Digital Information Revolution Changes In Canada

We are in the middle of a digital information revolution. Information storage is moving from sheaves of paper in dusty cabinets to code and electrons in a vast digital world. In Canada, the movement to digitize health records is gaining momentum in spite of fears and resistance. Digital Information Revolution Changes in Canada: E-Government Design, the Battle against Illicit Drugs, and Health Care Reform lays out the benefits of digitizing health records, including the possibilities of new approaches to deal with the public health scourge of drug abuse. The book discusses the challenges that need to be overcome for widespread adoption of digitization, such as concerns from physicians and the general public. The particular intricacies of the Canadian federal system make the challenge all the more difficult. This calls for a strong federal government response. All of us at one time or another will deal with the health care system. As this book shows, this system is to be shaped by technology in the future. Readers will gain unique insights from this book into what is normally kept behind closed conference room doors, and they will be better equipped to make informed decisions about their health care and personal information in the future.

World-renowned economist Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, explains that we have an opportunity to shape the fourth industrial revolu­tion, which will fundamentally alter how we live and work. Schwab argues that this revolution is different in scale, scope and complexity from any that have come before. Characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, the developments are affecting all disciplines, economies, industries and governments, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human. Artificial intelligence is already all around us, from supercomputers, drones and virtual assistants to 3D printing, DNA sequencing, smart thermostats, wear­able sensors and microchips smaller than a grain of sand. But this is just the beginning: nanomaterials 200 times stronger than steel and a million times thinner than a strand of hair and the first transplant of a 3D printed liver are already in development. Imagine “smart factories” in which global systems of manu­facturing are coordinated virtually, or implantable mobile phones made of biosynthetic materials. The fourth industrial revolution, says Schwab, is more significant, and its ramifications more profound, than in any prior period of human history. He outlines the key technologies driving this revolution and discusses the major impacts expected on government, business, civil society and individu­als. Schwab also offers bold ideas on how to harness these changes and shape a better future—one in which technology empowers people rather than replaces them; progress serves society rather than disrupts it; and in which innovators respect moral and ethical boundaries rather than cross them. We all have the opportunity to contribute to developing new frame­works that advance progress.

In sum, the prospects for digital transformation involve the interplay of these four dimensions: service, security, transparency and trust.".

No area of technology has developed faster or affected contemporary society more pervasively than electronic communications. Networked computers linked through the internet have enabled finance, commerce and manufacturing to function in a "virtual" environment, unconstrained by time and space. Boundaries have also been removed in voice, image, and data transmission, once normally provided through discrete media. Although the effects of these developments are large, their significance is far from clear. This collection of eleven original papers by British and Canadian experts examines a wide range of practical consequences of the current revolution in communications technology and reconsiders the actual depth of changes so far produced in the economy and society.