Information technology has always been here, assisting mankind in some way or the other. It is only with the development of technologies that this has been able to change form and shape, along with methods of delivery. The basic idea remains the same – be able to share and reap benefits from the knowledge acquired.

The seers have done this in the past, then came, the tablets and later the books revolutionized the scenario. With advent of ink and paper, minds and creativity achieved new and unclaimed heights. Artists, writers and host of other professionals monopolized on literature, which only belonged to the elite at one time.

Societies around the world have grown, at different paces, but almost in the same fashion and direction throughout the globe. In the beginnings knowledge was only the property of the selected few, and never commonly shared as we do now. Science has been a great promoter of equality, throughout time, and effectively serving us without any bias.

Printing Technology – the First Revolution

Knowledge and literature were hereby commonly made available for the common man, at a chosen price. Printing technology simplified technology for mass circulations and distribution was made manageable albeit a slow pace. Man was thrilled to find his ideas and thoughts in print and benefiting scores of people who could read and write.

Ideas and thoughts were now gaining solid ground, and this prompted the human minds to open up, and to go on, and on. Man has grown bolder and clearer by the day, and almost stands at the pinnacle from where he is most effectively able to share and communicate whatever he has got. With help from the existing and developing technologies, he is able to clearly express himself, as best as his idea or thought.

Media and Communications

We only got better as we grew. Mass media and telecommunications have only enhanced our capacities for mass distribution methods. From the concepts of the electrical world, we outgrew into the electronic environment. Electronics not only enhanced our capacities for distribution, but have also immensely helped us give clearer pictures to our ideas and improved paths.

Communications during the fag end of the last century specialized and perfected the art, effectively delivering content to the remotest corner of this earth. All barriers and challenges were overcome by the enthusiasm generated by the electronic media and industry as such. Communications peaked during this period into a mature and user friendly environment.

The Magic of the World Wide Web

This magic has been able to weave the web, correlating it with the information technology, so effectively that putting it on the internet is like speaking to the entire world. You never can know and realize how far and how soon you are able to get heard by the people who are using the internet.

Information technology has been able to effectively create a concrete platform in the shape of the World Wide Web, and which is proving to become the biggest database ever known to man. It is like a huge human mind acquiring potency, and being able to relate to the entire mankind.

We can come useful here as a human, and put in our bit so as to fulfill, and try to repay this world, for all that this world has been able to give us. Thank God for giving us a chance.

Perhaps technology is too general a term. The “internet” would be a more specific term. When the Internet was in its infancy, we could only read text in the form of static web pages or email. But that was a long time ago. The Internet rapidly maturing. There are a plethora of applications that are freely available for download. These applications allow internet users to connect with one another for free.

The birth of instant messengers and chat applications.

Those who have been surfing the Internet for the past decade or so will be familiar with instant messengers and chat applications. In the early days, the popular chat application was IRC (Internet Relayed Chat). To chat with others, we had to connect to a chat server, and join a “chat room”. Once there, we could either chat with everyone else, or click on a nick and start a personal chat. Chatting in this context simply means typing messages that are relayed to the server, which it turn appear on the other party’s screen. The process is almost instantaneous. It was a lot of fun to chat and make friends in IRC chat rooms.

Shortly after that, someone came up with the idea of instant chat, but without having to login to chat rooms. We saw the first instant messenger taking the world by storm – ICQ. In just a few short years, ICQ gained millions of users all over the world.

To use ICQ, you need to download a small application, which you will install onto your computer. Once installed, you will be able to add friends to your list. Of course, your friends will also need ICQ to be installed so that both of you can chat. Through this process, the popularity of ICQ continued to grow.

It wasn’t long before the big players wanted a piece of the action. Soon, we saw Microsoft, AOL, and Yahoo coming up with their own instant messengers. They all work in similar ways. Google is the newest player to launch an instant chat application – Google Talk.

Google Talk stands out among all the other chat applications because it is more lightweight, and being lightweight, it is extremely fast loading. Recently, this application was updated with voice and video. In the past, instant messengers have never tread into the domain of voice and video. Google Talk is not the first to offer this capability, but it is not late to the party either. Google Talk performs voice and video calls very well compared to the competition. This means that with the application, you can call anyone in the world for free. To do so, only your PC, an Internet connection, and a copy of Google Talk are required. Of course, the other party needs the same.

Instead of just using text to stay connected, you can now use text, voice, and video. Miss anyone recently? Perhaps Google Talk can help!