Digital as one of my 2015-2016 lectures at the University of Bergamo. It's stimulus material, posted to improve communication with current students. It's not interesting for the academia.

1. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
IT for Tourism
Managers.
Digital
#07 .:. November 26, 2015
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2. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
What We Are Talking About Today
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1. What Is Digital?
2. “Being Digital” As A 1985 Book
3. Is Digital Poorer Than Analogue?
4. Standards
5. Some Digital Standards
#07 .:. November 26, 2015

3. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Calendar. November 26, 2015
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Thursday, Nov 26
Digital
Our Times
Thursday, Nov 12
Who Are We?
Tuesday, Nov 17
Who Are They?
Wednesday, Nov 18
Where Are We?
Thursday, Nov 19
Where Are They?
Tuesday, Nov 24
What are we doing here?
#07 .:. November 26, 2015
Wednesday, Nov 25
Design

4. 4
Digital. Our Times
Image credit to Jin Haixing. Courtesy of China Daily
Digital
Pollution
People
Is This
Sustainable
?
#07 .:. November 26, 2015

5. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
What Does “Digital” Mean?
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Digital derives from the Latin word Digitus, meaning finger.
In short, digital is what can be represented with numbers, which can be counted with fingers.
Digital is opposed to analogue, which is related to what is not countable: what cannot be considered
within a discrete set of elements.
Digital refers therefore to discrete mathematics, working with a finite set of elements,while what is
analogue is modeled by the continuum, that is mathematics dealing with infinite elements
(countable or uncountable).
#07 .:. November 26, 2015

6. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
A Real Wave, And A Digital Wave
6#07 .:. November 26, 2015

7. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Mechanical Vs. Digital Watches
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A mechanical watch is analogue inasmuch as the
position of each of its three hands (hours, minutes
and seconds) can represent any of the infinite
points forming the circle of the watch itself – points
that cannot be numbered.
In a digital watch, instead, only the figures which
make up hours, minutes and seconds are usually
represented – only the 86,400 moments (24 hours x
60 minutes x 60 seconds) making up the seconds of
a day.
#07 .:. November 26, 2015

8. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Photographs & Pixels
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A traditional photograph (a photograph based on a chemical film) consists of an
infinite number of points in an infinite range of colours.
A chemical photograph can be digitized (scanned, for instance) and then
translated into a digital photo when its surface is represented as divided into a
discrete number of “points” (usually small squares or rectangles called pixels),
each of which reproduces only one colour in an available range of 16,777,216
(a combination of 256 shades of red, 256 of green and 256 of blue – according
to the widely used RGB colour model).
#07 .:. November 26, 2015

9. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Waves & Bits
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Many technologies rely on digital to
reproduce a wave (a sound or a light
wave) that was originally analog.
A modem – as those now currently
used for fast ADSL connections –
converts an analog sound signal that
can be sent through telephone wires
into a digital signal, of the sort
requested by computers or other
electronic devices working by bits (0/1).
#07 .:. November 26, 2015

10. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Bits & Bytes
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A bit (a contraction of binary digit) is the basic unit of information in computing and
telecommunications; it is the amount of information stored by a digital device or other physical
system that exists in one of two possible distinct states.
These may be the two stable states of a flip-flop, two positions of an electrical switch, two distinct
voltage or current levels allowed by a circuit, two distinct levels of light intensity, two directions of
magnetization or polarization, etc.
The byte is a unit of digital information in computing and telecommunications that most commonly
consists of eight bits.
Historically, a byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer
and for this reason it is the basic addressable element in many computer architectures.
#07 .:. November 26, 2015

11. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
“Being Digital” As A 1995 Book
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“I am optimistic by nature. However, every technology or gift of science
has a dark side. Being digital is no exception.
The next decade [1995-2005] will see cases of intellectual-property abuse
and invasion of our privacy. We will experience digital vandalism, software
piracy, and data thievery.
Worst of all, we will witness the loss of many jobs. […]
We are not waiting on any invention. It is here. It is now. It is almost
genetic in its nature, in that each generation will become more digital
than the preceding one.
The control bits of that digital future are more than ever before in
the hands of the young. Nothing could make me happier.”
— Nicholas Negroponte, MIT
#07 .:. November 26, 2015

12. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Is Digital Poorer Than Analogue?
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A few socially relevant consequences:
 Communication Technologies (modems, broad band, wireless...)
 Information sharing (the Internet, the Web, mobile phones...)
 Email and social network posts (sent and received through the Internet)
 Music (Mp3, iTunes...)
 Photography (Kodak no longer manufactures chemical films)
 Satellite television
Is digital a revolution? Yes! Digital has changed our lives.
Nonetheless, digital is innerly poorer than analogue inasmuch as it conveys a simplified message.
(This, by the way, may imply that digital communication is invariably poorer than personal
communication.
Let’s not forget it, when communicating through the Internet.)
#07 .:. November 26, 2015

13. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
The real thing is better…
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The best way to communicate is meeting someone in person.
 When you call her/him through a videophone (or Skype) you miss at least the physical context
around her/him.
 When you call her/him on the phone, you miss the physical context, and you don’t see her/him.
 When you send her/him an e-mail message, you miss the physical context, you don’t see her/him,
and you don’t know when and where she/he will read.
 When you send her/him a text message, you miss the physical context, you don’t see her/him,
you don’t know when and where she/he will read, and you must keep it short.
 When post something on the Web, you miss the physical context, you don’t see your audience,
you don’t know when and where your audience will read, you must keep it short, and you don’t
know – or know little of – your audience.
Let’s not forget all this, when communicating through the Internet!
#07 .:. November 26, 2015

14. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Standards
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As any other widespread technology, digital technologies comply with standards.
But what’s a standard?
#07 .:. November 26, 2015

15. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
The ISO
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When you think of standards you should think of different electric plugs in different countries, of
electric tension (voltage), or octanes in gasoline…
 International standards are standards developed by international standards organizations.
International standards are available for consideration and use, worldwide.
 The most prominent organisation is the International Organization for Standardization, or ISO.
 International standards is one way of overcoming technical barriers in international commerce
caused by differences among technical regulations and standards developed independently and
separately by each nation, national standards organisation, or company.
#07 .:. November 26, 2015

16. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
De Jure and De Facto Standards
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As you should already know, some technology standards that are particularly relevant to our
lectures – like the html, WAP, or Bluetooth – are official standards, internationally recognized.
(WAP was even the result of a joint, previously planned effort among several companies, like
Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, Microsoft, Oracle, Vodafone, and Telefónica).
We can consider those standards as de jure standards.
Sometimes, however, standards exist de facto. They are widely adopted, though no official
agreement has been reached about them.
This is, for instance, the case of the portable document format, or pdf, developed by Adobe Systems
Inc.
Another de facto standard, for multimedia distribution on the Web, is the Flash platform, now
owned by Adobe, but originally developed by Macromedia.
#07 .:. November 26, 2015

17. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Some Digital Standards. Html and the W3C
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The most important language standard in our field is the html: the HyperText Markup Language,
the language of the Web.
It was devised by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, while at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory.
From the year 2000, the html is an application of the International Standard ISO 8879W3C.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
is an international community that develops
open standards to ensure the long-term growth
of the Web.
The W3C is made up of member organizations,
both from private companies and the academia.
<html>
<head>
<title>The webpages’s title,
on the top in the browser</title>
</head>
<body>The webpage’s content:
what we’re telling the world,
and the browser shows.</body>
</html>
#07 .:. November 26, 2015

18. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Http, Ftp, TCP/IP…
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Aside from languages, another basic component of the digital world are protocols. Talking about
the Web, Tim Berners-Lee invented both its language, the html, and its protocol, the http.
The acronym means HyperText Transfer Protocol, the protocol to exchange or transfer hypertext.
Another frequently used protocol it the ftp, or file transfer protocol, a standard network protocol
used to transfer computer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as
the Internet.
The TCP/IP itself is a combination of protocols. Its most important protocols, the Transmission
Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), were the first networking protocols defined in
the Internet standard.
Generally speaking, a protocol is a system of digital rules for data exchange within or between
computers.
#07 .:. November 26, 2015

19. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Tim Berners-Lee
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http://www.w3.org/
Tim Berners-Lee invented the
World Wide Web in 1989.
His specifications of URIs, http
and html were refined as Web
technology spread.
#07 .:. November 26, 2015 UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta

20. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Technologies
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There’s something very important to understand – in depth.
Behind all the perceived magic of the Web, Google, Facebook, Skype, the iPhones or the like,
there’s technology. A lot of different technologies, frequently combined. (Ok… There’s a lot of
marketing...)
What we perceive as friendly chats, angry posts, poisonous gossip, a picture of our dog, a short
message of love from our partner, a video from New York on Facebook, voice instructions on how to
reach a place while driving, an instant cut-and-paste from Wikipedia, are technologies.
They are not magic. They are chips, antennas, codes, monitors, keyboards, earphones, standards,
patents, digital languages and protocols…
They mimic human behaviours. Or, rather, some humans have designed them in order to let us
humans communicate differently. But they are technologies.
Someone knows how they work. You should know, too.
#07 .:. November 26, 2015

21. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Channels
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One last word you’re expected to become familiar with in the digital world – if you aren’t already – is
channels.
To put it according to Wikipedia, a “Communication channel is a transmission medium, e.g. a wire,
or a multiplexed connection, e.g. a radio channel, used to convey an information signal from a
sender to a receiver”.
A less technical term than “languages” or “protocols”, “channels” commonly refers to the
opportunity that a digital content can be distributed through different media to different
audiences.
If you shoot a video, for instance, your content can be delivered as a mastered CD sent through snail
mail, an mpeg or wmv file attached to an e-mail message, an uploaded YouTube file, or a proper
movie seen at home through a tv network or by a specific audience in a movie theater.
The same digital content can be distributed through a lot of channels.
#07 .:. November 26, 2015