The Informatics Handbook: A guide to multimedia communications and broadcasting

T his is not a dictional)' - and nor is it an encyclopedia. It is a reference and compendium of useful information about the converging worlds of computers, communications, telecommunications and broadcasting. You could refer to it as a guide for the Information SuperHighway, but this would be pretentious. It aims to cover most of the more important terms and concepts in the developing discipline of Informatics - which, in my definition, includes the major converging technologies, and the associated social and cultural issues. Unlike a dictional)', this handbook makes no attempt to be 'prescriptive' in its definitions. Many of the words we use today in computing and communications only vaguely reflect their originations. And with such rapid change, older terms are often taken, twisted, inverted, and mangled, to the point where any attempt by me to lay down laws of meaning, would be meaningless. The information here is 'descriptive' - I am concerned with usage only. The headwords: T his book therefore contains key-words and explanations which have been culled from the current literature - from technical magazines, newspapers, the Internet, forums, etc. This is the living language as it is being used today - not a historical artifact of 1950s computer science.