Korea's Amazing Century: From Kings to Satellites Available Full-View

I'm please to let readers of this blog know that a 1996 book I co-authored with Mel Gurtov and Robert R. Swartout, Jr. is now available full-view on Google Books. It is titled Korea's Amazing Century: From Kings to Satellites. The final third of the book, pages 127-172 summarizes and in some cases updates material from The Telecommunications Revolution in Korea, which was published a year earlier. To download a PDF version of either book, go directly to Google Books or click the bottom-right hand hyperlink to "More About This Book." Enjoy.

Korea Ranks 7th Worldwide in Wi-Fi Hotspots

As reported in the Chosun Ilbo, new statistics from JiWire show that South Korea has 12,814 Wi-Fi hotspots, placing it 7th in the World. The U.S. leads with 68,059, followed by China, the UK, France, Russia and Germany. The majority of Korea's hotspots are part of KT's Nespot service.

The broader significance of Wi-Fi hotspots was noted in a new draft report by Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. The report is entitled Next Generation Connectivity: A review of broadband internet transitions and policy from around the world. The report is available for download from the Berkman Center site.

The Berkman Center refers to Wi-Fi as providing "nomadic access" to broadband, as opposed to mobile or fixed access. The current trend toward ubiquitous, seamless access therefore involves the integration of fixed, mobile and nomadic access.

Finally, I recommend the Berkman Center's new report to readers of this blog for many reasons. It contains the best comparative analysis I've seen to date of the major international measures of broadband --the ITU and OECD measures, the World Economic Forum, and Leonard Waverman.

Hangeul Soon to Be Useable for Web Addresses: 조선일보.한국 coming soon

Thanks to an action being taken at the current ICANN conference in Seoul, it will soon be possible to use the Korean alphabet, Hangeul, in web addresses.  As reported in the Chosun Ilbo, an ICANN board meeting on Friday is set to approve a multilingual address system.   Under such a system, the web address for the Chosun Ilbo might be (조선일보.한국).   Another issue that will be addressed at the ICANN conference is the proposal to allow the use of any word after the dot at the end of an adress.  This will allow use of nouns and company names.  For example, Samsung might choose .Samsung or a wine company .wine.
The use of Hangeul will certainly add a new layer of convenience to internet browsing for Koreans, who will find it easier to quickly recognize web site addresses.  One interesting question is whether it will really diminish the need for Koreans to learn English, Chinese and other foreign languages.  Most probably not.  For Koreans, their companies and their products to really venture out into cyber space, they will need to use the dominant languages of communication in that space.