Charming Digital World: July 2011

New Digital Terms :

What is Mobile Computing?
Mobile Computing is a generic term describing the application of small, portable, and wireless computing and communication devices. This includes devices like laptops, mobile phones, wearable computers and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) with Bluetooth or IRDA interfaces, and USB flash drives.

What is WAP?
Short for the Wireless Application Protocol, a secure specification that allows users to access information instantly via handheld wireless devices such as mobile phones, pagers, two-way radios, smartphones and communicators.

Aperture Priority: A mode in which a desired lens opening (f-stop) is manually selected and locked in; the camera then chooses an appropriate shutter speed for proper exposure. Used primarily to control depth of field (the range of sharpness) in front of or behind a subject or object.
Artifacts: Unwanted effects in the image such as blotches (from over-compression), Christmas tree lights (multi-colored speckles from bright highlights), noise (granularity from underexposure) and other aberrations that sometimes afflict digicam images.

Aspherical Lens: A lens designed to reproduce images better by having its edges flattened so that it is not a perfect sphere, hence: "a" (not) "spherical" (a sphere).
Autofocus: The camera automatically focuses on a subject or object at which it is pointed.

Buffer: An temporary electronic storage area where several already-exposed digicam images can wait in line to be processed. This speeds the interval between shots since each photo does not have to be processed before the next one can be taken.

CCD: Charge-coupled device. The sensor array that makes up the imaging surface of the digicam. The more sensors a CCD has, the higher the image resolution will be.
CMOS: Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor. Used in some digicams instead of CCDs because they have low power requirements and are less expensive.

CMYK: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. The colors that are mixed to print pictures on paper. Most ink-jet and dye-sublimation printers use combinations of these colors to reproduce images.

Color Temperature: A method of describing the qualities of warm (yellowish) or cool (bluish) light and measuring it in Degrees Kelvin (°K).

Compact Flash: A matchbook-sized memory card used in many digital cameras today and presently capable of storing over 200MB of information.

Compact Flash II: A new Compact Flash standard with increased capacity.

Compression: Reducing digicam picture file sizes in the camera after they’re shot, usually according to Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) specifications so more images can be stored on the memory card. The degree of compression can be user-specified on many models depending on the ultimate quality needed.

dpi: Dots-per-inch. Printers lay down multiple dots of ink when printing to reproduce each pixel of the image. The higher the dpi rating of the printer, the better it can define each pixel. Also a measurement of a scanner’s resolution, although a more precise term would be spi (samples-per-inch).

Depth Of Field: The range of sharpness in front of and behind the subject or object focused on.

Digital Zoom: An electronic enlargement of part of the image making it appear to be closer and bigger, simulating an optical zoom lens at a telephoto setting. The image is actually cropped, resulting in loss of surrounding pixels and decreased resolution. In some digicams, interpolation is used to offset this loss. (see Interpolation).

Downsampling: See "Interpolation"

DPOF: Digital Print Order Feature. Allows pictures to be selected in the camera for future direct-from-memory-card printing on photo-finishing machines equipped with this feature.

Dye Sublimation: A type of printing process in which a dye ribbon is heated by the print head creating a gas that hardens onto special paper. This creates soft-edged spots of color that melt into each other and give the appearance of a continuous tone photograph.

EXIF: Exchangeable Image File. The JPEG compression mode used by most digicams.

Exposure Compensation: A feature on most digicams that allows manual override of the camera’s light meter to achieve better exposure under difficult lighting conditions.

External Flash Synch: Allows connection to other flash units instead of (or in addition to) the digicam’s built-in flash. Very useful for experimenting with off-camera lighting effects and for use with studio strobes.

Fixed Focus: The camera’s focus is pre-set to a distance at which most subjects or objects will be in focus from near to far. Not as precise as autofocus.

Flashpath: A floppy disk-sized shell into which a SmartMedia memory card is inserted so that images may be transferred directly to the computer through its floppy drive. Despite its convenience, it requires batteries and is slower than a PC (memory) card reader.

Focal Length Equivalency: Since most users are familiar with 35mm camera lenses, digicam lens specs are frequently stated in those terms. For example, a digicam lens that zooms from 9.2mm to 28mm would be described as 36mm to 110mm (equiv).

IBM MicroDrive: A high capacity (up to a Gigabyte) spinning storage device that can be used with digicams accepting Compact Flash II memory cards.

Info-Lithium: A Lithium-Ion battery that indicates its remaining shooting time in minutes on the digicam’s LCD Monitor screen.

Inkjet: A type of printing in which dots of ink are sprayed onto paper to create the image. Some inkjet printers can lay down 1440 dots of ink per inch, resulting in photo-quality prints (provided that the image has adequate resolution in pixels to begin with).

Interpolation: The process of adding or subtracting pixels to an image (usually in an imaging program) to increase or reduce its size at a desired resolution. Also known as resampling or upsampling and downsampling. Interpolation changes the file size of the image. See also: "Resizing."

ISO Equivalency: A measure of the digicam’s sensitivity to light using conventional film speeds as a yardstick. Most digicams have fixed ISO (International Standards Organization) equivalents but others can be set to sensitivities ranging from 80—640 to achieve adequate exposure under different lighting conditions.

Jaggies: The stair-stepping effect that can be seen in curves and diagonal lines when a picture’s resolution is too low and individual pixels begin to show in the image.
JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group (see "Compression").

LCD Monitor: The Liquid Crystal Display color screen on most digicams, usually 1.8 to 2.5 inches measured diagonally and used to check images after they are shot. The LCD monitor can also be used to frame pictures before they are taken and is usually more accurate than the optical viewfinder, though not as convenient to use.

Lens Distortion: An abnormal rendering of lines in an image; most commonly they may appear to be bending inward (pincushion distortion) or outward (barrel distortion). Correctable by using a plug-in in an imaging program.

Lithium-ion (LI-ion): A long-lasting rechargeable battery used in some digicams.

Macro: The ability of a lens to focus just inches away from an object or subject so as to produce big close-ups, sometimes even larger-than-life size.

Manual Focus: The digicam’s focus can be set by the user at any point from near to far or in steps such as 3 feet, 15 feet, Infinity. A useful override feature on some autofocus cameras which sometimes refuse to fire when they cannot focus accurately in very low light or on fast-moving subjects or objects.

Maximum Aperture: A measure of how much light can pass through a lens when its diaphragm is opened fully. Lenses with maximum apertures of f-2 or f-2.8 are categorized as "fast" and can produce correct exposures under lower light than "slow" lenses with maximum apertures of f-3.5 or smaller.

MegaPixel (also MP): One million pixels. When the length times width of a digicam’s pixel array reaches one million, its resolution is then described in MegaPixels. 1,300,000 pixels equals 1.3 MegaPixels.

Memory Card Reader: Allows rapid transfer of images recorded on digicam memory cards to a computer. The memory card —containing a folder of images— shows up as an external drive on the computer’s desktop and the entire folder can be copied over to the hard drive in seconds.

MemoryStick: Sony’s proprietary memory card.

NiMH: Nickel Metal Hydride: A type of digicam rechargeable battery that provides very consistent voltage and is environmentally safe.

Noise: The electronic equivalent of excessive grain in a film image. Usually found in images shot at high ISO settings.

Optical Viewfinder: An optical glass device on the digicam which, when looked through, shows the intended image to be photographed. The best digicams have optical viewfinders in addition to LCD monitors because the LCD can "wash out" in bright sunlight, making it virtually impossible to see the image.

Optical Zoom: A zoom lens which uses movement of lens elements to achieve various fields of view. Regardless of whether the zoom is set for taking pictures at wide-angle or telephoto settings, the resolution of the image remains the same.

Photo CD: A CD-ROM holding about 100 images, each scanned from slides or negatives at five different resolutions. The photographer can then choose the best resolution to achieve the size of a desired photo.

Picture CD: Similar to Photo CD but with only one medium resolution scan for each image.

Pixel: From a contraction of the words Picture Element. The basic element of resolution. Digicam resolution is expressed in pixels (not pixels-per-inch).
Pixelation: See "Jaggies."

Plug-in: A small application that can be added (plugged-in) to a program to give it more functionality. For example, a distortion-removal plug-in.

ppi: Pixels-per-inch. A measurement used to describe the size of the final printed image. An image that has a higher number of pixels-per-inch will show more detail than one which has fewer pixels-per-inch.

Pre-Flash: Some digicams fire two flashes, the first adjusts the white balance (see below) and the second exposes the picture. This is different from a red-eye reduction mode in which multiple weak flashes are fired to close down the subject’s iris prior to the actual exposure.

Red-Eye: A phenomenon which occurs when the flash is fired directly into the subject’s eyes in a dimly lit or dark environment. Blood vessels in the back of the eye reflect their color back through the iris of the eye which is usually opened wide in dim light. Most digicams have a flash mode to reduce or eliminate this condition.

Reflex Viewing: The intended image is viewed directly by your eye through the taking lens giving you as close to what you see as you’re apt to find. Also called TTL (through the lens) and SLR (single lens reflex) viewing.

Resizing: In which the size of the image is changed by squeezing pixels together (to make them smaller) or spreading them apart (to make them bigger) without adding or subtracting any. Thus, the image’s file size remains the same. See also: "Interpolation."

Resolution (Res): A measure of how much information a digital camera can record, usually expressed in pixels or MegaPixels and arrived at by multiplying the length (in pixels) times the width (in pixels) of the CCD sensor array.

RGB: Red, Green, and Blue: The primary colors of light which, when mixed in varying proportions can produce all colors. Digital cameras and monitors use RGB to record and display colors.

Shutter Priority: A mode in which a desired shutter speed is manually selected and locked in; the camera then chooses an appropriate lens opening (f-stop) for proper exposure. Used primarily to prevent motion-blur in fast-moving subjects or objects.

Slow Synch: A flash mode in which the image is given some exposure before or after the flash is fired so as to bring out details in the background that would normally be underexposed or not recorded at all.

SmartMedia: Also known as SSFDC (Solid State Floppy Disk Card). A postage stamp-sized memory card used by some digicam manufacturers as an alternative to Compact Flash cards and presently capable of storing up to 64MB of digital image information.

TIFF: Tagged Image File Format. Most digicam images are recorded as TIFFs and then JPEG-compressed in the camera. Some digicams now offer an uncompressed TIFF option so an image can be retrieved in its original state, eliminating the possibility of compression artifacts.

TFT: Thin Film Transistor. A type of digicam monitor display that allows a wider, brighter viewing angle than a standard LCD monitor.

Upsampling: See "Interpolation"

USB: Universal Serial Bus. A computer port to which peripherals can be connected and, when used by a USB-equipped digicam, allows rapid transfer of digital camera images to the computer.

White Balance: In which the color temperature of the scene is measured prior to exposure and electronically adjusted so that white objects will not take on excessive color casts of red, blue or, if shot under most fluorescent lighting, green.

Zoom Lens Apertures: Designated as two maximum apertures

on the lens ring as: 1:2.8—4.0. The first number after the "1" (f-2.8) applies if the lens is in full wide angle position. The second (f-4), if it is at full telephoto. Similarly, minimum apertures will also vary by a full f-stop. If the zoom is set between wide and telephoto, the maximum aperture will fall in the middle, in this case, f-3.5.

ADSL
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. A technology for delivering a high bit rate link to customers over ordinary copper wire. Data rates can reach 8Mbps from the exchange to the customer and 640bps in the other direction.

Authentication
Determines a user's identity, as well as determining what a user is authorised to access, such as secure electronic information held in financial databases. The most common form of authentication is user name and password, although this also provides the lowest level of security. For further explanation.

Bandwidth
The data transfer capacity of a telecommunications channel, usually expressed in terms of the number of bits per second that can be transmitted (a bit being one unit of information). Narrow bandwidth would correspond to a dial-up modem with 2400 to 56,000 bits per second while broadband can extend to more than 10,000 times this rate.

Broadband
High-speed data transmission capability. The (OECD) defines broadband as a transmission speed in excess of 256,000 bits per second in both directions. The term is commonly used to refer to Internet access via cable modems, DSL (JetStream, for example) and increasingly, wireless technologies (WiFi).

CAB
The Citizens' Advice Bureaux, staffed by volunteers, provide New Zealanders with information to address problems and questions they may have. Further information available at

Creative Commons
According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Creative Commons is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative work available for others to legally build upon and share. Further information available on the Wikipedia website

Community
There are a number of ways of defining communities and together they make up the interconnected systems of society. Some approaches include:
geographic communities, such as suburbs or towns that are often referred to as "the local communities",
communities of interest, identity, or circumstance, such as the business and its various industry sectors and the research communities,
the non-profit and voluntary sectors, which are also known as the community sector;
ethnic and cultural communities,
communities of interest such as those for hobbies, sports or politics,
communities of circumstance, such as youth, parenthood, senior citizens or the disabled.

Connectivity
The ability to use an electronic network to send and receive information between any locations, devices or business services.

Digital divide
The term "digital divide" was coined in the 1990s to describe the perceived growing gap between those who have access to and the skills to use ICT and those who, for socio-economic and/or geographical reasons, have limited or no access. There was a particular concern that ICT would exacerbate existing inequalities. A number of areas of specific concern were identified both here and abroad, namely that people could be disadvantaged by their geographic location, age, gender, culture and/or economic status.

Digital literacy
The ability to use digital technology, communication tools or networks to locate, evaluate, use and create information.

Disruptive technology
This term was coined by Clayton M. Christensen to describe a new, low-cost, often simpler technology that displaces an existing sustaining technology. Disruptive technologies are usually initially inferior to the technology that they displace, but their low cost creates a market that induces technological and economic network effects that provide the incentive to enhance them to match and surpass the previous technology. They create new industries, but eventually change the world. Examples include the internal combustion engine, transistors and the Internet.

E-crime
Electronic crime covers offences where a computer or other ICT is used as a tool to commit an offence, is the target of an offence or is used as a storage device in an offence.

e-GIF
The E-government Interoperability Framework is a significant tool to enable agencies to work together electronically in a spirit of collaboration. It allows agencies to focus on the business of integrating their services for people without having to decide on competing technology standards. In the e-government context, interoperability relates specifically to the electronic systems that support business processes between agencies and between government and people and business. It does not mean that a central agency will dictate common systems and processes. Interoperability can be achieved by the application of a framework of policies, standards and guidelines that leave decisions about specific hardware and software solutions open for individual agencies or clusters of agencies to resolve.

E-health
Involves the electronic enablement of the health and disability support services in order to:
empower individuals and their families to manage their own health and participation better;
improve the co-ordination and integration of care delivery to individuals; and
allow population health initiatives such as mapping notifiable diseases to occur in a timely fashion.
Source: Ministry of Health, Advice to the Incoming Minister of Health.

E-learning
Learning that is facilitated by the use of digital tools and content. Typically, it involves some form of interactivity, which may include online interaction between the learner and their teacher or peers.

Electronic Rights Management Information (ERMI)
A set of systems for identifying content, protecting copyright and tracking the usage of electronic information. Source: Ministry of Education, Interim Tertiary e-Learning Framework 2004.

GDP
Gross domestic product is a measure of the size of the economy of a particular territory. It is defined as the total value of all goods and services produced within that territory during a specified period (most commonly, per year).

GIF
The Growth and Innovation Framework was released in February 2002 to set out the government's sustainable economic growth objectives. The framework laid out what the government and the private sector must do to achieve higher sustainable economic growth.Source: Ministry of Economic Development,

ICT sector
In New Zealand, the ICT sector is an agglomeration of the communications sector, including telecommunications providers, and the information technology sector, which ranges from small software development firms to multi-national hardware and software producers. Source: Ministry of Economic Development,

ICT Taskforce
The ICT Taskforce was established in response to the government's Growth and Innovation Framework. It has four related goals, which are to enhance the existing innovation framework, develop skills and talent, increase global connectedness and focus effort for maximum gain. The Taskforce comprised a tightly focused group of New Zealand ICT business leaders with relevant commercial experience. It reported into the growth potential of New Zealand ICT and identified the collective private sector and government contributions needed to achieve this potential. Published June 2003.

Information
This term has many meanings depending on the context. For example, it is often related to such concepts as meaning, knowledge, communication, truth, representation, and mental stimulus. See also Information Society.

Information literacy
The life-long ability to locate, evaluate, use and create information.

Information Society
A term for a society in which the creation, distribution and manipulation of information has become the most significant economic and cultural activity. An Information Society may be contrasted with societies in which the economic underpinning is primarily industrial or agrarian. The machine tools of the Information Society are computers and telecommunications, rather than lathes or ploughs.

Innovation
The creation, development and implementation of a new product, process or service, with the aim of improving efficiency, effectiveness or competitive advantage. Innovation may apply to products, services, manufacturing processes, managerial processes or the design of an organisation. It is most often viewed at a product or process level, where product innovation satisfies a customer's needs and process innovation improves efficiency and effectiveness. Innovation is linked to creativity and the creation of new ideas, and involves taking those new ideas and turning them into reality through invention, research and new product development.

Intellectual property
Very broadly means the legal rights that result from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields. Countries have laws to protect intellectual property, for two main reasons: to give statutory expression to the moral and economic rights of creators in their creations and the rights of the public in access to those creations; and to promote, as a deliberate act of government policy, creativity and the dissemination and application of its results, and encourage the fair trading that contributes to economic and social development. Intellectual property is traditionally divided into two branches: industrial property and copyright. Industrial property includes inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs and geographic indications of source and copyright includes literary and artistic works.

Inter-modal competition
Refers to competition between dissimilar technologies, such as ADSL and wireless technologies. Intra-modal competition refers to competition between similar technologies.

Interoperability
The ability of two or more systems or components to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged. Source: Software Engineering Institute,

IP
The Internet Protocol is a network-layer protocol that contains addressing information and some control information that enables packets of data to be routed between hosts on the Internet.Source: Cisco Systems Inc.,

Knowledge
Is built up from interaction with the world, and is organised and stored in each individual's mind. It is also stored on an organisational level within the minds of employees and in paper and electronic records. Two forms of knowledge can be distinguished: tacit, or implicit knowledge, which is held in a person's mind and is instinctively known without being formulated into words; and explicit knowledge, which has been communicated to others and is held in written documents and procedures. Organisations are increasingly recognising the value of knowledge, and many employees are now recognised as knowledge workers.

Knowledge society
A society that creates, shares and uses knowledge for the prosperity and well-being of its people.

Mbps
Millions of bits per second or megabits per second, a measure of bandwidth or the total information flow over a given time, over a telecommunications medium. Depending on the medium and the transmission method, bandwidth is also sometimes measured in the Kbps (thousands of bits or kilobits per second) range or the Gbps (billions of bits or gigabits per second) range.

Microprocessor
A complex microcircuit (integrated circuit) or set of such chips that carries out the functions of the processor of an information technology system; that is, it contains a control unit (and clock), an arithmetic and logic unit, and the necessary registers and links to main store and to peripherals.

Next Generation Internet
Next Generation Internet is a term used by governments, corporations and educators to describe the future network and the work underway to develop it. The future Internet will be so pervasive, reliable and transparent that it will be taken for granted. It will be a seamless part of life much like electricity or plumbing. However, getting to this will involve exploring technologies and network capacities that are in advance of offerings from commercial providers in terms of bandwidths, communications protocols and services.

OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development comprises 30 member countries sharing a commitment to democratic government and the market economy. Its work covers economic and social issues, from macroeconomics to trade, education, development and science and innovation. Source: OECD,

Phishing
“Phishing” is a form of Internet fraud that aims to steal valuable information such as credit cards, social security numbers, user IDs and passwords. A fake website is created that is similar to that of a legitimate organisation, typically a financial institution such as a bank or insurance company. An email is sent requesting that the recipient access the fake website (which will usually be a replica of a trusted site) and enter their personal details, including security access codes. The page looks genuine, because it is easy to fake a valid web site. Any HTML page on the web can be modified to suit a phishing scheme.
Phishing e-mails are often sent to large lists of people, expecting that some percentage of the recipients will actually have an account with the real organisation. The term comes from "fishing," where bait is used to catch a fish. In phishing, e-mail is the bait.

Radio frequency
A location or band on the radio frequency spectrum, such as 800, 900 or 1800Mhz.

RFID
Radio frequency identification first appeared in tracking and access applications during the 1980s. These wireless systems allow for non-contact reading and are effective in manufacturing and other hostile environments where barcode labels may not survive. RFID has established itself in a wide range of markets including livestock identification and automated vehicle identification systems because of its ability to track moving objects.

SMEs
Small and medium-sized enterprises. There is no official definition of an SME in New Zealand but it is usually taken to be a firm of up to 50 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs). SMEs in other countries tend to be much larger than those found in New Zealand (up to several hundred FTEs). New Zealand SMEs are typically individually owned and managed, with few if any specialist managerial staff, and are not part of a larger business enterprise. Firms with fewer than 50 employees constitute 99% of New Zealand enterprises, and account for approximately 49% of total output.

Spam
Unsolicited bulk email that is largely commercial in nature.

WSIS
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was held in two phases. The first phase took place in Geneva in December 2003 and the second phase will take place in Tunis in November 2005. The objective of the first phase was to develop and foster a clear statement of political will and take concrete steps to establish the foundations for an Information Society for all, reflecting all the different interests at stake. The second phase involves a process of monitoring and evaluation of the progress of feasible actions outlined in Geneva and a concrete set of deliverables that must be achieved by the time the Summit meets again in Tunis in November 2005.

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