Abstract
How has technology contributed to our living conditions? Altering power balances, decreasing expenses and transparency in both the public and private sector are the most obvious ways. According to Darrell West, high-speed broadband connection, new digital media and the Cloud System will gain power and facilitate our lives.
The author posits that, although the latest inventions have led to more accurate medical treatment results, because all hospitals have different kinds of IT system, it is often the case that incorrect or irrelevant results in the same treatment method occur. If there were just one IT system for the entire health care system then the data flow between hospitals would be much better than in the past and even lead to faster treatment periods.
By exemplifying such real-world incidents the author clearly shows the differences between the private and public sector in terms of efficient technology use. Based on up-to-date research results we are able to have vast information about countries and their use of technology. Moreover, the dissemination of news has become more democratic via blogs, wikiposts and the increasing use of social media, and consequently the consumption of printed news has decreased. Hence the news presented has became more objective as the gatekeepers who in the past selected news based on their own ideologies now have fewer opportunities to select which news is published in society. This has also caused a great loss in the power of giant news companies in the US, for example.
West ends the book by considering the security concerns of users and potential threats. He also draws attention to how the expenses of both the public and private sector can be reduced by facilitating cooperation between IT companies, which has been referred to as the ‘The Next Wave’. In 2009 in Los Angeles city employees voted to move their email service to Google's Cloud System to lower costs, and this resulted in a real success. Thanks to the Cloud System, information is much more readily available than in the past, and the author also shows how users can use Cloud to ensure greater security.
To conclude, in this empirical work Darrell West informs the reader in a comprehensive manner about the policies and usage of information technology, and he shows how to handle difficulties while still innovating systems for use in both the public and private sectors.