Digital Economy and Social Design

Book excerpt: The advent of the digital economy has the potential to dramatically change the conventional interrelationships among individuals, enterprises and society. There can be little doubt that to achieve vigorous socioeconomic developments in the 21st century, people will have to aggressively use information technology to boost innovation and to organically link the results of that innovation to solutions to global environmental issues and social challenges such as the opportunity divide. We are responsible for taking advantage of the opportunities opened up by the digital economy and for turning those opportunities into things that reflect our values and goals. The book examines the overall impact of the digital economy and the development of a practical institutional design.