Digital Information Technology
Electronic digital information technology is the latest generation of information technologies. But, it
represents a different brand of information technology. Previously, new information technologies have
often competed with and replaced existing ones. The telephone replaced the telegraph for obvious
reasons. Television has relegated radio to a subordinate niche. Digital information technology is
different because it is a form of technology that extends other technologies. In short, digital information
technology has the capability to imitate other technologies. Electronic printed documents mimic
conventional typeset ones. Digital audio recordings reproduce sounds like their analog counterparts. To
the listener, wireless digital telephony works like normal (wired) telephone service. But its imitation is
not mere replication. Digital information technologies offer value-added features. Electronic documents,
for example, can be automatically scaled for different media. The same content can be printed on paper,
posted on the World Wide Web, transmitted to handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cell
phone screens with no extra formatting or fuss. Electronic databases—unlike conventional ones—can be
searched and queried automatically revealing facts that would be difficult to find otherwise. Finally,
digital information technology can extend the technologies that it imitates by merging them in new and
interesting ways. The Web, for example, merges text, numeric data, images, sounds, and video into a
seamless medium for posting and sharing content-rich documents.