LAW & TECHNOLOGY
CHAPTER 1: AN INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR
LAWYERS
Hardware = all the physical parts that make up computers and networks
➢ includes the different computer parts such as hard drives, memory, keyboard,
mouse and screen but also the different parts needed to ensure network
connectivity including cables, routers and modems
Software = all the instructions and code that are needed to make the hardware work.
➢ typically organized into several layers that further build on each other.
➢ Lowest layer (that directly connects to the hardware) = the operating system
that makes computers or mobile phones work
➢ On top; several types of application software, providing the interface to the
end user (email clients, text processing software or web browsers)
1. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT)
= Use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data
and information
• Scientific discipline = computer science, now part of almost every curriculum
• History:
- pre-mechanical (3000 BC — 1450 AD)
- mechanical (1450—1840)
- electromechanical (1840—1940)
- electronic (1940 to present)
-
An example of big data science … in 1890
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,Used for the first time in the 1890 US Census
• The census results were "... finished months ahead of schedule and far under
budget."
• Hollerith later founded the Computing Tabulating Recording Company (CTR),
which was renamed in 1924 to …
An algorithm is like a recipe
• An algorithm is the essential building block of all software
• An algorithm is a finite sequence of instructions that describes how to realise
a specific goal or computation, just as a recipe is used in cooking.
• A computer program is a specific implementation of such an algorithm,
taking into account certain constraints such as specific programming language
or hardware of the computer where the program runs.
2. INTERNET TECHNOLOGY
• Internet = a collection of computers and other devices that are connect via a
common set of protocols
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,• These devices communicate via small packages that are sent around using TCIP/IP
• Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
• Protocol to send around packages to communicate
• You can have your own private internet=intranet
ADVANTAGES OF INTERNET
Facilitates sharing of information through common protocols
• Examples: hyperlinked documents (world wide web), email, telephony (e.g. VoIP),
File sharing
• Access is provide by an internet service provide (ISP)
→ E.g. Telenet, Proximus,…
• Has completely reshaped how people communicate
→ Social networks
→ TV, video conferencing
→ Shopping
CHALLENGES OF INTERNET
• Resulted in novel types of crime, fraud…
➢ Various types of cybercrime
➢ Cyberbullying, harassment on social media
➢ Fraud, spam, viruses
➢ Fake news,…
• Creates social disparity (internet illiteracy)
• Dealing with private and sensitive information
THE WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW)
Pioneered in 1989 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee
• Collection of documents, linked together by the HyperText Transfer Protocol
(HTTP)
➔ HTTP builds further on top of TCP/IP
• Every document is characterised by its uniform resource locator (URL)
• Web browser translates the URL into a so-called internet protocol address (IP
address)
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, → Makes use of the domain name system (DNS) (= hierarchically structured and
decentralized naming system that identifies every computer connected to the
internet)
• Web pages are formatted in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
→ Can be seen as some kind of programming language
THE INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT)
Many devices all connected through communication protocols (e.g. sensors,
camera’s, …)
• Protocol is often determined by the physical distance
→ Bluetooth
→ RFID
→ 5G
→ LPWAN (low-power wide-area)
IoT solutions can be distinguished at 2 levels;
- The communication protocols that are used to communicate between the
devices and servers
- the way data processing is implemented
in the case of cloud computing: no computation is carried out on the device itself
➢ instead the data is sent to a remote server or cloud solution for data
processing
BIG DATA AND CLOUD COMPUTING
• Many devices (e.g. camera’s, sensors,...) are continuously generating
information that needs to be processed in order to find interesting patterns
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