The U.S. was ranked seventh in the networked...

The U.S. was ranked seventh in the networked readiness index (NRI) in the Global Information Technology Report (http://bit.ly/1k8MWlG) released Thursday by the World Economic Forum. The NRI looks at the way countries organize and manage “economic activity based on the new opportunities that the Internet provided for businesses,” and this year particularly focused on the benefits of big data, it said. Big data “has spawned an entire support industry and has attracted a great deal of business press in recent years,” it said. Finland had the top NRI ranking, it said. Sweden and Norway were ranked in the top five. Hong Kong and Korea ranked in the top 10, it said. The report assessed 148 countries with 54 indicators that make up the NRI, it said.