How Societies Embrace Information Technology: Living in the digital world - How do we manage the information technology (IT)

Book Reviewed: How Societies Embrace Information Technology: Lessons for Management and the Rest of Us, by James W. Corada

This book is essentially a collection of essays on IT's role in modern societies. This is not a rigorous academic monograph, but addressed to readers interested in the management of IT technology. The author has focused on the needs of corporate management, public administrators, and scientists & technologists who shape the digital world we live in. He observes that the computer technology was spread worldwide in just one generation is because the governments and private/public sectors promoted it. In a globalized economy and increased interdependence for the available resources, the deployment of all forms of IT in communications, transportation and in exchange of goods, information and services has become essential. There is also a demographic element to this. For example, teenagers chat with friends and text messages, and the older generation relies on emails, and farmers call to find about the prices of crops. Thus two components of the big picture emerge; accelerating globalization and changing demographics makes the digital world very much a reality.

This book is also aimed at understanding IT in terms of sociology, history, business and management, economics, public administration and science. Although each chapter may be read as an independent essay, but in terms of management of IT technology, they glue together and offer a coherent structure. I very much liked chapter six, in which there is an interesting discussion about the emerging role of computer scientists and engineers and how they are shaping our lives.