How Societies Embrace Information Technology: Lessons for Management and the Rest of Us

by James W. Cortada

This book discusses how computers are shaping contemporary society, with a tight focus on the role of corporations and governments. It is aimed at government policymakers interested in economic development and at private-sector managers who routinely make decisions to acquire and use information technology, now a worldwide expenditure of over $2 trillion annually. The book will also interest a wide range of academics concerned with the sociology, history, economics, and the effects of IT on contemporary society, ands to the general trade market.

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2009

About the author

James W. Cortada is the author of over two-dozen books on the history and use of information and computing in American society. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. He worked at IBM for thirty-eight years in sales, consulting, managerial, and research positions.

Reviews

[Rama Rao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Living in the digital world: How do we manage the information technology (IT)

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.

[Bernie4444 · Rating 2 out of 5]

All fluff and misleading

The main retarding factor to computer advances (which are only tools) and computing is monolith thinking Governments and Managers that only know what they read in magazine advertisements.

It is the inventors and individuals that have to push companies and governments into the information age. Take IBM, for example, they talk about systems like “Big Blue” in articles but the person on the ground is using a system that is two or more versions back and no longer has supported anymore from the manufacturer. The author fluffs off the individual on the internet as he thinks that managers can make decisions based on magazine articles and itinerant salesmen.

To the credit of the author (James W. Cortada) as the title of the book infers he does cover most of the variations on “information technology.” This includes intelligent systems such as toasters and automobiles.

The book itself is not designed as a technical book as even the author tells you. However, it is also not a book designed for a school class. It is more of a synopsis of what the author acquired and organized while producing such books.

The book is well organized with an extensive table of contents and enough references to carry you forward for any further studies are information that you may require.

Part of the underlying theme is globalization. The author treats this as a natural outcome of information technology. The reality is that technology is the result of globalization. He points out Walmart as an importer. Walmart imports due to cheap labor. IBM tried this several times as a result when you call for help you are lucky to get an English speaker. If you get an English speaker, then you are lucky to get someone technically savvy. When you get someone useful that person soon gets paid the same thing as the person next door. We have now moved from an expensive India to a cheap Egypt. Where to next is anyone’s guess. But it is not technology forcing the move.

The value of this book as in similar books of this type is not to buy into the author’s point of view or the author’s conclusions, but instead, to take the relevant parts of this book and apply them to the individual situation. That is the true value of management.

[Darryl Neuschafer]

This was a school book but was a good read none-the-less!