OA办公系统文献翻译.docx

OFFICE AUTOMATION Office Automation is a general term that includes a wide range of applications of computer, communication and information technologies in office environments. Though automation is in a continual state of flux, the size of the market is huge, with annual investments measured in billions of dollars. Automation has altered not only our work environment, but our very concept of work. The technology we see today had its start in the 1960s, when 3 clearly identifiable streams of development became evident. The first was computing, where the earliest applications were automated payroll and inventory-control systems. Other applications were also limited to the processing of numerical data. These systems were usually operated only by programmers in the data-processing division of the organization, who jealously guarded their computers and the power their knowledge of the computer gave them. Nevertheless, the applications of computers in organizational settings grew to include more and more kinds of data processing. The second stream of technological development was in the area of text processing. In the mid-1970s IBM introduced a product called the MCST - Magnetic Card Selectric Typewriter. This device had a box crammed with electronic equipment. The operator would insert a specially coated card the size and shape of a standard IBM punch card into a slot on the top of the box and would type on the attached typewriter as usual. The card served as a memory device, on which the text would be written in a code based on magnetized spots. Once it was entered, the text could be edited and played back, causing a new copy to be typed out on the attached typewriter. Compared to current word-processing systems, this one was primitive, but it worked. While the first 2 streams were centered around the processing of information in the office, the third, COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY, focused on the movement of information from one place to another. A wide range of techniques to achieve this end were introduced, from telex and facsimile services to services using specially conditioned TELEPHONE lines and others using sophisticated satellite links between distant points. The industry today includes several types of coaxial cables, fibre optic lines, cellular telephones, and packet-switched radio and telephone links. The most dramatic shift for business in communications technology has been the Internet. Increasing use of the Internet in the form of e-mail and websites is transforming the work environment. The Internet has broken down traditional geographic barriers to communication, opened up markets, and created an environment of almost instantaneous feedback. As the government policy of convergence makes high-speed Internet the norm, businesses will rely more and more on the Internet for their communication needs. When the 3 technologies are incorporated into an office environment, many improvements become possible, but they are mostly improvements in the speed with which work is done rather than in the kind of work that is done. Office automation in the 1980s began a new trend - the integration of previously separate capabilities into single powerful work stations. Even the most basic home office today contains, through the use of a single computer, the following capabilities: word-processing and home publishing abilities; access to information previously stored on files at other locations, together with the ability to communicate with other stations on the Net or on other nets; electronic messaging systems, including any combination of text, graphics and voice, connecting users to others on the same net or, through gateways, to people on different nets in other places; activity-management systems, including time management, project planning and scheduling, and electronic calendar capabilities. Information management systems range from straightforward storage and retrieval systems, where the user does much of the work of storing and retrieving, to sophisticated natural-language expert systems. These provide assistance for people who deal with large volumes of diverse types of rapidly changing information. Decision-support systems incorporate sophisticated programs on large databases that allow the user to perform complex analyses in a way that improves the speed and quality of decisions that are made. Today, we continue to see major developments in several areas. The power of the computers driving most technology continues to increase exponentially. Not only can computers process and hold more information, but they also process this information with greater efficiency and speed. More significantly, computers allow the individual to perform a multitude of tasks almost simultaneously. For example, on a single computer a worker can be connected to several websites at the same time, receive e-mail, and work on a number of different files. As well, the cost of the technology continues to diminish to such an extent that computer literacy in the workplace is now expected. The Impact of Office Automation The computer is changing the office environment much like the automobile has changed the city. Effectively integrated office automation systems may result in the restructuring of entire organizations, with the emergence of new structural configurations and the elimination of departments or entire divisions. The new information technologies have led to a large reduction in the size of the average organizations middle ranks. Moreover, the workers who remain are no longer tied to a centrally located office: telecommuting has become a new trend in the business world. On the positive side, this trend enables individuals to work from the comfort of home; on the negative side, this lack of a common office environment may contribute to the erosion of the city core. The new technologies may also have the potential to strengthen the power of trans-national corporations in many countries, contributing to the erosion of national autonomy and displacing many people whose jobs will be automated. In most organizations office automation has been viewed as a means to computerize old procedures and to make employees more productive, rather than to make the organization more effective. There is a rising level of fear of the new technologies and the impact they will have on job security and on the privacy of the individual. There is also concern that the ECONOMY will suffer greatly if national organizations do not develop and adapt to the new technologies. Whether or not national industry will learn to use information technologies to their advantage in the increasingly competitive world system remains to be seen. It is safe to say, however, that the technologies will have a significant impact on the working lives of millions of national in the coming decades. 办公自动化办公自动化是一个统称，包括了办公环境中应用于广泛领域的计算机通讯和信息技术。尽管自动化处于不断变化的状态，但市场的规模庞大，以每年数十亿美元标准的投资扩张着。自动化不仅改变了我们的工作环境，而且甚至于改变了我们的工作概念。 我们今天看到的技术曾在20世纪60年代，当时三个清晰可见的发展趋势开始变得十分明显。首先是计算机的使用，其中最早的应用是自动工资表和库存控制系统。其它应用还仅限于数字数据处理。这些系统通常只由该数据处理部门组织中的程序员，谨慎地控制自己的电脑和在电力驱动下电脑给予他们的数据。然而，计算机结构设置的应用有逐渐扩大到越来越多的种类的趋势。 技术发展的第二个趋势是在文字处理领域。在70年代中期，IBM推出一个产品，称为MCST-磁卡Selectric打字机。这个装置有一个装着电子设备的盒子。操作员将一个涂有特殊涂层的标准IBM尺寸和形状的穿孔卡片插入盒子顶部的狭缝里，通常将其附加打字机类型。该卡用于存储设备，文本将写在其中的以磁化点为基础的代码上。将其插入盒子后，文本将会被编辑和回放，可在与之相连接的打印机上打印出副本。相对于目前的文字处理系统，这个是很简单粗糙的，但它很有效。 第二个趋势是围绕着办公室信息处理的，而第三个趋势则是通信技术，集中于从一个地方传输到另一个地方的信息传递。人们采用了广泛的技术来实现这一目的，从电话和传真通信服务，到特殊线路的电话服务以及其他的远程卫星连接服务。该行业目前包括若干类型的同轴电缆、光纤线路、移动电话、分组交换电话和话机连接。 最引人注目的商业技术的转变就是互联网。电子邮件和网页形式的互联网使用的增加正在改变着办公环境。互联网已经打破了通信上存在的传统的地理障碍，开辟了新市场，创造了一个几乎是即时反馈的新环境。政府政策的衔接，使高速互联网规范起来，企业为了沟通的需要将越来越依赖于互联网。 当这三种技术纳入到办公室环境中时，许多改进成为可能，但这些改进主要是在工作速度上的，而不能改进这些工作的本身。20世纪80年代，办公自动化开创了新趋势由先前单一的工作性能到一个独立的强大的“工作站”的整合。现在连一个最起码的家庭办公室，通过一台计算机，都可使用下列功能：文字信息处理和家用出版功能；存取先前存储在其他位置的文件中的信息，并能够与该因特网或其他互联网上的用户一起沟通；电子信息系统，包括任何文字、图形和声音的结合，连接到同一网