President Lee says "We Must Guard Against Infodemics"

In his address to the recently convened National Assembly, President Lee Myung Bak stated that "We must guard against infodemics." President Lee was not the first to use the term "infodemic." A quick Google search shows that it has been used by representatives of international organizations with reference to saturation news coverage of disasters. The Korea Times published a full English-translation of President Lee's speech to the National Assembly. The portion of his speech dealing with "infodemics" went as follows: "An advanced society is characterized by the dominance of rationality and civic virtues. A society rampant with excessive emotional behavior, disorderliness and rudeness cannot be called an advanced society by any measure. In this connection, we have to guard against "infodemics," a phenomenon in which inaccurate, false information is disseminated, prompting social unrest that spread like epidemics. It is about time we began to firmly respect and understand each other better and extend generosity and thoughtfulness to other people. Generosity and thoughtfulness are instrumental to overcoming the age of confrontation and divisiveness and forging ahead with the age of harmony and partnership. society." What President Lee left unsaid, but which is clearly implied by the term "infodemic" is the manner in which information spreads so rapidly via the internet and new mobile networks. This is the "six degrees of separation" phenomenon that is such a powerful factor in South Korea's emerging political culture and was touched on in an earlier post in this blog.

Note the Addition of Categories and Google Search

I've finally developed and implemented a set of categories for this blog. The main purpose of using categories is to help readers, especially new visitors, more quickly find the subject matter they are looking for, now that there are more than 70 posts on the blog. For those willing to scroll down the right-hand margine, I've left the long list of tags. Even more helpful than categories in finding information on this blog is the Google search function that I've recently added. Check out the powerful tabbed functions of this search utility! Your suggestions for additional improvements are welcome.

Korea Pursues The Ubiquitous Network Society

If all the latest and best data are used as a basis for the statement, South Korea is probably the most networked nation in the world.  Not satisfied with that distinction, the country is one of a handful leading the charge toward "The Ubiquitous Network Society."    The ITU describes such a society as follows.  "The vision of a “ubiquitous network society” suggests a world in which information can be accessed from anywhere, at anytime, by anyone and anything. New and exciting technologies are making this vision a reality. The word “ubiquitous” is derived from a Latin root and means “existing everywhere”. It has been used in conjunction with terms such as pervasive or ambient. Early forms of pervasive technologies can be seen in mobile telephony, and to some extent in the broadband internet. But in the future, ubiquitous networks will extend beyond person-to-person and person-to-object connectivity: connectivity will unite everyday things in one huge, ubiquitous communications network, the so-called Internet of Things."  Click on the accompanying graphic to see a larger version.