy.

2.4 ICT FOR COMMUNITY • The aim of this initiative is to promote citizens' access to data/ information by creating conducive environment for development. The planned activities under this project include: • Formulation of ICT for Community Development Strategy; • Facilitate the exploitation and application of ICT- based services within communities; • Co-ordinate development efforts in local regions for increased efficiency and effectiveness; • Promote the development of public information kiosks; • Conduct study on Local/ Indigenous Knowledge;

2.5 ICT FOR PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT • The Ethiopian Government considers the private sector as an engine of growth in ICT development and a strategic partner. Since the private sector plays a crucial role in accelerating the process of transforming Ethiopia into a • knowledge and information economy and society the Government is committed to removing obstacles constraining its development.

This initiative includes: • Stimulate the private sector as a key driver in the development of ICT; • Encourage the private sector to develop a globally competitive ICT industry and services; • Establish business incubators to assist entrepreneurs in ICT and related business to translate ideas into productive and marketable ventures; • Promote the development of ICT parks with focus on local and export markets; • Promoting and developing electronic commerce,

2.6 REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS AND STANDARDS • The exploitation and application of ICT requires an appropriate legal and regulatory environment. In view of dynamic developments in the global and national ICT environment, urgent reforms are needed to ensure equitable, reliable, and affordable access to ICT. The exploitation and application of ICT also requires appropriate standards.

The components under this initiative include: • Establish appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks to facilitate the development, utilization and application of ICT at all spheres. • Review and improve upon existing polices, laws and regulations to facilitate the exploitation of ICT; • Establish standards and guidelines harmonized at national and regional levels for the deployment and exploitation of ICT in the country; • Establish standards for hardware, software development, localization, content and document management. • Introduce character setting and keyboard layout for local language computerization and adopt UNICODE technology.

2.7 INFORMATON SECURITY • The exploitation and application of ICT requires secure environment. • The objective of this initiative is to ensure that systems are dependable in the • face of threats that are becoming increasingly sophisticated worldwide. • Therefore measures should be taken to develop systems and guidelines aimed at unconstrained use of ICT in the public and private sectors.

The components under this initiative include: • Address national security implications arising from the widespread application of ICT within the economy and society, • Introduce and enforce appropriate legal measures against misuse of systems and data; • Protect the existing government networks, data and information systems against attacks and unauthorized access, and protect the rights of citizens;

3. THE WOREDANET ICT NETWORK 3.1 BACKGROUND: • WoredaNet is a terrestrial and satellite-based network whose primary objective is to provide ICT services such as video conferencing, directory services, mail services, voice services, and Internet connectivity to the federal-level, regional-level and woreda-level government entities. From conception, the WoredaNet was established to leverage its infrastructure so as to establish a three tier structure for the provision of government based quality ICT service to the pubic sector driven by user requirements. This was to be achieved by harmonizing efforts undertaken by other government institutions in terms of ICT capacity building or service delivery by use of and/or extension of the WoredaNet infrastructure.

3.2 CONCEPTUALIZATION: • How does The Government Architecture look like? What should be the pattern of the aggregated network infrastructure? • The WoredaNet ICT Network is instituted as an infrastructure frame (Skeleton) that goes in line with the FDRE’s Federal and Regional government’s hierarchy. The upgrading works of this system are designed to cover the government’s administrative, legislative and executive organs hierarchical structure. • There is one National Data Center, NDC, with high speed Fiber optic Network connectivity with the Ethiopian Telecom Broad band Metro Network (BBMN). NDC has redundant and failover systems by design. • The 3 Federal Data Centers (Ministry of Capacity Building, The Prime Ministers Office and Ministry of Federal Affairs); Regional Systems except that of Afar, Benihshangul Gumuz and Gambella are all connected via a Terrestrial connectivity to the ETC BBMN. The Rest of the Woredas are connected via satellite VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminals). • The following two diagrams shall demonstrate FDRE’s Federal and Regional government hierarchy.

3.3 VISION OF THE WOREDANET PROJECT: • The vision of the of WoredaNet ICT Network is to establish a multi-service IP-based service by the use of Broadband Terrestrial and VSAT infrastructure for the delivery of services to government and civil society. This vision is part of a broader ICT initiative to drive development through a massive program to rollout, develop, and utilize ICT for the mass empowerment of Ethiopian society and its people. The vision can be summarized as follows: • To bridge the digital divide between urban and rural communities • To create information affluence by dismantling the information have’s and have -nots • To build the organizational capacity on the three levels of government by use of ICTs • To impact the drive for ethics and transparency through the availability on public Information on a timely and visible platform • To assist in the empowerment of the lowest level of government by the virtue of accurate, timely, and consistent information

3.4 WOREDANET SERVICES: • The WoredaNet is capable of delivering the following core services to all of the federal regional and Woreda sites that are included within its scope: Web Service: • To provide wider access to content available on the Internet for education, health, agriculture and governance by civil servants. Such service will contribute in the bridging the digital divide currently experienced between unequal distribution of Web access between urban and rural and between densely populated towns and thinly populated remote areas. Voice over IP ( IP-Telephony) Service: • To establish a common and singular voice over IP (Internet Protocol) communication infrastructure between Federal, Regional, and Woreda sites which can be stated to be non-existent at the present. • This particular service is expected to contribute largely to the increase of the tele-density of the country by providing an aggregated telephone access service especially to remote woredas without having to traverse the traditional telephone exchanges.

Directory Service: • To establish a government wide catalogue of digital resources for managing of government folders, files, users, computers, and enforcing of a coherent usage policy in the sharing of such resources. The directory service can greatly impact the alignment of government goals from a top down approach as well as across lateral approach by the design and implementation of policy across a network such as WoredaNet. Messaging: • The role of structured messaging service is very important; In order to create a consistent and true collaboration environment, whereby free flow of mail messages can take place The messaging service shall be secured and structured electronic messaging service that goes inline with the government’s hierarchical structure. Contact details of a specific resource at a woreda, e.g. an email address administrator@akobo.gambella.gov.et can be published, and common experiences can be posted and shared among the three tiers/levels of government.

Video Conferencing: • To reduce distance, time, and cost and to substitute the value of face-to-face meeting by use of IP based Videoconferencing devices as tools for conducting meetings. The value of such a tool is not only for holding up a one to one meetings but also in conducting group meetings and broadcasting recorded sessions, programs or television content to the remote woredas.

4. INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS • 4.1 What are Computers? • A computer is an electronic machine that receives data from an input device, carries out arithmetic and logical processing according to a previously complied set of instructions, stores the proceed data, sends the processed data to an output device. • Schematically, a computer can be represented as follows

CPU Main memory: ROM +RAM Control Arithmetic Unit Unit Input Device Out Put Device External (Secondary) Memory Diskettes Hard Disk

Computers are not very intelligent devices, but they handle instructions flawlessly and fast. They must follow explicit directions from both the user and computer programmer. Computers are really nothing more than a very powerful calculator with some great accessories. Applications like word processing and games are just a very complex math problem. • One of the great strengths of computer platform, which has led to its overwhelming success in the marketplace, is its modularity. Most computers are made up of many different individual components, which can be mixed and matched in thousands of different configurations. This lets you customize the PC you either buy or build to meet your exact needs.

4.2 PC PRIMARY COMPONENTS • Fundamentally, a computer is a lot like the human body. The human body contains a brain, organs to help the body function properly, and skin to protect the internal organs. And everything works together to create a fully functional human being. Well, the microcomputer has analogous components to create a fully functional machine. • The aim of this Topic is simply to take a look inside the computer, identify the main components, give operating principles, and discover how everything works together.

In this section, you'll be introduced to the following components: • Mother boards • Microprocessors • Memory • The bus system • Input devices • Hard disk drives and interfaces • Output device • Power supplies

4.2.1 MOTHERBOARDS The Components on the Motherboard In addition to the motherboard, processor, and CMOS, you need to know the components listed below. These components are usually found inside the system unit. After they are installed, they are considered a part of the motherboard's sphere of control. • BIOS and CMOS • Bus architectures • Cache memory • Microprocessors • Memory • Storage devices • Power supply • I/O ports

Part of understanding the operation of the motherboard is understanding its bus structure. Most of the motherboard exam questions are about bus architectures. This section provides you with a brief overview of the bus structures on the motherboard.

The CPU moves data values and signals around the computer on a network of fine wires that interconnect it to all the other components on the motherboard. This network is called the bus. • The lines that move data within the computer form the internal bus. • The lines that communicate with peripherals and other devices attached to the motherboard form the external bus.

You can find four primary types of bus structures on most motherboards: • Address: The components on the motherboard pass memory addresses to one another over the address bus. • Control: Used by the CPU to send out signals to coordinate and manage the activities of the motherboard components. • Data: Because the primary job of the computer is to process data, logically the data must be transferred between peripherals, memory, and the CPU. Obviously, the data bus can be a very busy hallway. • Power: The power bus is the river of life for the motherboard's components, providing each with the electrical power it needs to operate.

The number of wires in a bus controls the number of bits that can be transferred over the bus. For example, a 32-bit bus must have 32 wires. • A Personal Computer motherboard is a large printed circuit board that's home to many of the essential parts of the computer, including the microprocessor, chipset, cache, memory sockets, expansion bus, parallel and serial ports, mouse and keyboard connectors, and IDE, EIDE, or SCSI controllers. • The motherboard is often referred to as a system board. IBM has always called its motherboard a system board. Apple Computer calls its motherboard a logic board, while a few others refer to theirs as a planar board. These terms are still around today; for the most part, they are interchangeable.

Day 1: 1. OVERVIEW OF ICT