Technology

Global

Technology trends that provide information and resources globally, domestically, and within the field of corrections.

2018 and newer

In 2021, ransomware attacks continued to be one of the most prominent threats targeting businesses and organizations worldwide. High-profile attacks disrupted operations of companies in various sectors, including critical infrastructure (Colonial Pipeline), food processing (JBS Foods), insurance (CNA) and many more. Following the attacks, pressure of law enforcement on ransomware gangs intensified, though simultaneously these threat actors continue to evolve. They not only become more technologically sophisticated but also extensively leverage the growing cybercrime ecosystem aiming to find new partners, services and tools for their operations.

Beware. Ransomware. Top Trends of 2021.

Publisher: KELA Cybercrime Intelligence

Conversational AI is everywhere – in our phones and in devices scattered around our homes. Now this technology is rapidly being used in healthcare, which opens up incredible opportunities to increase healthcare access globally.

This insight report aims to inform technology developers, healthcare providers and regulators about how global organizations are employing a framework to practise responsible use of conversational AI in healthcare. With input from partners of the World Economic Forum who have successfully deployed Chatbots RESET, a Forum co-created framework, it aims to inspire others to responsibly adopt AI in healthcare.

Chatbots RESET Framework Pilot Projects: Using Chatbots in Healthcare

Publisher: World Economic Forum

Digital technology and business models are driving business disruption. The pandemic has accelerated this trend, making digital transformation critical for business success. However, it takes more than technology alone; leaders need to look at the human side of their organizations. Culture and the way people interact with technology are significant factors in digital success.

This interactive guide, created in collaboration with business executives and academia, presents actionable frameworks and tools for executives to improve digital leadership and culture in their organizations.

Digital Culture: The Driving Force of Digital Transformation

Author(s): World Economic Forum

This white paper series, composed of eight parts, explores numerous critical topics related to CBDC and stablecoins, including an evaluation of their value proposition for the under-served, identification of key policy and regulatory actions, and discussion of salient technology considerations and trade-offs.

It aims to inform policy-makers, digital currency issuers, financial and civil society organizations, and other stakeholders as to the capabilities, risks, policy imperatives and key technology choices with respect to rapidly evolving stablecoins and CBDC.

Digital Currency Governance Consortium White Paper Series

Publisher: World Economic Forum

Publication Date: 11/1/2021

Published under the auspices of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Clean Electrification, this Insight Report invites policy-makers, regulators and investors to place greater focus on the demand side of the electricity system. It presents the technology, business models and system governance necessary to unlock flexible demand in the grid infrastructure to achieve a net-zero grid. Nine recommendations to get to net zero by increasing clean electrification are outlined under three main themes: digital technology is the fundamental enabler of a resilient net-zero grid; new business models will make a net-zero grid affordable; and a new comprehensive system governance model will be vital to ensuring a seamless and resilient net-zero grid.

An essential consideration for government, business and civil society is how technologies are harnessed and regulated to accelerate growth, encourage innovation and build resiliency in the wake of COVID-19. How governments and other stakeholders approach the governance of technologies will play an important role in how we reset society, the economy and the business environment.

This report examines some of the most important applications of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies if we are to thrive in a post-pandemic world and the governance challenges that should be addressed for these technologies to reach their potential.

What lies ahead for us? Although the modern world allows us to know and control so many things, our collective future remains slippery. This seems particularly true this year, as we live through a global pandemic and amid countless existing environmental, economic and political uncertainties. Combining insights from the history of computing, the practical lens of futurism and the imaginative signposts offered by four fictional stories of life in 2030-something, this report aims to equip leaders with the tools they need to more accurately imagine the future of information, locality, economics and education, and to plan accordingly.

In collaboration with Deloitte

In June 2020, RAND and University of Denver staff conducted an expert workshop on com-munity supervision in a digital world. The workshop was convened to identify high-priority technology and policy needs related to supervising individuals in an increasingly digital world. This report presents the proceedings of that workshop, topics considered, needs that panel participants developed, and overarching themes that emerged from the panel discussion. This report and the results it presents should be of interest to community corrections agency administrators, community corrections officers, correctional assessment and treatment staff, risk-needs assessment technology providers, digital supervision technology providers, and the research community.

From breath sensors that can diagnose disease to wireless charging of low-powered devices, the 10th-anniversary edition of the World Economic Forum’s Top 10 Emerging Technologies Report lists new technologies poised to impact the world in the next three to five years.

Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2021

Publisher: World Economic Forum

Publication Date: 11/1/2021

https://www.weforum.org/reports/top-10-emerging-technologies-of-2021

The Shared Guiding Principles for Digital Health Inclusion set out in this report complement the larger principles of the EDISON Alliance in order to encourage thoughtful action in its focus areas of finance, education and health. The principles serve as a guide for partnerships in digital healthcare, aiming to raise questions of inclusion at the inception of a project, maximize the opportunities of digitally-enabled medicine and chart a course for responsible and inclusive innovation in connected care.

Shared Guiding Principles for Digital Health Inclusion

Publisher: World Economic Forum

Publication Date: 11/1/2021

Perennially cash-strapped statehouses and town halls aren't typically associated with rapid technology adoption, but the COVID-19 pandemic has changed their outlook.

State and local government technology revs digital services

Author(s): John Moore and TechTarget

Publisher: SearchITChannel

Publication Date: 10/28/2021

https://www.techtarget.com/searchitchannel/feature/State-and-local-government-technology-revs-digital-services

Recent research shows that people who have at least one ally at their job are nearly twice as likely to be satisfied and feel like they belong. As a manager, you have a unique opportunity to be role a model in building inclusion across teams, but you may face unique challenges in remote or hybrid settings.

Managers, Here's How to Be a Better Ally in the Remote Workplace

Author(s): Melinda Briana Epler

Publisher: Harvard Business Review

Publication Date: 1/27/2022

https://hbr.org/2022/01/managers-heres-how-to-be-a-better-ally-in-the-remote-workplace

After a stressful and unpredictable year or so, senior local government management are now assessing the impact of the pandemic on its workers and citizens. Temporary and emergency fixes are now under consideration for a much longer horizon. Listening to government technology leaders and other senior public managers, a few but certain predictions can be made.

The future of work, office and technology in local government

Author(s): Dr. Alan Shark

Publisher: American City & County

Publication Date: 4/26/2021

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Toolkit explores the practical opportunities and risks that rapidly emerging technologies represent for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. The toolkit outlines how technology can help reduce bias from recruitment processes, diversify talent pools, and benchmark diversity and inclusion across organizations. Research is also cited that suggests well-managed diverse teams significantly outperform homogenous ones over time, across profitability, innovation, decision-making, and employee engagement.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 4.0: A Toolkit for Leaders to Accelerate Social Progress in the Future of Work

Publisher: World Economic Forum

Publication Date: 6/1/2020

The past year has seen rapid advances in the use of technological solutions in prisons and wider criminal justice systems globally. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries turned to digital and other tools as a means of reducing the risk of transmission in places of detention through human contact and easing the burden on prison and probation staff.

Global Prison Trends 2021: Role and Use of Technologies

Author(s): Penal Reform International

Publication Date: 5/1/2021

https://www.penalreform.org/global-prison-trends-2021/role-and-use-of-technologies/

Experts identify top needs for tech solutions to Probation and Parole system challenges. Corrections agencies may turn to smart digital gear to better train and equip supervisors and monitor offenders to keep them on the path toward compliance.

Community Corrections Technology: Experts Identify Top Needs for Tech Solutions to Probation and Parole System Challenges

Author(s): Joe Russo et al.

Publisher: National Institute of Justice

Publication Date: 3/17/2021

https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/community-corrections-technology-experts-identify-top-needs-tech-solutions

Court-based online dispute resolution (ODR) encompasses a vast and ever-growing array of technologies and processes that are used to resolve disputes in the legal system. ODR programs have been implemented widely in commercial environments to resolve disputes (e.g., on e-commerce website eBay), but since 2015, court-based ODR programs in the United States have expanded from a handful of exploratory pilots to countless programs in small and large courts alike.

Online Dispute Resolution: Perspectives to Support Successful Implementation and Outcomes in Court Proceedings

Author(s): Amanda Witwer, et al.

Publisher: RAND Corporation

Publication Date: 2021

By the end of November 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was estimated to have resulted in the deaths of between 268,000 and 360,000 Americans.1 The spread of the disease stressed the U.S. health care system, with the number of people needing care over-whelming available resources in some parts of the country. Both the disease and the actions taken to respond to it stressed the country as a whole and had broad impacts on the economic system and government agencies at all levels.

The U.S. Criminal Justice System in the Pandemic Era and Beyond

Author(s): Brian A. Jackson

Publisher: RAND Corporation

Publication Date: 2021

Experts doubt ethical AI design will be broadly adopted as the norm within the next decade.

A majority worries that the evolution of artificial intelligence by 2030 will continue to be primarily focused on optimizing profits and social control. They also cite the difficulty of achieving consensus about ethics. Many who expect progress say it is not likely within the next decade. Still, a portion celebrate coming AI breakthroughs that will improve life.

Experts Doubt Ethical AI Design Will Be Broadly Adopted as the Norm Within the Next Decade

Author(s): Lee Rainie, Janna Anderson and Emily A. Vogels

Publisher: Pew Research Center

Publication Date: 6/16/2021

Many experts say public online spaces will significantly improve by 2035 if reformers, big technology firms, governments and activists tackle the problems created by misinformation, disinformation and toxic discourse. Others expect continuing troubles as digital tools and forums are used to exploit people’s frailties, stoke their rage and drive them apart.

The Future of Digital Spaces and Their Role in Democracy

Author(s): Janna Anderson and Lee Rainie

Publisher: Pew Research Center

Publication Date: 11/22/2021

Financial stability risks have been contained so far, reflecting ongoing policy support and a rebound in the global economy earlier this year. However, the optimism that propelled markets earlier in the year has faded on growing concerns about the strength of the global recovery, and ongoing supply chain disruptions intensified inflation concerns. Signs of stretched asset valuations in some market segments persist, and pockets of vulnerabilities remain in the nonbank financial sector; recovery is uneven in the corporate sector.

Global Financial Stability Report, Covid-19, Crypto, and Climate

Author(s): International Monetary Fund

Publisher: Global Financial Stability Report

Experts highlight advances with the potential to revolutionize industry, healthcare and society if some of the many thousands of human volunteers needed to test coronavirus vaccines could have been replaced by digital replicas – one of this year’s Top 10 Emerging Technologies – COVID-19 vaccines might have been developed even faster, saving untold lives. Soon virtual clinical trials could be a reality for testing new vaccines and therapies. Other technologies on the list could reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by electrifying air travel and enabling sunlight to directly power the production of industrial chemicals. With “spatial” computing, the digital and physical worlds will be integrated in ways that go beyond the feats of virtual reality.

The potential of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies to tackle major global challenges – such as poverty, climate change, nature loss and inequality – is immense, yet this potential is far from being reached. To this end, the Forum’s Centre for Global Public Goods is scaling up efforts to proactively engage stakeholders to channel Fourth Industrial Revolution innovations towards positive social, economic and environmental outcomes through a series of initiatives. Frontier 2030 – a new Fourth Industrial Revolution for Global Goals Platform, which this report supports, aims at facilitating the application of advanced technologies to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (herein referred to as the Global Goals).

The years of almost unfettered enthusiasm about the benefits of the internet have been followed by a period of techlash as users worry about the actors who exploit the speed, reach and complexity of the internet for harmful purposes. Over the past four years – a time of the Brexit decision in the United Kingdom, the American presidential election and a variety of other elections – the digital disruption of democracy has been a leading concern.