ICT in The Local Community Essay

I will be report I will be writing about how ICT has an affect on my local community which is Bradford, West Yorkshire. I will also include the good things and the bad about each part of ICT as it is used by the local community and laws that effect the way things are done in the local community. Booking tickets on-line. You can book tickets online for many events but the most popular is booking for the Alhambra theatre in Bradford. People often go to the Alhambra to see live shows that range from comedies to dramas and being able to book a ticket online is useful for many people in the local community. To book a ticket on-line is easy just follow the instructions on the site, here is an example: The good points about it are that to book a ticket the community doesn’t even have to move from their seat, and they can also take their time choosing when and what they want to see. The bad points about this is that the local community’s request might not go through although they have thought it has, or the system of the theatre may have gone down and then in that case they have to go to the theatre themselves. There is also a lack of human contact and they can only book into an area and not a specific seat, there also maybe a charge for tickets booked on-line and a further charge if you would like them posted to a home in the community. Another bad point is that the site may not be secure from credit card fraud. I think it could be improved by a confirmation being sent to their e-mail address so you know whether or not your booking has gone through. You can also book a ticket over the phone which is a little harder because rather than taking your time as on the web, The good points about booking a ticket over the phone is that time can be saved even if anyone in the community doesn’t own a computer. There are also some bad points for the local community about booking online and they are: they have to give credit card details over the phone and other people may be listening in to take your details without permission, although you are talking to someone there is still a lack of contact, you can book your ticket for most Bradford theatres like the Alhambra in Bradford city centre and the Imax cinema also in Bradford city centre at the times of Monday – Saturday 9:00am – 8:00pm except Thursday 11:00am – 8:00pm, one final thing is that they have to be clear on what they want to see and when they want to see it. There are always a variety of shows on at these popular places. People can be reassured when it comes to give out there personal details over the net because of the Data Protection Act, this law stops the Alhambra giving out any information about the customer purchasing a ticket over the net. This law is effective because it reassures people that any infor mation given out will be safe and stops credit card fraud. ICT in Libraries The library in Bradford uses ICT a lot of the time. They use it for booking books in and out of the library where they have a quick find system which allows them to locate any book whether it is in their department or another. Bradford Central library is the most popular library in Bradford and it has 8 floors each with 1 or 2 hone lines. They also have internet access which can be use by the local community. This is where the internet code of practice comes into play here, it is an agreement that protects internet users. This isn’t really effective because it is an agreement not a law. People still pay a small fee to register with this practice although there is no need to. The library also has access to other ICT appliances on all floors of the library which can be used by the puff called James by the public any time during opening hours. They also have bigger screen with bigger text which meet the needs of the visually impaired. Software packages available are: Word 2000, Excel 2000, Publisher 2000 and Power Point 2000. To get these programs the library has to be licensed which it is otherwise they would be breaking a Copyright Law called Software Copyright Laws which came into force in the year 1988. This law states that software can not be used if it is not registered. The Computer misuse act also comes in to consideration here because this law states that unauthorised access to computer programs or data is an offence. This also protects the library from hackers, hacking into their computers. This law is not really effective because there have been so few prosecutions because many organisations dislike to admit their security procedures have been breached. There are also 2 lifts installed in the library which help the disabled people get from floor to floor and also to help move large quantities of books or other things. The good points for the local community are that when you ring up you can go directly to the place you need to be rather than having to be transferred through the phone lines. Staff is always available if you should have a problem on the PCs. If you need somewhere quiet to come and do some work then you can do it here. There are also bigger screens if you are visually impaired which are extremely useful not just for the visually impaired but also for any detail which needs to be done. They also have a kurzweil personal reader which is the name of a cassette player which recognizes words on the screen and reads them which is ideal for a blind person There also some bad points to the libraries and they are that the library is not always open so you can’t go on them any time you like. There is a set amount of time you are on the PCs so if you have a large amount of work that needs to be done you may have to make several visits if you also need to do research at the same time. I think ways that this could be improved are a bigger variety of brail printers throughout the library and more cassette players so they do not have to keep going to the top floor just to get access to one. Traffic lights All traffic lights use ICT, some have sensors on them and some have timers. There is a variety of technology which is used to detect whether a car has arrived at an intersection ranging from lasers to rubber hoses filled with compressed air. The most common is an inductive loop which is a coil of wire embedded in to the road. There is an example of laser traffic lights on Hammestrasse junction on Valley Parade. The good points about this are that it reduces the build up of traffic around junctions. The bad points about this are that some may get vandalised and when there is too much traffic the lights are always changing and that leads to build up on one side of the lights and there will not be as much on the other. Also these are good for pedestrians because they have the advantage, when the button is pressed the lights change within 30 seconds. The bad points however are that if there is loads of traffic, lights are constantly changing which can be a pain if you are in a rush. Also if you are the only car at one point of the junction and many at another the green light will stay with the majority of the traffic so you could be waiting there for up to 5 minutes. There are also some lights on Wakefield Road near the end of Lister Avenue and those are in between 2 schools, which are BCCC and Lower Fields Primary, these are extremely useful for the many kids that use them many times throughout the year. These light work on a timer so even though there may not be any pedestrians there vehicles will have to stop anyway which can be stressful because it is on a main road.