ICT, originally borne of telecommunication and information systems, is nowadays a synonym for scattered interacting systems ranging from the Internet with emerging software constructions and services to mobile technologies and autarkic ambient systems, along with process control and knowledge technologies.

One of the wider trends of ICT is the development of mobile technologies including ondemand radio, satellite and geo technology. Wireless communication exists next to increasing miniaturisation in the centre of autarkic ambient systems. The establishment of mobile workstations and mobile communication as well as complex design tasks require new methods of interaction such as stereoscopic representation or voice control. Semantic processes for searching and information management on web2.0 and web3.0 will not be set up for professional solutions but for the construction of webcommunities, of games and of commercial web sites. At ICT, as a whole, secure solutions are required.

ICT is a crosssection technology. Nearly each sector is using it by specific sectoral solutions or by embedded systems. This field shows the strength of small and mediumsized software enterprises, which connect industrial expertise with IT-knowledge, and support their users regionally. Small and medium-sized enterprises often are the motor of innovation on the interface between research and application.