Korea's Information Society----한국의 정보 사회

Most anyone who has been to Samsung's campus i...

2012-05-07T08:55:03.245+09:00

Most anyone who has been to Samsung's campus in Suwon in the past year could attest to the number of foreign engineers on staff.

I think smartphones will be the key. The statcoun...

2012-04-11T18:31:13.874+09:00

I think smartphones will be the key.

The statcounter figures for desktop vs mobile browsing shows 20% of browsing is mobile in Korea (almost all Android) so actually IE is only 60% of browsing if you count both together.

http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_vs_desktop-KR-monthly-201104-201203

I couldn't see any other country with more than half that amount of mobile browsing (though I suppose it could just be an artifact of the data collection method which probably isn't tuned specifically for Korea).

Korea--decades ahead, decades behind simultaneousl...

2012-04-11T09:46:51.062+09:00

Korea--decades ahead, decades behind simultaneously.

"Apple is typical of many large American comp...

2012-03-14T08:05:28.452+09:00

"Apple is typical of many large American companies that view the Korean market as a niche and are slow to localize their services in order to compete effectively here."

And also atypical in that they have over 60 billion dollars in the bank. If localized Korean content is a drop in the ocean of your average large american company, it is a drop in the universe for Apple.

I have no anti-Korean agenda, I feel more companies could benefit from focussing more on the Korean market - but Apple is hardly going to have the motivation of a smaller, hungrier player.

Congratulations!

2012-01-31T22:41:49.183+09:00

Congratulations!

Thank you for the excellent book, and that you for...

2012-01-29T00:03:04.792+09:00

Thank you for the excellent book, and that you for making it reasonably priced!

I'm still left wondering why, yet again, South...

2011-10-24T19:15:09.376+09:00

I'm still left wondering why, yet again, South Korea is on the slow train for the release of the new iPhone. Visit the Korea page for the iPhone 4S, and all it says is "Coming Soon".
http://www.apple.com/kr/iphone/

Hopefully that won't be like the "coming soon" that lasted over a year before the original release of the iPhone here ...

I'm sure it's not due to anything on Apple's side, probably just feet-dragging by the KCC. But, at some point ... you just start wondering ...

I like the idea, but the biggest problem is that C...

2011-10-07T08:41:44.275+09:00

I like the idea, but the biggest problem is that CNN news sucks. But it is a great idea and glad someone went out on a limb to do this.

Thanks for your informative blog article post on r...

2011-09-26T21:30:55.518+09:00

Thanks for your informative blog article post on rural boarding schools educational model. Girls boarding schools provide various spiritual programs and educational activities for their students.

Mr. Larson: Your latest book from Routledge, Digi...

2011-09-26T19:07:05.838+09:00

Mr. Larson:

Your latest book from Routledge, Digital Development in Korea - Building an Information Society, seems like an interesting book, but for $133, I can't afford it. I'm pretty sure that most of that cost goes to Routledge, and not the authors. There is then also the balance between price and the number of books sold. I wouldn't buy this book at 133, but would consider it at 30. The ebook is also 100 dollars, well out of my price range.

Self publishing no longer has a stigma that it did in the past, and it should be able to get wider distribution at a lower cost. In addition, I no longer buy paper books - if it is not available in electrons, I'm not interested in it - I no longer have the room! Self publishing would allow for more formats, and more options (ebooks, selling by chapters, print on demand).

Just my 2 cents.

bj

I saw this last week when walking through Jongno-g...

2011-09-20T11:33:52.787+09:00

I saw this last week when walking through Jongno-gu, but didn't stop in to see what it was all about. Now I'm kind of wishing I did.

I say "kind of" because, based on the linked article, it might not have been entirely my kind of place. It mentions that the cafe "provides a chance for locals to learn English ... free study abroad consultations, language consultations and TOEIC test registrations ...". The area where the cafe was opened is a large university neighborhood. The block where it's located is crammed full with an uncountable number of hagwons, test prep businesses, and TOEIC test centers.

I'll be interested to see where they open later locations.

I'd say that smartphone trading and retail tra...

2011-08-12T09:15:44.938+09:00

I'd say that smartphone trading and retail trading in general still make up a small portion of all stock market activity in Korea and the US alike. Most of the trading volume (not raw number of trades but number of shares traded) is done by institutional investors.

GOod news

2011-07-29T23:11:43.574+09:00

GOod news

It's not clear to me whether this initiative i...

2011-07-22T20:18:23.774+09:00

It's not clear to me whether this initiative includes making online government services accessible with non-IE browsers. There's no point the government telling Korean netizens to use other browsers and then only allowing them to submit taxes etc. using IE.

Interesting link, thanks for sharing

2011-06-10T12:26:09.767+09:00

Interesting link, thanks for sharing

Naver blocks Google from spidering Naver's con...

2011-05-30T02:02:21.548+09:00

Naver blocks Google from spidering Naver's content. So all of the content on Naver is not searchable from Google. That does not happen in other markets (i.e. you see Yahoo! content in Google and vice versa.)

I cannot help but posting the following comment: g...

2011-05-04T23:06:53.124+09:00

I cannot help but posting the following comment: given North Korea's recent cyber attack on the Nonghyup Bank, it is good to see that South Korea's cyber crime unit has its priorities right...

You don't say it explicitly but I think you do...

2011-05-03T14:31:41.485+09:00

You don't say it explicitly but I think you do hit at the reason that Naver developed the way it did. When the service started, there was a dearth of Korean-language internet content, especially when compared to English-language content. Brilliantly, they created a platform, 지식in, which made it easy for people to add to the collective Korean-language intelligence online.

My girlfriend has the ZTE San Francisco phone and,...

2011-03-25T07:15:06.312+09:00

My girlfriend has the ZTE San Francisco phone and, especially upgraded to Android 2.2, it's an astonishing phone for the money.

I'm not sure it is really "convenient&quo...

2011-02-15T11:56:13.269+09:00

I'm not sure it is really "convenient" to carry around two devices when to date most people make do with only one. When carriers relent and let the tablets have 3g/4g voice capability that will be truly convenient.

Simon, You can download an abstract of the report ...

2011-02-12T09:29:26.417+09:00

Simon,
You can download an abstract of the report by registering for free at www.eiu.com, but as far as I know there is a substantial charge for the full report (industry rates), which would contain details about the methods used for ranking.

Is there any way I can get a ink to the study, and...

2011-02-11T21:37:28.962+09:00

Is there any way I can get a ink to the study, and see the methodology for ranking?

Thank you for your reply. Considering KT has so fa...

2011-02-01T08:43:15.758+09:00

Thank you for your reply. Considering KT has so far been unable to migrate the majority of its 50 Megabit broadband subscribers to the more expensive 100 Megabit service, I doubt they will be in a rush to splurge on infrastructure for this so called giga internet. I suppose how it will depend just how much the government can influence them to do so.

According to Ministry reports, it appears the exac...

2011-01-31T16:57:26.466+09:00

According to Ministry reports, it appears the exact figures have not yet been decided upon. However, the lion's share of the costs for actual network buildout will be borne by local service operators, while the government money will primarily to into R&D. Further, more specific comments on this topic are welcome.

Of that 10 trillionhow much will the government fo...

2011-01-31T12:38:37.509+09:00

Of that 10 trillionhow much will the government fork out and how much will be left to operators?