Countries need to invest in an infrastructure and innovation to get the benefit of information and communications technologies. But a digital divide remains between those who do and do not have the right ecosystems in place–including sector-scale plans for digitization of various industries, capabilities to support those plans (including an understanding of social impact), and [...]

In March 2010, police in South Korea arrested a husband and wife in a tragically ironic case that gained international notoriety—the couple let their three-month-old daughter, Sarang, starve to death in their apartment while they spent up to 12 hours a day nurturing a virtual daughter as part of 3-D fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing [...]

Four years ago the Obama administration offered up $19 billion in stimulus funds to help get health care IT (including electronic health records, or EHRs) in the pink—or at least in the black. Better information technology throughout the health care system would save money, improve care and bring the health care industry into the 21st [...]

Last week, an official at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told a congressional panel that hardware sold in the U.S. has been compromised by foreign agents. According to a report at Fast Company: When asked by Rep. [Jason] Chaffetz [R-UT] whether [acting deputy undersecretary of the DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate Greg] Schaffer [...]

PHILADELPHIA—In medicine, there’s the patient and there’s the chart. And the chart is paper. That’s the stereotype. Actually, about 20 to 30 percent of all primary care physicians in the nation now use basic electronic health records, according to David Blumenthal, a Harvard Medical School professor who was the national coordinator for health information technology [...]

The New York City Fire Department is taking heat over the Unified Call Taking (UTC) system it implemented in May, with some criticizing the new dispatch technology and accompanying procedures as flawed and contributing to an increase in mishaps involving firefighters sent to incorrect addresses while fires raged nearby. This issue has come to a [...]

If you thought the success of the iPad, the Kindle, and Google Books had resolved whether electronic books did the job of physical books, forget that thought. Slate on Nov. 16 published yet another essay about the importance of the physicality of books, which probably adds nothing new to the debate but reminds us that [...]