Transcript E-Government Toolkit for Developing Nations

Internet & Email
Presentation Overview

Internet & Email
I. Introduction
II. The benefits of Internet & Email
III. Understanding the Internet
IV. Basic Email
Part I.
Introduction
Introduction


Information Technology (IT) primarily deals
with the creation and manipulation of digital
information being used by individuals in the
home, school and virtually every sector.
Making digital or Digitization refers to the
ability to transform text, documents, books,
pictures, voices, sound, music, television
signals, movies and any other data into
computer bits.
Note: Computer bits simply refers to the data or the
information represented by a series of 1’s and 0’s.
Introduction


ICT, in addition, deals with sending and
receiving these computer bits, through the use
of phone lines, copper & fiber optic cables, and
wireless devices.
The technology continues to become faster and
cheaper, making it more widely used.
Introduction

Therefore, it can be said that ICT is made up
of mainly the following:
1. The Information Highway
(i.e. Phone lines, satellites and fiber-optic
cables are the roads)
2. The Information Transport
(i.e. computers, mobiles, and other network
devices are the vehicles)
Introduction


There is no universal definition of ICT
because it is always growing to include
more and more tools and the skills
needed to use them.
For the scope of this presentation, we
will only discuss the Internet & Email,
their benefits, the different parts and
how to troubleshoot Internet
connections.
Part II.
The benefits of Internet & Email
The benefits of Internet & Email
There is an old famous saying that
reads:
“the future of the computer is the network.”
That is to say that the computer alone is
a very useful tool; but the tool will be
even more useful when it is connected to
a network of computers sharing
information and other resources.
The benefits of Internet & Email


The Internet is a global network of
computers, their interconnections, and the
information that travels between them.
Email or Electronic Mail is one of the most
common services that can be accessed
through the Internet, allowing users to send
text messages and attachments (i.e. files) of
limited size, depending on the service.
The benefits of Internet & Email

We live in the information age, and it is
often said:
“Information is power.”
So the ability to store, retrieve, manipulate,
send, and receive information, correctly and
quickly, essentially makes individuals and
organizations more productive.
The benefits of Internet & Email

Having easy and affordable access to
the Internet allows us to benefit from
all the information and services
available.
Note: This difference between those
who have easy access to ICT and
those who don’t is commonly known
as ‘the digital divide.’
The benefits of Internet & Email


In the words of Thomas L. Friedman,
“the innovations in computerization,
miniaturization, telecommunication and
digitization have democratized
technology”… and information.
What this means is that because of all the
advancements in the various fields, ICT
equipment keeps getting faster, smaller,
cheaper, and thus more easily accessible
to the masses.
The benefits of Internet & Email


Subsequently, more and more of the world’s
population is connected and has access to
the tools needed for sharing lots of
information, news, knowledge, books,
pictures, music, movies, money and so much
more, on a daily basis.
With easy access to the Internet, individuals
and the society at large can be empowered.
The benefits of Internet & Email


Thus, the Internet can greatly
contribute as a driver for socioeconomic development.
By using the Internet and its services,
any sector can increase productivity and
maintain efficiency, by storing,
retrieving and sharing information with
great speed and accuracy.
The benefits of Internet & Email

The Role of ICT in National Development
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Agriculture
Health
Education & Research
Trade & Commerce
Good Governance
Environmental Management
Tourism
Gender
Culture
The benefits of Internet & Email

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Agriculture –
To facilitate wide access to information and
intensive sharing of knowledge among
planners, policy makers, practitioners and
researchers in the agriculture sector;
To assist farmers on such areas as input supply,
extension and use of local knowledge;
To market agricultural products;
To provide equitable access to new techniques
for improving agricultural production;
To reduce food storage losses through more
efficient distribution.
The benefits of Internet & Email

1.
2.
3.
Health –
To use virtual medicine and telemedicine to
make it possible for patients located in rural
areas to have access to medical experts located
thousands of miles away;
To enhance health administration and
management through medical information
system;
To establish information “health profiles” and
decision support system on federal, regional,
zonal, woreda and kebele levels.
The benefits of Internet & Email

1.
2.
3.
4.
Education & 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;
The benefits of Internet & Email

1.
Trade & Commerce –
Linking chamber of commerce, trade
associations and enterprises to both national
and global trade;
3.
Reduced commercial transaction costs;
Online trade related information and
import/export opportunities;
4.
Improving management of federal income tax;
2.
5.
Development and marketing of new products
through electronic networks.
The benefits of Internet & Email

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Good Governance –
To strengthen the efficiency, accountability,
and the transparency of government;
To help the government design, implement,
and assess policy reforms
To enhance the public’s participation in the
democratic process
To provide the citizens with the ability to
improve their interactions with each other and
with the government.
To yield large productivity increases in
government service delivery.
The benefits of Internet & Email

1.
2.
3.
Environmental Management –
Increase agricultural productivity by providing
farmers with information on weather forecasts;
Implementing networks which provide access to
low cost terrestrial and satellite radio
telecommunications in areas threatened by
environmental degradation and natural disasters;
Establishing problem monitoring information
systems using geographic information system
(GIS) technologies, to combine information on
soils, hydro-geology and rainfall with socioeconomic data, allowing early warnings.
The benefits of Internet & Email

1.
2.
3.
4.
Tourism Attracting more tourists and 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 online promotional campaigns;
Provision of tourism related information and
indicators that encourage and facilitate
investment in tourism projects.
The benefits of Internet & Email

1.
2.
3.
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.
The benefits of Internet & Email

1.
2.
3.
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.
Part III.
Understanding the Internet
Understanding the Internet


So the Internet refers to the network of thousands
of regional networks which enables the transfer of
all kinds of information, in the form of computer bits
or packets represented by series of 1’s & 0’s.
Connecting to the Internet –
There are mainly 2 ways of connecting to the
Internet:
- Dial up
- Network
Understanding the Internet

Dial up –
Most stand-alone computers use a modem
and a phone line to dial into an Internet
Service Provider's (ISP) server, which
provides access to the Internet. ISPs will
typically charge a monthly fee based on
the number of hours of access to the
Internet.
The speed of the Internet connection, also
known as bandwidth, is not more than 56
kilobytes per second (kbps).
Understanding the Internet
Dial up
Understanding the Internet

Network –
Universities, government offices and large
companies usually have a network
connection, which means that the computer
is part of a network with a high-speed
dedicated (leased-line) connection.
This connection has high-speed bandwidth of
64 kbps or more, also known as Broadband.
Understanding the Internet
Understanding the Internet


Computers on the Internet use
client/server architecture. This means that
the remote server machine provides files
and services to a user's client machine
when requested.
IP address – an Internet Protocol address is
a unique numeric identifier representing
computers on the Internet. (e.g.
213.55.64.36)
Using the Internet (cont.)

Client/Server architecture
Understanding the Internet


Since an IP address is not easy for people
to remember, the Internet uses domain
names which correspond to the IP
addresses.
Therefore, a globally unified namespace
(i.e., a system of names in which there is
one and only one name for each server) is
essential for the Internet to function.
Understanding the Internet


A domain name is a way to identify and
locate computers connected to the Internet.
A domain name must be unique; no two
organizations on the Internet can have the
same domain name. (i.e. www.yahoo.com is
the Yahoo! Domain on the World Wide Web.)
Therefore, a Domain Name Server (DNS) is
needed to match a domain name to an IP
address and vice versa.
Understanding the Internet

An IP address can be static or dynamic:
- a static IP address does not change
(e.g. Web servers, routers, etc.)
- a dynamic IP address can change
(e.g. dial-up computers)
Understanding the Internet
213.55.64.36
Gateway
192.168.121.1
10.168.1.17
Understanding the Internet

Local Area Network (LAN) settings:
In an office LAN, the router or gateway
used for accessing the Internet must have
a static IP address.
Note: The computers can have static or
dynamic IP addresses. If the address is
static, it is set manually. If it is dynamic, a
DHCP server must assign IP addresses to
computers automatically, as they connect
to the network.
Understanding the Internet

Computers in the same network should have
IP addresses in the same range, in order to
communicate.
(i.e. 192.168.121.1 up to 192.168.121.255)
Usually, your gateway is assigned the first IP
address in the range: 192.168.121.1
Note: Routers will have an internal and external IP
address; only the internal IP address is discussed
here.
Understanding the Internet

After making sure that the network
cables are all connected properly, we first
need to make sure that the Local Area
Connection is enabled. To do so:
1. Click Start->Control Panel->Network Connections
2. Right-click Local Area Connection and select Enable
Understanding the Internet
Understanding the Internet

To check the IP address of a computer and its
gateway:
1. Click Start ->Run
2. Type ‘cmd’ in text box and click ok
3. At the command line, type:
‘ipconfig /all’
Understanding the Internet
Understanding the Internet

To check if the computer can communicate with the
gateway:
1. Click Start->Run
2. Type ‘cmd’ in text box and click ok
3. At the command line, type:
‘ping [Gateway IP address]’
(e.g. ping 192.168.121.1)
If the computer communicates with the gateway,
usually, packets sent = packets received.
Note: The ping command can be used to check connectivity between any
computers in the same network.
Understanding the Internet
Understanding the Internet


If the computer communicates with
the gateway, it should be able to
access the Internet.
If they do not communicate, the
problem is within your LAN. If they
do communicate and you still cannot
access the Internet, you may need to
verify your browser settings in
Internet Explorer.
Understanding the Internet

To verify browser settings:
1. Click Start->Internet Explorer
2. On the top menu, select Tools->Internet Options
3. Select the Connections tab and click LAN settings
4. Automatically Detect settings should be enabled.
Part IV.
Basic Email
Basic Email

Email –
Electronic mail is generally of 2 types:
1. Internet email may travel and be stored
on many other networks and machines.
2. Purely internal or intranet email systems,
where the information never leaves the
corporate or organization's network.
Note: Most Web browsers include features that allow you to
send and receive e-mail messages, or they enable you to
link to another program that handles e-mail.
Basic Email


To send and receive e-mail you need an e-mail
account, with username (user ID) and
password. The concept is based on traditional
mail, where the user has an inbox (like Post
office box) to receive incoming emails.
To send an email, the user must know the
recipient's email address. E-mail addresses
normally consist of a user ID followed by a
domain name (usually the name of an
organization), just like a Web address.
Basic Email

There are many benefits to using Email
services:
Basic Email
It is fast and reliable
 It allows the user to send email to many
users, at the same time
 You can store all the emails you send and
receive to view them later
 You can use the address book for the
people you communicate with frequently
 You can send different attachments, as
long as they don’t exceed a certain file
size

Basic Email
As part of the Federal and Regional
ICT Action plan, all government
offices will eventually require official
email addresses.
(e.g. [email protected])


Therefore, everyone should try to
make regular use of Personalized
emails to get the habit and improve
faster communication
Thank You