The Origin - the Dual World View

The Information Technology Induction Program - the ITIP is a top-down, outside-in approach to learning Information Technology (IT)...

Okay, I guess there is a lot of explaining required.

There is so much to learn, do and appreciate that I don't know where to start, what to start with, how to start, when to or even why start! Having revealed how confused I am, in this awkward position, I would like you to just read on....I think the basis of all IT is this word, "Abstraction". In this post I would like us to understand this fundamental concept which forms the cornerstone of the ITIP.

Background

I came across the word abstraction when I was learning Software design using the Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD) approach.  There were 4 words (concepts) that came to the top: Abstraction, Encapsulation, Modularity and Hierarchy.  Later on I had to teach (learn with others) the concepts of OOAD and UML (Unified Modelling Language)

The Illustration

If I asked you, what is it that you see in the picture on your right?
You would perhaps say it is a tree...you are right! I was also wanting to convey the same thing.
Now, if you think about it a little further, this not a tree. It is a representation of a tree. It is an abstraction!

Abstraction is the representation of "anything", that helps us understand it better. I would like you to go with definition of abstraction throughout this program.

The tree could also be represented as shown below.

Any form of modelling is an abstraction of "something" (in other words a representation).

So, thanks to this idea of abstraction we can model anything. The important point being, there is likelihood for ambiguity when our representations don't match. So, as long as the same "thing" is abstracted by all parties involved and the same abstraction is communicated and agreed upon, it aids understanding. Otherwise, it can become a barrier to understanding.


If you are comfortable with this idea of abstraction I invite you to join me to explore, discover and apply Information Technology in your daily life by engaging with the ITIP.

Your comments/suggestions are welcome all the time...!!!

The Dual World View

I am going to introduce the first model of the ITIP and check your comfort level (that will be it for this post). There are two worlds - one I will call Real and the other Virtual. These two worlds are represented by rectangles as shown in the figure below. (I can do that thanks to abstraction!)

When two people call each other it goes through the Virtual world. The people and the telephone instruments are in the Real world.

You go to an ATM and draw cash, the cash is in Real world all the processing that is going on behind the ATM's interface is in the Virtual world.




In order to be sure that we are on the same page, I would like you to do a very quick exercise. Think of 5 things in the Real and Virtual worlds.

Note: Your dreams and thoughts are not part of the Virtual world...the Virtual World by definition is created by Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

The scope of The ITIP is the Virtual world - we are going to be exploring various aspects of the Virtual world.


As the ITIP unfolds I would like you to keep this model (the dual world view) in mind. In the next post we will be starting our exploration of the Virtual world. Catch you over the next post...