IT expert

Y

Yul

Senior Member
Canada, French
"Your man is an IT expert; I can barely turn a computer on "

What is the exact definition of "IT expert"?
What does "IT" stand for?
Why do we write "IT" in capital letters?
Is it used often?

Thanks

Yul
 
    • IT stands for "Information Technology". This refers to an industry that specializes in setting-up, maintaining, and supporting computer hardware/software for their customers (typically workers in an office environment). If there is someone in your office or school that you call for help when you have an issue with your computer, then they are your "IT expert".
     
    Hello Yul,

    IT : Information Technology; (capital letters because they are the initials).

    The term covers everything to do with the use/application of computers, particularly (but not exclusively) in a business context.

    At one time, many different expressions were used : "Computing", "EDP (Electronic Data Processing)", etc. As computers became increasingly used for applications other than pure calculation and data manipulation, the name "IT" became virtually a standard.

    More recently, "IS" (Information Systems) has gained ground.

    Maybe others can tell us if they know of further evolutions in the terminology.

    W:)
     
    The term ICT is generally used in the UK public service.
    The National Health Service uses Information Management and Technology - IM&T.

    But the chappie who turns up to help when your computer won't work is probably still an IT expert :)
     
    Thanks to you all, savants and pundits.

    I am totally satisfied with your responses.

    Later!

    Yul
     
    There's no need to capitalise any of those extensions of IT, IS or ICT, any more than you would capitalise physical education, rock climbing or brain surgery.

    Upper case letters for the abbreviations, though, are useful to avoid confusion and to indicate that they are abbreviations and not words.

    Rover
     
    Dear Rover ,

    Your contribution was the missing link to the perfect response.

    I really appreciate your approach.

    Yul
     
    You probably don't need to know this but:

    IT - was thought to place too much emphasis on the technology and hardware when it was often the systems that needed working on - how work flows through an office and how the technology is used hence IS.

    Then e-mail came along, and the internet and web pages and internet telephony and the Communications bit got added. What children learn at school in the UK now is ICT - they don't just learn how to use a computer. They are given problems that they have to solve using hardware and software and the internet - it would be nice to think that they also learnt how to communicate about their solutions to people less computer literate but I don't think that is always the case :)
     
    Rover_KE said:
    There's no need to capitalise any of those extensions of IT, IS or ICT, any more than you would capitalise physical education, rock climbing or brain surgery.
    [...]
    Click to expand...

    Absolutely, Rover ... there's too much unnecessary capitalisation around.

    I would, however, capitalise some of your examples if they were titles or names (thus having the status of proper nouns):

    "He's a physical education teacher" ...
    but "He works in the Physical Education department"

    "He specialises in brain surgery" ...
    but "He's been promoted to Head of Brain Surgery"

    and so that this isn't completely off-topic:

    "an expert in information technology" (the subject)
    "an expert from Information Technology" (the department)

    W:)
     
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