Definition for: Information Technology:
“The technology of data processing/information management” www.computeruser.com

“ Electronic and information technology includes any product used to acquire, store, manipulate or transmit information. This includes software applications and operating systems; web-based information and applications such as distance learning; telephones and other telecommunications products; video equipment and multimedia products that may be distributed on videotapes, CD’s, DVD’s or the World Wide Web; office products such as photocopiers and fax machines; calculators; and computer hardware.” www.washington.edu

“ The National Science Foundation (NSF) describes information Technology (IT) as: ‘a broad subject, with applications and effects throughout the sciences, engineering, education, the economy, the humanities, and society in general. IT deals with how we develop and use information, how we make sense of it, how we compute, and how we communicate and make decisions. Looking more closely at the definition of Information Technology, IT involves the gathering of information, communication of that information, analysis and decision-making and finally, response.’” www.eng.auburn.edu

“ IT (Information Technology) is a term that encompasses all forms of technology used to create, store, exchange, and use information in its various forms (business data, voice conversations, still images, motion pictures, multimedia presentations, and other forms, including those not yet conceived.” www.techtarget.com

IT and the Economy: “IT is the nation’s single largest exporting sector, accounting for over 29% of all US exports, and employs millions of Americans at wages well above the national average.” Information Technology Industry Council www.itic.org

“ Information technology is central to our economy and to our society. It drives many of today’s innovations and it offers enormous potential for further innovation in the coming decades. It also is the basis for an extremely successful $500 billion industry that is critical to our nation’s international competitiveness.” Computing Research Association, www.cs.washington.edu

“the IT industry has been the engine of economic growth for the past six years. Although it is only 8.2 percent of the total economy, the IT industry has accounted for almost one-third of real economic growth from 1994 to 2000. IT contributed far more to growth than any other industry … nearly three times the closest (industry) sector.” Information Technology Industry Council www.itic.org

“ The informational/global economy …subsumes (industrial economy) through technological deepening, embodying knowledge and information in all processes of material production and distribution on the basis of a gigantic leap forward in the reach and scope of the circulation sphere.” Manual Castells The Rise of the Network Society www.it.stlawu.edu

“ On September 18 (2002) the Bush Administration issued its long-awaited National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. As the Information and Communications Sector Coordinator under Presidential Decision Directive 63, ITAA (Information Technology Association of America) was the single IT Association invited by the White House to participate in the official unveiling of the Strategy.” www.itaa.org

“Computer power will transition from the data center and desktop to thousands of points of interconnection whenever and wherever people use information. This ‘manifest destiny’, society’s next frontier, makes information technology the most exciting and creative industry of the 21st century.” www.witsa.org and www.itaa.org