The impact of ICT on the local community

Communication technologies

As Sedgley is home to many youths who are constantly out and about on the streets it has a large number of people especially youths using mobile phones to contact friends and parents. In order for the people to use their mobile phones they must be near to a phone mass. In Sedgley there are different phone masses dotted about however the main site for phone masses in Sedgley is at the highest point of Sedgley called the Beacon. For the small minority of people which do not have or use a mobile phone there are quite a few public phone boxes situated every few minutes apart providing phone facilities in convenient places.

Data capture technologies

Sedgley is also home to many shops differing from really large shops to tiny shops, some owned as part of a big company and others privately owned and run. The three busiest shops in Sedgley are probably Co-Op, Sommerfields and Stars newsagents these shops being larger shops and selling life’s essentials. In all three of these shops they use an EPOS system which reads barcodes and records which stock has been sold and therefore can produce lists of best sellers and can produce documents telling the store manager what stock needs re-ordering . The EPOS systems can also give a reading of how much profit has been made from different departments and can also give an ‘X’ and ‘Z’ read to show daily and weekly profit. The EPOS system is run using barcodes with a different code for each product identifying which products have been sold. In the Co-Op superstore in Sedgley they use four self scanning systems where the customer serves their self by scanning one item at a time. To prevent loss of stock the machine will not let you scan another item until the item that you scan goes into the bag and matches the weight that it should be.

Financial Transactions

As day draws to an end in Sedgley, and as the streets become illuminated by flashing lights mainly from pubs and wine bars however sometimes police cars. The area around the bullring becomes a tourist attraction for clubbers and drunks. Around all of the pubs there are quite a few different ATM cash points allowing people to draw money from their account whenever the feel like it. Although the machines are used in the daytime they are mainly used at night by customers from the pub’s, club’s and wine bars and even by people passing Through Sedgley on the way to Dudley or Wolverhampton. Another type of financial transaction which has high availability in Sedgley is Chip and Pin which is used around most of the big stores in Sedgley.

Evaluation

I feel that In Sedgley there is a really good use of technology making the place Friendlier, Safer and more convenient for everyone to live in. In Sedgley we are benefited by many types of technology which people don’t often realise because the technology is taken for granted However even though the technology benefits people, some people don’t like some of the technology such as the CCTV cameras even though they make Sedgley safer.