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What is "information technology"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
information technology
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But the information technology division is to be sold off.
▪ In-house information technology people began to shift from building customized applications to helping their companies choose wisely among open systems vendors.
▪ Indeed, the relatively brief history of information technology has already demonstrated the dangers of even short-term forecasting.
▪ Moreover, we can safely assume that information technology and biotechnology will get cheaper, more interesting, and more prevalent.
▪ Second, the information technology market is becoming increasingly complex.
▪ These include microelectronics, veterinary science, law, fire safety engineering and information technology.
Wiktionary
information technology

n. (context computing English) The practice of creating and/or studying computer systems and applications.

Wikipedia
Information Technology (constituency)

The Information Technology functional constituency is in the elections for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. Since its creation in 1998, it has been normally held by the pro-democracy camp, with the interruption from 2008 to 2012, where the seat was held by pro-Beijing Samson Tam who defeated pro-democracy candidate Charles Mok by 35 votes with the help of the Internet Professional Association (iProA), a pro-Beijing IT association. In 2012, Mok retook the seat for the pro-democrats from the pro-Beijing camp by defeating Tam.

Information technology

Information technology (IT) is the application of computers and internet to store, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data, or an information often in the context of a business or other enterprise. IT is considered a subset of information and communications technology (ICT). In 2012, Zuppo proposed an ICT hierarchy where each hierarchy level "contain some degree of commonality in that they are related to technologies that facilitate the transfer of information and various types of electronically mediated communications." Business/IT was one level of the ICT hierarchy.

The term is commonly used as a synonym for computers and computer networks, but it also encompasses other information distribution technologies such as television and telephones. Several industries are associated with information technology, including computer hardware, software, electronics, semiconductors, internet, telecom equipment, engineering, healthcare, e-commerce, and computer services.

Humans have been storing, retrieving, manipulating, and communicating information since the Sumerians in Mesopotamia developed writing in about 3000 BC, but the term information technology in its modern sense first appeared in a 1958 article published in the Harvard Business Review; authors Harold J. Leavitt and Thomas L. Whisler commented that "the new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information technology (IT)." Their definition consists of three categories: techniques for processing, the application of statistical and mathematical methods to decision-making, and the simulation of higher-order thinking through computer programs.

Based on the storage and processing technologies employed, it is possible to distinguish four distinct phases of IT development: pre-mechanical (3000 BC – 1450 AD), mechanical (1450–1840), electromechanical (1840–1940), electronic (1940–present), and moreover, IT as a service. This article focuses on the most recent period (electronic), which began in about 1940.