In today’s world, information systems have a huge impact on the public, and are designed for its welfare. Examples of such systems include electronic voting systems, childcare worker databases, databases of terrorists and criminal suspects, genetic profiling, DNA databases, national identity card systems, national health information systems, information systems in education, air passenger profiling, motorist and mobile phone tracking systems, and closed-circuit television systems. These systems are being rapidly introduced, but often a system is deployed without a sound understanding of what it is supposed to accomplish, how it might work in practice, and what its inherent limitations are.

The book looks at these issues and comes up with three basic observations: decisions should be based on an understanding of the system, technology, and environment in which they function; experts and ordinary people should work together; and technology and law are developing in inhibitory rather than enabling ways. The objective of the book is to induce a consciousness of these issues by adopting a mildly narrative approach. It is intended for university students, as well as for the lay public. The author uses the phrase “digital decision making” for decision making related to the deployment of information and communication technologies.

Comprised of ten chapters, the first chapter introduces and highlights the main ideas. Chapter 2 looks at how decisions are made, and why the thought that “people ought to realize what they are handling” is not as plain as it might at first seem. The third chapter includes stories that highlight why digital decision making should be done in a manner that is not customary. The fourth chapter looks at the relevance of intellectual property law to digital decision making. The fifth chapter broadens the scope beyond intellectual property, and includes stories about systems that have a potentially high impact on the public (for example, databases of children). It concludes that lucidity of purpose is lost in the making and positioning of large information systems. Chapter 6 looks at power relationships in decision making: facts, values, and agendas are the focus. The seventh chapter highlights the idea that technology is merely a tool, and not a magic cure for unclear problems. It also discusses the difficulties of developing and deploying effective information systems. The eighth chapter looks at digital decision making in intellectual property. Corrigan concludes that systems that exclude users from the decision-making process will not succeed. Chapter 9 focuses on one of the key ideas of the book: experts and ordinary people (the stakeholders) should work together in order to create successful information systems. The tenth chapter provides a theoretical decision-making framework for facilitating understanding. This is accomplished through the efforts of experts and the lay public in decision-making processes, and is related to the development and deployment of information and communication technologies.

Corrigan provides notes for every chapter, a list of current references, and a handy index. The presentation of topics could have been improved by not mixing so many issues. Some of the stories presented are very interesting, and some are quite drab. I recommend this book to students of information and communication technologies, technologists, administrators, and the general public; they will gain useful insight from it.